Posted on 10/10/2005 1:27:09 PM PDT by LibertyRocks
One week and two days after the FBI began investigating the Joel Hinrichs case, the feds seemingly have stopped releasing information about what they have learned.
It’s time the FBI opened its files and provided The Daily, other media and the greater public with some of the answers it undoubtedly has, for more than one reason.
First, the public wants to know. Second, and almost more importantly, the longer this silence continues, the more students, faculty and the nation become “certain” in their “knowledge” of what has happened.
But that “knowledge” is based mostly on conjecture and hearsay, and while responsible media can attempt to stave off this unfortunate trend, they will ultimately lose that battle if the FBI fails to realize it has an obligation to speak because only they truly “know” what they have discovered.
Remember, the FBI has commandeered this investigation. In doing so and by not telling anyone anything, they are only allowing the events of Oct. 2 to be misinterpreted over and over by people who are firm in believing something that is false and terribly dangerous.
For example, unsubstantiated claims that Hinrichs had been frequenting the Norman mosque have managed to seep onto television news broadcasts even though everyone we have contacted at the mosque says Hinrichs was never seen there.
So who is lying? Inherently, people should perceive the unfounded news broadcasts as the liars, but that doesn’t always happen. And even if only one person sees and believes such a report there or online, word of mouth can transmit that “truth” to hundreds or thousands within a matter of days.
Which is why it is undeniably the duty of the FBI to break its unctuous vow of silence and talk to somebody. The longer the feds delay in doing so, the more they become equally responsible for misinformed social reactions as the hacks who started these rumors in the first place.
No it doesn't make any sense. Not to reasonable people, anyway.
Someone said something that made me think back to something that happened in the late 70's, in the start of David Boren's political career that might be worth revisiting though.
IIRC, there were two Republicans running in a primary to oppose him for the US Senate seat - I think 1978. Both the Republicans were losers, frankly - I recall both their names but I'm not going to mention them here. One of them, the son of a local car dealer who had transplanted from New Jersey, raised the issue of what we refer to today as Boren's "sexual orientation". The second Republican, a local attorney of dubious repute, took the allegation and ran with it. The good people of Oklahoma wrote it off as a cheap political smear. There were even a couple of lawsuits over it...
In the context of 2005, and what appears to be an attempted act of terrorism on the OU campus, though, maybe it's worth revisiting.
I recall when I worked for a defense contractor in the late 90's and had to get a low-level security clearance. One of the questions they asked was "Is there any reason that you could be blackmailed?" Once I went to work, I found that there were a couple of openly gay men working there. One of them explained to me that being openly gay was not a problem because an openly gay person can't be blackmailed - if he or she is "in the closet", that's a problem, because that makes a person at risk for blackmail by the threat of being "outed".
Anyway, I'm putting on my flame suit and asking the question a Republican Senate candidate was almost drawn and quartered for: Is David Boren "at risk for blackmail?"
Stay away from the football stadium, courtyards, and especially courtyards near the football stadium, and you should be fine. :)
A Freeper took some pictures and there was a video camera on top of a pole aimed at the rest of us. For the life of me, I cannot understand why this cell has not been shut down. OU has had enough terrorists come and go through here to shut down anything Muslim. But not Boren, he coddles the Middle Eastern types especially the Pakistani's.
No flames from me -- I agree with you 100%. Just found a very interesting article which I just linked below:
http://www.etherzone.com/2002/boot110102.shtml
All of these articles I have discovered are sourced which lends credibility to what we already know and suspect.
They'll continue to spin. The interesting question is what will "We the People" do. Ponder that.
Or maybe middle eastern men in general, for that matter...
What's the title of the article? I get a blank page unless I go to "home"
So, Boren got his Pakistani friend Haider, a job at Parkview Apartments? Isn't that where the bomber lived with his Pakistani roommate? I wonder if he still works there.
LOL... exactly.
Also note that these "unsubstantiated claims" have been in most cases authorities speaking out under condition of anonymity - at threat to their jobs and such...
That's usually good enough for the AP and the MSM - we hear that all the time "unnamed sources inside the Whitehouse", "an official speaking on the condition of anonymity". Most recently these exact phrases were used by MSNBC in relation to the NYC Threat. Give me a break is right... This article is the HACK JOB!
and that is why you saw NYC this weekend mobilizing their enhanced security operation - they don't have alot of faith in federal law enforcement.
alot of time is spent on these threads criticizing the non-existent media coverage on this - and rightly so. But let's not forget that the decision to bury this also goes up the ladder within the federal law enforcement apparatus - way up.
OU was far from a prank, deserves to be taken extremely seriously, and we deserve far more of an explanation from the FBI and other authorities than we have gotten.
I stand on my previous comments on the Tech thing, unless there's new information since this AM. We shouldn't overreact to nothing.
Ahhhhh, just caught the anthrax email charge. Nevermind.
I agree we shouldn't jump to conclusions, but given the OU Bombing, the devices found in East Chicago, IN, Midvale, CA, and today at GA Tech cause need to at least be cautious. I mean seriously, how many explosive devices are found within a one week period of time usually in the US? Especially when we were warned about this month?
