What the Oklahoma City Bombing Took 10 Years Ago, and What Remains

[NNN0LHI]

http://ap.tbo.com/ap/breaking/MGB2M4N1M7E.html

OKLAHOMA CITY (AP) - The bomb spared the lives of a family's badly injured children, but 10 years later costs them their home. A survivor of the blast finds peace but not peace of mind. Grass grows on the crater, but there's still a void in the city's heart. snip

The blast tried and failed to take Jim Denny's two children. They were among only six children in America's Kids day care center who survived the bombing.

At 12, red-haired Rebecca is "going on 22," Denny said. But the risk of seizures means Brandon must forgo summer camp and other 13-year-old pursuits.

For a boy who doctors feared would never walk or talk again, Brandon has adapted well, even catching baseballs with his left hand because of limited use of his right arm, Denny said.

But the combination of medical bills and the fact that Denny quit his job to be available to deal with Brandon's seizures forced the family in 2002 to sell their home, move to an apartment and live off the equity.

more

[Jade Fox]

1. The bombing in Oklahoma City.....

is, I believe, a big part of why we are now eagerly wageing war against
foreign, brown-skinned "terrorists".

The fact that this heinous act was commited by a blond American veteran
was a little more than the American psyche could take. As a country, we
were grateful to be allowed to re-locate evil in a foreign and brown-skinned
enemy, rather than face our own home-grown terrorists like Timothy McVeigh.

God bless the victims and their families.

[halobeam]

2. This Amerika sucks....

I want our old America back.

[Hissyspit]

3. Would be nice to know the rest of those involved in the conspiracy...

But we can't ask Timothy McVeigh. Lots the FBI didn't follow up on, apparently.

[elehhhhna]

4. THANK GOD THOSE LEECHES CAN'T FILE BANKRUPTCY NOW!!!

woo-hoo!



sarc/off

[lyonn]

5. Nichols' trial was awfully quite

I don't take the Oklahoma paper as it is strictly Repub bs. There is no way to describe how bad that paper is. But I don't remember any local tv or national really keeping track of what was happening in Nichols' latest trial. His connection to the Philippines (wife and visiting there when known terrorist were having meetings in the same area) causes me to question how many were involved.

Edit: That family has gone through so much and seems very ordinary nice people who have not made a big deal out of their plight.

[preciousdove]

6. Iran Contra papers were in that building

along with other ongoing cases against big corporations. Fed Agents skipped work that day. Bomb squad was there before the blast. Foreign terrorists had nothing to gain but a lot of evil Americans did.

[Gregorian]

7. What!?

My jaw is permanently dropped. It's dragging on the floor. YOU"VE GOT TO BE KIDDING! I never ever heard that until just now. And if it's true, I have a whole picture of who is doing the dirty deeds to America; Contract on America. I feel limp from reading that. Hopeless.

[Redstone]

9. Ohhhhkay....

"Fed Agents skipped work that day."
"Bomb squad was there before the blast."

Yeah, right, just like no Jews went to work in the WTC on 9/11.

Uh, huh.

Redstone

On edit: Collect 100 "Fed Agents," torture them, give them drugs or whatever to guarantee they'll tell the truth, and if even one of them admits that he or she would willingly be complicit in a plot to blow up a building that has a day-care center in it, and I'll believe you. And pay you ten thousand dollars.

[preciousdove]

13. Info from people from OKC who were helping after 911

It is documented in the DU archives I just haven't had enough money to reup my subscription to find it for you. (All money going out for healthcare so far this year. I think I have $1.29 in my checking account right now.)

Same company got the no bid clean up contract for both disasters.

hmmmmm..

[NNN0LHI]

8. Here is why Nichols trial was quiet. It was a group of terrorists alright

American born and bred terrorists:

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=104x3483123

[Redstone]

10. Has the FBI ever expalined why it took them

ten years to get around to searching Nichols's house?

Or are they too embarrassed? I read about it in the paper when it happened, but nothing since.

Redstone

[NNN0LHI]

11. Don't know about the ten year wait?

But Scarpa didn't pass a lie detector test so they waited almost a month to check it out after he told them about it. So much for lie detectors I guess? They were not going to check it out at all until he contacted offices of two US Representatives.

http://www.boston.com/news/nation/washington/articles/2005/04/15/inmate_tip_on_nichols_initially_ignored/

<snip>Dresch gave the information to the FBI in early March but FBI agents did not search the vacant house until March 31. The bureau did not act more quickly because Scarpa failed a lie detector test, said the law enforcement official, who declined to be identified because of the sensitivity of the investigation.

The FBI lab continues to examine the materials for fingerprints and other clues that might show where the explosives originated and who may have had them before they got into Nichols's home.

Scarpa, a member of the Colombo organized crime family serving more than 50 years on drug trafficking, conspiracy, and racketeering convictions, first communicated information about the explosives on March 1, then provided more details on March 10 and 11, Dresch said in letters sent to the staffs of two members of Congress and to the FBI's Detroit office. Scarpa revealed the location of the house on March 11, Dresch said.

Aides to US Representatives William Delahunt, Democrat of Massachusetts, and Dana Rohrabacher, Republican of California, acknowledged receiving the letters by fax.

The FBI refused to comment on the delay.

[RoyGBiv]

14. They did search it ...

They searched it with explosive-sniffing dogs in fact. This fact is downplayed, but not altogether absent from the various comments on the recent "find" at the house.

Given this, I find the natural assumption being that the FBI missed something, or the related and obviously not true assumption that they didn't search at all, to be, well, a bit odd.

Consider the following scenario:

You own a house and are leaving the country for, say, ten years. Rather than sell your house, you decide to put it in the hands of a friend who rents it out for you. It is rented out repeatedly over several years to different people, and the last tenant leaves a few months before you return. When you get back into your house, you see that all the walls are painted a putrid shade of green. You remembered them being white. Would your natural assumption then be that you somehow failed to notice that you'd painted your walls this horrid shade of green before you left, or would you think possibly one of the tenants did it?

This of course is not a perfect analogy, but it fits for our purposes. The FBI searched the house extensively and found nothing. Ten years later, after the house has been used as a rental for several years, they go back and find something. There are a number of possibilities that could explain why, many of them much more likely than the "FBI missed it" scenario. On a related note, I find the timing of this discovery rather interesting, consider it first came to light at about the same time as the report on the Bush administration's uncritical acceptance of flawed intelligence being used to justify war in Iraq and the opinions coming out in response suggesting the Clinton administration's handling of the intelligence community, including the FBI, created the problem in the first place.

In short, something is wrong here, definitely, but I don't think it is clear exactly what that is.

[montana_hazeleyes]

12. It seems

as though America has forgotten about the terror in Oklahoma.

You never hear" things are different since Oklahoma". People don't want to think about our own white terrorists. Terror only counts if it's done by "middle eastern looking guys".

I hate the way the victims of this horror have been overlooked and forgotten.