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Thanks for finding this article. I just sent it to a rabidly Democrat friend of mine, with the following note:

I found this article from Insight Magazine, dated June 18, 2001, three months before the attacks on the World Trade Center. I'm sending this to you because I know that you are a Democrat, but I also know that you are fair minded, and will at least consider the context of the article, particularly with consideration of the fact that it was written well before we were aware of what was coming.
I would also mention that during my time with the Austin Fire Department, we were briefed about the 1993 bombing of the World Trade Center. The intent in that attack was to take down both towers. The bomb was supposed to take out a corner support of one building, which would drop one tower into the other, and then both towers would collapse taking out numerous other buildings and several city blocks. The death toll, because the collapses would occur immediately when the towers were fully occupied would have been well over 50,000, as opposed to the 3,000 that were killed. A fact not known by the general public is that the only reason the initial plot did not succeed was because the men delivering the bomb parked the van in the wrong place. According to our briefing, the bomb would have worked as planned had the van been parked at the designated spot.
Additionally, as I have long suspected, Richard Clarke claims in his new book that there was possibly an Al Qaida connection to Oklahoma City, as Terry Nichols was in the Philippines when Ramzi Yousef was, and that he came back from there with the knowledge of how to build the bomb that destroyed the Murrah building. This is not theoretical to me, as Timothy McVeigh's trial revealed that the backup target was the Pickle Federal Building on East 8th Street in Austin. This building was approximately five blocks from my fire station, and in my first in response territory.
I believe that President Bush is taking the most prudent approach to Homeland Security, and that the current panel on government response to terrorism is little but election year grandstanding.
I know that we disagree on politics quite a bit, but I respect your opinion, and would like to get your reaction to this article.

Again, thanks for this great find.