Posted on 01/11/2006 7:27:58 PM PST by concretebob
Norman, Oklahoma (population 100,923), is as American heartland as it gets. So on October 1, 2005, when Joel Hinrichs III, a 21-year-old Colorado Springs, Colorado engineering student at the University of Oklahoma strapped explosives to his body and blew himself up outside the college stadium where 84,000 fans were watching a Saturday-night football game, thus earning the town the distinction as home to America's first suicide bomber, I was, well, curious. Within 24 hours of the event, three players in the unfolding story issued statements aimed at quashing rumors that the bombing was terrorist related.
University President David Boren, in letters to students, faculty and staff, focused on allaying security fears and not drawing inferences from the rumors: Just because Hinrichs blew himself up with TATP (an ingredient that is the hallmark of Middle Eastern terrorists' bombs), and just because Hinrichs' roommate, Fazal Cheema, was a foreign student from Pakistan, no inferences to Islamic terrorism should be made. "We should not judge others or jump to conclusions…on the basis of color, race, gender, economic status or freely exercised religious beliefs," Boren wrote.
The FBI confirmed that a second cache of TATP explosives was found inside the apartment Hinrichs and Cheema shared. The bomb squad removed the lethal ingredients and exploded them off campus; according to a witness I interviewed, the explosion was heard five miles away. As to the suggestion of a larger terror plot, the Feds were firm: "At this time, there is no known link between Hinrichs and any terrorist or extremist organization(s) or activities."
Because of Hinrichs' Pakistani roommate, newspaper reporters questioned whether there was a Muslim connection. Mohammad Elyazgi, a spokesman for the Masjid An-Nur Islamic mosque in Norman, addressed journalists who asked if Hinrichs, whose photo in newspapers showed him sporting a beard, had recently converted to Islam. "We had never seen him until we saw his picture in the media," Elyazgi told reporters.
Elyazgi shared stories with the press about the racism that he, his family and other Muslims in Norman felt after 9/11 -- how he kept his "children at home for several days" for fear of retaliation. Elyazgi talked about the "chills" he felt when Hinrichs' bomb went off, how a "silent prayer" went through him, and how he hoped no one would "associate the incident with the Norman mosque." Elyazgi underscored Islam's commitment to pacifism: "Islam forbids suicide, and Muslims condemn all acts of violence."
Sometimes a Cigar Is Just a Cigar As I began investigating the suicide bombing in Norman, I was reminded by my editors of the Freudian adage: sometimes a cigar is just a cigar. And sometimes a death-by-suicide bombing is just that. But this Freud/cigar idea got me thinking: Maybe sometimes a credential is just a credential. How do we know to believe the messengers? University President Boren is well credentialed (a former Governor of Oklahoma, a former U.S. Senator and former chairman of the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence), and the FBI has its own unique credentials. But who is Mohammad Elyazgi? What achievements, personal qualities and background activities lend him credence?
In investigating Elyazgi's credentials, I was referred to and spoke with Mitchell Gray, a Norman resident and immigration attorney. Gray -- a former Operation Desert Storm JAG officer and Arabic speaker -- has been working on a book about extreme Muslims in America who disguise themselves as moderates. I asked Gray about Elyazgi, and Gray said, "Mr. Elyazgi and his family have made themselves public figures. They wear the cloak of officialdom. It's time Mr. Elyazgi officially explains his close ties to terrorists." Gray provided me with some interesting public-record documents in which Elyazgi's name has appeared.
To give Mr. Elyazgi an opportunity to respond to the documents, I called him at his office in the Oklahoma Department of Transportation. I asked him if he stood personally by the statement he made on behalf of the mosque: "Islam forbids suicide, and Muslims condemn all acts of violence."
"Of course," he said.
I asked him to explain his relationship to a man named Mufid Abdulqader. I had reviewed 1995 court documents that list Elyazgi and Abdulqader as co-owners of Sinbad Greek & International Food in Oklahoma and as co-defendants on fraud and failure to pay charges (Case No.: CJ95 2176-66).
"You mean Mufid?" he asked.
"Yes, Mufid Abdulqader," I repeated.
"We're just friends."
"So you don't have a business relationship with Mufid Abdulqader?" I asked.
"No, no business relationship," he stated emphatically.
I told him about the documents I had in front of me.
Elyazgi changed his tune. He also seemed to lose his grip on the English language. "Me and him were together in business. In small shop."
I asked Elyazgi to comment on his former business partner's indictment on terrorism charges.
"He's a normal person," Elyazgi said. "He's an activist."
Abdulqader, who formerly worked for the Department of Transportation in Oklahoma and later in Texas, was recently indicted on terrorism charges for being a fundraiser for HAMAS (a Palestinian Islamist movement), one of the most violent jihadist terrorist organizations in the world.
