Discrepancies, coincidences, mysteries and other unanswered questions concerning the bombing of the Murrah federal building, Oklahoma City.

Much can be said on the execution of Timothy McVeigh and the events of April 19, 1995. Unfortunately it seems that the makeup coated media news-readers and lawyers do all of it and leave out the ones we really want to hear, like eye-witnesses and Timothy McVeigh himself. Many unanswered questions remain and it is the intent of this report to illuminate some of them. I've made a conscious attempt to annotate as much as possible with the given # referenced to an accessible link as of the time of writing in May 2001.

In the first few moments and hours after an unprecedented, tragic and chaotic incident, such as the Oklahoma City bombing, multiple stories and rumors inevitably bounce around and the mass-media being ratings conscious, picks up on them and all too often add them to the news broadcast without adequately checking facts in the rush to be first. And in this case certain officials both local and federal exacerbated this problem. Some news stories had bombs inside the building, some had one or two other truck bombs undetonated after the explosion. Stories of foreign terrorists and a foreign accented or Middle Eastern 'John Doe two' were paraded around as well.

Yet in short order these discrepancies should be naturally cleared up and a distinct and cohesive order of events established. However in 2001 some six years after the bombing and with McVeigh's execution now in question over bungled FBI documents, this is still not the case and indeed an actual erosion of truth has been seen to occur on the part of the FBI and other officials.

One consistent, flagrant discrepancy is the amount of explosives McVeigh packed into his Ryder truck to create the detonation responsible for crumbling half of the Murrah federal building into sand, gravel and twisted rubble. Example:

For years, investigators have insisted that McVeigh and Terry Nichols, a former army friend, acted alone in planting a 4,000lb fertiliser bomb outside the Alfred P Murrah building. #12

MSNBC claims it was a 7000 pound bomb. American Forces Press Service claimed a 5000 pound bomb. #10 The Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) claims the bomb was the equivalent of 4,000 pounds of TNT. #13

While federal prosecutors were describing their case against McVeigh, law enforcement sources said the 4,800-pound bomb that caused the explosion probably required at least two to three people to construct and considerable patience and planning. Building such a device "would be extremely labor-intensive," said one official, noting that the bomb components included 20 to 25 55-gallon barrels filled with a volatile mixture of ammonium nitrate and fuel oil. #7

It should be noted that such a fertilizer bomb is significantly less powerful than TNT, so to create, say FEMA's 4000 lb. TNT bomb, would require perhaps 16,000 pounds of fertilizer. Either way it's almost as if they're just making up numbers here, where is the media getting their figures really? #7 is especially curious because it's from a news story dated just nine days after the bombing, long before the trial or any serious explosive tests could have been conducted. Yet the numbers are always stated as fact never approximations.

Secondly, although the type of explosive reported used remained consistent in media reports, that being ammonium nitrate and fuel oil (ANFO), the construction of such charges is no idle task. While it is theoretically possible to build an ANFO bomb using fertilizer grade ammonium nitrate, usually around 30%, the resulting blast will be reduced comparative to the lower the percentage of nitrate compound in the fertilizer. Furthermore this method requires careful formulation and strenuous effort processing bulky, messy materials. Two problems arise here, either McVeigh had many people help him or he likely spent weeks preparing this material although he rented the truck just days before the bombing. Yet it's claimed that McVeigh and Nichols constructed the charge and packed it into the truck in a park on April 18 then bombed the building the very next day. They must have worked like fiends for hours. Furthermore the explosive dynamics of ANFO raise serious questions as to what actually caused the damage done to the federal building.

Third, OKC seismologists reported two seismic shocks eight seconds apart (or ten by one story), was it two bombs? The day of the bombing news stories carried repeated drama concerning how bombs were found inside the building rubble and were being defused by bomb squads. Yet memory of this is gone from official records and instead replaced exclusively with the single truck bomb hypothesis.

But without another example of truck bomb versus building damage it's difficult to disprove anything. That is until just over a year later when on June 25, 1996 in Dhahran, Saudi Arabia the Khobar Towers, an Air Force apartment building of similar size, was bombed in exactly this manner by a fuel truck packed with explosives at close range. A few differences exist, one and most notably is the vastly different structural integrity of the two buildings. While Murrah was reinforced with pillars and thickened walls Khobar was un-reinforced shoddy concrete and masonry. Second, while McVeigh's Ryder truck had anywhere from 4000 to 7000 pounds of low grade ANFO, the Khobar fuel truck was packed with the equivalent of 20,000 pounds of TNT! Murrah was far more damaged with 168 killed but Khobar Towers only had its facade blown off killing 19 but leaving an immense crater one has to see (below) to believe. Yet looking at the overhead shot of Murrah one is struck by the shocking lack of any crater at all!

