Student's Suicide Sets Off Explosion Of Theories by Blogs

WSJ ^ | 10/13/05 | RYAN CHITTUM and JOE HAGAN

[Pikamax]

Student's Suicide Sets Off Explosion Of Theories by Blogs

By RYAN CHITTUM and JOE HAGAN Staff Reporters of THE WALL STREET JOURNAL October 13, 2005; Page B1

WHEN A JUNIOR at the University of Oklahoma blew himself up 100 yards away from a packed football stadium on Oct. 1, the 85,000 fans inside remained calm despite the loud explosion.

But the calm has given way to anxiety, as the college town of Norman, Okla., has struggled to separate fact from fiction in the apparent suicide of Joel Henry Hinrichs III.

Several bloggers have jumped to try to connect the dots in the case and speculate that the 21-year-old Mr. Hinrichs was a suicide bomber under the influence of Islam. The blog reports, in turn, have influenced local news coverage of the young man's violent death.

From the start, the case was prime territory for bloggers. The conservative blog Little Green Footballs titled one post "Jihad at the University of Oklahoma?" and wrote, "The story of the suicide bomber at the University of Oklahoma football stadium, determinedly ignored by mainstream media, is beginning to get interesting...."

[MizSterious]

Thank goodness the WSJ is here to tell us no one saw what they saw, heard what they heard, or experienced what they experienced....

[vox humana]

The MSM coverup goes on, and on, and on...

[PetroniusMaximus]

Nothing here folks... move along.

Please return to your shopping.

We're not at war with Islam. Islam is our friend.

Double-plus good.

[cripplecreek]

Baghdad Bob writing for the WSJ now?

[fso301]

Mr. Hinrichs (pronounced HIN-ricks) had a Pakistani roommate. They shared an apartment one block away from the only mosque in Norman -- the same mosque attended in 2001 by Zacarias Moussaoui, who pleaded guilty earlier this year to helping plan the 9/11 terrorist attacks.

And what mosque did Mr. Hinrichs roommate attend?

[shezza]

"There are no dots to connect here. Those are merely a lenghty series of random coincidences with no bearing on the case. Oooooh, look! A bunny!" (Quickly shuts door and closes drapes.)

[L98Fiero]

The MSM and government have been doing this since the "Beltway Sniper" shootings. It's like they want us to lose this war with the Islamo-fascists, and we will too if this continues. I know the MSM could care less but one would think the government would want Americans to rally against this new threat. I guess not since they do everything they can to prevent that from happening.

[Hegemony Cricket]

No kidding. Sending stuff like this down the memory hole partially depends on the willingness of the general citizenry to forget. Of course, the proles don't have to forget, because they never really knew...

[cripplecreek]

And remember 'If you don't go shopping, the terrorists have won.'

[wideawake]

A troubled young man rooming with a foreign Muslim a block away from a mosque which a suspected 9/11 terrorist used to attend blows himself up with a suicide bomb in a crowded area using the exact same explosives employed by the suicide bombers on 7/7.

But it's not suspicious?

"I feel like I'm taking crazy pills!" -Jacobim Mugatu.

[jjm2111]

Right. Don't forget to go shopping.

[eyespysomething]

On the same day as the most recent Bali bombing, he has a mess of unaccounted time from last year (Where's Hinrichs?) and his roommate had a ticket to Algiers.

Pass those crazy pills around.

[TEXOKIE]

*PING*

Thought you might like to see this WSJ story about the Norman Oklahoma bombing.

[indcons]

Lies, lies, and more lies. This time from the WSJ. The university in the city I am located in announced new security precautions this morning for the football game on Saturday.

I am sure they are worried about "depressed students" too. /sarc

Thanks MizSterious for the ping.

[Grampa Dave]

For years Al Hunt hired reporters for the Wall Street Journal. It appears to be infected with his hirelings. These liberals live in a different world than the rest of us.

[agooga]

It was NOT A SUICIDE. It was a FAILED ATTEMPT to detonate the bomb in a crowded venue.

Hinrichs tried to buy ammonium nitrate TWO DAYS before his death.

If he just wanted to commit suicide, then why seek out more explosives than he already had to do himself in?

The timeline stinks to high heaven-- this kid was a killer.

[Eroteme]

If this WSJ article was intended to lay to rest the rumors and to paint questioners as conpiracy theorists, it did exactly the opposite. IMHO, anyone learning about the case for the first time, or who had heard only the Boren spin would find this article intriguing indeed.

A discerning reader, seeing all the facts laid out in one place like this, is far more likely to raise his eyebrows than to move on. Rather than agreeing with the putative premise of the article (that skeptics and questioners are alarmists), a reader might very well begin to wonder about the abundance of suspicious "coincidences" that OU and law enforcement so quickly dismiss. Curiosity piqued, the reader then spots the conveniently-included links to the blogs and clicks on them...

If I were a mainstream media journalist who smelled a story and wanted to find a way to get it out to a much wider audience (without drawing fire from the PC police) this is the way I'd do it.

...which is not to say that that's what the WSJ did. Either way, the public is served, imho.

[sarasota]

We're all just those annoying little "bloggers" that the MSM is trying to make disappear. I don't think they're going to win this one unless we're asleep at the wheel (so to speak).

[sarasota]

Good point. And at least it made it to the WSJ.