The documents Jesse Trentadue is seeking revolve around the FBI’s investigation into whether a well-organized gang of white supremacist bank robbers — known as the Aryan Republican Army — played a role in the April 19, 1995, bombing that killed 168 people and injured hundreds. Neither Trentadue nor his brother was involved with the group.

The bank robbers, who advocated the takeover of the U.S. government by neo-Nazis, stole $250,000 from 22 banks in the Midwest, including one in Kansas City and one in Overland Park. Six members of the group were arrested in 1996 and 1997. Three served time and were released. Two remain incarcerated, and another died in prison.

Though the government originally charged Timothy McVeigh, Terry Nichols and “others unknown” for conspiring to bomb the Murrah Federal Building, authorities have since denied that others were involved.

The recently released documents, however, indicate that the FBI was investigating a broader conspiracy months after insisting that McVeigh and Nichols were the only suspects.

Mistaken identity?

Jesse Trentadue, a Salt Lake City attorney, thinks his brother was murdered during an interrogation because he was mistakenly thought to be involved in the bombing of the Murrah Federal Building and the robberies. The reason, he said, was that his brother bore an uncanny resemblance to one of the robbers, as well as to the elusive John Doe 2 bombing suspect.

Trentadue said that his brother and bank robber Richard Lee Guthrie had similar features and that both sported a tattoo of a dragon on their left arms. A description of John Doe 2 also noted a tattoo of a dragon or serpent. A grand jury, however, found no evidence of foul play in Trentadue’s death.

Kenneth Trentadue, 44, was found dead Aug. 21, 1995, in a maximum custody prison cell at the Federal Transfer Center in Oklahoma City, only 11 days after McVeigh’s indictment. Prison guards said he was hanging by a bed sheet, but his body had been battered and the cell was splattered with blood.

Photos taken after Trentadue’s death and examined by The Kansas City Star show a cut on his throat and head and numerous bruises on his body. The medical examiner later said that if indeed it was a hanging, it was the bloodiest and most violent one he had ever handled.

“His throat was cut; he was beaten head to toe,” Jesse Trentadue said.

The death surprisingly was ruled a suicide, but a federal judge later ordered the government to pay $1.1 million to the Trentadue family for emotional distress suffered over the handling of the case.

In 2004, Jesse Trentadue filed two Freedom of Information Act requests, asking the FBI to produce documents he thought contained information that held clues to his brother’s death. Last May, the FBI acknowledged in court that it had located about 340 documents that may satisfy Trentadue’s request. The agency turned over about two dozen records, but they had been heavily redacted.

Those documents revealed that authorities had investigated Elohim City — a white separatist compound in northeastern Oklahoma that McVeigh called just days before the blast — and its possible ties to the bank robbers and the bombing.

“McVeigh may have been trying to recruit other individuals to assist him,” states a Jan. 26, 1996, FBI Teletype memorandum.

Another Teletype, dated August 1996, stated that Guthrie told the FBI that another person had participated in some of the bank robberies and shared some of the loot.

The name of the person has been redacted, but Trentadue and others contend it was McVeigh. After the bombing, McVeigh’s sister, Jennifer McVeigh, told FBI agents in a sworn affidavit that in December 1994, her brother gave her three $100 bills that he said came from a bank robbery he helped plan.

In November, Trentadue filed more documents in court, including a sealed transcript of a hearing in an unrelated case. At the hearing, a Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms agent said that prior to the bombing, an undercover informant at Elohim City told authorities of a threat to blow up federal buildings. The informant’s testimony, however, was not allowed at McVeigh’s trial.

The FBI is resisting the release of more documents because it said information about its intelligence-gathering efforts would be disclosed and confidential informants would be put in danger. The agency has asked U.S. District Judge Dale Kimball to halt the disclosures.

Trentadue and others said the documents could lead to additional arrests in the bombing and embarrass the agencies involved in investigating the worst domestic terrorism attack on U.S. soil.

The FBI continues to deny that there was a larger plot and maintains Trentadue’s allegations are unsubstantiated. The agency has declined further comment on the case.

Some congressmen, however, have come to Trentadue’s aid. Last summer, Rep. Dana Rohrabacher, a California Republican, asked FBI director Robert Mueller to turn over all the documents that Trentadue wanted.

