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Down The Middle - Feb 7, 2005 - Printable Version
- Strange Days, Indeed!
by Down The Middle
There wasn’t anything special about that morning, except I was running a few minutes late for my 9:00 a.m. “meeting” with Mark {yes, that is our fearless editor, Mark Faulk}, at a business in North Oklahoma City. The traffic was heavy as usual, coming in from Norman, but began to thin out by the time I jumped on the Broadway Extension. With rush-hour traffic thinning and the road clear ahead of me, I cranked up the radio and punched the gas, thinking I could make my connection in ten minutes, if I didn’t dally. Glancing to my left, I checked out the grand buildings of downtown Oklahoma City, as they quickly passed by and then turned my attention back to the road, as I started over the Twenty-third Street overpass. The time was 9:02. I actually don’t remember hearing anything . My windows were up and the radio was blaring {I never could remember what song was playing at that moment} but the force of the blast shoved my car into the next lane. I quickly recovered control over the vehicle then, almost instinctively, looked back over my left shoulder to see the plume of smoke and debris rising up, above the downtown area. I think my first words were something very intellectual like, “Woah! Something blew up.” At that time, I assumed there had been a major gas explosion, and realizing the size of this event, I knew there were going to be casualties. Minutes later, the radio confirmed what most already knew. There had been a large explosion downtown.
Arriving at my destination, probably no later than 9:08, I found several employees gathered outside the building and looking South at the plume of smoke, still evident in the sky above the metro. Moments after walking inside the show room, I was told the shock wave had knocked things off their walls and reversed the huge exhaust fans in the manufacturing shop. The owner of the business immediately appeared and invited me into her office, where we were about to see the first available camera shots, from a local news helicopter.
I couldn’t believe the devastation! Everyone was still muttering their assumptions, like mine, that there had been a huge gas explosion. “Car bomb!”, I blurted out. “See the way the front of the building is sheared off...Car bomb”. With my unexpected observation, the little group of observers fell silent as the news team began to confirm that yes, this was, in fact, the Murrah Federal Building.
We tried to go about our business that day, but no one dared venture too far from the radio. An A.P.B. had been put out for a brown pickup leaving the scene, with a good description of it's occupants. Oklahomans slowly began to wake up, that clear April morning, to the idea that the heartland of America had just joined the world of Terror...but we knew not why.
Unfortunately, for the people occupying nearby buildings in the area, the danger was not over. It was suddenly announced that other bombs had been found and everyone should get out of the area, as fast as they could. This, of course, sent thousands of people running for their lives down the streets of the city. The cause of the panic inducing announcement was later explained away as the discovery of ordinance the A.T.F. had “stored” in the building which is, of course, illegal, not to mention extremely hazardous. As unbelievable as it would seem, one of the items reported as being "stored" there was a TOW missile, which reportedly "launched" during the blast {This is a wire-guided, anti-tank missile used by American and Israeli military forces}.
Needless to say, April 19th quickly became the strangest day in Oklahoma City history. Never before had there been such an eerie feeling hanging in the air. The scream of sirens penetrated the far reaches of the metro area, and they literally never stopped. We tried to go about our day, wondering what we could all do...but there was really very little one could do. The task, now, was in the hands of the first responders, special rescue personnel and, of course, the medicos who were called to emergency duty at all of the area hospitals.
Then it happened! The radio announced that the F.B.I. had called off the APB on the brown pickup...and there was no explanation given, as to the reason why.
Well, there it was...that strange "gut" feeling again. Just like the sixties and yes, just like December 8, 1980. That feeling that something wasn’t right. Why was the FBI calling off the APB and refusing to explain it? Several eye witnesses had seen the pick-up and it’s two occupants pull away from the front of the building, moments before the blast, and in any case, why would you not want to interview these men? The pick-up was still out there and they were just...letting it go. Who were these guys? What the hell was going on?
In the hours and days following the blast, the entire nation watched as Oklahoma City recovered their dead and wounded from the rubble that was once the Alfred P. Murrah Federal Building. On day two, investigators announced they were charging a young Gulf War veteran, who the Oklahoma Highway Patrol had arrested less than two hours after the blast, with the mass murder. His face matched the composite drawing of John Doe Number One, and it was discovered that he had ties with a right wing militia/religious group from Elohim City, on the Oklahoma/Arkansas border, and was present at Waco, Texas, protesting the F.B.I.'s siege of David Koresh and the Branch Dividians. It looked like an open and shut case that would be solved in record time, but there was just a few questions I couldn't get out of my mind.
