http://www.kotv.com/main/home/stories.asp?whichpage=1&id=91747
FBI: OU Student Who Died In Explosion Had No Known Terrorist Ties
(KOTV, OK - 48 minutes ago)
NORMAN, Okla. (AP) -- The continuing FBI investigation into an explosion outside a packed football stadium at the University of Oklahoma has not found any indication that the student killed in the blast had any connection with terrorists, a congressman says.
Rep. Tom Cole, R-Okla., said Tuesday he spoke to Salvador Hernandez, FBI special agent in charge of the bureau's Oklahoma office, about Joel H. Hinrichs III, an engineering student who died Oct. 1 when his bomb went off about 100 yards from the football stadium during the second quarter of OU's night game against Kansas State. The student was sitting on a campus bench.
University and FBI officials have said previously there was no known link between Hinrichs and terrorists, but Cole, whose district includes Norman, sought the meeting with Hernandez as rumors about the case have persisted.
"He said, 'We're continuing our investigation, but as every day goes by it just seems less and less likely. ... This looked like an individual act,"' Cole said.
Officials later removed more explosive materials from Hinrichs' apartment, which is near a mosque. The FBI questioned his Pakistani roommate.
Hinrichs, 21, was from Colorado Springs, Colo. He had a
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reputation as a loner and had struggled at times with his grades.
Cole said he also asked the agent specifically whether the FBI found the student intended to get inside the stadium.
"He said, 'We may never know. We have no evidence of a plan to do that, but we also couldn't tell you definitively he didn't try to do it and was rebuffed. We just simply don't know,"' Cole said.
Cole said the agent also told him the FBI found nothing indicating Hinrichs attended the mosque.
Cole said he asked the agent specifically whether jihadist material was found in the apartment, which was widely reported on Internet sites. "He told me there was absolutely none -- nothing that would suggest links to terrorist groups."
Cole also said the agent told him, "The roommate thing seems to be purely coincidental. ... No connection there whatsoever."
Cole said the agent "really went out of his way to establish that, I think, because he knows there's a legitimate concern and he doesn't want people who are innocent of any wrongdoing to be suspected of any wrongdoing."
He said the agent praised how the Islamic community cooperated with the FBI probe.
Hinrichs had a longtime fascination with
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bombs and ammunition, his family and friends have said. Cole said the FBI agent also remarked Tuesday how surprising it is that someone will have a history of playing around with "these things ... and people know it and we never get notified until something happens."
Cooperate in what way, other than denying any knowledge of Hinrichs?
FBI story and that of our local officials are worlds apart. Pardon me if I take the side of our local officials over the side of the FBI. :)
Sounds like it is time to vote COLE out of office!! This is just plain disgusting at this point!! What a load of cow patties!
And so it goes... seeing as this is an AP article I suppose this is what will be printed across the country and this event will "dry up" unless individual agents within the investigation come forward. I can't see that happening at this point and even if they did they couldn't identify themselves or risk losing their jobs.
I don't believe anything this Congressman or the FBI are saying at this point - how could it go from "can't talk about that" - to DEFINITELY NOT??? (RE; the materials found). Plus, I thought that was under wraps per the justice department.
This IMHO this still stinks to high heaven and a cover-up is now going on - with more officials getting in on the act - just as it has since day 1.