Thirty Years Ago: The Oklahoma City Bombing

 

Thirty years ago today, two fascist monsters -- Timothy McVeigh and Terry Nichols -- blew up a Federal building in Oklahoma City, OK, killing 168 innocent people, including 19 babies and children, and injuring 684.   Never forget:

On the morning of April 19, 1995, the deadliest domestic terrorist attack in United States history took place at the Alfred P. Murrah Federal Building in Oklahoma City.

The building was home to numerous governmental agencies, including offices for employees of the Drug Enforcement Administration and the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms, and Explosives as well as the Social Security Administration, and recruiting offices for the Army and Marine Corps.

That morning had started like any typical workday for the hundreds of employees inside. Just as they were sitting down at their desks to begin their day, a Ryder rental truck full of explosives parked in front of the building. Per the FBI, the truck contained a mixture of 2,000 lbs. of agricultural fertilizer, diesel fuel and other chemicals.

At 9:02 a.m., the bombs detonated inside the vehicle, instantly crumbling the north side of the nine-story concrete and granite building. With a third of the building reduced to rubble, the FBI compared the surrounding area to a war zone. Nearby cars were incinerated and almost 300 other buildings were damaged or destroyed. The impact of the explosion could be felt all across the city — including in the FBI’s Oklahoma City Field Office five miles northwest of the federal building. 

“People, they’d come out and they were walking like zombies and they’d walk as far as they could walk and they’d collapse. They were in shock,” Dr. Carl Spengler recalled in Oklahoma City Bombing: American Terror.

In the midst of the chaos, concern grew that there was another bomb planted in the building and the area was temporarily evacuated, leaving trapped victims behind. Once the supposed bomb was retrieved from the eighth floor, it was taken off-site to be examined, only to be discovered that it was a prop from a planned sting operation, per Oklahoma City Bombing: American Terror.

Rescue efforts were able to begin again later that morning. Over 50 people were rescued from the debris in total, according to The Oklahoma City Bombing by Geraldine Giordano, but many others died due to their injuries while they were trapped...

The full story of the bombing and the perpetrators continues at the link.

Monsters like McVeigh and Nichols are still in our body politic, some choosing guns to express their violent pathologies, some choosing cars, some preferring bombs.  Now that their would- be dictator and his compliant cult are in power, they almost certainly feel more enabled than ever to act out against the regime's long list of "enemies."  Pardoning the January 6 insurrectionists, installing the likes of Kash Patel and Dan Bongino at the FBI, etc., can only add to their sense that their time has come to "shatter nations" and "destroy kingdoms."

(Photo:  the Alfred F. Murrah Federal Building, Oklahoma City, OK, April 1995/ Bill Waugh, AP/Shutterstock.com)

Fake News Leads To Real Consequences (UPDATED)

You may of heard of one of the most insane rumors being touted in pro- Trump fake news outlets before the election that involved a popular family restaurant in Washington, DC, Comet Ping Pong:

The popular family restaurant, near Connecticut and Nebraska avenues NW in the Chevy Chase neighborhood, was swept up in the onslaught of fake news and conspiracy theories that were prevalent during the presidential campaign. The restaurant, its owner, staff and nearby businesses have been attacked on social media and received death threats. [snip] 

The restaurant’s owner and employees were threatened on social media in the days before the election after fake news stories circulated claiming that then-Democratic presidential nominee Hillary Clinton and her campaign chief were running a child sex ring from the restaurant’s backrooms. Even Michael Flynn, a retired general whom President-elect Donald Trump has tapped to advise him on national security, shared stories about another anti-Clinton conspiracy theory involving pedophilia.* None of them were true. But the fake stories and threats persisted, some even aimed at children of Comet Ping Pong employees and patrons. The restaurant’s owner was forced to contact the FBI, local police, Facebook and other social-media platforms in an effort to remove the articles. (our emphasis)

Well, just as elections have consequences, so do fake news stories:

A North Carolina man was arrested Sunday after he walked into a popular pizza restaurant in Northwest Washington carrying an assault rifle and fired one or more shots, D.C. police said. The man told police he had come to the restaurant to “self-investigate” a false election-related conspiracy theory involving Hillary Clinton that spread online during her presidential campaign. 

The incident caused panic, with several businesses going into lockdown as police swarmed the neighborhood after receiving the call shortly before 3 p.m. 

Police said 28-year-old Edgar Maddison Welch, of Salisbury, N.C., walked in the front door of Comet Ping Pong and pointed a firearm in the direction of a restaurant employee. The employee was able to flee and notify police. Police said Welch proceeded to discharge the rifle inside the restaurant; they think that all other occupants had fled when Welch began shooting. 

As Mark Twain once said (and as Mr. Welch is discovering), "It ain't what you don't know that gets you into trouble. It's what you know for sure that just ain't so."

True to form, right- wing fake news purveyors are denying this dimwit was motivated by their fake news stories, claiming it's a (wait for it) "false flag" operation.  However, looking at some information about Welch (a registered Republican and someone who follows right- wing conspiracy nutjob Alex Jones), it's hard to see this "self- investigator" as anything but the delusional -- and, unfortunately, well- armed -- dimbulb that he is.

Luckily, no one was hurt in the incident, but we can't always expect to be so fortunate.  That's why it's way past time to shut down these platforms that spread malicious lies and to prosecute not only the dimbulbs that take violent action like Welch, but those who encourage them.

* The execrable son of Lt. Gen. "Jack D. Ripper" Flynn (ret.) is one of those trying to deflect attention and blame from the far- right fake news sites. The nut didn't fall far from the tree.

