Essay Terrorism in America: The Oklahoma City Bombing

On the morning of April 19, 1995 Timothy McVeigh parked a Ryder rental truck packed with explosives outside of the Alfred P. Murrah federal building more than ready to commit a mass execution that would change the state of Oklahoma forever. Until September 11, 2001 the Oklahoma City Bombing was the most vicious terrorist attack to happen in the United States. As rescue operations were finalized the death tolls were high including 19 children.. The explosion blew off the entire north wall and either destroyed or damaged buildings as far as three blocks away. McVeigh was “anti-government” and wanted revenge against the federal government for what had

The main reason that Timothy McVeigh was investigated for his involvement into the Oklahoma City Bombing was because he had been arrested for possessing and transporting a loaded handgun that was found being stopped for no license plate on his vehicle. This happened only within 90 minutes of the explosion after he had left the Murrah Federal Building. Evidence linked McVeigh and Terry Nichols to the attack and Nichols was arrested later. Nichols was linked to assisting in the stealing and purchasing of the bomb materials along with McVeigh that they stored in storage lockers. McVeigh rented the Ryder truck under an alias and drove it to the Murrah Federal Building on the day of the bombing. Terry Nichols parked a getaway car several blocks

The Oklahoma City Bombing was a domestic terrorist bomb attack on the Alfred P. Murrah Murrah Federal Building in Oklahoma City in April 19, 1995. It was lead by Timothy McVeigh, an Army veteran of the Persian Gulf War. The explosive was a homemade bomb which was built by McVeigh and the help of Terry Nichols; the bomb consisted of a deadly cocktail and was put inside a rented Ryder truck in front of the Murrah Federal Building . McVeigh then proceeded out of the truck and headed towards his getaway car a few blocks away. He then started the detonation of the timed bomb at exactly 9:02 A.M. then the bomb exploded. To the people of Oklahoma it was a traumatizing moment for all, many lost families, dozens of cars were incinerated and more

When police interrogated McVeigh, they found out his motive for bombarding the building. McVeigh felt upset because poor actions of the ATF during the siege didn’t go as planned. McVeigh stated in response “ATF, all you tyrannical people will swing in the wind one day for your treasonous actions against the Constitution of the United States. Remember the Nuremberg War Trials.”

On April 19, 1995 a box truck filled with explosives was parked outside of the Alfred P. Murrah Federal Building located in Oklahoma City. Shortly after 9 am the explosives in the truck were detonated resulting in over a third of the federal building collapsing and another 300 buildings received damage. Emergency crews and law enforcement quickly realized this was a deliberate and well planned attack. It was an attack that they would soon discover to be the largest act of domestic terrorism carried out in the United States that killed a total of 168 people, a number that also included 19 children, and injured hundreds more (FBI, n.d.).

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).

There was a problem though with proving that publicity before the trial caused unfair justice during the trial. The Court ruled that the defendant “must establish that an irrepressibly hostile attitude pervaded the community.” McVeigh had was certainly known because of the media covering the bombing, but there was no sign of communities being hostile enough to influence the outcome of the trial. The Court stated “the mere fact of unfavorable

Their objective was to serve a search warrant for illegal firearms and explosives, and arrest the cult’s leader, David Koresh, on weapons charges. Unfortunately, Koresh and his group had been tipped off and were waiting as authorities approached. Without warning, gunfire erupted and law enforcement officials found themselves facing cult members armed with explosive devices, military assault rifles, and other semi-automatic weapons” (CRI Statement). At the end of the 11 day standoff, a fire broke out at the cult compound and killed 76 men, women and children; McVeigh believed the government started the fire and he became enraged (Scott, 2013). This is the exact moment, McVeigh became a domestic

Later, the government changed the bombing theory and insisted that McVeigh was the sole mastermind behind the attack and that no other person other than Nichols who had been involved (Vohryzek et al, 2001). The FBI provided bogus investigation documents to prove their case, but realistically, McVeigh and Nichols were not in capacity to build such a huge fertilizer bomb due to lack of trainings in explosives. Thus, the law enforcement agencies and the federal government lacked evidence in their response to contain these attacks. Instead, they acted in a way to prove their superiority and seriousness to contain terror attacks, thus leading to deaths of innocent

April 19, 1995 marked the worst terrorist attack on United States soil until the fatal September 11, attack. The truck-bomb explosion outside the Alfred P. Murrah Federal Building in Oklahoma City , Oklahoma left 168 people dead, which included 19 children that were in the buildings daycare center at the time, more than 500 injured along with the damage of 300 buildings in the surrounding area. The attack was spearheaded by Timothy McVeigh, along with his co-partner Terry Nichols and to a lesser degree, Michael and Lori Fortier. The attack was in retaliation to other incidents, one at Ruby Ridge Idaho, and the other at Waco Texas. Both were raids by the government on militia or religious fanatics. Civilians were killed in both these actions

However, while the siege was over, it was not forgotten. On April 19, 1995, two years after the fire that killed so many people, Timothy McVeigh and Terry Nichols planted a bomb that killed 168 people, injured more than 680 people, and whose blast destroyed or damaged 324 buildings within a sixteen block radius of Murrah Federal Building in downtown Oklahoma City, Oklahoma. Motivated by his hatred of the government and the outrage he felt about the Waco Siege in 1993, McVeigh decided to time his attack for the second anniversary of the deadly fire. Forensic evidence linked both men to the attack. On June 11, 2001, McVeigh was executed by lethal injection and Nichols was sentenced to life in prison in 2004. The Oklahoma City Bombing was the worst terrorist attack on United States soil until September 11, 2001.

Tanner, your post this week was well written, and we both had similar views from the evidence collected at the Alfred P. Murrah Federal Building. Consequently, from the rubble, investigators located the Ryder rental truck’s rear axle, which proved to be a vital piece of evidence in solving the Oklahoma City Bombing and establishing Timothy McVeigh’s involvement. Additionally, Tanner we both identified that from the truck’s rear axle, investigators were able to trace the vehicle to its rented location in Junction City, Kansas (FBI, n.d.). Furthermore, we both discussed how the FBI and the body shop’s employees developed a composite drawing of the Robert Kling, which is the alias Timothy McVeigh used to rent the truck (Saferstein, 2015).

The Oklahoma City bombing was one of the known as one of the most tragic bombings that we know of. There are a lot of things that happened that day but we will get to that later. As many of us know there was many thoughts on what happened and the person that did it. Although you may believe something I dont, im going to tell you what the FBI stated was the real facts.

Upon viewing the terrorist attacks that caused the most loss of life and property was the September 11, 2001, attack coming in at number one. Another terrorist attack that resulted in a significant loss of life and property was the Oklahoma City bombing. This domestic terrorist attack resulted in 168 confirmed deaths and roughly 680 injuries. Of the 168 confirmed deaths, nineteen of them were children. When it comes to the cost of the loss of the attack, it is significant.

By being the first major American city to suffer a mass-casualty terrorist attack, Oklahoma City's response to the bombing was carefully scrutinized by security experts and law enforcement in the years following the bombing, and then again following the September 11, 2001 attacks (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ Oklahoma_City_bombing).