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Posted on 10/11/2005 6:47:23 AM PDT by hispanarepublicana
(CNSNews.com) - The head of the FBI investigation of a suicide bombing at an Oklahoma University football game said the investigation has yielded no information tying the bomber to terrorist activities, in spite of Internet reports to the contrary.
Oklahoma University police requested FBI assistance in the investigation due to the nature of the Oct. 1 bombing outside Oklahoma Memorial Stadium, which killed the bomber, student Joel Henry Hinrichs III, but apparently injured no one else.
In the week since the bombing, Internet reports have suggested that Hinrichs, a 21-year old engineering major, had ties to terrorism, including visiting the same Norman, Okla., mosque that Zacarias Moussaoui, the so-called "20th hijacker" in the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks on the U.S., attended. Moussaoui never boarded the planes. Instead, he was arrested, pleaded guilty to conspiring with the 19 terrorist hijackers and could eventually face the death penalty.
The Internet-based Northeast Intelligence Network (NIN) reports that "confidential sources" have reported that more bomb-making materials and "jihad materials" were found in Hinrichs' university apartment and that there is a "money trail" between Hinrichs and a radical Islamist terror cell in Norman.
Norman Police have confirmed that Hinrichs was briefly investigated days before the bombing when he tried to purchase ammonium nitrate fertilizer. Ammonium nitrate is the same chemical used in the 1995 Oklahoma City bombing that destroyed the Alfred P. Murrah Federal Building and killed 168 people.
NIN Director Douglas Hagmann declined to comment on the identity of his sources, but told Cybercast News Service that he knows "who the confidential sources are and we have faith in them because of their proximity to the investigation."
He added that his group has "verified many of their statements through other channels." Hagmann said the sources approached his group but are less willing to talk after internal pressure has threatened those who leak information to the press.
News reports have said the material used in Hinrichs' bomb is known as triacetone triperoxide (TATP) and is the same material used in the July train bombings in London. It is also the same chemical used by Richard Reid in his foiled shoe-bombing attempt in 2001. Jihadists refer to the volatile chemical as "Mother of Satan."
FBI agent Gary Johnson, who is heading the investigation from the bureau's Oklahoma City office, declined to confirm or deny that TATP was used in the bombing or was found in the subsequent search of Hinrichs' apartment.
The search lasted at least 24 hours but no information has been released concerning what investigators actually discovered -- Hagmann's confidential sources report finding TATP and "jihad materials" on his computer - because the search warrant was sealed by the Department of Justice.
When asked if NIN's reports are consistent with the FBI investigation, Johnson said, "No," then added, Well okay the stuff that's found in his apartment, I can't comment on [be]cause it's part of a search warrant that's sealed.
"As this time," he said, "there is no known link between Hinrichs and any terrorist or extremist organization group or activity or activities." Johnson said the investigation is ongoing.
Hagmann said that aside from the information his website reports, the facts released by the FBI raise questions. "If this is nothing more than a lone suicide bomber," he asked, "why would [Hinrichs] do so where he did and how he did it?"
In a press conference after the bombing, Oklahoma University President David Boren said Hinrichs had "what I would call emotional difficulties in the past." He said there is "no evidence at this point which points to any other kind of motivation other than his personal problems."
Dr. Ronald Maris, director of the Suicide Center at the University of South Carolina, said he was reluctant to comment on the case because he did not know the details, but said that usually when people commit suicide with a bomb, there are "other motives.
"The vast majority of people either shoot themselves or hang themselves," Maris said. "Usually when there's bombings it involves other people and involves political motivation."
Various reports, including those on the NIN web site, have alleged that Hinrichs attempted to enter the stadium before detonating the bomb outside.
Johnson would not confirm whether the security guards had been interviewed regarding the purported attempt by Hinrichs to enter, but said investigators have "a really good idea" about whether he tried to gain access.
The Oklahoma City area has a history of connection to terrorism, according to author Jayna Davis. Davis wrote the book "The Third Terrorist," which argues that Murrah building bomber Timothy McVeigh had connections to Arab terrorists.
