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News & Commentary

by Cinnamon Stillwell
Terrorism Strikes the Heartland
October 09, 2005 12:00 AM EST

If you happened to be browsing the Internet last weekend, the headline, “Suicide bombing in Oklahoma” just might have caught your attention. After all, it’s not every day that there’s a terrorist attack on U.S. soil and supposedly there hasn’t been one since 9/11.

But that’s exactly what happened outside a packed football stadium at the University of Oklahoma in Norman, Oklahoma on Saturday night (10/1). 21-year-old engineering student Joel Henry Hinrichs III of Colorado Springs detonated a bomb near the stadium, killing himself in the process. The explosion was so powerful that people up to four miles away reported hearing it and windows in the George L. Cross building 100 yards away shattered. One of the drivers of several buses parked in a nearby lot was taken to the hospital after being knocked over by the blast.

No one else was injured and 84,000 fans left the stadium, mostly unaware of the magnitude of what occurred outside. Some reported hearing the explosion and seeing rising smoke, as did a few people living in the area. There was a brief delay following the game during which crowds were kept inside while authorities combed the area for evidence and other potential threats. According to Douglas Hagmann, Director of the Northeast Intelligence Network, an anonymous official later confirmed that “other un-detonated explosive devices were found in the area cordoned off by police and federal officials” and were brought in for further testing.

No sooner had the dust settled when officials tried to play the bombing off as the act of yet another crazed “lone gunman” type. Oklahoma University (OU) President David Boren, no doubt trying to protect the university’s reputation, eagerly opined on Hinrich’s supposed history of mental instability. “We know that he has had what I would call emotional difficulties in the past,” he said. “There is certainly no evidence at this point which points to any other kind of motivation other than his personal problems.”

Law enforcement officials offered a similarly watered down version of events. The FBI’s Oklahoma bureau chief, Salvador Hernandez, U.S. Attorney John Richter and OU Police Chief Elizabeth Woolen, in a joint statement, said, “At this point, we have no information that suggests that there is any additional threat posed by others related to this incident.” Not once was the word “terrorism” used by any official involved in the case.

The mainstream media wasn’t exactly forthcoming either. Those seeking information immediately following the bombing were hard pressed to find it as there appeared to be a virtual media blackout. None of the cable news networks, including Fox News, referred to the incident and the major wire services, newspapers and websites skipped it entirely. Once again it was left up to bloggers like Mark Tapscott, Michelle Malkin, Wizbang, Gateway Pundit, The Jawa Report and Zombie (photojournalist for Little Green Footballs), as well as the “Freepers” of FreeRepublic.com, to pull together first hand accounts and links to the miniscule amount of news coverage available at the time.

(snip)