Oklahoma City Bombing and Emergency

Oklahoma City Bombing and Emergency Preparedness

On April 19, 1995, at 9:02 A.M., people in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma, were going about their daily workday routines; car pools, day care, school, babysitters, jobs; the things that most people, at least most Americans, do everyday of their working weekly life. However, on this particular day the residents and surrounding communities of Oklahoma City, especially those families whose loved ones worked in the Alfred P. Murrah Federal Building, or whose children were cared for in the daycare housed in the building. Later that day, a stunned nation watched on television as rescue workers struggled to work their way through the debris of what had once stood as a federal government building, and, in the aftermath of Ryder truck used as the bomb delivery mechanism, stood in rubble (Dyer, 1998, p. 1). In search of survivors, the rescue workers witnessed several miracles that day: a young child badly injured but still alive, another life pulled from the rubble. At the end of the day, 169 people were murdered in the blast or from injuries suffered in the blast (Allen, 2008, film documentary).

In the aftermath of the tragedy, there remained unanswered questions that the federal government under the Bill Clinton administration was not quick to answer, or did not answer to the satisfaction of experts and investigators, and certainly not to the satisfaction of the victims' surviving family members. This essay looks at the Oklahoma City bombing to examine the facts, based on published information and investigations, about the pre-bombing preparedness of the federal, state and local officials on the date of the bombing. Also considered in this essay is the emergency disaster response to the bombing by the respective official agencies at the local, state and federal levels. The date of the bombing is significant, because, as most people are now aware, April 19, 1995 was the two-year anniversary date of the Waco, Texas Branch Davidian event, when federal officials stormed the David Koresh compound virtually incinerating the building and killing David Koresh and some of his followers, including young children (Thibodeau and Whiteson, 1999). If the federal government was not on an official alert that day, it probably should have been. Even two years later, Waco remained a sensitive subject, and given human nature, the government should have been on alert.

Allegations have been made that there were bomb threats made, and that the general public and especially people working in the Murrah Building should have been better prepared and forewarned. Unfortunately, when the government fails to answer questions from the public in a forthright and verifiable way, it gives rise to speculation, rumors and conspiracy theories. All of which have survived the Oklahoma City bombing, although some of the questions and allegations have in fact been answered since that time.

Before April 19, 1995

Given the facts that we now know, and since the man who stood accused and convicted of being responsible for the Oklahoma City bombing, Timothy McVeigh, was executed on June 11, 2001, for his role in the Oklahoma City bombing (Shapiro, 2001, p. 4). We can now, more than a decade later, go back to the events leading up to the Oklahoma City bombing and assess the preparedness for the events that occurred that day.

The story actually begins with the armed assault made on the Branch Davidian compound in Waco, Texas on April 19, 1993. It was an event that caused the federal government, Bill Clinton, and especially U.S. Attorney General Janet Reno look very bad. Referring to the government agencies, the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms (ATF), the FBI, and the other government forces present, the National Rifle Association described the events at Waco this way:.".. jack-booted government thugs, federal agents wearing Nazi bucket helmets and black storm trooper uniforms to attack law-abiding citizens (Shapiro, 2001, p. 4)." There were events that precipitated Oklahoma City, creating the atmosphere of, if not of a federal government out of control, at least paranoia feeding just about any conspiracy theory that a person might choose from many.

Representative Helen Chenoweth, who declared that America's national parks had been taken over by the United Nations; Senator Bob Smith, who temporarily dropped his GOP affiliation in favor of the paranoid, antigovernment populists of the U.S. Taxpayers Party; and anti-choice fanatics who pointed the way to Oklahoma City with their abortion clinic bombings in the early nineties. It is easier to treat Tim McVeigh as an inexplicable aberration who can be evicted from history than to recall just how widely evident were obsessions like his (Shapiro, 2001, p. 4)."