“It has been a decade since Kenneth Trentadue died … in the most troublesome and suspicious circumstances,” Rohrabacher wrote. “Further attempts by your agency to obstruct this case will only undermine the FBI’s credibility in the eyes of the public.”

A court ruling on the release of more FBI documents is expected soon.

‘Good ol’ boy’

Trentadue described his brother as “a good ol’ boy” but admitted “he was no saint. He robbed banks.”

Yet he had been trying to turn his life around. “He just happened to have the misfortune of looking exactly like (bank robber) Richard Lee Guthrie,” Trentadue said.

The day after Kenneth Trentadue died, the chief investigator for the Oklahoma state medical examiner filed a complaint with the FBI and said prison authorities’ assertion that Trentadue had committed suicide was not consistent with the medical examiner’s report.

A medical examiner’s report shows he contacted Justice Department representatives, telling them that although he could not determine the exact cause of death, he thought Kenneth Trentadue had been tortured.

Questions about his brother’s death escalated, Jesse Trentadue said, when he received an anonymous call around December 1995 telling him his brother had been killed because he fit the profile of bank robber Guthrie.

However, Trentadue never was able to contact Guthrie. In 1996, nine days after pleading guilty to 19 bank robberies and agreeing to cooperate in the investigation, he also was found hanging in his cell while in federal custody in Kentucky. The death was ruled a suicide.

Meanwhile, questions lingered about Kenneth Trentadue’s death in prison. During a 1997 Judiciary Committee hearing, U.S. Sen. Orrin Hatch told Attorney General Janet Reno that it “is apparent to me that not only are the facts suspicious, it looks like someone in the Bureau of Prisons or (someone) having relations with the Bureau of Prisons murdered the man.”

The Justice Department months later issued a news release revealing that a grand jury had concluded its investigation into Kenneth Trentadue’s death and that no indictments would be returned.

But that didn’t satisfy some authorities. In March 1998, Oklahoma Assistant Attorney General Patrick Crawley complained to Justice Department attorneys:

“The real tragedy in this case appears to be the perversion of law through chicanery and the misuse of public trust under the guise of some aberrant form of federalism,” Crawley said. “In the succession of either illegal, negligent or just plain stupid acts, your clients succeeded in derailing the medical examiner’s examination and, thereby, may have obstructed justice in this case … ”

Later in 1998, the medical examiner suddenly changed the cause of death from unknown to suicide. In a news release, he said his findings were based on new information developed by Oklahoma City police that Trentadue had been alone for the previous 17 hours.

The following year, the inspector general released a report stating that Trentadue had committed suicide and that there was no evidence of a cover-up surrounding his death. However, the report noted that the Bureau of Prisons and FBI mishandled the investigation and that four federal employees had made false statements under oath.

So far, no one has been prosecuted.

Court battle continues

Jesse Trentadue wouldn’t have fought so hard for the FBI documents if he hadn’t become so suspicious about his brother’s death.

Just before McVeigh was executed in 2001, Trentadue said he received more disturbing news: A phone message from an acquaintance of McVeigh, telling him that his brother was murdered because the government mistakenly believed he was Guthrie.

Determined to find out more about the bombing investigation, Trentadue three years later filed the Freedom of Information requests with the FBI for teletypes and other documents. When the FBI said it could not find the teletypes, Trentadue produced redacted copies that he said he had obtained from other sources.

Then he asked Kimball, the federal judge, to order the FBI to turn over those documents and any others related to Elohim City, the bombing, the bank robberies, McVeigh and others, including former Kansas City Ku Klux Klan leader Dennis Mahon. Mahon had visited Elohim City prior to the bombing, and several of the bank robbers had either lived at or had close ties to the compound.

Kimball said the FBI had not made a good-faith effort to find the requested records, and he ordered the agency to provide uncensored copies of the documents. Since then, the two sides have been fighting over the documents in court.

Elohim City’s leader, Robert Millar, acknowledged in an interview with The Star in 1996 that several of the bank robbers had stayed there off and on. But Millar, who is now deceased, denied any involvement in the Oklahoma City explosion.

“If the bombing or anything like that was planned here, it was certainly not to my knowledge,” he said.

Mahon recently told the newspaper that he also knew the bank robbers, who had once rented a storage unit in Shawnee and a “safe house” in Pittsburg, Kan.