If it was filled in with rubble it's difficult to detect that in the pictures and unlikely given the mechanics of the explosion, especially compared to Khobar. Well, according to FEMA the bomb crater created by McVeigh's rented truck punched through a rugged 11 inches of asphalt and 7 inches of concrete to blast out a 6.8 foot deep by 28 foot wide crater in the ground below the truck. Meanwhile crumbling at least four internal building support columns to powder according to another FEMA sketch. #13

The General Services Administration (GSA), in charge of federal buildings and property, concluded in its studies that the primary source of death was not shock wave blast from explosions but by falling building debris. In other words people were crushed not blown away. Perhaps because of this it's interesting to study the governments carefully constructed person by person death and injury diagram. We can even see people standing next to each other where one is killed and the other not even injured! It seems odd that a blast shock wave could kill its victims so selectively.

Furthermore by comparing the original location of office workstations to their final resting places in the rubble below, rescuers deduced the building fell straight down, a condition known as a 'pancake collapse' and was not knocked to the side as by bomb blast force. This aided the rescue crews because they knew where to look for trapped people and bodies. #14

By contrast the Khobar Towers bombing left a crater 85 feet wide and 35 feet deep. This speaks to the difficulty in demolishing a large building fortified or not with even the most powerful truck bombs simply by co-locating the vehicle.

McVeigh's truck bomb construction skills may have bordered on the super-human but his criminal competency was ludicrously pathetic. Just 75 minutes after the blast and some 78 miles from the scene he was pulled over for lack of a license plate on his 1977 yellow Mercury Marquis. Some news reports even have him speeding at the time up to 100 mph! He was subsequently arrested and taken to jail by the officer for a misdemeanor charge of carrying a weapon. Oddly enough, although advanced technological analysis of McVeigh's clothing and personal objects reportedly detected trace amounts of the detonator cord explosive PETN, other more pertinent chemicals were of dubious presence. If McVeigh had constructed an ANFO bomb wouldn't he have reeked of fuel oil? Yet the arresting officer never reported any unusual odors. Furthermore:

They [prosecutors] had no fingerprints on the truck rental agreement or the truck key found in an Oklahoma City alley, and no fertilizer residue in the storage lockers the conspirators allegedly used to store their bomb-making materials. #6

Although eyewitness' reported a second person in the car with McVeigh leaving Oklahoma City when arrested only one person was in the vehicle.
"The magistrate, Ronald L. Howland, ordered McVeigh to be held without bail after listening to four hours of testimony from FBI special agent John Hersley in which he described eyewitness accounts of a yellow Mercury with McVeigh and another man inside speeding away from a parking lot near the federal building." #7

Even after the most exhaustive criminal investigation in U.S. history, prosecutors produced no eyewitness placing McVeigh at the scene of the bombing. #6

John Doe number two and numerous other unanswered questions may well go to the grave along with McVeigh after his execution given that he never testified in court; McVeigh's version of events was never aired. However in a handwritten letter to the Houston Chronicle in May 2001 he claims that there was no John Doe two.

While McVeigh has seemed content to let others either speak for him and perhaps guess at his true motives, he has consistently approved tacitly and vocally with both the political statement made by the Murrah bombing and related anti-government sentiment towards increasingly militarized and deadly federal police enforcement agencies.

One person who can't be left out of the issue, and whose novel was part of the trial, is Dr. William Pierce of the National Alliance who stated on May 12, 2001, "Even though I've never met or corresponded with Timothy, I've had dozens of reporters calling me for interviews in connection with the killing, because he read one of my novels, The Turner Diaries." #3. Supposedly that novel (marked exhibit 1 at the trial) was McVeigh's blueprint for blowing up the federal building.

Although oddly enough McVeigh hasn't communicated with Dr. Pierce he has with Gore Vidal who he successfully invited to view his execution!

Vidal, who plans to write an article about the execution for Vanity Fair magazine, said he began his correspondence with McVeigh after an article the author wrote for the magazine in 1998 about the ``shredding'' of the Bill of Rights in America. ``He wrote me and I became fascinated by him. First of all he's a very good, clear writer and he knows a lot about the Constitution and is very interested in the Bill of Rights, #4

Gore Vidal is not the only one entranced by Timothy McVeigh's composure under duress.

