Thursday's Associated Press story "Weeks before Oklahoma bombing, government warned of possible terror attacks on federal buildings," by John Solomon, quickly got my attention. 

Primarily because that declaration is something people who've followed my columns on a John Doe 2 connection to the April 1995 bombing of the Oklahoma federal building have seen before. 

This is nothing new. I first wrote about these warnings in a May 25 column, "The FBI knew in '95, why didn't we?" The two articles quote much of the same intelligence -- intelligence that has been strangely overlooked by major media until this week's AP report. 

Not to be smug, but check out the similarities. Here's what the AP said:

"Authorities were warned several times in the two months before Timothy McVeigh struck Oklahoma City in 1995 that Islamic-backed terrorists were planning to bomb a government building, according to documents obtained by the Associated Press."

 My story published last month:

"Specific information has surfaced that the FBI and other intelligence agencies were told in early 1995, shortly before the bombing of the Alfred P. Murrah Federal Building, that Islamic terrorists were about to strike government institutions in Washington D.C."

Here's an excerpt from the AP story on MSNBC's web site:

" 'Iranian sources confirmed Tehran's desire and determination to strike inside the U.S. against objects symbolizing the American government in the near future,' said a Feb. 27, 1995, terror warning by the Congressional Task Force on Terrorism and Unconventional Warfare. 'These strikes are most likely to occur either in the immediate future or in the new Iranian year -- starting 21 March 1995,' the congressional task force predicted."

From my May 25 column:

"The congressional task force's warning revealed that Hezbollah and other terrorist organizations sponsored by Iran and Syria had been discussing since late 1994 a campaign of attacks beginning in 1995."

 Much of my story came from copies of the actual warnings and correspondence between Yossef Bodansky, executive director of Congressional Task Force, and Oklahoma TV investigative reporter Jayna Davis, formerly of Oklahoma City NBC-affiliate KFOR.

 As a result of the warnings issued from the task force, the U.S. Marshals Service issued an alert on March 15, 1995, to the federal courthouses it protects. If the warnings had been shared with the public, no one knows whether the bombing could have been stopped.

 But it's clear that the congressional task force has been sitting on vital information for five years that could reveal who were the "others unknown" indicted by a federal grand jury along with McVeigh and Terry Nichols.

 Specifically, I've learned that the congressional task force is holding video and audio-taped interviews and statements gathered by Davis from 24 witnesses who want to testify they saw executed bomber Timothy McVeigh with the alleged John Doe 2, an Iraqi national, and other Middle Eastern men before and on the day of the bombing.

 For instance, Mike Moroz, who worked at Johnny's Tire Store at 10th and Hudson, directed McVeigh to the federal building five blocks away at 5th and Harvey when he pulled into the station in the Ryder truck on the morning of April 19. Moroz says he can't forget that there were two people in the truck -- McVeigh and a Middle Eastern-looking man wearing a ball cap.

 Then there was the woman standing in the median near Robinson and Main who made eye contact with the Middle Eastern-looking driver of a brown Chevy pickup speeding away from the scene moments after the blast, and can never forget the angry expression on his face. The same truck the FBI had issued an All-Points Bulletin for immediately after the bombing. 

"This evidence is of great importance to the Task Force's investigation," Bodansky wrote Oklahoma County District Judge Bryan Dixon Oct. 5, 1998. "Therefore, in the Spring of 1997, at my request, she (Jayna Davis) forwarded those tapes to my Congressional office for review and safekeeping. 

"Having carefully studied these tapes, as well as other work of Ms. Davis, I'm convinced that the witnesses she had interviewed provide credible testimony. It is my professional conclusion, based on a lengthy experience with, and expertise in, international terrorism, that these witnesses are, in fact, justified in fearing for their lives in the event their recorded statements are compromised."

 Now that we know the task force is sitting on evidence that ties foreigners to the Oklahoma bombing, I've just two questions for the FBI and the task force.

 Where is alleged John Doe 2 Hussain Hashem Alhussaini, who went to work in the late '90s at Boston's Logan Airport where two of the 9/11 flights originated? And when will the public get to see those witness tapes?