Asked whether he thought McVeigh robbed any banks with them, Mahon said: “Yes. I believe it 100 percent.”

Timeline

January 1994-December 1995: The Aryan Republican Army robs 22 banks. During that period, several of the robbers live at or visit Elohim City, a white separatist compound in Oklahoma.

April 5, 1995: Timothy McVeigh places a call to Elohim City. An FBI Teletype memo later said that was “a day that he was believed to have been attempting to recruit a second conspirator to assist in the OKBOMB attack.”

April 19, 1995: A truck bomb explodes outside the Murrah Federal Building in Oklahoma City, killing 168 and injuring hundreds.

April 20, 1995: Authorities release sketches of two suspects. The next day, they arrest McVeigh, who resembles the sketch of John Doe 1.

June 14, 1995: Authorities announce that John Doe 2 was a soldier from Fort Riley, Kan., who had rented a truck the day after McVeigh.

Aug. 10, 1995: A federal grand jury indicts McVeigh, Terry Nichols and “others unknown” for conspiring to bomb the federal building.

Aug. 21, 1995: Kenneth Trentadue is found dead in his prison cell. Prison officials said he hanged himself; medical examiner said he was abused and tortured. His brother, Jesse, said an anonymous caller told him later his brother was killed during an interrogation about bank robberies.

1996-1997: Six Aryan Republican Army bank robbers are rounded up and eventually sent to prison. One said that two fellow bank robbers were involved in the Oklahoma City bombing, but he later recanted.

July 12, 1996: Bank robber Richard Lee Guthrie, who pleaded guilty to 19 of the bank robberies, is found hanging in his prison cell.

June 2001: McVeigh is executed by lethal injection. An acquaintance of McVeigh’s tells Jesse Trentadue that Kenneth Trentadue was killed because he was mistaken for Guthrie.

August 2004: Jesse Trentadue sues FBI for not producing documents relating to its investigation of connections between the Oklahoma City bombing and bank robberies.

July 2005: After federal judge orders agency to do another search, FBI turns over two dozen heavily redacted internal reports to

Trentadue. The documents indicate the agency was looking into ties between the bank robberies and the bombing months after it said that McVeigh and Terry Nichols were the only ones involved.

September 2005: A federal judge in Oklahoma orders government to pay Trentadue family $1.1 million for the emotional distress caused by prison officials’ handling of Kenneth Trentadue’s death.

November 2005: The FBI asks Judge Kimball to reverse his order to produce more records. The judge is expected to rule soon.
To reach Judy L. Thomas, call (816) 234-4334 or send e-mail to jthomas@kcstar.com.

Like the iceberg that hit the Titanic, the full costs of the war are still largely hidden below the surface. Our calculations include not just the money for combat operations but also the costs the government will have to pay for years to come. These include lifetime healthcare and disability benefits for returning veterans and special round-the-clock medical attention for many of the 16,300 Americans who already have been seriously wounded. We also count the increased cost of replacing military hardware because the war is using up equipment at three to five times the peacetime rate. In addition, the military must pay large reenlistment bonuses and offer higher benefits to reenlist reluctant soldiers. On top of this, because we finance the war by borrowing more money (mostly from abroad), there is a rising interest cost on the extra debt.


Our study also goes beyond the budget of the federal government to estimate the war's cost to the economy and our society. It includes, for instance, the true economic costs of injury and death. For example, if an individual is killed in an auto or work-related accident, his family will typically receive compensation for lost earnings. Standard government estimates of the lifetime economic cost of a death are about $6 million. But the military pays out far less — about $500,000. Another cost to the economy comes from the fact that 40% of our troops are taken from the National Guard and Reserve units. These troops often earn lower wages than in their civilian jobs. Finally, there are macro-economic costs such as the effect of higher oil prices — partly a result of the instability in Iraq.

We conclude that the economy would have been much stronger if we had invested the money in the United States instead of in Iraq.

Spending up to $2 trillion should make us ask some questions. First, these figures are far higher than what the administration predicted before the war. At that time, White House economic advisor Lawrence Lindsey was effectively fired for suggesting that the war might cost up to $200 billion, rather than the $60 billion claimed by the president's budget office. Why were the costs so vastly underestimated? Elsewhere in the government, it is standard practice to engage in an elaborate cost-benefit analysis for major projects. The war in Iraq was a war of choice, an immense "project," and yet it now appears that there was virtually no analysis of the likely costs of a prolonged occupation.