Woodard, however, draws parallels with Jesus Christ, who, he says, like McVeigh "was 33 and nearly universally despised at the time of his execution.'', "I think it is worth my efforts to do something on his behalf because he is such an unusual person. The way in which he has managed himself (after the bombing) is unfathomably mindful and composed and I feel he deserves some sort of tribute." continued... "McVeigh shares with Christ "a messianic quality.'' He speaks of the "inhuman duress'' under which McVeigh now operates as he faces his own death, and calls him "an amazing, albeit misguided talent.'' - David Woodard, LA composer, #5.

The FBI has spoken for Timothy McVeigh and unambiguously labeled him the worst terrorist in American history. Yet if any doubts may exist about McVeigh's criminal competency very little is left of the FBI's. Most recently the FBI has yet again bungled a high profile case this time through the belated release of documents relating to the Murrah bombing case. These documents were held until less than a week before McVeigh was to be executed and didn't reach Terry Nichols lawyers until the very last day they could appeal to the Supreme Court. #2

Louis Freeh, director of the FBI since July 1993, announced his resignation just two weeks before the FBI turned over these documents concerning McVeigh and the bombing. The FBI knew for months of their existence yet failed to release them. According to the FBI this was due to a nefarious combination of bureaucratic ineptitude and computer database malfunctions. #9

Other significant points to ponder include:

"...one of the mothers told us she had seen the Oklahoma County Bomb Squad downtown that morning before the bombing." #1 Later confirmed by City officials but claimed to be purely coincidental because they were 'out getting coffee'.

Current reports give 168 as the number killed, yet Comptons online encyclopedia copyright 1997 gives a figure of 169 killed. An engineering report on the structural damage also gives 169 dead. #14

On the meaning of April 19th:

 ... April 19, 1775, was 'the shot heard around the world'; April 19, 1942, the Nazis celebrated the burning of the Warsaw Ghetto; April 19, 1985, was the day the FBI raided the compound of the Covenant, the Sword and the Arm of the Lord (CSA); April 19, 1992, was the original aborted raid on Randy Weaver's cabin at Ruby Ridge, Idaho; and April 19, 1993, was the day Mount Carmel was burned to the ground by the ATF at Waco, Texas. #1

Those following loose ends of the bombing case say April 19, 1995, was important for another reason, perhaps more directly connected to the bombing than any of the rest. Just hours after the bombing of the Murrah Building, Arkansas prison officials prepared for that afternoon's execution of Richard Wayne Snell, a member of the domestic terrorist organization known as The Order, which was founded out of the Aryan Nation in Idaho. According to court records, Snell conceived the plan to blow up the Murrah Building in 1983. #1

Although superficial connections to nearly every extreme right wing group and racist organization in America have been attributed to McVeigh and Nichols at one point or another, none have been substantiated. One point almost never mentioned is that Terry Nichols married twice, one was a Filipina woman and the other was Mexican. Any racist ideas would be difficult to attribute to Nichols as evidenced by his behavior. None of these extremist organizations, or indeed anyone has ever claimed credit for the Murrah building bombing except McVeigh himself in a book interview but not in court. Militias and similar outfits have been vocal in denouncing the bombing in order to clear themselves of wrongdoing and even cooperating with federal agencies.

Yet if a terrorist organization didn't benefit from the publicity of the act, and if McVeigh and Nichols are the only two involved, then no one has made any effort to capitalize off of the most infamous and politically powerful terrorist event of recent American history. Except of course the federal government itself.

FEMA certainly gained valuable experience from the event and even a new record:

FEMA coordinated the federal response to the Oklahoma City bombing and later worked closely with State and local officials on recovery efforts. Within 45 minutes after notification from the Oklahoma Department of Civil Emergency Management, FEMA deployed staff to Oklahoma City. The President signed an Emergency Declaration within 8 hours of the occurrence. This was the first time section 501(b) of the Stafford Act, granting FEMA the primary federal responsibility for responding to a domestic consequence management incident, was ever used. The President subsequently declared a major disaster on April 26, 1995. #11

But why did it take a week for the president to declare a "major" disaster?

The stack of stalled, backlogged 'anti-terrorism' legislation pushed by the Clinton administration in conjunction with Janet Reno's Justice Department and lambasted by the ACLU and other civil liberties organizations as an affront to freedom and Constitutional rights, instantly sailed through Congress within days of the bombing.

