Posted on 10/26/2005 12:40:47 PM PDT by LibertyRocks
OKLAHOMA CITY, Oklahoma - Has terrorism returned to the Oklahoma City area? That is what folks in Norman have been asking, ever since a 21-year-old student at the University of Oklahoma killed himself in what some are calling an attempted homicide bombing.
On Saturday, October 1, engineering major Joel Hinrichs detonated a homemade bomb near Memorial Stadium, where 84,000 fans were watching the hometown Sooners take on Kansas State.
That was just a hundred yards from a newly replaced bench -- it was there, just before halftime, that a powerful explosion ripped through the entire area, taking Hinrichs with it.
From the outset, both the FBI and University of Oklahoma President David Boren have insisted that Hinrichs acted alone. They say his death was a random suicide, carried out by a troubled young man, and that Hinrichs had no intention of hurting anyone but himself. But others who have followed the case closely are not so sure.
Mark Tapscott of the Heritage Foundation remarked, “There are about 30,000 suicides in America--unfortunately--every year. And you can go back a decade, and you will not find a single one of those suicides who blew themself up in proximity, close proximity, to 84,000 people at a football game.”
Tapscott and other online bloggers have questioned Hinrichs' true intentions. They point to his Pakistani Muslim roommate and the location of his apartment--just one block from the Norman Mosque.
It is the same mosque that convicted 9/11 plotter Zacarias Moussaoui attended when he lived in Norman. As for Hinrichs, a spokesman for the mosque told us he had never seen him there.
“The first time we've seen his picture is when the news and the media put his pictures in the papers and on TV. Other than that, we've never seen him here,” stated Mohamed Elyazgi, a spokesman for the Norman Mosque.
But in a CBN exclusive, a former neighbor of the mosque, who wishes to remain anonymous, told us she did see Hinrichs there--not once, but several times.
“I did see Joel on several occasions outside of the mosque, actually, in the parking lot of the mosque,” the neighbor said. “It wasn't in the yard, it wasn't behind the fence, it was always in the parking lot when I would see him. And there was one time when I passed him, actually, on the sidewalk. As soon as I saw the picture of Joel Hinrichs on TV, not the clean-shaven one, but the one with the beard, I knew immediately that that was the gentleman I had seen on several occasions.”
Hinrichs' father says his son never would have converted to Islam, and that young Joel was no terrorist. Joel Hinrichs Sr. declared, “My pride is under challenge somewhat, by the fact that he took his life. But in terms of a terrorist, a terrorist is somebody who tries to scare other people. And there was nobody around when Joel did what he did.”
But the FBI has admitted that it still is not sure whether Hinrichs tried to enter Memorial Stadium.
And why did Hinrichs attempt to buy ammonium nitrate fertilizer at a local feed store just days before killing himself? That is the same deadly material Timothy McVeigh used to blow up the Oklahoma City Federal Building in 1995.
“We don't have a lot of people who come in and actually specifically state that they need ammonium nitrate,” Dustin Ellison of Ellison Feed & Seed said. “When it's used in that terminology now, it's kind of...it just catches your attention when somebody asks for that.”
Oklahoma Congressman Tom Cole understands the concerns surrounding Hinrichs' death. But he is confident that the FBI's findings are correct, and that Hinrichs only meant to harm himself.
Rep. Cole stated, “We do have a person that has a long documented history of having a very troubled past. It's a person that had been isolated, who seemed a little bit odd. Who, according to his brother, had frequently been teased and tormented as a young person by fellow students. Sort of classic loner, who didn't fit in.”
Law enforcement authorities found additional explosives during a search of Hinrichs’ apartment. Some news outlets have reported they also found jihadist literature. The FBI denies this claim.
But anyone looking to dig deeper will not have much luck--the Department Of Justice has sealed the search warrant for Hinrichs' apartment.
Although it has grabbed most of the attention, Hinrichs' suicide is not the only troubling incident to take place on America's college campuses these past few weeks.
At UCLA, authorities discovered what they called "an improvised explosive device." Near the University of California's San Diego campus, authorities found a homemade chemical lab in the bathroom of a student's apartment. The student killed himself as police attempted to enter the residence.
At Prairie View A & M in Texas, a student was arrested when authorities found bombmaking materials in his dorm room. He is also charged with trying to buy a handgun with counterfeit money.
And at Georgia Tech, in what officials now say was a prank, a student planted three explosive devices on campus.
As for the University of Oklahoma, it has tightened security at all home games in the wake of Hinrichs' death.
The Oklahoma City Memorial is a daily reminder of the deadly effects of domestic terrorism. And for many here, questions still linger about Hinrichs' death. Was it just a lone suicide? Or was it part of a larger conspiracy to bring terrorism back to America's heartland?
You know, I would like to think the best of our government, that keeping this quiet is related somehow to stock market stability, or perhaps an attempt to 'sting others', but really, I'd be a complete fool to be all-trusting. We know there's a coverup involved with Able Danger. Connect these two coverups together, and it gets pretty darn ugly.