RE: The GA Tech event:
According to authorities there were no firecrackers, and the bombs are now being referred to as "soda bottle bombs". The maj. of the Atlanta PD interviewed in the press conference you can see in the link below said that they were made of chemicals and can be very dangerous if more is used. They found at least 3 devices (one exploded & 2 they detonated) within a plastic garbage bag containing a number of bottles.
Here is a link to the press conferences held by the GA Tech police spokesperson and the Atlanta PD in relation to the case today. Running time is 6:49 - at the beginning of the tape you can hear the sound of the detonation by authorities.
http://www.11alive.com/video/player.aspx?aid=44967&bw=
DEBAUCHERY IN HIGH PLACES
You can always e-mail her through her web site: Jaynadavis.com. Also, for all those in the Oklahoma City area that are still awake (I don't know how to freep the Oklahoma list), last I heard she was going to be on the radio tomorrow on 1520 am at 7:00 a.m. (October 11). Sorry I didn't get on the internet earlier to let people know.
It is worse then getting him a job -- here is an article about the whole deal:
OU student readmitted after threat of lawsuit
01/17/02
Ryan Chittum - Daily Staff Writer
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A student forced out of OU in September after the president of the Pakistan Student Association accused him of a hate crime is back on campus.
Chance Shipman started class Monday, but it is not yet known if he will be able to rejoin coach Jack Spates’ wrestling team.
While Chance has returned to school this semester, his friend Gary Frizzell, forced out of OU in November, has not. His father, Gary, said Frizzell decided not to come back to OU until the fall semester. The Frizzells have hired an attorney who is looking into the matter.
Frizzell’s father said he felt he should not comment except to say: “Gary is in no way guilty.”
Shipman’s readmission is a complete turnaround from the university’s stance just one month ago. The ongoing revelations about electrical engineering junior Mohammad Yaseen Haider, in jail since Nov. 8, prompted Chance to threaten a lawsuit against the university.
The lawsuit would have sought to nullify a contract Chance signed with OU the week after Haider accused him, Gary Frizzell and an unnamed student of hate crimes. Haider claimed the students beat him Sept. 16 in the racially charged aftermath of the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks.
Steve Shipman, Chance’s father, who was contacted last week, said he and his son have signed a confidentiality agreement with OU and can no longer discuss the incident. But in a December interview with The Daily, he said the university forced Chance to sign the contract in September under duress, denying him his due process rights. OU had said it would expel Chance if he did not sign the agreement.
In the contract, Chance agreed to:
• Never apply for admission or attend any campus operated by the OU Board of Regents
• Waive his right to a hearing before the Campus Disciplinary Council
• Waive his right to “confront his accuser”
• Release OU forever from any claims or losses (lawsuits)
In return, OU promised to reimburse his tuition and to keep the incident off his educational record. On the advice of his attorney and against that of his father, Chance signed the contract, believing OU had him over a barrel, Shipman said last month.
Frizzell was also forced out of OU after Haider continually complained that Frizzell had not been expelled, Shipman said. Frizzell finally left OU about one week before the Immigration and Naturalization Service arrested Haider in early November.
OU’s Public Affairs, reached Wednesday, did not comment.
An early-morning scuffle
In the days after the devastation of the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks, the nation stood on edge — nervous about further terrorism, but also worried about the safety of Muslims and Arabs from racist retaliation.
OU seemed immune from the anti-Arab violence widely reported in the rest of the country until the early morning of Sept. 16. Just back from a fishing trip, a group of five OU students — three males, including Chance and Frizzell, both University College freshmen, and two females — drove into Norman at 2 a.m. to try to get some beer.
None of the students in the group was 21, so they tried to use a fake ID at the 7-Eleven at 12th Avenue and Robinson Street. When that failed, they went across the street to Conoco, where Haider worked (illegally, the INS said, because of his visa status) as a night clerk.
Haider (spelled Haijer in Oklahoma County Detention Center records) refused to sell Frizzell and Chance beer and told them to get out of his store. A fight ensued when Haider cursed and shoved Chance, his father said. Chance denies hitting Haider, saying he pinned him to the ground after he was shoved.
The story Haider told differed completely. In the Sept. 18 edition of The Daily, he said three white men kicked, pushed, beat and verbally abused him and then tried to run over him. He said the students said “Get out of our country” and “Don’t touch Americans again.”
Steve Shipman said his son denies he or his friends ever said anything racist. Chance, Frizzell and their three friends said Haider provoked the scuffle.
Norman police wrote Chance and Frizzell citations for misdemeanor assault and battery. They did not arrest the students.
Haider said he suffered bruises, partial loss of hearing and back pain because of the incident. He was angry but physically fine at first, but then he started wearing a neck brace and limping a couple days after the incident, according to several sources, including Lt. Glenn Dobry of the Norman Police Department.
Steve Shipman went into Haider’s Conoco shortly after the incident and asked Haider, who was then wearing a neck brace, how he got hurt.