On May 23, 1995 the Murrah building was imploded and after searching the rubble three more bodies were removed by the 29th. Despite the status as a crime scene the remnants were summarily removed, compacted and buried off-site while in its place today is the official memorial. Was this rush job an effort to mask perhaps contradictory evidence? That evidence may have been related to the mysterious teams seen working in the lower portions of the Murrah building shortly before the explosion, checking pillars and other structures.

Numerous occurrences highlight prior knowledge by some federal and perhaps even local agencies such as the bomb squad that was seen cruising town early that fateful morning. If they knew and had their agents out of the building at the time and if the demolition of the building required inside technical workers, where federal agents then accomplices to the terrorism? To what end, to get propitious legislation through Congress? To get increased funding? To justify their escalated militancy and violence? To promote the concept of right wing, home-grown terrorist threats? All of these goals were accomplished. But the question is: if McVeigh was set up why did they need to participate in the damage? Perhaps they felt, and with reasonable cause, that McVeigh was not competent enough to build an effective bomb?

Another less likely scenario is that certain documents stored in the Murrah building needed to be destroyed, documents perhaps related to the Waco raid. It's interesting to note that the federal government was exonerated of charges in the recent conclusion of that trial over the attack on David Koresh's church.

In my assessment, the known evidence both as a whole and even taken separately points towards the coordinated and technically advanced contact explosive demolition of key support columns within the Murrah building in conjunction with Timothy McVeigh's Ryder truck bomb parked outside. This was perhaps achieved utilizing shock sensitive switches to generate a sympathetic detonation upon detection of the blast from McVeigh's truck. The slight delay between the two triggers would account for the dual eyewitness and seismic recorded shocks. However, although person(s) had access to restricted areas within the building they clearly chose not to take down the entire structure. They felt the need to only create enough damage to make the truck bomb appear the sole source but still render record gaining life loss and guarantee the further uselessness of the building and much of its contents. This succeeded in creating a credible domestic terrorist profile but limited culpability fallout through the circumstantial, implicational evidence to the absolute minimum of two individuals - McVeigh and Nichols, thereby ensuring concise legal closure and protecting other unseen participants from prosecution.

It seems unlikely that McVeigh or anyone he knew would have had the technical expertise to conduct an operation involving the construction and detonation of a weapon of mass destruction while also breaking into a secured federal building, analyzing structural integrity and carefully planting charges on key supports. It seems difficult for one or even two people to pull off an operation of this scale alone. Yet if it wasn't McVeigh that got into the Murrah building and it wasn't Nichols either then the question arises - who was it? Whoever they are it seems almost certain they will never face legal justice especially as all of the physical evidence except that relating to McVeigh & Nichols trial has been destroyed.

Yet granting this internal and intentional demolition hypothesis one is forced to contemplate the purpose for it. Why did Murrah need to be destroyed besides the obligatory political reasons? Was it perhaps also to destroy something inside? But then why not just destroy the object, unless the object was somehow integral to the building like a safe?

It's interesting to contemplate that since the bombing was such a rousing success both in headline screaming death toll and profound political statement, McVeigh has never felt the need to insinuate police entrapment or even claim external assistance. Indeed one of the benefits of ensuring that blast damage was more than just an ANFO truck bomb is the willing participation of McVeigh through the ego attachment of his rabid ideological motivations to the successful event. I posit that if the only bomb had been his Ryder truck of some 4000 pounds of ANFO just blasting the windows, doors and facade off the building while killing 19 like the Khobar Towers, he would be much less pleased with the resulting lackluster image of his political statement. But regardless of whose hypothesis is employed a conspiracy occurred whether it was between Nichols and McVeigh or government agents; more than one person was involved. Unfortunately given the heightened emotions and the vivid trauma of the tragedy it seems unlikely conclusive answers will manifest anytime soon and also unfortunate that a very flawed and politicized trial is being upheld as the final and undeniable singular answer to the deadly chain of events in the destruction of the Alfred P. Murrah federal building and 168 lives.
...or was it 169?

May 2001

On Friday, June 13, 1997, the jury's decision was announced: death. Two months later, McVeigh returned to Judge Matsch's courtroom to hear the formal pronouncement of his sentence. Asked by the judge if he had anything to say, McVeigh quoted from a 1928 dissenting opinion by Supreme Court Justice Louis Brandeis: "'Our government is the potent, the omnipresent teacher. For good or ill, it teaches the whole people by its example.' That's all I have." From: Famous Trials -
Oklahoma City Bombing Trial 1997.