In other words, the social conditions were ripe for the fanaticism that would grip the thinking of people in a way that might cause them to lose control of their sensibilities and to especially lose sight of the fact that Americans have rights they can exercise, and when they perceive that their government officials and leaders are going rogue, the American people have the right of voting in or out of publicly elected and held offices. Americans have the power of impeachment, the power to petition to remove a public official from office for misconduct or rogue behavior; that came close to happening in the case of President William Jefferson Clinton, whose behavior brought about his impeachment, though not removal from the highest elected office in the United States.

After Waco, the U.S. Government should have been on alert for the predictable and the unpredictable. The question that was asked in the aftermath of Oklahoma City is: Which public officials knew of bomb threats to the Murrah Federal Building, what did they do about it? Also, who is responsible for the explosive devices housed in the ATF's 9th floor area, and which has actually since that time been cited as resulting in greater death and damage than the actual Ryder truck used by Timothy McVeigh to deliver the bomb.

In the Charles Allen documentary film (no year given), Oklahoma City: What Really Happened?(found online at: (http://www.moviesfoundonline.com/oklahoma_city_what_really_happened.php),the filmmaker and other witnesses allege that the Federal Government was aware of bomb threats, but failed to adequately notify employees in the Murrah Building as to the threats (Allen, 2008). The documentary, which raises questions and really furthers certain conspiracy theories, was supported in its making by Oklahoma State Representative Charles Key (Allen, 2008).

Representative Key states in the documentary that he called for a federal investigation into the preparedness of the ATF, occupying offices in the Murrah Building, and why that agency had a cache of explosives in a government office building (Allen, 2008). Allen's request was rejected by officials, and no formal inquiry into either the lack of preparedness or the ATF's cache of explosives that have since been credited with causing greater damage and taking more lives than the Ryder truck bomb (Allen, 2008).

There is also the issue of the John Doe, whom witnesses stated was with Timothy McVeigh, and who might constitute a Middle Eastern connection to the bombing; which would not have been unusual given that an attempt to bomb the World Trade Center had been carried by Islamic fundamentalists in New York City in 1993 (Jones, 1998, p. 106). Oklahoma City also had a large Islamic fundamentalist population in 1995 (Jones, 1998, p. 8). It raises the question: Did a disgruntled Timothy McVeigh turn to Islamic fundamentalist in his frustration with the American system that struck him as subverting the American people's rights?

An FBI communique that was circulated on the day of the bombing read, "We are currently inclined to suspect the Islamic Jihad as the likely group," and suggested that the attack was carried out in retaliation for the prosecution of Muslim fundamentalists in the World Trade Center case. These were not the suspicions of small town sheriffs or beat cops but of numerous government and law enforcement experts at the highest levels (Jones, 1998, p. 106)."

If the federal government had received bomb threats, and if the government was on alert because of its information surrounding Islamic fundamentalists, how is the question: Were they adequately prepared at the Murrah Building for a potential attack on that building? The answer is an overwhelming no.

While many of the witnesses in the documentary Oklahoma City: What Really Happened? Would like for it to be part and parcel of some ongoing conspiracy theory that the ATF was housing explosives on site at the Murrah Building; it is not surprising because the ATF is an agency that confiscate weapons and explosive that are being held by citizens illegally. Also, as an agency that responds to threats on American soil as ordered by the duly elected administration, as happened in Waco, Texas; the ATF would, like the FBI, CIA and Secret Service have access to weapons on site, including explosives. Was it prudent, especially in the face of potential attack on federal buildings as had been warned that day, to house those kinds of explosives and weapons in a federal building with minimum structural reinforcement to withstand an attack and to keep stable that kind of a weapons cache; the answer is no.

As far as preparedness for the events that happened on April 19, 1995, the federal government could in fact be cited as negligent. However, it was, as Representative Key points out, not the desire of the government, or even the governor of Oklahoma at the time, to pursue an investigation as to the lack of preparedness for the events that took the lives of 169 people that day.

