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Since my last post, I have put on my Sherlock Holmes thinking cap and took a long walk and thought about how McVeigh and Padilla could have met (if they did indeed meet). One problem, even though they both lived in the Ft. Lauderdale area in February 1993, is that they came from radically different backgrounds with little in common. At first something was made here of the Taco Bell connection due to the fact that Padilla worked at the Taco Bell in Davie (which is near Plantation where McVeigh lived). However, the scenario of McVeigh walking into Taco Bell and chatting it up with Padilla is very unlikely. Think about it. When was the last time you got into a deep conversation with a fast food worker? My own conversations with such folks are pretty much limited to "I would like a couple of chalupas," and "Thanx."

However there was something else posted earlier on this thread that aroused my attention. It was the fact that one Roger Moore claimed he met McVeigh at a gun show in Ft. Lauderdale. If so it must have been in February 1993. And that would be the Ft. Lauderdale War Memorial Auditorium Gun Show of which I am very familiar (I was there as recently as last Saturday).

If it can be shown that there was a gun show at that location that month (records must exist to show this) then we already know that McVeigh was there. Padilla was busted on a gun charge and probably still had a fascination with guns so there is a chance that he was at that gun show as well. (Perhaps there are videotapes of the gun show but I don't know if any from 1993 would still be in existence).

But now you are probably wondering how McVeigh and Padilla could get into a conversation even if they were both at this particular gun show. Easy. Remember, February 1993 was when the siege of Waco was occurring. Since this siege was initiated by the ATF "Operation Showtime" raid, Topic A of all conversations at that gun show would have been about Waco. (I was at this gun show right after 9-11 and almost everybody was talking about 9-11.)

The environment of the Ft. Lauderdale War Memorial Auditorium Gun Show is very conducive to conversations between strangers. First of all, the physical area of that gun show is (for reasons I won't get into now) about half the size of normal gun shows so folks there are running into each other all the time. From what I remembered about the gun show there after 9-11, total strangers would easily get into conversations about the terrorists. The same thing must have happened in 1993 with a lot of folks talking about the ATF raid at Waco. Since this was a topic of great interest to McVeigh, I am sure that he was loudly expounding about this at length.

Enter Padilla and he hears McVeigh talking animatedly about Waco. At this time Padilla is heavily into his Muslim (and probably terrorist-in-training) studies and spots a fellow traveler. Padilla joins in the conversation with McVeigh and, well, you can take it from there.

So if it is ever proven that McVeigh and Padilla knew each other, then the Ft. Lauderdale War Memorial Auditorium Gun Show would be their most likely initial meeting point.