Update: December, 2006

An official investigation titled The Oklahoma City Bombing: Was There A Foreign Connection? was recently released. It was led by Representative Dana Rohrabacher and it addresses recurrent claims of foreign involvement in the Oklahoma City bombing (OKBOMB), specifically Iraqi or Arab persons such as Ramzi Yousef, the first World Trade center bomber of February 1993. Although the report could not find any evidence of a foreign connection it is nonetheless quite illuminating on several lingering issues.

Probably the biggest question remaining in the OKC bombing case is that of John Doe #2. The investigation finds numerous credible witnesses that attest to seeing John Doe #2 with McVeigh but oddly enough the FBI failed to follow through in explaining who he is, even going so far as to pressure one witness to change his story! Oklahoma City TV reporter Jayna Davis claims that John Doe #2 was an Iraqi named Hussain Al-Hussaini but the substance is still lacking to support it, remaining circumstantial and coincidental.

Other important questions remain, such as:

• How did Terry Nichols, a man with no steady job or source of income, finance his five trips to the Philippines?

• Why was an unaccounted-for leg found in the debris after the bombing?

The Chairman’s Report and the responses they received while trying to investigate actually increase suspicion, suggesting either widespread incompetence and/or some kind of cover-up at the FBI. The simplest answer seems to be an attempt on the part of the FBI to protect the agency from the embarrassment that would follow revelations of a flawed investigation.

Interesting fact: McVeigh conceded to his legal team the OKBOMB conspiracy did begin September 13, 1994 with the passage of the assault weapons ban.

Conclusion:

While the desire of most of the victims’ families for swift justice is understandable, with the benefit of hindsight, the McVeigh execution should have been further delayed until there was greater consensus on the subject of John Doe Two. As is clear by their documents (which the Oversight and Investigations Subcommittee has had access to for the first time), his own defense team had significant internal doubts about McVeigh’s candor with them on this subject. His only failure on a polygraph test involved his response to a question on whether he had additional help with the bombing.

The question persists, and the only person who might have shed light on it is gone. Further, it was McVeigh’s decision to end his appeals that expedited his execution. His time from the end of trial to execution was only four years; the average condemned inmate spends well over a decade on death row. Given the significance of this case and the lingering questions, the execution date appears hasty in retrospect. Perhaps McVeigh would have continued to adamantly deny anyone else’s involvement but simply keeping him alive closer to the typical death row stay would have allowed more opportunity for determining the truth.

Source: Chairman’s Report Oversight and Investigations Subcommittee of the House Internal Relations Committee, The Oklahoma City Bombing: Was There A Foreign Connection?

News

• 'Oklahoma City Bombing Was Taped' April 19, 2004

References

1) Bomber Takes Truth to Grave, By Kelly Patricia O'Meara Insight magazine May 2001 http://www.insightmag.com/archive/200106044.shtml
2) Lawyers Review McVeigh Documents, By Karen Gullo Associated Press Writer Saturday, May 12, 2001; 11:12 p.m. EDT http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/aponline/20010512/aponline231210_000.htm
3) Pierce claims no contact with mcveigh may 2001 http://www.natvan.com/pub/051201.txt
4) Gore Vidal defends decision may 8, 2001 http://dailynews.yahoo.com/htx/nm/20010508/ts/mcveigh_vidal_dc_1.html
5) May 9,2001 reuters 'McVeigh gets music to die by'
6) McVeigh Guilty on All 11 Counts, By Lois Romano and Tom Kenworthy Washington Post Writers Tuesday, June 3, 1997; Page A01
7) McVeigh Held in Conjunction with Oklahoma City Bombing, By Paul Duggan and Pierre Thomas The Washington Post April 28, 1995
8) From: http://www.af.mil/current/Khobar/recordf.htm
9) CNN - FBI source - McVeigh error known for months, May 12, 2001 http://www.cnn.com/2001/LAW/05/12/mcveigh.files/index.html
10) American Forces Press Service http://www.defenselink.mil/specials/destruction/Kozaryn.html
11) FEMA http://www.fema.gov/okc95/rnros.htm
12) FBI blunder may save McVeigh's life, Tom Rhodes, New York may 13) 2001, The Sunday Times UK http://www.sunday-times.co.uk/news/pages/sti/2001/05/13/stifgnusa02003.html
13 FEMA bomb damage & building performance http://www.fema.gov/mit/bpat/bpat009.htm
14) Engineers and Building Collapse Response, http://www.eqe.com/publications/revf95/ok2.htm