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Down The Middle - Oct 4, 2005 - Printable Version
- OKLAHOMA!
Where The Bombs Come Sweeping Down The Plains
by Down The Middle
Continuing Coverage: Oct. 5, 2005 By Mark Faulk
The Daily Oklahoman reported this morning that suicide "victim" Joel Henry Hinrichs III's roommate was Fazal M. Cheema, a Pakistani student who attended a nearby mosque and worked for the OU athletic department. According to the Oklahoman, "Cheema and three other Muslim students were led, handcuffed, from a party by police after the blast. They were later released."
Although OU President David Boren said that "Up to this point, no one has seen him trying to get into the game," OU senior Adam Smith said a stadium guard told him that "a guy had sprinted off" outside of one of the gates after refusing to let his backpack be searched. There have also been reports that Hinrichs was wearing a backpack at the time of his death.
Boren and the FBI both still maintain that there is no "known link between Hinrichs and any terrorist or extremist organizations or activities."
Update: Oct. 4, 2005:
By Mark Faulk
In a development that brought back tragic memories of the 1995 Murrah Building bombing, it was reported on OKC News 9 that Joel Henry Hinrichs III, the suicide "victim" who blew himself up less than 100 yards from Oklahoma University's Memorial Stadium while 84,000 people watched the football game between OU and Kansas State, tried to buy fertilizer from a Norman feed store just four days before killing himself. According to an employee of Ellison Feed & Seed, Hinrichs asked to buy fertilizer, and was very specific as to the type of fertilizer that he needed - ammonium nitrate fertilizer, the exact same fertilizer used by Murrah Building bomber Timothy McVeigh over ten years ago. He wouldn't respond to the employee's questions about how much fertilizer he needed, or why he needed it. The employee told Hinrichs that they didn't carry ammonium nitrate fertilizer, but Hinrichs wasn't interested in any other type of fertilizer - only ammonium nitrate. The employee also said that he became suspicious when he noticed that Hinrichs was "wearing a green vest that appeared to have wires in it."
News 9 also reported that four differnet sources confirmed that a Norman plain clothes officer was in the feed store at the same time as Hinrichs, and followed him into the parking lot and copied down his license plate number. Neither the store employee or Norman police would confirm that information, and the FBI's not talking either.
Here we go again. We still don't have all of the facts on the Murrah Building bombing, and already this latest incident is beginning to look like a flashback. While the official report is still that it was simply a suicide, why did Hinrichs use a bomb to do the deed? Why did he do it right outside of a crowded football stadium during the game? And why did he leave behind in his apartment enough explosives that it took "several trips" to remove them, if he only meant to kill himself? Where is his Pakistani roommate? And finally, the most telling question of all, why would anyone planning a simple suicide try to buy ammonium nitrate, the same material used in the tragic Murrah Building bombing?
Terrorist act? Who knows, but less than three days after the bombing, it is already obvious that this was much more than a suicide. This was a suicide bomber who, thankfully, blew up only himself, and not the thousands of fans who went to Memorial Stadium last Saturday, wanting only to cheer their team on to victory.
Where The Bombs Come Sweeping Down The Plains
By Down the Middle
Oct. 3, 2004
Did Oklahoma just experience another terrorist attack? That was the question on the minds of many football fans during the second quarter, last Saturday in Oklahoma University's Memorial Stadium, as a loud explosion shocked the home crowd who was busy cheering on the Sooners to a 43 to 21 victory over the Kansas State Wildcats. Others outside of the stadium assumed OU must have scored a touchdown, mistaking the explosion for the OU "Roughnecks" celebratory, trademark "blasting of the shotguns", while the "Sooner Schooner" dashes across the field.
Unfortunately, when police arrived, they found the remains of Joel Henry Hinrichs III, a twenty-one year old "engineering" junior and Delta Fraternity member from Colorado Springs, Colo., who had strapped on an explosive suicide belt which detonated as he sat on a bench outside of George Lynn Cross Hall (botany-microbiology building), some 100 yards west of the stadium.
Oklahoma University's President and former U.S. Senator, David Boren addressed the crowd to reassure fans that they were in no danger but were restricted to leaving the stadium from the East and South exits...all the while, police searched the area, reportedly finding another, smaller devise that was detonated by the Norman bomb squad. Investigators would later state that the second object was determined not to be a bomb.
A neighbor across the street from of Mr. Hinrichs' residence at the Parkview Apartments witnessed police "moving in" at about 3:00am, and by 7:00pm Sunday evening, agents from the FBI and the ATFE, along with the expertise and protection of the Norman Bomb Squad, began removing explosive materials. Police were overheard telling other residents, there would be "several trips and it could take up to 24 hours" for the removal.
Although President Boren stated that "We are dealing with an individual death caused by an explosive device." and that Hinrichs had "very serious personal problems (said to be girl trouble) that led to this tragic death.", early rumors of five other unexploded devices being discovered, the sizable cache of explosives found in Hinrich's apartment and now, late reports of his missing Pakistani roommate should warrant further investigation.
Was this really just the simple suicide that President Boren portrays it to be.....or did Oklahoma just get hit, again? After the 1995 "terrorist" bombing of the Murrah Building and the unanswered questions that still linger in that case... not to mention the 9/11, 20th hijacker, Zacarias Moussaoui, who also called Norman his home while attending flight school.......this Okie can't help but wonder.
"There is no continuing threat to the students at OU." Boren assured the public. I wish he could assure me.
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