WorldNetDaily just loves a good conspiracy theory. Look at how fast it jumped on (discredited) claims of a never-arrested third suspect in the San Bernardino shootings — since we originally wrote about it, WND columnists Pamela Geller and Jack Cashill have also pushed the conspiracy.
That one apparently reminded WND of an earlier, never-proven conspiracy it promoted — that there was a third, Middle Eastern man involved in the 1995 bombing of the Murrah federal building in Oklahoma City. WND published a book by a local TV reporter, Jayna Davis, pushing the conspiracy theory. (The book was published in 2004, when WND’s book imprint was operated with religious-oriented publisher Thomas Nelson; when that deal ended, Thomas Nelson got to keep the rights to most of the titles published under it.)
A Dec. 27 WND article by Leo Hohmann rehashes Davis’ conspiracy theory about the purported involvement of a “shadowy Middle Easterner” who “was seen in the Ryder truck with Timothy McVeigh” before the bombing,but the FBI “had their case of “homegrown domestic terror” against two native-born Americans, Timothy McVeigh and Terry Nichols, and they refused to consider that the case may have involved an element of international terror.” Hohmann goes on to quote Davis asserting there are “striking parallels between 1995 and what is happening today” and that both the Oklahoma City and San Bernardino attacks were, in Hohmann’s words, “part of a larger network of sleeper cells operating within the United States.”
Hohmann doesn’t mention that despite all the circumstantial evidence Davis and WND have pushed on the Oklahoma City bombing, no Middle Eastern connection has been established. When Davis’ “shadowy Middle Easterner,” Hussain al-Hussaini, was arrested on unrelated charges in 2011, an FBI spokesperson stated that al-Hussaini was “thoroughly investigated” in connection with the Oklahoma City bombing and “was found to not have any role whatsoever in the attack on the Murrah Federal Building in 1995.” The spokesperson added, “The investigation was closed and the FBI has no further interest in that individual.”
Then as now, WND has no intention of letting the facts get in the way of a good conspiracy theory — especially when “shadowy Middle Easterners” play a role.