By Constitution Staff

Was there foreign involvement in the April 19, 1995 bombing of the Alfred P. Murrah Federal Building in Oklahoma City? A recent federal court ruling in a lawsuit over the failure of the CIA and other agencies to release information might lead one to that conclusion.

Salt Lake City attorney Jesse Trentadue filed the lawsuit in October 2008 after government agencies failed to provide documents in an FOIA (Freedom of Information Act) request made in December 2006. Trentadue filed the FOIA request as part of the investigation into the death of his brother at the Oklahoma City Federal Transfer Center in August 1995. Kenneth Michael Trentadue was found hanging in his cell and the death was ruled to be a suicide. But, his body had 41 wounds and bruises which Jesse Trentadue believes resulted from a beating. Kenneth Trentadue, a convicted bank robber, was taken into custody in California for parole violation and transported to Oklahoma City at the time the FBI was investigating the bombing. Jesse Trentadue alleges federal authorities mistook his brother for another suspect in the bombing, also a bank robber, and tortured him to death during a botched interrogation.

In March, U.S. District Judge Clark Waddoups in Utah, ruled that 12 documents that Trentadue requested from the CIA, FBI and the FBI's field office in Oklahoma should remain classified. The judge said he had to accept the government's claim that releasing the documents would jeopardize national security. While disappointed that the documents were not released, Trentadue says the ruling proves an important point."The CIA is a foreign intelligence agency. It's illegal for it to engage in intelligence activities in the U.S. That means there was some foreign involvement into the case."

In response to Trentadue's FOIA request, the CIA filed a summary of the withheld classified information. That summary reveals CIA involvement in the investigation following the bombing including faxes, letters and cable transmissions. One document from May 10, 1995, relayed information provided by a foreign government about the possible identification of a suspect in the Oklahoma City bombing. Other documents contain information provided by a foreign contact relative to the bombing and background on a source who provided details about the bombing to the CIA. It also documents that a potential witness in the bombing trial was associated with the CIA, and includes information on the location of a covert CIA facility.

The CIA facility is mentioned in a cable sent on the day of the bombing. The summary also makes reference to U.S. citizens who attended a PAIC (Popular Arab Islamic Conference) in Sudan. The conference was known to be a link for Islamic terrorist leaders including Al Qaeda members.

Some believe the foreign involvement could have been Andreas Strassmeier of Germany who may have worked undercover at Elohim City -- the Aryan Nation compound in eastern Oklahoma that was visited by Timothy McVeigh. Or, it could have related to Iraqi or other Arabs who may have assisted in the bombing. The first reports following the bombing placed Arabs at the scene with McVeigh, including the infamous "John Doe #2."

Following the ruling, Trentadue filed a new motion requesting additional video footage of the Murrah Building on the morning of the bombing. Last year, Trentadue released security tapes that he obtained from the FBI through the FOIA that show the Murrah building before and after the blast. The tapes from four different security cameras are blank at key points prior to the 9:02 AM detonation. Trentadue said that the government's explanation for the missing footage is that the tapes were being replaced at the time.