Analysis of the Oklahoma City Bombing On April 19th, 1995, at 9:02 AM a bomb exploded outside the Alfred P. Murrah Federal Office Building in Oklahoma City. The cause of the explosion was an Ammonium Nitrate and Fuel Oil bomb in a 24 foot rental truck parked in the street on the north side of the building (Oklahoma City Fire Department Report of the Bombing). The building was home to sixteen federal agencies. This was the most destructive terrorist act on American soil until the 9/11 attacks. The chief conspirators in this attack have been Timothy McVeigh and Terry Nichols which met in 1988 at Fort Benning during basic training for the U.S. Army. Michael Fortier which also had some degree in involvement had been McVeigh’s army …show more content…
After the April 21, 1995, court hearing on the gun charges, but before McVeigh 's release, federal agents managed to take him into custody as they continued their investigation into the bombing. After a nine-hour interrogation, Terry Nichols was formally held in federal custody until his trial. On April 25, 1995, James Nichols was also arrested, but he was released after 32 days due to lack of evidence. McVeigh 's sister Jennifer was accused of illegally mailing bullets to McVeigh, but she was granted immunity in exchange for testifying against him. The official FBI investigation was named the OK-BOMB. After the trials McVeigh was found guilty on eleven counts of murder and conspiracy. He was sentenced to death and executed finally after President George W. Bush approved the execution on June 11th, 2001 through lethal injection. Nichols stood trial twice. He was first tried by the federal government in 1997 and found guilty of conspiring to build a weapon of mass destruction and of eight counts of involuntary manslaughter of federal officers. He was sentenced on June 4, 1998 to life without parole. Michael and Lori Fortier were considered accomplices for their foreknowledge of the planning of the bombing. In addition to Michael assisting McVeigh in scouting the federal building, Lori had helped McVeigh laminate a fake driver 's license which was later used to rent the Ryder truck. Michael agreed to testify against McVeigh and Nichols in
The Oklahoma City Bombing would be considered the worst terrorist attack on America prior to the 9/11 World Trade Center attack. Just outside of the Alfred P. Murrah Federal Building, on April 19th, 1995 a truck exploded, killing 168 people. 19 of those 168 being children. The explosion caused damage to 300 surrounding buildings. Oklahoma City was going through a tragedy and needed guidance from a leader.
When it came to the evidence and forensics involved with the Oklahoma City bombing, there was a plethora of items to be used against Timothy McVeigh to show his guilt. To prove McVeigh’s guilt, the prosecution needed a motive. This was not going to be hard to do when McVeigh himself was so outspoken against the federal government. As stated earlier, McVeigh was upset regarding Ruby Ridge and also the raid at the Branch Davidian compound. But McVeigh also had what was known as the “Turner Diaries”, which were antigovernment leaflets that the prosecution stated were blueprints for the bombing ("Prosecutors almost through", 1997). McVeigh’s very own sister also testified against him stating how angry he was at the government, and that he was
Tim McVeigh was not coerced into bombing the Murrah Federal Building in downtown Oklahoma City, nor do I believe he suffered from a mental disease. On April 19, 1995 Timothy, who was an ex-solider, decided to bomb a federal building. He rented a Ryder truck and parked the vehicle in front of the Alfred P. Murrah Federal Building. Tim was fully aware of the damage the bomb would cause, which was made out of hazardous cocktail of agricultural fertilizer, diesel fuel and several other potent chemicals. The explosion of that powerful bomb resulted in the killing of one hundred sixty-five innocent people, destruction of more than three hundred buildings, leaving almost six hundred individuals wounded. Shortly after the mass murder of numerous individuals,
The Oklahoma City Bombing was a very special event in American history, it was the biggest act of domestic terrorism until 9/11. The Alfred P. Murrah Federal Building, which was an office complex in Oklahoma City, was bombed and 168 people were killed. Timothy McVeigh, the subject of my paper, was behind the bombings, and later executed.
On April 19, 1995, a man by the name of Timothy McVeigh carried out an attack that would leave the United States, along with other countries, devastated. At 9:02 A.M, a truck bomb explosion outside of the Alfred P. Murrah Building in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma, left 168 people dead and hundreds more injured. Many people apprehend that McVeigh carried out this attack because he was mentally unstable. He was actually thinking logically. McVeigh planned out the attack based on his life experiences and by what he read in books. He retaliated against the government because of his personal beliefs and he wanted to be recognized for the bombing.
On May 24th 1988 Timothy took a huge step to fulfill his dream of becoming a member of the United States Special Forces. In Basic training McVeigh met an individual named Terry Nichols, Nichols was much older than most of the recruits and held his own pretty well. McVeigh and Nichols became close friends and even got stationed at Fort Riley Kansas Together. Kifner, John. (1995). Terry Nichols was one of the master minds behind the attack of the Alfred P. Murrah Federal Building in Oklahoma City. As stated by former FBI agent "These two are birds of a feather. Each feeds off the other 's inadequacies." McVeigh and Nichols would later deploy to Iraq to fight in the Gulf War where McVeigh served as a Bradley Gunner. During his time in Iraq McVeigh was awarded the combat Infantry badge and a bronze star. Kifner, (1995).
