John Doe #2 by David Hoffman "There's not one person in this city who believes Timothy McVeigh blew up the federal building by himself." --Melissa Klinzing, New Director, KFOR-TV It is no secret that our constitutional protections have been steadily eroded for decades. Police and federal agencies routinely lie, plant evidence, search illegally, and murder innocent citizens. Such tactics were tried, tested and reached their culmination at Philadelphia's MOVE bombing, Ruby Ridge and Waco. Many people believe they are now being tested in Oklahoma. The Anti-Terrorism Bill, currently on the legislative fast track, would only serve to cement such flagrant criminal activity, paving the way for [even more] legally sanctioned abuses of citizens. President Clinton and Justice Department have been pushing the legislation heavily. [10] "It's been six months since the Oklahoma City bombing," said Clinton during a press conference, "and they still haven't passed the bill." [11] Given the implications of the pending legislation, federal authorities have a vested interest in promoting the idea that Timothy McVeigh, the "crazed right-wing militant," was behind the deadly blast that killed 169 people. "There's not one person in this city who believes Timothy McVeigh blew up the federal building by himself," said Melissa Klinzing, News Director of KFOR, an NBC affiliate in Oklahoma City. Almost from the beginning, the mainstream press has focused all it's attention on McVeigh, painting him as a spurned ex-soldier who was angry for failing to make the Special Forces; an extremist right-wing "Patriot" who hated the government with a passion for their atrocities at Waco. McVeigh, the angry misguided loner, it is alleged, conspired with anti-government tax protester Terry Nichols to teach the federal government a lesson in Oklahoma. [12] Yet scant attention was focused on the other suspects. John Doe #2, the mysterious entity who had accompanied McVeigh in the truck used in the bombing. Witnesses also saw him with McVeigh in a store, at a bar, and at the truck rental shop before the bombing. Still others claim to have seen him speeding away from the scene. All in all, there are over a dozen witnesses who reported seeing John Doe #2. [13] The search for John Doe #2 quickly became the biggest man-hunt in FBI history. "The FBI has conducted over 9,000 witness interviews and has followed every possible lead in an intensive effort to identify and bring to justice anyone who was involved in this disaster," stated Patrick Ryan in the letter to the victims. Yet while many eyewitnesses stepped forward to tell the FBI they had seen John Doe #2, not one was ever called before the Grand Jury.[14] In August the FBI put out a story that John Doe #2 may have actually been Todd Bunting, a soldier at Fort Riley, Kansas, who had rented a truck at the same dealer McVeigh had. Yet the employees of the dealer had dismissed Bunting as the person that was seen with McVeigh, and the John Doe #2 lead was quickly dropped. John Doe #2 had been a red herring, a false lead, the FBI claimed. John Doe #2 hadn't really existed.