I was surprised to hear this and remain highly skeptical because I live only a few hours from OKC. I drove over to see the bombing firsthand and followed the news closely as you can imagine. More importantly, I understand the mindset of people like McVeigh and what was going on at the time. The airwaves were full of talk radio programs that were anti-government and discussing all kinds of conspiracy notions. In the hills around me locally, there were survivalist groups living off the land, convinced the government was going to de-arm the populace, destroy the currency, and impose restraints on free will in every way possible. My local FBI office at my local Federal Building was monitoring these groups in NW Arkansas, southern MO, and eastern KS and OK.
What happened at Ruby Ridge and Waco was a rallying cry and brought up on the radio shows continually. I got in the habit of listening to these shows as I drove around a three country area meeting with clients. In fact, I was returning to my office from a client meeting on that April 19 when the news of the bombing broke. My birthday is that day, so I remembered that Waco also happened on April 19 the year before. Nothing about the bombing of a Federal Bldg. surprised me because that's where the FBI and the IRS are housed. I immediately connected the two events, and I remember thinking "Someone finally acted on all this anti-government rhetoric."
My point in all this is that the idea of an Islamic terrorist anywhere in this mix is so dissonant, I have to put these claims in the category of 'off the wall conspiracy theorists'.
Nothing fits. This is the wrong part of the country. Even now and especially then, a ME Islamic type would be completely foreign, so I have to wonder why and how a McVeigh would ever team up with such a person. How would their paths even cross. For my part of the country, this was pre-internet and blogasphere. My guess is not one person in fifty back then knew what a Muslim was or had ever heard the word Koran.
Another thing that caught my eye in your article was the statement that 22 witnesses saw McVeigh in the company of the two Islamists. I've forgotten the details of the actual trial, but I don't recall there ever being that many witnesses who could identify McVeigh at all--alone or with company. |
