Author Claims Arrested Man Has Link To Oklahoma City Bombing

 

Hussain Alhussaini,a 45-year-old homeless man, was arrested after allegedly striking another man in the face with a beer bottle, opening a large gash on the man’s cheek.

 

QUINCY —

It was a routine call for Quincy police about two homeless men fighting. Hussain Al-Hussaini was arrested. The victim was taken to the hospital.

Then came the surprise. Readers commenting on a story about Wednesday’s arrest on The Patriot Ledger’s website noted that a man with the same name was mentioned prominently in a book about the deadly bombing of an Oklahoma City federal building in 1995.

By Thursday afternoon, police had contacted the FBI and spoken to the book’s author.

Jayna Davis, author of the 2004 book “Third Terrorist: The Middle East Connection to the Oklahoma City Bombing,” said she asked a Quincy police detective if Hussain Al-Hussaini, the man police arrested, had a tattoo of an anchor with a snake wrapped around it. He did. Police sent her a photo of him.

“His age, his name, the picture, the mug shot – that’s him,” Davis told The Patriot Ledger via telephone after speaking with police. She said the anchor-and-snake tattoo was common among members of a branch of the Iraqi army under Saddam Hussein.

An FBI spokesman in Boston, Greg Comcowich, said Thursday night that a man named Hussain 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.”

Comcowich said the Hussain Al-Hussaini the FBI investigated had been seen with bomber Timothy McVeigh before the April 19, 1995, bombing, which killed 168 people.

“The investigation was closed and the FBI has no further interest in that individual,” he said.

Comcowich said he could not confirm whether the Hussain Al-Hussaini arrested in Quincy was the same Hussain Al-Hussaini investigated after the Murrah Building bombing.

The Al-Hussaini questioned by the FBI was never charged in connection with the bombing. McVeigh was executed for detonating the bomb in a truck he drove up to the federal building. Co-conspirator Terry Nichols is serving a lifetime prison sentence.

The Al-Hussaini investigated in the bombing sued Davis, a former television reporter, and Oklahoma station KFOR for a story that indirectly identified him as a potential bombing suspect dubbed “John Doe 2” by investigators. Al-Hussaini’s lawyer at the time claimed he was singled out because he was an Arab, according to a 2002 report in The Wall Street Journal.

Al-Hussaini claimed defamation, invasion of privacy and emotional distress. His suit was dismissed by a federal judge before trial after the defendants’ request for summary judgment. Al-Hussaini appealed the ruling but the decision was upheld.

Hussain Al-Hussaini, 45, was arrested around 7:30 a.m. Wednesday near 1250 Hancock St. and charged with assault and battery with a dangerous weapon. Police allege he slashed another homeless man’s face with a beer bottle.

Police Detective James Lencki, who was working a construction detail nearby, spotted Al-Hussaini and arrested him after his description was broadcast.

He was arraigned in Quincy District Court later that morning, and held at the county jail in Dedham on $500 cash bail and an outstanding probation matter, said David Traub, spokesman for Norfolk County District Attorney Michael Morrissey.

Al-Hussaini was ordered to have no contact with the victim, a 37-year-old who was taken to Boston Medical Center, and to stay away from the Father Bill’s homeless shelter in Quincy.

The Al-Hussaini arrested in Quincy had been arrested in the city in 2007 on a narcotics charge and in 2009 for open and gross lewdness, Traub said.

Quincy police Capt. John Dougan said Al-Hussaini is known to police and was first arrested in Quincy in 1996 on a charge of driving without a license. He told police his native country is Iraq.

 

 

 

o