Why was Timothy McVeigh driving with no license plate on his getaway car? It didn't seem to me, anyone who could put together and carry out such a diabolical plan would be stupid enough to try and escape in a car with no tag. The question was so unavoidably obvious that a "horse posse" was given the task of "walking out" the interstate medians and right-of-ways, all the way from OKC to Tulsa. Nothing was ever found. Eventually, the authorities suggested the tag had been removed and placed in a locker, as a "signal" to compatriots. This sounded to me like...well, what one might call extreme investigative "conjecture". Here in Oklahoma, we just call it bullshit.
Why did the F.B.I. quickly call off the A.P.B. on the brown pickup, allowing the suspects to escape? The fact that the Bureau had let material witnesses just drive away was beyond my comprehension. If not for the integrity and persistence of Jana Davis, a reporter for a local NBC affiliate, I wonder if we would have ever known who they were. With information volunteered from a Bureau agent, {before he withdrew his help, due to the case becoming "too political"}, Ms Davis tracked down not only the driver, but his associates, too. While the media kept showing the nation video of ridiculous "arrests" of "suspected" John Doe Number Twos {After all the "theater" finally played out, the Government finally told us, "There never was a John Doe Number Two"}, Jana was out identifying the real John Doe Number Two as a former Iraqi Republican Guard and intelligence agent.
Why did the A.T.F. ignore information provided by Carol Howe, the Tulsa "debutante with the swastika tattoo", who was listed in the A.T.F.'s own files as a "reliable paid informant". After the bombing, she publicly stated that she had personally warned the A.T.F. of the impending bombing. {As retribution for her public statements, the A.T.F. later tried to convict her on unrelated explosive charges, but failed}.
Compounding my suspicions, Oklahoma Governor Frank Keating, Rep. decided to tear down the Murrah Building at the earliest possible moment, so that Oklahomans might be able to have "closure" with the tragedy. It seemed to me, the only thing closed by this action would be the opportunity for further investigations of the "on site" evidence.
Then, people closely related to the case began dying. {"Oh, hell. Here we go again.", I thought.} Although the national media would never mention the deaths of these people, much less the odd circumstances in which they died, friends and relatives were not to remain so quiet.
As months turned into years, Oklahoma worked it's way back to normality. Without ever publicly explaining the plot or his reasons of involvement, Timmy McVeigh walked to his execution like the soldier he was. Co-conspirator Terry Nichols was sentenced to life by a Federal Court that refused to allow contrary evidence and witnesses and was then tried again by the State of Oklahoma, at the insistence of Oklahoma County District Attorney Bob Macy who sought the death penalty {as he always did} to bring "closure" to his constituents. After several million tax dollars spent {I truly never saw a "final" figure of the trial expenses} and the State Court also refusing to allow contrary evidence and witnesses into the trial, Oklahomans would be denied their "justice". Terry Nichols would escape the "hangman's noose" and spend the remainder of his natural life in prison.
It is hard to believe we are already approaching the ten year anniversary of that terrible day and I have long resigned myself to file this one in the "What the Faulk has our Government Done Now!" drawer and go on with my life until I recently spotted a new story about one A.T.F. agent and his activities in the months leading up to April 19, 1995 . It just happened to be the same agent who had surprisingly identified the bomb type, only ten minutes after the blast, and became the A.T.F. spokesman in the following days. {It was always a little strange that there were no A.T.F. agents in their offices, at the time of the blast and the fact that the bomb squad was checking the area the day before, might raise a few questions, in itself.}
So, who were the OKC bombers. Who helped with the plot and who covered it up? Was it really just a "sting" operation against right-wing fanatics, gone bad? Were Middle-Eastern terrorists really involved? In the end, I suppose the big question is "Why"?
The fact is, the story of the Oklahoma City bombing is so completely rife with cover-up and deception, I could only compare it to Dealey Plaza. In today's underworld of "politics", "spooks" and "wet-boys", I can only imagine what really led up to that day and who all were involved. I do know, however, our Government handed us another fairy tale. I'm sure that some day, the truth of what happened that dreadful morning in Oklahoma City will be told.....right after they give us the facts about November 22, 1963.
http://www.freerepublic.com/forum/a3b1d9d6856ad.htm
http://www.okcbombing.org/
http://www.rense.com/general10/okc.htm
http://www.freerepublic.com/forum/a3b2804310d68.htm
http://www.freerepublic.com/forum/t1000211.htm
http://www.FreeRepublic.com/forum/a1000850.htm
http://www.whatreallyhappened.com/RANCHO/POLITICS/OK/ok.html
http://www.jaynadavis.com/main.html
http://www.marsearthconnection.com/okc.html
http://www.FreeRepublic.com/forum/a36ec12274e0a.htm
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