It leaves unanswered, too, the question of the man referred to as John Doe who was seen with McVeigh that day, and who was described as "Middle Eastern" by witnesses (Allen, 2008). The federal government has said that there was no such man, and that witnesses are confused in their recollections; witnesses adamantly stand by their recollections (Allen, 2008). Why, then, the question arises, would the government take the position that no such man exists? The only answer could be that the government is still looking for the man and continuing to investigate its leads on this reported McVeigh accomplice, who, in fact, given the events of September 11, 2001, was the focus of renewed public interest and speculation. Could this man lead to additional information and evidence surrounding the events of September 11, 2001?

This is a question that remains unanswered until such a time as the investigation is resolved - if there is an ongoing investigation.

If not since 1995, certainly since 2001, the events of domestic terrorism has caused the United States government to be more concerned with security in not just federal buildings, but also airports and other sites of public access and transportation that might once have been vulnerable.

Emergency Response on April 19, 1995

What stands as apparent is that the federal government did not share its knowledge of a threat against the Murrah Building with local Oklahoma City emergency response officials; that is, local police, fire and medical emergency response officials. What is apparent, as seen in news footage from that day, is that the response of the local emergency and disaster relief entities was timely and responsive to the events. Police and fire personnel are recorded on news footage as being on the scene in short order, and working desperately, devotedly, to rescuing victims and saving lives. There can be nothing short of praise for the men and women who fulfilled their public obligation to the people of Oklahoma City in responding to the events of the bombing. To those civilian individuals who responded to the disaster, nurses and others, their efforts were the natural response of the human condition that compels one to take action in the face of disaster and human distress.

What is not in synch with the nature of humanity and the desire to rescue and save, are the witness reports of the federal agencies, the FBI and the ATF, taking over the crime scene and, it has been alleged, and the actions of these agencies appear consistent with the allegations; in an effort to minimize the public response to the fact that there were explosives and weapons stored in a federal office building that also housed a children's daycare, the FBI and the ATF exerted their authorities over the crime scene (Allen, 2008).

The FBI and the ATF did not impede the care or rescue of victims. They did evacuate the rescue scene when there were reportedly as many three subsequent alarms of a potential explosion (Allen, 2008). This is not inconsistent with prudent cautionary measures; but allegations exist suggesting that the agencies evacuated the rescue sites in order to covertly remove debris of explosive devices and other weaponry that were improperly stored in the offices of the ATF (Allen, 2008). It is the lack of government response to what may have been illegal storage of weapons and explosives by a government agency that has, again, put the government in a bad public light; and that they don't own up to it by way of investigation and prosecution of those responsible for the improper, even illegal, storage of weapons in the building's offices.

It raises other questions too: Did Timothy McVeigh know that there were those kinds of devices stored in the building that would then be set off in a series of explosions once he initiated his own explosion? There is no answer to that question, and it is, in hindsight probably irrelevant. Whether or not the government has taken away any lessons learned from the incident as it regards storage of explosive devices in office buildings remains to be seen since they have never investigated that issue, although they have, since that time, admitted to the fact that there were devices stored there, but the government adamantly denies that the devices posed a threat or contributed to the loss of life on that date.

Seismologist Dr. Raymond Brown, Sarkeys Energy Center, University of Oklahoma, says that seismographic activity was recorded by two seismograms believed to be from the Murrah Federal Building; near the University of Oklahoma campus, a site run by the Oklahoma Geological Survey, a little more than 16 miles to the southeast of Oklahoma City; and Omiplex Oklahoma, which was located much closer to the site (Allen, 2008). Brown says there was confusion in the data, but the data supports that the dominant ground wave is an approximate measure of the time the Murrah Building was vibrating (Allen, 2008). The air blast is the measurement of the length of time the truck blast was occurring, and the additional vibration is not explained by the truck bomb. The measurement of the vibrating from the building supports the allegations that explosives were stored in the building. As does the nature of the damage of the building, according to explosives expert retired General Benton Partin, who prepared and explained floor by floor charts detailing the damage to the building and what, in his expert opinion, was the source area of the damage (Allen, 2008).

