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Thanks for the overview and the links to the informative articles. I've just read them and I've saved the links for future reference, too.

The articles bring up many interesting points including the tendency of bombing masterminds to flee on an airplane soon after the explosion they've arranged. The information on all the Middle Easterners who came to the US after Desert Storm is eyeopening, too.

I especially noticed this (from the first link) ....

Terrorist expert Neil C. Livingstone was quoted in The Globe on May 16, 1995 with this observation: "There is a remarkable similarity between the methods used by Islamic terrorists in the bombing of the Marine barracks in Beirut, the attack on the World Trade Center, and the bombing in Oklahoma. The truckload of explosives is almost a signature or calling card and it is the weapon of choice among these groups." Livingstone, the author of several books on terrorism, continued: "Very typically, these terrorists have found homegrown radicals to use as dupes in the actual bombings. They have supplied the money and the technical expertise and highly skilled operatives to guide a project and then get out of town before they can be apprehended. This is exactly what happened in the World Trade Center assault, and now they are furious that we have apprehended one of their team leaders [Yousef] and brought him back here for trial."
Similarly, in April 1995 Vincent Cannistrero, former Chief of Counterterrorism for the CIA, authored an article for the Boston Globe, in which he noted the similarities between the New York and Oklahoma bombings. In addition to Cannistrero’s stature as one of the world’s foremost counterterrorist experts, he had specific information to lend authority to his evaluation. He had received a call on the day of the bombing from one of the highest placed sources in the Middle East, the head of Saudi Arabia’s Intelligence Service, who also happens to be King Fahd’s son. According to documents filed in the Oklahoma bombing trial, Cannistrero was told that Saddam Hussein had hired seven Pakistani terrorists (Yousef is Pakistani) to bomb targets in the U.S., one of which was the Murrah Building. Cannistrero then called one of the FBI’s top terrorist investigators, Special Agent Kevin Foust, to pass on the information.

Thank you again.

Thanks for bolding the information. It helps when scanning the articles quickly.

"Very typically, these terrorists have found homegrown radicals to use as dupes in the actual bombings.

Sure sounds like Timothy McVeigh, doesn't it?!!

I wanted to make sure you had the Home Page Link to the OKC bombing. There are a few more articles here.

THE NEW AMERICAN:
http://www.thenewamerican.com/focus/okc/