When the Branch Davidian cult compound burned during an FBI raid after a 51-day standoff in Waco, it enraged a madness in McVeigh. When this event took place, he had one goal in mind and this was to extract revenge against the government. He wanted to send a message to the increasingly hostile government by bombing one of their own buildings and the government employees who embodied them inside that building. In a letter he wrote roughly a year before the attack, to an old friend, Steve Hodge, McVeigh confessed his thoughts: "I have sworn to uphold and defend the Constitution against all enemies, foreign and domestic, and I will....I have come to peace with myself, my God, and my cause. Blood will flow in the streets, Steve, Good vs Evil. Free men vs. Socialist Wannabe Slaves. Pray it is not your blood, my
Yesterday April 19th,1995 Ex-Army soldier and security guard Timothy McVeigh parked his truck lined with explosives in front of the Alfred P. Murrah federal building downtown Oklahoma City.
If he didn’t then McVeigh would be on his own and it’s hard to bomb something and escape in time to where he didn’t get injured with the technology back then. McVeigh and Nichols were part of a group called “Christian Identity movement, which holds that white "Aryans," not Jews, are God's "chosen people" and that a worldwide racial "holy war" is imminent.” So they were technically at war with the government. So Mcveigh couldn’t really set the bomb off without Nichols unless he was very skillful, there was no way he’d be able to plant that bomb all by himself and get out of there before it went off. Nichols was arrested for his questioning and was charged with helping set the bomb off. Both him and McVeigh pleaded not guilty in the trial. McVeigh thought it would be good for the America’s if he killed all men women and children, he could’ve walked in and shot them. ( LaDoux)
At 9:02 a.m. on April 19, 1995, a 5,000-pound bomb, hidden inside a Ryder truck, exploded just outside the Alfred P. Murrah Federal Building in Oklahoma City. The explosion caused massive damage to the building and killed 168 people, 19 of whom were children (Rosenburg, 2011). On April 23, four days after the bombing, President Bill Clinton addressed the public and gave an effective, excellent speech.
McVeigh's trial was set for Denver, Colorado on March 31, 1997. On June 3rd 1997, the jury found McVeigh guilty of all 11 counts, including eight counts of first degree murder in the deaths of eight federal law-enforcement agents, conspiracy to use a weapon of mass destruction, using a weapon of mass destruction, and destruction of a federal building. The jury deliberated for 23 and a half hours before rendering the verdict. In the end, McVeigh was left all alone as dozens of former best friends and family relatives testified against him (Eddy et al., 1997).
McVeigh and Nichols saw an opportunity to destroy a building full of innocent people, because of their extremist mindset. They decided tp destroy a building full of innocent people who work because of their extremist ways. Something that was seemingly odd was that McVeigh was a Persian Gulf war veteran and Nichols was his military friend. A third man whose name was Michael Fortier also had information regarding the detonation of the bomb at the building, Fortier later plead guilty for harboring information of the explosion.
On August 7, 1998, two U.S. embassies were attacked almost simultaneously. One was in Nairobi, Kenya and the other in Dar es Salaam, Tanzania. The attack in Kenya involved both a truck bomb and at least two suicide bombers. The truck was at the back entrance of the embassy when the bomb went off, and the damage was critical. This attack had more casualties than the bombing in Tanzania because the truck that contained the bomb was able to get into the inner embassy compound. Also, the Nairobi embassy was close to the center of the city which was more populated and led to more deaths. The U.S. embassy was not the only building affected in the explosion. The Ufundi building and the Cooperative Bank which were close by were both severely
around the world. The explosion took place at the Alfred P. Murrah Federal Building in
Assistant U.S. Attorney Lev Dassin told jurors that Yousef was part of a "self-proclaimed army of terrorists" http://cnn.com/US/9708/05/wtc. trial/index.html), that plotted the February 23rd attack. While Yousef was charged with ordering and mixing the chemicals to make the bomb, co-defendant Eyad Ismoil was accused of driving the van carrying the bomb into the World Trade Center's underground garage. In an article for CNN on the 5th of November 1997, jury deliberations were said to have begun. The two men, Ramzi Yousef, 29, and Eyad Ismoil, 26, were both charged with conspiring to set off a bomb February 26, 1993, at the Center. U.S. Attorney Lev Dessin said that the pair believed they were above the law and set off the bomb to terrify Americans. Prosecutors say the pair and four other men who were convicted earlier, hoped that the bombing would persuade the U.S. to stop giving aid to Israel ttp://europe.cnn.com/US/9711/05/trade. center.trial/).