During media interviews, John McGall, the head of the ATF maintained that emergency preparedness on the part of the ATF was high on that day, since it was the anniversary of Waco, Texas Branch Davidian disaster. Of the eleven ATF agents assigned to the Murrah Building that day, only one agent was killed and the other ten agents were unaccounted for according to the documentary Oklahoma City: What Really Happened? (Allen, 2008).

Mike Moroz, tire shop owner and eyewitness to the John Doe riding with McVeigh, contends regardless of what the government says about his confused memory, he remains himself certain that a Middle Eastern man accompanied McVeigh that day (Allen, 2008). Another witness, a government employee injured in the bombing, reports having seen of apparent Middle Eastern descent standing across the street from the Murrah Building as the chaos of the aftermath unfolded, and that that man appeared pleased, smiling, and in "rapture" over what he was witnessing in the destruction and loss of life (Allen, 2008).

The government's lack of response to questions about the missing John Doe, and their position that the eye witnesses are confused about the existence of that individual, only serves to spark conspiracy theories and give rise to distrust of governmental public authority. It does not, however, require the extremist response such as that taken by Timothy McVeigh. The hope is that the public has a better understanding of what they are entitled to as regards their Constitutional rights, and that they act to preserve and exercise those rights through due process and voting. The American political system is designed to give Americans control over the individuals who lead the system; and if they fail their constituency, the constituency should fail to reelect those individuals to public office.

The 2000 presidential elections showed Americans that their votes count more than ever in today's political processes. However, conspiracies, though sometimes outrageous in nature, usually have an ingredient of truth to them. It is this ingredient that, while the overall recipe goes wrong, nonetheless yields an edible result - regardless of the taste.

In Oklahoma City, people are still sensitive to the government's seemingly covert attempt to remove evidence of the ATF's cache of weaponry and explosives.

Profile of a Domestic Terrorist

Timothy McVeigh is cited as having revealed his disconnect with the rules of society prior to the 1995 OKC bombing. In his book, David J. Whittaker (2004), Whittaker says this about McVeigh's breaking point:

As a security guard at a defence contractor's plant in 1991, McVeigh was able to hone his capacities for surveillance and method taking. More than ever it was the tyranny of governmental intrusion that threatened his way of life, indeed, his very survival. He wrote to a local paper in heated, anguished terms: 'America is in serious decline and I am too. Do we have to shed blood to reform the present system? I hope not - but it might be so (65)'."

McVeigh did not understand how to direct his frustration towards a constructive criticism of the government, which resulted in a social disconnection and destruction.

McVeigh's convicted accomplice, Terry Nichols, was less in the fore front than McVeigh. In their book, Stephen Jones and Peter Israel say this about Nichols:

Like McVeigh, Terry Nichols was interested in firearms and explosives, and the two men had worked the gun-show circuit together, dealing in weapons and military paraphernalia and consorting with a variety of arms dealers and right-wingers. Like McVeigh, Nichols was outspoken about his political convictions. But Terry Nichols had taken it a step further. After a series of failed plans and moneymaking schemes that led them from Michigan to Utah to Las Vegas, the Nicholses broke up. Marife and their daughter returned for a time to the Philippines, and Terry moved first to Marion, Kansas, where he worked as a farmhand, then to a little house in Herington, a poor town in the central part of the state, some seventy miles north of Wichita, where Marife and their daughter rejoined him. Whatever Terry's state of mind beforehand, by the time he got to Kansas he was so strongly antigovernment that in March 1994 he walked into the courthouse in Marion and formally renounced his U.S. citizenship (Jones and Israel, 1998, p. 74)."