Haider replied: “No, no. It’s just for fun,” Shipman said.
A quick decision
President David Boren met with Haider on Sept. 17, the day after the incident, and he ordered Student Affairs to investigate.
Clarke Stroud, vice president for Student Affairs, brought Chance into his office and was confrontational and accusatory, Shipman said.
The next day, Sept. 18, Boren issued a statement saying he had expelled one student (Chance) and brought charges against another (Frizzell) for violations of the student code.
But, in fact, Boren did not expel Chance, Shipman said. OU agreed to give him his money back, to keep any disciplinary action off his educational record — important since he would be seeking another college to attend — and to allow him to admit no guilt.
Shipman said the reason OU believed Haider’s testimony instead of the word of five witnesses was because of the timing — the incident happened just five days after Sept. 11, and OU did not want negative publicity.
“Boren wanted to sweep it under the rug as soon as possible,” Steve Shipman said.
Jeff Hickman, OU press secretary, in December said OU would not have taken the actions it did without having other witnesses back up Haider’s account.
But the city attorney dismissed all charges against Chance and Frizzell because witnesses said Haider followed the students out of the store and was the first to make physical contact, Lt. Dobry said.
The 7-Eleven clerk across the street from Haider’s Conoco told police that Haider was an aggressive and rude person, Dobry said. A few hours before the incident, Haider left his store and crossed the street to 7-Eleven to confront a customer who had driven there from his store. Haider yelled at the woman and called her a derogatory name.
Later in the day of the Conoco incident, Haider came to McCasland Field House where Chance was stretching with the wrestling team and began cursing, making obscene gestures and blowing kisses at Chance, Shipman said. He drove up alongside Chance and repeated his actions when the team went jogging. Dobry said Norman police had serious doubts about Haider’s account from the start.
“The Norman Police Department never approached it as a hate crime,” Dobry said. “Boren took a very aggressive response.”
Shortly after meeting with Boren, OU gave Haider a work-study job at Parkview Apartments. A person who worked with Haider at the apartments and who wished not to be identified, said Haider was a less-than-stellar worker — habitually late, refusing certain tasks and often not showing up for work. Federal agents arrest Haider
The FBI began looking at Haider a few days after the Conoco incident when it requested information about him from Norman police.
Sometime in mid-October, the government accused Haider of sending an anthrax threat to a woman he met in an Internet chat room — a woman whom he had begged to come to his apartment for the night.
She declined, and he wrote her a message that said: “I HATE YOU SLUT WOMAN I WANT YOU OUT OF MY LIFE ... I WILL SEND YOU ANTHRAX IN THE MAIL AND BIN LADEN WILL HUNT YOU DOWN.”
Haider himself tipped off authorities to his activities when he called OUDPS and the FBI on Oct. 18 and said someone had hacked into his computer and typed the message.
Three weeks later, on Nov. 8, the INS arrested Haider and his two roommates, Nabeel Khalid and Mohammad Imran Shaikh, for violating their student visas by working off-campus. The INS held Khalid and Shaikh in the Oklahoma County jail for nearly a month before releasing them.
Khalid flew home to Pakistan this week. He told a source he never should have let Haider move in with him Oct. 1. Shaikh is still in Norman.
On Dec. 13, a federal judge in Oklahoma City ordered Haider deported but he was indicted a week later for lying to the FBI. Haider confessed to Oklahoma City Police that he sent the anthrax threat.
The federal judge deemed Haider a danger to the community because he is also a suspect in multiple stalking and indecent exposure cases in Norman and because he once threatened a professor, The Daily Oklahoman reported Jan. 3. A Norman Wal-Mart banned Haider after a clerk said he was stalking her. The judge ordered him held without bail. His ex-girlfriend Cathie Lee Massoud said Haider is appealing the ruling because the police twisted her testimony during his bail hearing.
Haider now says he was coerced by Oklahoma City Police Sgt. Jerry Flowers into confessing, Massoud said. Haider also says Flowers lied in court when he testified Haider admitted he liked to dress like a woman.
Haider faces up to five years in prison.
Shipman wants to be a Sooner
Chance’s father said his son wants nothing more than to go to OU, to attend a great school and wrestle for Spates’ great program. Although he is in school, his dream to wrestle for OU is still in doubt.
His life has been delayed by at least a semester while his college and athletic careers have been put on hold. Spates said he will welcome Chance back to the program, but he doesn’t know when that will be.
“Honestly, I don’t know,” he said. “That’s an administrative thing.”
“From what little I know about Chance, he’s a good kid who hasn’t had any history of trouble.”
I posted the whole article about Haider from the OU Daily -- Boren should have been fired over this IMHO.
Hey - I'll admit openly that I have not had time to read for the last week or so and so I have not been able to keep up with things. Hubby and I are completely dumfounded as to why these stories are not in the media. I would have figured the MSM to be touting what a crappy job Bush is doing, blah blah blah. What do they had to gain by going along and trying to cover this up? I just can't figure it out!! And I'm sure it's been talked about here at FR, I just wish I had had time to read all the threads. What's your take?
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