Conspiracy on History channel: Oklahoma City Bombing

[sabra]

starting in 7 minutes here in Central Standard time...

[i miss america]

1. Thanks. I always wondered about that John Doe #2. They had him on video

...or so I seem to remember. We'll see. Thanks for the heads up.

[RoyGBiv]

2. Let me guess ...

The primary possibilities explored will be:

1) The FBI did it.

2) OBL did it.

I'm guessing the focus will be more on the latter than the former because since 9/11, local theorists, especially Clinton-Reno haters, seem to have decided this theory serves all the purposes of #1 (accuse Clinton of something nefarious primarily) and will draw more attention and support because of the continuing paranoia surrounding the influence of Middle Eastern terrorists.

The local radio has been awash with interviews of this woman, whose name I currently forget, who wrote a book she's now hawking (interesting timing) that supposedly proves it was OBL and that the Clinton administration dropped the ball, possibily intentionally, on the investigation.

[Name removed]

3. Deleted message

Message removed by moderator. Click here to review the message board rules.

[i miss america]

4. You might enjoy this little ditty

The songwriter posted this song called "McVeigh" on his site as a free download. You can grab it here: http://billyrandom.com/mp3/McVeigh.mp3

I've bought a couple of CDs from him and if you like this song, you'll love the rest of his stuff. http://billyrandom.com

[The Velveteen Ocelot]

5. They are referring to McVeigh and the various white supremacist groups

as terrorists --which, of course, they are. And it's about damn time somebody said so. According to this documentary, the alleged al Qaeda connection appeared when Nichols went to the Phillipines and may have met with some of those guys to learn how to blow stuff up. But there's no evidence (that we know of) of any actual affiliation with Islamic terrorists.

[RoyGBiv]

6. Not as bad as I thought ...

So far, it's not as bad as I fear it might be, although there have been a few moments that made me choke. Your last comment gets to the heart of my main problem with a lot of this. It's clear McVeigh made some contacts and got help from people, some of whom only had a vague idea what he was up to. He probably, as you say, made a connection with al Qaeda (or some group) operatives at some point, but that doesn't necessarily mean they were actively working together in any other capacity, not with the organization that some are suggesting. I mean, if I'm a terrorist with my sights set on the US and some "homegrown" white boy who is obviously a bit cracked and talks big about seeking vengance of some sort comes to me and want to learn how to blow stuff up, I'm gonna show him. The fundamental purpose of terrorists is to terrorize. How that is done can take many forms.

Here's one thing that really irritates me about all this, and, unless I missed it, only one person on this show even mentioned it as I would. I work in that part of town. It's one of the more diverse areas in OKC as far as the people who are milling about is concerned. Is it likely someone saw some "Middle Eastern-looking" guy roaming around? Yes, absolutely. I see "Middle Eastern-looking" guys about every five minutes out my window. After the explosion, chaos reigned. I could no more tell you, with any certainty, any specifics of who I saw and when in those first few moments than I could tell you who had been in that same spot the day before. It's all a blur, as vivid as it is. Further, we tend to forget this event occurred during an upswing in paranoia about Middle Eastern terrorism. WTC attempt #1 was still fresh in people's minds. With some of the prevalent predjucies of Oklahomans running in high gear at the time, I have no doubt people saw what they expected to see.

Anyway ... I'll stop rambling now.