UPDATE:  Flynn's neckbearded son has a history of peddling crap (and he's in the transition team):

Flynn's son had previously peddled conspiracies claiming Marco Rubio was a closeted homosexual who abused cocaine. https://t.co/iFqzaBdLT2 pic.twitter.com/p40Ohe7uQo

— andrew kaczynski (@KFILE) December 5, 2016

(Photo: Today's unstable Stormtrumper in the news -- Welch/ Facebook)

Guess What Muslim Countries These Terrorists Came From

These stories are all from the last month.

From Raw Story:

A Houston man was arraigned Monday afternoon after FBI agents took him into custody when he showed up to retrieve what he believed was a package of explosives he planned to use for a terrorist bombing.

Guesses as to what Muslim country this terrorist emigrated from?

Cary Lee Ogborn, 50, was taken into on Friday after picking up the package believing he had purchased enough explosives to bring down a building, reports KHOU. [snip] 

Investigators stated Ogborn tried to order the explosive materials online from an illegal weapons marketplace via an encrypted network which disguised his IP address. Unaware that his online contact was an FBI agent, Ogborn stated in a private message that he planned to use the explosives to blow up a building. 

O.K., O.K., he seems to be a Real 'murican.  Ooh! How about this immigrant terrorist:

Police arrested an Augusta [Maine] man who they said had a history of violent crimes and who also identifies as a member of a white supremacy group. 

Jacob Hastings, 27, was wanted by the Department of Corrections and had made comments about killing police officers if they would attempt to arrest him, Deputy Chief of Police Timothy DeLuca said in a news release. DeLuca said Hastings is a member of the Aryan Nation.

Hmm, another Real 'murican. (Well, maybe he emigrated from New Hampshire!)

Let's try somewhere else.  You heard about those stabbings in Minnesota?  How about these two; they had to be Muslim immigrants:

In Washington, a 32-year-old white man, described by local authorities as a likely white supremacist, attacked an interracial couple he witnessed engaged in a kiss. 

Daniel Rowe stabbed a black man in Olympia, the capital of Washington state, outside of a bar at around 8:30pm after seeing the black man kiss a white woman. The 47-year-old black man and his white girlfriend, who is 35, had left the bar when Rowe approached them with a “weird” smile, according to a probable cause statement filed in court. Without warning, Rowe then yelled a racial slur and lunged with his knife, police say. The blade grazed the woman and went into the man’s hip, according to a news release from Olympia police. [snip] 

“He tells them, ‘Yeah, I stabbed them. I’m a white supremacist,’” said Lt. Paul Lower, a police department spokesman. “He begins talking about Donald Trump rallies and attacking people at the Black Lives Matter protest.” [snip]

[T]here was the curious case of the face-eating Florida man who killed two people while wearing signature Trump campaign paraphernalia this week. 

According to a newly released 911 call placed by Austin Harrouff’s mother, the 19-year-old who allegedly killed John Stevens II, 59, and his 53-year-old wife, Michelle Mischon, 53, outside their Jupiter, Florida, home before biting pieces of flesh off one of the victim’s face Monday evening was wearing a “Make America Great Again” hat. 

During the call, Mina Harrouff said her son, a Florida State student and fraternity member, was last seen wearing white shorts, a blue polo and a red “Make America Great Again” hat made famous by Trump.  (our emphasis)

Well, the lesson here seems to be that if you're a plain face- eating nut/ white nationalist/ Donald "Rump" Trump supporting right- wing terrorist, you don't get any exposure in the media, while those Muslim immigrants from not-Syria are getting all the ink, taking jobs making mayhem Real 'muricans can do, day after day.  How fair is that?!

Right-Wingers Try To Construct False Narrative In Charleston Murders

As we noted yesterday, there's a concerted effort by right-wingers to shift the focus of the Charleston, SC, murders from the (white supremacist) killer targeting blacks to it being a crime against Christians (or, most disgustingly laughable, "religious liberty").  Certainly, that would fit more easily into their base-inflaming, false narrative of a "war on Christianity" (you know, because same-sex marriage!).  Unfortunately, the killer didn't get their talking points:

(CNN) - Dylann Roof admits he did it, two law enforcement officials said -- shooting and killing nine people he'd sat with for Bible study at a historically black church in Charleston, South Carolina.

But why? To start a race war, Roof told investigators, according to one of the officials.  (our emphasis)

The false right-wing narrative, promoted by the usual suspects (Fox "News", various Republican presidential clowns), is an attempt to distract people from a fact the right doesn't want you to know, as Ryan Cooper notes:

Since 9/11, right-wing terrorists have killed more than five times as many people as Islamist ones. Yet a short study warning to keep a watchful attitude towards the former is met with enraged hostility. It reveals both the small actual danger of Islamist terrorism, and the utterly ridiculous and hypocritical way in which anti-terrorism resources are allocated.

Still, if conservatives are confident in their ideas, and do not subscribe to the paranoid delusions of the sovereign citizen, white supremacist, or neo-Nazi movements, they should not feel threatened by close investigations of such people. But I'm not holding my breath.  (our emphasis)

We're not holding our breath, either.

There are monstrously evil people in the world willing to put their evil thoughts into action, and they're being aided and abetted by these banal people we see and hear every day in the media and the halls of Congress.  We believe that's called "accessories after the fact."

BONUS:  Ana Marie Cox on why Republicans don't want to talk about racial hatred.

BONUS II:  Craven Republican Jeb! Bush still mystified as to the killer's motive.  Ass crack. 

BONUS III:  Now the dimmest of the bulbs chimes in.