In 1989, Davis wrote, Osama bin Laden's spiritual mentor Abdul Azam spoke in Oklahoma City advocating the killing of infidels, Jews and Christians. He was joined, she said, by Khaleed Mashaal, the chief of the political arm of Hamas.
In 1995 before the Murrah building attack, Davis said bin Laden's top deputy, Ayman al Zawahiri, visited Oklahoma City.
According to the congressional report on the 9/11 attacks, Oklahoma City was also where bin Laden's chief pilot received his flight training.
ping
Putting aside, of course, the fact that he put on a suicide vest and walked over to a stadium full of 80,000 people.
"tying the bomber to terrorist activities"
Is this an Oxy-Moron? How can you be a bomber and not be involved in terrorist activities?
How many of you are building bombs out there and are not a terrorist?
Ping...
Thanks to HR for the ping to the thread.
"In 1995 before the Murrah building attack, Davis said bin Laden's top deputy, Ayman al Zawahiri, visited Oklahoma City"
This is the first I have heard of Zawahiri being in Oklahoma. Gotta get that book!
The "at this time" qualifier is real handy if they can't get people to forget about it. They can say that they never ruled anything out.
What is it about Oklahoma and FBI cover-ups. They can't get away with it this time!
Yeah right! We've heard this before. Officials denied our down-played terrorist connections of the DC snipers, the muslims sergeant who fragged a tent full of sleeping officers in Kuwait, and they still deny a connection with OKC bombing even though it is well-documented. Don't people ever get tired of hearing lies from government officials?
Yep.....it's like Texas and big hair.
A radio talk show caller suggested looking for evidence in nearby trees and such, if the bomb was intended to be used to kill others there'd be damage from nails and other such objects.
Just how stupid do they think we are, anyway?
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On another thread someone posted that there were small holes in a nearby tree, presumably from the bomb.
As I have posted before.
The way Boron has acted/responded and many of the so called LEO's in this case remind me of the first Jaws movie. In that movie the mayor and his cohorts denied and lied about the shark until it became a huge disaster.
FBI Coverup -- It's what they do...
BTT!!!!!
Thanks. Below is the full article/post:
Oklahoma Blackout
Unless you live in Oklahoma and follow the local news, or else read conservative blogs, you probably wouldn't know anything about Joel Hinrichs, the University of Oklahoma student who almost surely tried to carry off a mass suicide-murder at an OU football game. Whether Hinrichs had converted to Islam is apparently in dispute, but he had at least one roommate from Pakistan and ties to the local Muslim community. It's been reported that jihadist literature was found when his apartment was searched, along with bomb-making materials, although none of this is yet certain. I assume that Hinrichs was, at most, a "free-lance Islamic terrorist," like the D.C. snipers of three years ago, not an al Qaeda operative.
Still, it's hard to understand why the major media are so determined to ignore the Oklahoma story. Even CBS's Public Eye is beginning to wonder: "Is Lack Of Big Media Coverage Of Oklahoma Explosion OK?" Well, I don't think so. It's hard to avoid the sense that this is another case where media organizations are protecting the public from troublesome information for the public's own presumed good. It's interesting, too, that this attitude isn't limited to the national media. The Oklahoma Daily, as quoted by CBS, is mostly concerned that, while "people should perceive the unfounded news broadcasts as the liars, ... that doesn't always happen."
Of course, some of the news reports are certainly not "unfounded." For instance, Dustin Ellison, proprietor of Ellison Feed and Seed in Norman, has said publicly that Hinrichs tried to buy a quantity of ammonium nitrate fertilizer from his store, but Ellison turned him down because "something didn't feel right." It seems clear that both major media and the local university paper are trying to act as gatekeepers, preventing the public at large from needlessly becoming concerned--and maybe suspicious of Muslims--because of the Oklahoma incident.
Somehow, this sort of news suppression never gets mentioned when media figures lecture us about the benefits of a free press.
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