Could we have fought the war in ways that would have protected our troops better and cost the country less? A Pentagon study apparently concludes that better body armor would have prevented many deaths and injuries. Penny-pinching in such matters during the rush to war has led to steep long-run costs for the nation and, tragically, for the individuals involved.

Even more fundamentally, there is the question of whether we needed to spend the money at all. Thinking back to the months before the war, there were few reasons to invade quickly, and many to go slow. The Bush policy of threatened force had pressured Iraq into allowing the U.N. inspectors back into the country. The inspectors said they required a few months to complete their work. Several of our closest allies, including France and Germany, were urging the U.S. to await the outcome of the inspections. There were, as we now know, conflicting intelligence reports.

Had we waited, the value of the information we would have learned from the inspectors would arguably have saved the nation at least $1 trillion — enough money to fix Social Security for the next 75 years twice over.

LINDA BILMES, a former assistant secretary of Commerce, teaches public finance at the Kennedy School of Government at Harvard. JOSEPH STIGLITZ is a professor at Columbia University. He won the Nobel Prize in economics in 2001.

Ernest McQueen dropped out of high school to join the Marines in January 1968. He walked away from Camp Lejeune in North Carolina in November 1969.

"I just decided I didn't want to be a part of killing anybody," McQueen told the Fort Worth Star-Telegram. "That's about as plain as I can say it."

Fort Worth police picked up McQueen last week after receiving information from the Marine Corps Absentee Collection Center that he was living there with his girlfriend. The Marines apparently received a tip from one of McQueen's relatives.

McQueen, who enlisted as Ernest Johnson Jr., the name given by his biological father, reverted to his mother's name, which he had used in high school, when he deserted. He lived in several states, worked as a carpenter, married twice and had two children.

He is in jail in Fort Worth and will probably be transferred to the brig at Camp Lejeune.

Jeff Rense, if you are out there, change the headline to reflect what I actually said. Of course, what I said is on the page linked above, but as any first year journalism student will tell you, headlines have a funny way of shaping and even distorting an article.

I will continue to write, although I am not certain of the venue at this point. I now realize that a blog is far too causal -- of course, that is the point -- and I often posted whatever was on my mind without thinking about where it would go and who would see it and how it would be posted and reposted. I now believe a blog -- unless discipline is applied -- is a poor way to publish serious political criticism. In the future, after I mull over venue and audience, I will only send out articles I consider worthy of print, or I should say post. Of course, this will mean far fewer articles, possibly as few as one or two per week.

In the meantime, I simply wish Jeff Rense would get it right and not sensationalize this situation.

"Someone on the ground was sucked into the engine," he said.

In a written statement, Continental Chairman and CEO Larry Kellner said the person killed was a mechanic who worked for one of the airline's suppliers.

"My fellow coworkers and I extend our heartfelt sympathies to the family and friends of the mechanic involved in this tragic event," Kellner said.

The 737-500 was carrying 114 passengers and five crew members at the time of the accident, he said.

"Continental is coordinating assistance for passengers who need help dealing with this tragedy," Kellner said. "Continental's Employee Assistance Program team is also flying to El Paso to meet with employees."

City Pages: Why did you choose Minnesota as the place to launch your campaigns for governor and for president?

Jonathon Sharkey: I came to Minnesota the first time with my ex-wife back in December 1991. We came here for vacation, fell in love with the place, and moved here six weeks later. My son John Jr. was actually born here on March 7, 1992. I had filed with the FEC to run for president [in 2008] back in September. I met my wife, who is from Princeton [Mn], and I ended up moving out here to be with her.

While I was talking to people about my candidacy for the presidency, and explaining my beliefs, especially about terrorism, a lot of people told me they were very disappointed in Pawlenty. And they said, well, you could still run for the presidency, but we think you could do more here in two years than Pawlenty's done in the last four. Would you consider running for governor here? I brought it up to my executive board of the VWP Party, and then we ended up bringing it to the members. They all agreed it would be great to do.

Ironically, after I spoke to the Secretary of State's office, word got out and I've been playing catch-up ever since then. I think this is a great state. It has a lot of possibilities. I think [Jesse] Ventura did a real number on this state. It's one reason I'm really trying to distance myself from Ventura. He made a lot of mistakes.

