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A rescue team left a message during rescue efforts in the aftermath of bombing

A variety of conspiracy theories have been proposed about the events surrounding the Oklahoma City bombing. These theories assert that the official government report on the bombing is not sufficiently forthright, thorough, or truthful. Many critics allege that individuals in the government, including President Bill Clinton, knew of the impending bombing and intentionally failed to act on that knowledge. Additional theories focus on the possibility of additional explosives within the building and additional conspirators involved with the bombing. Government investigations have been opened at various times after the bombing to look into the theories.

Oklahoma City Bombing

At 9:02 a.m. CST April 19, 1995, a Ryder truck containing in excess of 6,200 pounds (2,800 kg)^[1] of ammonium nitrate fertilizer, nitromethane, and diesel fuel mixture, detonated in front of the north side of the nine-story Alfred P. Murrah Federal Building.^[2] The attack claimed 168 lives and left over 800 people injured.^[3]

Shortly after the explosion, Oklahoma State Trooper Charlie Hanger stopped 26-year-old Timothy McVeigh for driving without a license plate and arrested him for that offense and for unlawfully carrying a weapon.^[4] Within days, McVeigh and his old army friend Terry Nichols were both arrested and 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 anniversary of the Waco incident). McVeigh was executed by lethal injection on June 11, 2001 while Nichols was sentenced to life in prison.

While 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. Skeptics have long questioned the plausibility of this scenario.

Additional explosives

One theory focuses on a cover-up of the existence of additional explosives planted within the Murrah building.^[5] 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.^[5][6][7] 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.^[8] 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.^[8][9][10] Many critics of the official explanation point to a blast effects study published in 1997, utilizing test results from the Eglin Air Force Base, which 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".^[11] 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.^[12]

Foreknowledge

Another theory alleged that President Bill Clinton had either known about the bombing in advance or had approved the bombing.^[13][14] It is also believed that the bombing was done by the government to frame the militia movement or enact antiterrorism legislation while using McVeigh as a scapegoat.^{[9][13][14][15]} Other theories include other conspirators that were involved in the bombing, including linking McVeigh with Islamic terrorists, the Japanese government, German neo-Nazis, as well as the CIA.^[9][16] There has also been speculation that the found unmatched leg may have belonged to another one of the bombers. It was claimed that the 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.^[17][18]

Additional conspirators

Several witnesses reported a second person seen around the time of the bombing; investigators would later call him "John Doe 2". There are several theories that the second person was also affiliated with the bombing and was even a possible foreign connection to McVeigh and Nichols.^[19][20] This was due to the fact that Terry Nichols traveled through the Philippines while terrorist mastermind Ramzi Yousef of the 1993 World Trade Center bombing was planning his Project Bojinka plot in Manila^[19][21] Ramzi Yousef also 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.^[22] Although, in 1997, FBI did arrest Michael Brescia, a member of Aryan Republican Army who resembled an artist's rendering of John Doe 2 based on eyewitness accounts, they later released him after their investigation reported he was not involved with the bombing.^[23] 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."^[23]

Investigations

In 2006, congressman Dana Rohrabacher 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.^[22] 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."^[24] 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.^[25]

On September 28, 2009, Jesse Trentadue, a Salt Lake City attorney, released security tapes that he obtained from the FBI through the Freedom of Information Act that show the Murrah building before and after the blast from four security cameras. The tapes are blank at points before 9:02 am, the time of detonation. Trentadue said that the government's explanation for the missing footage is that the tape was being replaced at the time. Said Trentadue, "Four cameras in four different locations going blank at he same time on the morning of April 19, 1995. There ain't no such thing as a coincidence."^[26][27] Trentadue became interested in the case when his brother, Kenneth Michael Trentadue, died in federal custody during what Trentadue believes was an interrogation because Kenneth was mistaken for a possible conspirator in the Oklahoma City bombing.^[28]

See also

• Columbine conspiracy theories
• 9/11 conspiracy theories

References

• Crothers, Lane. Rage on the Right: The American Milita Movement from Ruby Ridge to Homeland Security. Lanham, MD: Rowman & Littlefield, 2003. ISBN 0-74-252546-5.
• Hamm, Mark S. Apocalypse in Oklahoma: Waco and Ruby Ridge Revenged. Boston: Northeastern University Press, 1997. ISBN 1-555-53300-0.
• Hamm, Mark S. In Bad Company: America's Terrorist Underground. Boston: Northeastern University Press, 2002. ISBN 1-555-53492-9.
• Knight, Peter. Conspiracy Theories in American History: An Encyclopedia. Santa Barbara, CA: ABC-CLIO, 2003. ISBN 1-576-07812-4.
• Stickney, Brandon M. All-American Monster: The Unauthorized Biography of Timothy McVeigh. Amherst, NY: Prometheus Books, 1996. ISBN 1-573-92088-6.
• Sturken, Marita. Tourists of History: Memory, Kitsch, and Consumerism from Oklahoma City to Ground Zero. Durham: Duke University Press, 2007. ISBN 0-822-34103-4.

Further reading

• Jones, Stephen. Peter Israel. Others Unknown: The Oklahoma City Bombing Case and Conspiracy. New York: Public Affairs, 1998. ISBN 1-891-62007-X.

External links

• The Opinions of General Partin and Other Bomb Experts
• The Oklahoma City Bombing at What Really Happened
• The Oklahoma City Bombing: A Morass of Unanswered Questions
• Coverup in Oklahoma - A documentary that explores credible witness testimony that was videotaped during the day of the bombing as well as evidence that contradicts the government's official story surrounding the Oklahoma City bombing.

Photographs

• grahamphoto5ca.jpg - Taken shortly after the blast.
• Photo 1, Photo 2, Photo 3, Photo 4, Photo 5, Photo 6, Photo 7, Photo 8, Photo 9, and Photo 10 - Series of photos from Oklahoma State University showing the Alfred P. Murrah Federal Building before and during its demolition.