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A variety of conspiracy theories have been proposed regarding the Oklahoma City bombing. These theories reject all or part of the official government report. Some theories focus on the possibility of additional, unindicted co-conspirators or additional explosives planted inside the Murrah Federal building. Other theories allege that government employees and officials, including US President Bill Clinton, knew of the impending bombing and intentionally failed to act on that knowledge. Government investigations have been opened at various times to look into the theories.
Shortly after the explosion, Oklahoma State Trooper Charlie Hanger stopped 26-year-old Timothy McVeigh for driving without a license plate, arresting him for that offense and for unlawfully carrying a weapon. Within days, McVeigh's old army friend Terry Nichols was arrested and both men were charged with committing the bombing. Investigators determined that they were sympathizers of a militia movement and that their motive was to retaliate against the government's handling of the Waco and Ruby Ridge incidents (the bombing occurred on the second anniversary of the Waco incident). McVeigh was executed by lethal injection on June 11, 2001 while Nichols was sentenced to life in prison.
Although the indictment against McVeigh and Nichols alleged that they conspired with "others unknown to the grand jury", prosecutors, and later McVeigh himself, portrayed the bombing as solely the work of McVeigh and Nichols, presenting a scenario in which the two obtained fertilizer and other explosive materials over a period of months, assembled the bomb in Kansas the day prior to its detonation, after which McVeigh alone drove the truck to Oklahoma City, lit the fuse and fled in a getaway car he had parked in the area days prior.
Several witnesses reported seeing a second person around the time of the bombing; investigators would later call him "John Doe 2". In 1997, the FBI arrested Michael Brescia, a member of Aryan Republican Army who resembled an artist's rendering of John Doe 2 based on the eyewitness accounts. However, they later released him, reporting that their investigation had indicated he was not involved with the bombing. One reporter for The Washington Post reflected on the fact that a John Doe 2 has never been found: "Maybe he'll (John Doe 2) be captured and convicted someday. If not, he'll remain eternally at large, the one who got away, the mystery man at the center of countless conspiracy theories. It's possible that he never lived. It's likely that he'll never die."[5]
There are several theories that McVeigh and Nichols had a possible foreign connection or coconspirators. This was due to the fact that Terry Nichols traveled through the Philippines while terrorist mastermind Ramzi Yousefof the 1993 World Trade Center bombing was planning his Project Bojinka plot in Manila Ramzi Yousefalso placed the bomb used in the 1993 World Trade Center bombing inside a rented Ryder van, the same rental company used by McVeigh, indicating a possible foreign link to Al-Qaeda. Other theories link McVeigh with Islamic terrorists, the Japanese government and German neo-Nazis.
There has also been speculation that an unmatched leg found at the bombing site may have belonged to an unidentified, additional bomber. It was claimed that this bomber was either in the building when the bombing occurred, or had previously been murdered, and McVeigh had left his body in the back of the Ryder truck to hide the body in the explosion.
One theory focuses on a cover-up of the existence of additional explosives planted within the Murrah building. The theory focuses on the local news channels reporting the existence of a second and third bomb within the first few hours of the explosion. Conspiracy theorists say that there are several discrepancies, such as an inconsistency between the observed destruction and the bomb used by McVeigh. Theorists point to nearby seismographs that recorded two tremors from the bombing, believing it to indicate two bombs had been used. Experts disputed this, stating that the first tremor was a result of the bomb, while the second was due to the collapse of the building. Many critics of the official explanation point to a blast effects study published in 1997, utilizing test results from the Eglin Air Force Base. It concluded that "it is impossible to ascribe the damage that occurred on April, 1995 to a single truck bomb containing 4,800 lbs. of ANFO" so that the damage to the Murrah building was "not the result of the truck bomb itself, but rather due to other factors such as locally placed charges within the building itself". Some experts ascribe the unusually large blast pattern to a thermobaric weapon, utilizing highly flammable metal particles (such as aluminium) mixed with a liquid high explosive (such as nitromethane). When ignited in a two-stage process, the device creates a super-high heat and pressure blast capable of flattening buildings.
In 2006, US Congressman Dana Rohrabacher, (Republican, California), said that the Subcommittee on Oversight and Investigations of the U.S. House Committee on International Relations, which he chaired, would investigate whether the Oklahoma City bombers had assistance from foreign sources. On December 28, 2006, when asked about fueling conspiracy theories with his questions and criticism, Rohrabacher told CNN: "There's nothing wrong with adding to a conspiracy theory when there might be a conspiracy, in fact." In March 2007, Danny Coulson, who served as deputy assistant director of FBI at the time of attacks, voiced his concerns and called for reopening of investigation.
On September 28, 2009, Jesse Trentadue, a Salt Lake City attorney, released security tapes that he obtained from the FBI through the |
Oklahoma Bombing