CP: Are you sure Minnesota's ready for a vampire in the governor's mansion, or that Americans are ready for one in the White House?

Sharkey: Once they understand what I'm about, I think they will. I think they will accept me. I've had people email me and curse me out. But once I've responded to them, many times people wind up apologizing and saying they totally misunderstood me.

What I think is an obstacle, and I'll admit it, is that I hate God the Father. However, I have no animosity toward Jesus. I fully believe he died on the cross and was a sacrificial lamb. My problem is with his father, because as a parent, I would never allow my child to be brutally crucified the way Jesus was. I love my children. If they get a boo-boo, I'll always be very sympathetic toward them. I pick them up if they're crying. I don't think it's right to worship a God who would allow his son to endure such harsh punishment for anybody.

CP: There's a passage on your website in which you write, "My sister has a saying, 'Evil Begets Evil!' Well, starting in 2007, it will be the criminals who realize first hand, that there is someone more evil than they are, who cares about the safety and well-being of the innocent!" How do you answer critics who might object that if you were really that evil, you'd be an ally of President Bush's?

Sharkey: Let me put it this way. I wrote this on my [Iraq] war page. When I become president, Bush will be charged, tried, and if convicted of murder, I will impale Bush at the White House and enjoy impaling him as much I will [enjoy impaling] bin Laden when we get a hold of him.

CP: I see.

Sharkey: A normal, civil, sweet-hearted Christian doesn't have it in them to impale somebody, even bin Laden. There's a saying, fight fire with fire. Well, everybody has an evil side, but because of their personal beliefs they try to subdue it. While me, I'm not going to subdue it. At times, unleashing your evil part, especially in the type of world we're living in, is a good thing. I want criminals to fear me. I want bin Laden and all his al Qaeda buddies to think back to when their ancestors, the Turks, were trying to invade Romania, and Vlad Tepes, Dracula, impaled them for it. I want them to think they're dealing with another Vlad Tepes. I want them to think of me as the impaling governor-slash-president.

CP: Do you think your campaign will force Democrats and Republicans to finally address the issue of impaling criminals?

Sharkey: I hope so. If you think about it, when a criminal attacks an innocent person, especially a child, do you think they're caring about the long-term effects of their actions, the scars they're putting on that child for life? No. They just want to do it for whatever reasons. And believe it or not, Satanists are against child molesters. I've had people from the Church of Satan contact me to deal with a pagan high priest who was molesting teenage girls. I'm into witchcraft and the black arts, so I cast a spell on this S.O.B. and he suffered a massive heart attack. He's not molesting children anymore.

CP: You know, most people are going to lack a frame of reference for a candidate who calls him or herself a vampire. Are there any film vampires you particularly admire, or whose style reflects the kind of governor you'd like to be?

Sharkey: Underworld. Even though it's a woman, Selene, and you don't see her flying, she doesn't turn into a bat, you do kind of see that she feeds, and that she's a fighter for people and what she believes in. I personally think women should be treated as goddesses. Though it takes a man and a woman to conceive life, it is the woman who bears life.

CP: On your website, you list a lot of credentials--having obtained a NASCAR license, having a background as a boxer and a wrestler, you're the co-owner of two covens, and you're running for both governor and president. Do you worry you're spreading yourself too thin?

Sharkey: No. In reality, there's one thing I learned from being in the military, and that's how to delegate responsibilities and job needs. My sister is pretty much handling Kat's Underworld Coven. I still handle making the cloaks, because that's a source of income for me. If you go to the link on my website to Kat's Underworld Coven, you can find the link for cloaks. As you will see, some of the cloaks are very expensive. They are some of my better sales.

So no, I'm really not spreading myself too thin. I have aligned myself with people of the non-Christian belief who can handle stuff. With all the press and media I've gotten, and the fact I've just signed a contract to be the subject of a documentary involving my candidacy--I think that's going to be good for Minnesota. This film crew is following me around Minnesota, so I get to explain on film why people should come to Minnesota. The great lands, the great lakes, the great people.

Even though my wife got fired a couple of hours after my press conference. I don't know if you know about that one. She got fired from her job as a bus driver for Princeton schools because she admitted to being a pagan.