Where were you 11 years ago today?

BBC ^ | 4/19/95 | Unknown

[Coop]

BBC archive:

1995: Many feared dead in Oklahoma bombing

A huge car bomb has exploded at a government building in Oklahoma City killing at least 80 people including 17 children at a nursery.

At least 100 people have been injured and the number of dead is expected to rise.

In an emotional speech, President Bill Clinton vowed "swift, certain and severe" punishment for those behind the atrocity.

"The United States will not tolerate and I will not allow the people of this country to be intimidated by evil cowards," he told a White House news conference this evening.

Trapped in the rubble

The blast happened just after 0900 local time when most workers were in their offices. It destroyed the facade of the ten-storey Alfred Murrah Building.

One survivor said he thought there was an earthquake: "I never heard anything that loud. It was a horrible noise...the roar of the whole building crumbling,"

There were scenes of chaos as paramedics treated the wounded on the pavement and rescue workers battled to dig out those still trapped in the rubble.

The building housed a children's nursery on the second floor as well as social security, customs, agriculture and the Federal Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms (ATF).

Some federal agents noted that the ATF mounted the operation two years ago today which ended the siege of David Koresh's Branch Davidian cult in Waco, Texas. However members of the cult commemorating the siege have angrily denied any connection.

The State Department would not discuss the possibility of this being a terrorist attack but the FBI and Oklahoma police put out an alert for three men believed to be of Middle Eastern origin driving a brown Chevrolet pick-up truck.

Sheikh Omar Abdel Rahman and ten of his supporters are currently on trial for the World Trade Center bombing in February 1993.

Government buildings in Washington and all over the US have been put on high alert. Federal offices in Wilmington, Boston and Rochester were evacuated after bomb scares.

[Roccus]

Until the report came over the radio, it was just another day at work for me. But as I've been retired for the last 7yrs, I can look back and just smile. The gurgling stream, flowers, trees in bloom and green grass outside my living room window tell me it was all worthwhile.

[null and void]

Ah, well, the topic was life extension...

[CobraJet]

And I am a year ahead of YOU.

[birbear]

I was living in San Diego, going to school. I only had a small 2" casio TV that I hardly used. I think I was probably surfing local BBSes, and somebody posted a message that something had happened in OKC.

I drove to 7-11 to get me a hot dog for lunch, and the radio news was all over it.

I got home and my girl friend called asking if I knew what was going on. I said somebody blew up a building. She said, "Oh...is that all."

I remember thinking -- this is the world we live in now...where buildings being blown up don't really phase us much.

[Tax-chick]

Me too!

[csvset]

I had duty. USS Eisenhower, we were in the shipyard at Newport News.

[Badray]

I sometimes wonder if I have an alibi for my whereabouts when various events take place.

I guess that you listen on the net, but how did you find out about Quinn being way up there?

Do you know that he is going to be heard nationally soon? I don't know the particulars because I don't listen too much any more.

[Madame Dufarge]

I was on Cape Cod, working in my office.

put out an alert for three men believed to be of Middle Eastern origin driving a brown Chevrolet pick-up truck.

I remember that in the days following the bombing, the sketches of "John Doe #3" kept morphing, until I was convinced that the changes wouldn't stop until the sketches looked exactly like Newt Gingrich.

The Clintons were desperately trying to pin it on the Militia of Montana and other Militias active at the time.

[Madame Dufarge]

How horrible.

I'm so sorry for your terrible loss.

[Ladysmith]

Do you for both those two days, like working? ;o) It was simply odd for me in 1995. When the media started mentioning how it had been 2 years to the day since Waco, I was a bit stunned by the coinkydink.

A friend of mine found Quinn online, oh man, way back in 1994 or 1995? Definitely by 1996. I think I still have tapes of certain interviews Quinn did...all turned out to be bogus, I think. Anyway, Quinn hit on subjects others wouldn't touch and we were both hooked. I'm pretty certain my friend has every show he had access to saved and archived. Dry spells when Quinn's show wasn't online drove us both bonkers.

I haven't been listening much since I've returned to school, defintely not at all since they started the subscription requirements for archived shows. Gotta save some pennies until I graduate and get back to work. Once that happens, subscribing will be one of the first things I do. I really miss listening to him and Rose...UNLESS, we can finally get them locally through a national show.

Any reason why you haven't been listening to them? So many other shows out there, I get a bit burned out at times myself.

[Uri’el-2012]

In an emotional speech, President Bill Clinton vowed
"swift, certain and severe" punishment for those behind the atrocity.

He said biting his lip !

Just two years earlier he burned down a church and murdered 74 people, men , women and children.

b'shem Y'shua

[Uri’el-2012]

Another view of it:

The Oklahoma City Investigation: A Sick $89 Million Joke

[Doomonyou]

I was in Las Vegas, in the Rio, about 15 floors up getting ready to go to a job site watching it on the tube. At the site in north LV we could hardly think due to the jets screaming overhead from Nellis AFB.

[Diana in Wisconsin]

I was at work, and my boss told me to "hold the phones" and to come and see what was on TV in his office.

Initially we were both simply amazed that someone would do this, and we both cried. The guys had already gone out to their project sites, so it was just the two of us. We didn't get a lot done that day. I remember watching TV most of the day, and also the guys calling in from the construction sites to ask for updates every hour or so.

I'm still amazed that they caught McVeigh so quickly. I'm still convinced that there is more to the story than we were told.

[Madame Dufarge]

I'm still amazed that they caught McVeigh so quickly. I'm still convinced that there is more to the story than we were told.

My memory may be faulty on this, but didn't McVeigh have a loaded gun on the seat next to him when he was arrested?

It doesn't make sense that someone who'd just committed mass murder would hesitate to commit one more.

[Rte66]

Bless your heart and God rest your mother's soul.

Of course you feel sad on this and all other anniversaries, but I've always wondered if it's a hindrance or a comfort to you that many others are also memorializing your mom on this same day.

[Rte66]

Thank you!

[Badray]

McVeigh did have a gun on the front seat when he was stopped.

My theory, based on what I've read about him is that he really only had a beef with the Feds because of Waco and other actions. He didn't have a problem with the local cops. He also didn't think that a traffic stop would be anything more than a ticket.

So, no beef and not expecting to be connected to the bombing, there was no reason to kill an innocent. Not that the people at Murrah were guilty of anything, but they were part of the Federal Government and thus, part of the 'problem'.

[kenth]

I was at work in Hugo OK. We were listening to the store radio to some of the initial reports coming from OKC. I recall the initial reports had people looking for two "middle-eastern looking men."

[NewLand]

Not sure where I was 11 years ago today, but 10 years ago today I got married to little rebel!

We got married in Reno, NV...and there was a bomb scare called into the Court House and we had to come back in the afternoon to get our marraige license...little rebel did not accuse me of calling in the threat, BTW. :)