There is a third (at least a third, perhaps more). The bombing of the Murrah Federal Building in 1995. If you get a chance, read "The Third Terrorist" by Jayna Davis, who at the time was a local teevee reporter who was actually doing her job (unlike a lot of reporters). She turned up a lot of "inconvenient facts" that lost her job for her when certain feathers got ruffled.
It's amazing isn't it? My husband was talking with some co-workers the other day, and NO-ONE we have spoken with here in Wisconsin has even heard that this happened! They have really clamped down on this story, and when they do talk about it in the national media it's only to dismiss anything other than a "lone suicide". For gosh sakes, the FBI hasn't even finished investigating - they should at least just say "the investigation is ongoing"! Which is another interesting thing... How long does it take to wrap up a "suicide" case?
ALL: Just FYI - I've updated my summary tonight with some additional details and more links to video reports...
I think I heard her interviewed on the Rusty Humphrey Show a few weeks back. Didn't really remember the name to be honest. Poor thing kept reminding everyone she was a TV reporter to give her added credibility. She didn't want to be thought of as a 'conspiracy theorist'. I don't blame her. We anti-leftist conspiracy theorists get lumped together with kooks like Louis Fara-Con, no matter how many times we dot our "I"s and cross our "T"s, unlike Dan Rather, who would never be called a conspiracy theorist.
A link to your web page:
http://sweetliberty.alfablog.com
Is the OK state the OK Corral now? According to your reports, it sounds like it's swarming with commandos. Thank God they don't have much training and get caught a lot!
You won't believe what I ran across yesterday in the Thrift Store - Yep, a copy of Jayna's book! It's was like a "sign" from heaven as right next to it just happened to be a copy of the Reading Curriculum book I've wanted to get for my youngest! I really can't believe my fortune at finding the books - they are both in mint condition, too!
I've read through the first half already, but haven't gotten to the in-depth parts about the terrorists yet... Kinda putting it off till I finish doing some extra research I've gotten into at the moment. (More on that at a later date... (o:)
Thanks for this article. It seems that many people in Norman are not convinced that this was an isolated act of suicide. The truth is starting to come out.
I hope it continues to leak out, even if it takes a while... IMHO, there has not been enough oversight of the FBI down there in Oklahoma as it pertains to this investigation as well as past events. It needs to be looked into from the national level, and it needs to stop - there is too much of a risk here to US Citizens for "them" to play these kinds of games...
Thanks for posting. I've been curious about this, particularly since it seems to have just plain disappeared from public sight.
The only thing I saw about it recently was that the police supposedly found a "suicide note" on the screen on his PC - that is, a seemingly unfinished line of text that had been typed but not saved to disk. Of course, the Pakistani roomie was around there after Hinrich's death, and would have had ample time to type a one line "suicide note" saying "I'm unhappy and I'm killing myself," or something to that effect. It was also in rather odd sounding English, if I recall correctly.
You're welcome. (o:
That suicide note is rather interesting to say the least. First, the father insists the FBI said there was no note. Then, it's one line of text, and the father can't remember what it said? As you pointed out it was on the screen with the "cursor still blinking" according to Hinrichs father... And, as you pointed out it wasn't until 4 1/2 hours AFTER the explosion that his roommate was taken into custody. As you said, ample time for him - or others to plant the note.
"Of course, the Pakistani roomie was around there after Hinrich's death..."
I remember in those early days, when we [finally] got his name, they kept saying he lived by himself. Now I see why they said that. Pakastani? An Islamic perhaps? Attended the nearby mosque, perhaps? Just wondering....
Let me guess, his Pakastani roomate is shy, kind, and a good upstanding muslim who is much like the hindus and wouldn't hurt a fly. Right?
LOL... depends on whom you talk to - some confirm he was a muslim, and one person in particular, Tariq Alzoubi said he was an "atheist" who was "mad at God" for his hearing impairment. This same person also said he was "supposedly Pakistani" - how could he know he was an atheist and not know where he was from? LOL You can see some interesting stuff I discovered about Tariq at my blog as well - just scroll down to the second to last section... (o;
Could you repeat your blog link, please? I forgot to bookmark it.
It has been over a month now since Joel Hinrichs III self-detonated and I had kind of been hoping that perhaps his father would have recovered a little bit from his initial shock and started thinking this over.
I remember commenting on the forum to those who were quoting The Triangle frat brothers of Joel III's that said there was "no way" he would have done that to himself, maybe they should consider asking the authorities to investigate the death as a homicide. I was being facetious to make a point, but I was also kind of hoping that his family might want to take that on, a little further down the road. Maybe we'll hear from one of them some of these days.
For clarification, I don't necessarily believe it was anything else but what it appeared to be ... however, having said that, I would really like for JoelJr. to think about it and make some inquiries when he feels up to it.
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