By Richard Booth
OKC Facts
May 12, 2025
An otherwise obscure FBI 302 report recently sourced from records in the 2004 Terry Nichols State Trial adds an interesting dimension to the theory that the April 19th, 1995 Oklahoma City bombing may have been a sting gone awry.
The memo, which describes a Ford Bronco driving slowly around the Murrah Federal Building at 2:30 A.M. between two to three times - 15 miles per hour, seems innocuous enough.
However, that is only if you're not familiar with the notion that the Oklahoma City bombing may have been connected to a sting operation-one in which a team of FBI and ATF agents were out all night expecting the delivery of a bomb in the middle of the night.
The theory is not a new one. For years, critics and investigators have pointed out glaring contradictions in the investigation, including specific warnings given to the federal government by informants prior to the bombing.
The most well-known of these informants is Carol Howe, whose reporting to the ATF was specific and detailed with Howe telling Diane Sawyer at ABC News "I gave them warnings of targets, specific targets, addresses of targets, names of targets." Informants reporting on matters related to the bombing are not exclusive to Howe; reports from at least two others seemingly confirm her information: that a group of white supremacists based out of Elohim City, including a gang of bank robbers and a German national named Andreas Strassmeir, were plotting to blow up the Murrah building and had even cased the building with one of the informants. Strassmeir may hold the key to unlocking the mystery concerning the failed sting operation.
Andreas Strassmeir, when interviewed by Ambrose Evans-Pritchard for his 1997 book The Secret Life of Bill Clinton, revealed what can only be said to be "insider knowledge" of the bombing operation-indeed-knowledge of a sting operation that was underway. Strassmeir's disclosure jibes with what ATF official Lester Martz told reporter J.D. Cash-that his own ATF agents had been out on an all-night "surveillance operation."
The below excerpt, from page 90, lays out the scenario:
In this passage, we have Andreas Strassmeir stating that, according to his source, a sting operation was underway, expecting a bomb delivery between 2 and 3 in the morning.
This is where our recently discovered 302 report comes into the story; it concerns a Ford Bronco that approached the purported FBI and ATF surveillance site during that time, when agents would have been on high alert for any activity at the bombing site:
Bronco Would Have "Lit Up" Fed Comm Chatter from the Sting Team When It Rolled Up at 15 Miles Per Hour
So, at the exact moment when the bomb is expected, a Ford Bronco approaches.
It is driving 15 miles per hour, very slowly.
The Bronco circles the building two to three times, according to roofers working across the street atop the courthouse. This is highly irregular, and the vehicle would have been under intense scrutiny as it passed through the area. Any surveillance team operating there would have taken immediate notice of the approaching Bronco, made notes concerning the vehicle, and it is also highly likely there would be radio chatter among the sting operation team about the vehicle's slow movement into the area, including its parking for a moment, shining it's lights at the Murrah Building. The waiting agents would have been very concerned.
With this in mind, let's take a look at what The last interview Roger Charles ever gave. , regarding the Aryan Republican Army-purported by J.D. Cash and David Paul Hammer to have been McVeigh's "ground crew" for the OKC for the bombing. Charles describes how Richard Guthrie and Peter Langan of the ARA utilized a scanner (1) tuned to FBI and law enforcement frequencies, and also (2) could use a scanner to detect an FM transmitter of the type used for tracking devices, or to find frequencies where discussions were occurring:
Find below full audio of the February 9, 2022 interview with Roger Charles, starting with a story wherein Roger describes J.D. Cash's off-the-record interview with Tim McVeigh. Cash's first question that he asked McVeigh was "how'd you get past all that surveillance that was out there that night?"
Cash says McVeigh just rocked his chair back, crossed his arms, and put on a big "shit eating grin" - like "wouldn't you like to know." Well, I think we now know how McVeigh knew. Because his security team went through the area and scanned the local frequencies in use, and they discovered the sting operation's communications channel, discovered the area was under surveillance, and had even by that time already found a tracking device that was to be put on the Ryder truck which the bad guys had other plans for (put it on a decoy truck and send that one off to Fort Smith or elsewhere.)
Charles goes on to describe the ARA's use of scanners—likely how McVeigh, in fact, knew that there were agents out there that night transmitting and waiting on the truck.
A Hypothetical Scenario - The Bronco Arrives During the Surveillance Op
Assume this Bronco is entering the scene of the sting operation, slowly pulling in at 15 miles per hour at the exact moment the delivery of the bomb is supposed to occur -- between 2 and 3 AM.
The streets are vacant; it's the middle of the night on a weekday. Nobody is out here.
What if the person inside that Bronco circling the Murrah building is operating a BearCat scanner (or any number of other excellent frequency scanners available at that time to hobbyists—I've had a few myself) and is either scanning local frequencies for traffic—to identify the sting operation's frequency—or is already tuned to the sting operation's channel?
Well, they would know immediately that they had entered surveillance... and would leave after making their circle around the building 2 to 3 times.
And so maybe that's how "Tim knew that Danny Coulson and the FBI were waiting on him" that night.
Was it because Richard Guthrie or someone else on McVeigh's 4/19 on-the-ground "security team" confirmed it using a frequency scanner?
Richard Guthrie
Richard Guthrie of the Aryan Republican Army just so happened to own a Ford Bronco, per this January 3 1996 FBI memo from Omaha to Director, FBI:
For more information on the FBI's failed Oklahoma City sting operation, see kennethtrentadue.com, libertarianinstitute.org/okc, and visit @BlowBackBook on X to read about an upcoming book which may shed some light on the cover-up of what was supposed to be a simple sting:
