Oklahoma City bombing archive surfaces

AUSTIN, Texas, Nov. 21 (UPI) -- The Center for American History at the University of Texas holds a previously overlooked archive detailing the bombing of a federal building in Oklahoma City.

The archives -- containing FBI reports, videotapes, photographs and other material -- came to light only recently after convicted bomber Timothy McVeigh's lawyer, Stephen Jones, was denied the right to claim the donation of the material as a gift on his taxes, The Austin (Texas) American-Statesman reported Wednesday.

The archives consist of a trove of previously unseen documents, including a "confidential statement" by McVeigh detailing his role in the April 1995 bombing of the Alfred P. Murrah federal building that killed 168 people.

"I knew I had a two-minute fuse burning in the back of the truck with a 6,000-pound charge," McVeigh said in the statement.

Don Carleton of the Center for American History said few government investigators examined the archives, but suggested a conference to explore the archives is in the works.

"We feel that's the best way to kind of bring attention to the collection, to do a conference on the tragedy," Carleton said in an interview with the newspaper.

McVeigh was executed in June 2001.