Why Isn't Norman Newsworthy? Throughout 2005, suicide bombings were daily news. In the same month that Hinrichs exploded himself, 19 suicide bombers around the world killed 180 people and injured another 420 -- in supermarkets and restaurants and houses of worship, according to statistics offered by a website called www.thereligionofpeace.com. Those suicide bombers became news -- headline news. And yet the suicide bombing in Norman caused hardly a ripple in the media.
Norman, Oklahoma, is mentioned in the intelligence report prepared by the House and the Senate on the 9/11 terrorist attacks; this report, which Congress has declassified, references known terrorists' activities in Norman, Oklahoma, no less than 17 times. In examining this and other U.S. government documents, a disturbing portrait emerges: Norman, Oklahoma, has been associated with terrorist activity ever since Osama Bin Laden's personal pilot, Mohamed Ihab Ali, went to Norman to take flying lessons back in 1993.
It's true, sometimes a cigar is just a cigar. But sometimes, when you peel away the layers, you find something else.
Annie Jacobsen, author of Terror in the Skies: Why 9/11 Could Happen Again, writes about business, finance and terrorism for a variety of national and international magazines and webzines. A graduate of Princeton University, she lives in Los Angeles, California, with her husband and two sons.
If you would like to send Annie Jacobsen an email, please click HERE.
Yes. My ex-Girlfriend from Tehran was the classiest lady I ever dealt with. Very secular and sophisticated.
LOL...thanks! ;-)
enjoy your paranoia...
"enjoy your paranoia"
You might want to read up on the situation a bit, before slapping on the "paranoid" label.
Please provide me some authors, I'll attempt to read up on it...
I do ask in sincerity, what good would it do to cover up an overseas connection to the OKC bombing? What solid evidence is there that those two jokers weren't responsible?
"What solid evidence is there that those two jokers weren't responsible?"
It's not so much that they weren't responsible. It's that they had help ... Iraqi help. Jayna Davis would be an excellent start, as far as getting further into just why so many of us on FR believe that there is more to the situation.
http://www.jaynadavis.com/highlights.html
I didn't know Libertyrocks was interested in this. He's(?) on my DC PING list.
"I didn't know Libertyrocks was interested in this."
LibertyRocks was compiling quite a comprehensive timeline on the OU bombing, if I'm not mistaken. This was very early on, from the original live thread forward for a month or so, until the new news slowed to a trickle.
Please clarify...are you saying that the government is choosing to not say that Iraq helped to avoid an international incident (coverup) or that the gov missed it completely and folks like the author you noted has evidence as such?
YO...PING!!!!
I am saying that the government is choosing to not say that Iraq helped. The reason or reasons for this remain open to conjecture.
So if it's so obvious he's the third terrorist, why was he not tried with the other two losers? Surely 23 eye witnesses were enough for a warrant/arrest?
Where is this guy now, does anyone know?
thanks...I guess I just can't think of any reasonable answer to why the entire slew of folks who reviewed the evidence would cover up if a foreign nation had anything to it...that just doesnt make sense and would be an incredibly difficult cover up...
It was easier to blame home-grown terrorists;
It was easier to link it to revenge for Waco;
it was easier than admitting a democratic administration could not protect the heartland of America from a dictator 10,000 miles away.
"So if it's so obvious he's the third terrorist, why was he not tried with the other two losers?"
Well, isn't that just the $64,000.00 question. I, myself, think that it has something to do with the bipartisan support for relocating (supposed former) Iraqi Republican Guard out of Iraq and into Oklahoma. I had believed for years that this relocation program was just a rumor or urban legend of sorts, but it is factual. Back in one of those OU Bombing threads, I'd actually found something from the congressional record, where Jesse Helms was condemning this program.
But, that's just my own thinking. It's really up in the air, as to just why. Seems like it's going to remain that way, too.
I'll give you this...Jayna is HOT!!
"I'll give you this...Jayna is HOT!!"
LOL. Not your typical talking head on the local news, is she?
One could only wish for such fortune...
No conspiracy theories here, but... "there is more than sufficient evidence" that the FBI,DOJ, et al, exhibited reprehensible lack of respect for the truth in OKBOMB.
Reprehensible...as in covering the crater with a 16-foot square of plywood (eight sheets) -- and then providing the visiting FEMA enginering team (who used FBI figures for their blast magnitude calculations) with information that the crater's diameter was 32 feet. (FWIW, the Fema team's own report states that they were kept 200 feet from the crime scene they were analyzing...)
Thanks for the ping! (Looks like we have another resident fedshill here -- and now they're quoting Scripture in their taglines...)
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