Nichols was a background figure in the OKC bombing, and refuted the allegation that he had been complicit in the event (Jones and Israel, 1998, p., 88). Indeed, Nichols had an alibi for the day of the bombing and for key days leading up to the bombing (p. 88). His story sounded convincing, and there were elements that could be corroborated; the authorities, in the end, found enough uncorroborated evidence to convince them that Nichols was lying to them (Jones and Israel, 1998, p. 89).

Nichols has continued to maintain his innocence; that he did not participate in the OKC bombing (Jones and Israel, 1998, p. 136). Nichols gave up all the available he could in casting attention away from himself and onto McVeigh (Jones and Israel, 1998, p. 89). It worked only to the extent that the evidence showed McVeigh had a greater part in the bombing, and that Nichols was complicit in the conspiracy (Jones and Israel, 1998, p. 136). The outcome, as most people by now know, was that McVeigh received a death sentence and Nichols was sentenced to life in a federal prison where he remains incarcerated today.

As we look back on the evidence that convicted Nichols we find that it was Nichols who:

Provided some of the vital ingredients in the homemade bomb that was inside the Ryder truck; even though those ingredients were used daily in Nichols business

That it was Nichols who provided McVeigh assistance when on his way to OKC, McVeigh's car broke down he needed help

That Nichols was attentive in arranging alibis for vital times and dates, but that the alibis were not flawless and were dismantled by the government

That Nichols was nowhere near OKC on the day of the bombing

Interestingly enough, Terry Nichols has maintained, too, that there was no Middle Eastern man, which seems to be at least one point the government agrees with.

A he Terry Nichols jury, as I mentioned, was unable to agree on a sentence in the second stage of their trial. Therefore the burden of sentencing the convicted man reverted to the court. In spring 1998, Judge Matsch made a kind of judicial "proffer" to Terry Nichols. The only way Nichols could avoid life without parole, he said, was for him to name names. If Nichols would identify "others unknown" to the court and provide some answers, then Matsch would consider a lighter sentence.

Nichols failed to respond. Accordingly, on June 4, 1998, Judge Matsch pronounced the sentence of life without parole (Jones and Israel, 1998, p. 311)."

Would Terry Nichols have withheld the name of the unidentified John Doe alleged by some witnesses to have been with McVeigh on the day of the bombing? Only if, as a conspirator, as a disgruntled American convinced that he was guaranteed the right to revolution under the Constitution of the United States, and because Nichols already knew that he would not receive the death penalty it is very possible that there exists a third man that has gone unidentified. Or whom the FBI is still investigating and, therefore, the element of withholding information on such a suspect would still be rational and logical and acceptable.

Conclusion

Based on the evidence studied for this essay there are several conclusions that can be reached. First, that the federal government should have been better prepared for the events of April 19, 1995. However, it is more likely than not that the federal government failed to attach the significance or even the possibility of a terrorist attack, arising out of domestic or foreign sponsorship, with a remote area like Oklahoma City. It might have been the thinking of government officials that terrorist attacks, like the attack against the World Trade Center in 1993, would be made, if at all, against a more high profile target and in a more metropolitan setting. It is, after all, based on terrorism observed in the Middle East and elsewhere around the globe, a goal of terrorism that targets be of the highest profile priority.

However, the fact that weapons and explosives were stored in the Murrah Building, and the notion that such information might not be held completely private, should have served as motivation to secure those weapons and explosives in a way that would not lent them to increased destruction and death. The warnings that were made locally and specifically to the Murrah Building, if any, because there is no evidence, other than generally, to suggest that the Murrah Building was specified as a definite target; and, therefore, it remains to be seen if there was negligence on the part of the government. Yet the government's refusal to conduct a formal inquiry into the events of the day - and government inquiries jump on numerous events, which makes it hard to understand why there was no formal inquiry into the OKC bombing; is not understood. In their refusal to investigate the OKC bombing further, beyond Timothy McVeigh, and their refusal to openly discuss the ATF weaponry cache; is negligent.