McVeigh's military background had already taught him all that he needed to know about weapons and explosives. He merely needed to obtain the proper materials and build a bomb. Some of the materials were bought and others were stolen. Then it was time to assemble the bomb. As CNN (2004) reports, co-conspirator "Fortier told the court that McVeigh had written to him in the fall of 1994, 'telling me him and Terry had decided to take some type of positive action, and he wanted to know if I wanted to help them.' Prosecutors contend Nichols and McVeigh began buying the fertilizer that was used in the Oklahoma City bomb during that period" (p. 1).
Many people saw McVeigh assembling the bomb at a nearby lake, but no one reported any suspicious activity. As the Homeland Security Newsletter explains, "McVeigh had pulled his Ryder moving van loaded with 55-gallon drums up to a local lake. No one bothered to report the incident though it probably appeared he was prepared to dump toxins into the lake. As it turns out, he was assembling the explosives." Obviously the people who saw McVeigh at the lake were not really sure what exactly they had witnessed, so they probably did not see any need to report McVeigh's actions to the authorities. However, as the First Observer training model emphasizes, the actions observed do not have to be illegal to be reported, they merely have to be suspicious. Therefore, "if you see something, say something."
Making the Grade
Ultimately, the authorities cannot be blamed for their lack of knowledge prior to the event. Firstly, no one reported any of the suspicious activity that was occurring. Secondly, McVeigh had no previous record or any indication that would target him as a possible terrorist. Thirdly, considering that McVeigh chose the wrong building, even if the authorities had taken notice of the Waco...
Oklahoma City Bombing On April 19, 1995, Timothy McVeigh detonated a bomb in front of the Alfred P. Murrah Federal Building in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma, committing the single most destructive act of domestic terrorism in United States history (U.S. Department of Justice, 2012). The Oklahoma City bombing, and particularly McVeigh's process of radicalization, is an ideal case study for understanding how the ideology of the militia movement is conducive to domestic
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,
Moreover, the media plays a significant role as well in recognizing terrorism. Due to the media tendencies of quickly abandoning the story once it had lost its drama, issues on terrorism becomes any other news story that could be just thrown away and be forgotten. Thus, it is not surprising then that people fail to appreciate its context, or see it as one part of a long-running historical struggle. (Jackson,
feared terrorist acts in the history of United States where Oklahoma City was targeted as the place for criminal act. The intention of this paper is to give a brief overview of the event that took place in 1995 and the conspirators behind this criminal act. Their plot and details of attack have been elaborated in a well form, which discuss every aspect of the activity from plotting of
Terrorist Activity Since 9 11 Introduction The Oklahoma City Bombing was a domestic terrorist attack perpetrated in 1995 by Timothy McVeigh—a Gulf War Veteran—and Terry Nichols, a former Army serviceman who had obtained a hardship discharge after only a year in service. The two targeted the Alfred P. Murrah Federal Building in retaliation for the Ruby Ridge and Waco stand-offs. More than 150 people were killed in the blast and nearly 700
Terror and Counterterrorism 9/11 is one instance of international terrorism because its planning and preparation transcended the national boundaries of the United States, and thus its perpetrators could have been prosecuted as international terrorists (Definitions of Terrorism in the U.S. Code, 2015). Indeed, the counterterrorism activities before and after 9/11 indicate that there was a substantial and major shift in efforts to better comprehend and fight international terrorism post-9/11. A form
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