[J.P.’s Moment of Common Sense on Broad View, KRNG 101.3 FM Reno. Listen live Saturdays at 11:00 AM Pacific Time.]

On March 20, 2003, a multinational UN-approved invasion force led by the United States invaded Iraq, marking the beginning of a war that celebrated its ten-year anniversary two weeks ago.  The media coverage of this anniversary, which was extensive, consistently avoided the truth about the Iraq War.

Whether you listened to Rush Limbaugh or Chris Matthews, tuned your television to Fox News or MSNBC, all you heard was crap: people arguing about whether Iraq had WMDs (they did, by the way), whether Bush lied about yellowcake uranium (he didn’t), and whether the war accomplished anything worthwhile (it did—Saddam Hussein is gone, right?).

Although we live in what people call the Information Age, it might be more accurate to call it the Mis-information Age.  I listened diligently for two straight weeks to various retrospectives on the Iraq War, by various commentators with various political viewpoints, getting madder and madder until I was on the verge of popping a vein.  Not one person related the Iraq War to the Oklahoma City bombing.  Not one.

In case you haven’t heard (which is very likely since nobody on any national news outlet will talk about it), Timothy McVeigh did not blow up the Alfred P. Murrah Federal Building on April 19, 1995.  At least not alone and not for some hazy "rightwing" militia reason.  He was there, he was involved, but the explosion was masterminded, funded, and carried out by Muslim Iraqis sent by Saddam Hussein.

Puts a whole different perspective on the Iraq War eight years later, doesn’t it?

This isn’t some wild conspiracy theory—we know this.  We know this because of a woman named Jayna Davis who happened to be working at an Oklahoma City television station when the bombing occurred.  Jayna Davis is an American hero.  Instead of being satisfied with making sure her hair wasn’t mussed and her makeup was perfect, like most TV reporters (Katie Couric for instance), Jayna Davis buckled down, went to work, and started investigating.  She learned that other people were involved, she interviewed eyewitnesses repeatedly, she traced McVeigh back to his motel where she documented the Iraqis who were staying with him, she developed local law enforcement and FBI contacts who told her the Iraqis were under investigation before the bombing even happened, she detailed and documented everything she learned, and she delivered her data to the FBI.

At first the FBI was interested, but that quickly changed—within days, in fact.  The word came down from Washington powers-that-be that nobody wanted to hear about Iraqis.  They wanted Timothy McVeigh as the culprit and they wanted him to be operating solo.  The FBI not only ignored her, they started "misplacing" the documentation she gave them.

Fortunately, she had copies and she’s persistent.

After years of frustration trying to get the FBI on the right track, after contacting congressmen and other government officials and getting nowhere, Jayna Davis took her information to a lawyer named David Schippers.  She was thinking about putting what she knew in a book and wanted his opinion.  David Schippers was the chief investigative counsel for the impeachment trial of President Bill Clinton so he’s a professional investigator.  After looking at the evidence that Jayna Davis had compiled, Schippers had this to say:

“My respect and admiration for Jayna Davis and what she has accomplished is unbounded.  She is, without question, the finest and most thorough investigator that I have ever known, and I have known literally thousands.”

As for her conclusion that Iraqis were responsible for the Oklahoma City bombing, David Schippers wrote this in the foreword to the book she eventually published:

“...there is contained in this book not one fact, not one allegation, not one accusation, not one conclusion that is not supported and corroborated by evidence sufficient to constitute proof in a court of law.”

So why does nobody talk about this?  Saddam Hussein attacked the United States of America at least once (probably more than once) and although the FBI lied to us, they wouldn’t dare lie to the new president, their new boss in 2001—George Bush they would have to tell the truth.  So when the 9/11 attack happened, Bush already knew about the Iraqis bombing the federal building in Oklahoma and this information had to color every decision he made subsequently.

It’s not just peculiar that everybody ignores this information, it’s downright spooky.  It gives me the creeps.  We shouldn’t care whether Iraq had WMDs—they sent terrorists to blow up a federal building in the U.S. heartland for crying out loud!  That’s an act of war!

Meanwhile, I wonder what it’s like to be Jayna Davis, responsible for perhaps the most impressive and paradigm-shifting investigative journalism in our nation’s history, but completely ignored by her fellow journalists.  You know who won the Pulitzer Prize for investigative journalism in 2004, the year her book was published?  Three guys from the Toledo Blade who wrote about American atrocities in the Vietnam War.

Give me a break.  Pulitzer Prizes, like Nobel Prizes, have become a joke.

That’s... today’s dose of common sense.

“The least initial deviation from the truth is multiplied later a thousandfold.”—Aristotle

“Ye shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you mad.”—Aldous Huxley

From Grand Rapids, Michigan, USA        Tweet

April 28, 2013 - I read her book years ago and it pissed the crap out of me. It's also when I completely stopped believing a frigging thing that came out of DC. Did you ever interview her? I need to come by here more often, great site. – MM, Colorado

J.P. replies: She was going to call in to Broad View yesterday, then realized it was her son’s first soccer game.  We did have Sharron Angle actually in the studio, so it was still a good day.  Thanks for the compliment.

April 20, 2013 - Thank you! You crystalized the reason why I dedicated my book to our U.S. troops who fought in Operation Iraqi Freedom. None died in vain deposing a despot who slaughtered 171 innocent Americans on April 19, 1995. I would love to do a radio interview with you. Please call beforehand when your schedule permits so we can discuss newly discovered evidence in the OKC bombing case. The latest revelation provides undisputed evidence, admissible in a court of law, that explains why the feds suppressed the Middle East connection to the Oklahoma City bombing. The reason is simple – liability, liability, liability. It was an inexcusable intelligence failure, just like with the Boston bombers. We are now learning that the FBI questioned the deceased marathon bomber after being warned by Russia that he was a radicalized Muslim who potentially threatened our national security. He slipped through law enforcement’s net, and with the far reaching powers afforded by the Patriot Act, the subsequent act of terror was preventable. I can now say the same for OKC. BTW, your column was simply brilliant. You have an extraordinary mastery of the facts of my investigation while your perspicacity in elucidating why President Bush launched a preemptive strike to oust Saddam Hussein in the wake of 9-11 is unparalleled. – Jayna Davis, Oklahoma

J.P. replies: Wow, that’s heady praise, thank you.  I have great admiration for the work you did researching The Third Terrorist so getting compliments from you is a treat.

April 20, 2013 - Heard your piece on the Oklahoma City bombing and your discussion after. Timely stuff given what happened in Boston this week. Congratulations. Sure gave me something to think about. – Rich, Reno