Posted on 04/19/2006 5:57:10 AM PDT by 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.
In that context, it makes sense.
Someone crazy enough to be involved in it would be crazy enough to compartmentalize it.
I was in downtown Washington DC with my 7 & 9 yr. old daughters. We couldn't understand why we were frisked just to enter the National Aquarium and the Treasury was closed to tours. We didn't find out what had happened until we got back to the hotel room that evening.
I was 16, driving back from a fishing vacation in Canada when I heard about it on the radio.
I remember watching them evacuate the rest of the Murrah building, because they were worried 'another' bomb would go off. It did.
Wonder where that 2nd bomb explosion came from...
Pinz
I'm sorry for your loss, ok kev.
Pinz
"That's adorable. I was a freshman in college in 1972. Now THERE's your definition of "forever ago"!"
Hey kids, my freshman year was 1955.
Is this the same Larry Johnson who is of questionable character regarding the Plame case?
Pinz
I recall the reporting that morning of two blasts, and seeing a business man being evacuated because of fears of a third one.
He said he had time to get under his desk before the second explosion. And that he was protected from falling debris because he was under his desk during the second blast.
Pinz
See above, there *were* 2 explosions. You heard accurately.
Pinz
I always wonder if he did that in exchange for protection for his sister. I remember them parading her in front of the cameras, then McVeigh said he was working alone as a disgruntled former special ops guy.
Pinz
It's hard to believe she has been gone for 11 years now. The hardest part has always been my kids growing up without their "Grammy" . . .
I'm so very sorry for your loss and for your children's loss of their grammy. God rest her soul.
Again, thanks for the kind words and prayers. It is really not any different or harder than any other person who has lost a loved one, it's just a little harder to forget because of the media coverage. I think my mother-in-law's death was even more difficult, because we had to take her off of life support and watch her die. God didn't make dying easy.
By the way, the two things that always bothered me the most were:
1) I was there within 15 minutes of the explosion and made it to the northeast corner of the building before everybody, including the police, atf, fire, etc... started fleeing frantically, screaming that there were more bombs found and they were going to explode. Why?
2) At that time, it was the worst terrorist act on US soil, but yet less than 1-1/2 months later the building was imloded, cleaned up and the rubble buried away under lock and key. Again, why? I remember they day they brought it down, suddenly thinking, "why are they doing this so quickly"? Surely, they didn't have time to go through everything. And if the building was truly unstable, it would have never survived a week of April and May Oklahoma winds.
I lost my father when I was very young. It still hurts every day, and I'm getting to be an old lady. :-/
Your grief isn't allowed to be private, and I'm sorry for that. But there are so many who grief with you, for different, less personal reasons. I hope it offers a bit of comfort or at least company. :-)
You raise two very good questions.
I doubt that the truck was the only 'bomb' that exploded at that site that day. I don't know the hows and whys. I think Clinton and his people moved fast in making it go away to lessen the chances that we would ever know.
To lose someone with that accompanying frustration would eat at me. You must have been doing some heavy-duty praying to avoid that. And there's no doubt your mom is working hard to comfort and soothe that, for your own peace.
My prayers and warm wishes for you and your family.
Pinz
Yes, it's him - guess he got something right back then?? I don't claim to understand all the meanderings of his mind, but maybe he got something right for once. I remember him more (before Pflamegate) for that idiotic op-ed he published in the NY Times in July 2001 proclaiming that the threat of terrorism was greatly exaggerated and that except for a couple of hot spots in the world such as Kashmir and Columbia it was in decline..... I remember that column vividly because I was living in NYC at the time, holding the actual NY Slimes in my hands, and muttering "who IS this dumb-AXX" because it should have been obvious to anyone with lukewarm grey matter that one large attack would throw all his comforting stats about a supposed decline in terrorism out the window..... and even pre-9/11 anyone with a brain knew that there were terror groups trying to get at us ala the USS Cole, African embassy bombings, Khobar Towers, etc.
p.s. don't fear, I have NEVER subscribed to the Slimes - i was in a Starbucks (oh no) and there was the front section of the Slimes on the table so I forced myself to go over to the dark side for a few minutes...... :^)
Both Waco and Oklahoma City affected two of my closest friends. One of my friends was one of the exit counselors that private families hired to help some of the Branch Davidians escape the compound. Some actually made it out, but he has never forgotten the ones who didn't.
My friend, now husband, served as a grief counselor for families after the OKC bombing. He said that it was just amazing and crazy to listen to story after story...my wife, my new husband, my baby...it made a huge impact on his life. He has never forgotten.
I was in my office in Oklahoma City about 8 miles from the federal building. I heard the blast and felt the concussion and went downtown to help out. The building was surrounded by police and a policeman took me to a nearby triage center occupied by about 100 physicians, 400 nurses and innumerable ambulances from the area. I stayed about three hours and in that time only one patient came in. The casualties had all gone directly to the closest hospitals. I lost two friends, a retired missionary/dentist and his wife whose two daughters had worked for me in the past. 168 people were killed but three ladies were pregnant.....I count the fatalities as 171
Dang---shave off 5 years of aging and its him.. the unidentified accomplice has to be Mohammed Atta...
Remember--the neo-nazi militias all had common cause with Islamist terrorists...
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