Oklahoma City, 15 Years On

(9 am. – promoted by ek hornbeck)

From the Southern Poverty Law Center

Monday marks the 15th anniversary of the Oklahoma City bombing – a terrorist attack by a racist, antigovernment fanatic that left 168 men, women and children dead. An MSNBC special hosted by Rachel Maddow about the tragedy features extensive interviews with my colleague Mark Potok. I hope you’ll watch it, because I’m afraid that history may be repeating itself.

We recently released a report showing an astonishing 244 percent increase in antigovernment extremist groups – the kind of groups that spawned the likes of Timothy McVeigh 15 years ago. Already, we’re seeing eruptions of right-wing violence. Just last month, for example, nine members of the Hutaree Militia – one of the groups we’re tracking – were indicted for plotting to kill hundreds of police officers.

Shortly before the Oklahoma City bombing, we sent a letter to the U.S. attorney general warning that the growing antigovernment militia movement posed an imminent threat to the public. With your help, we’re again alerting the law enforcement community to the danger posed by the rebirth of this same movement.

J. Richard Cohen

President, Southern Poverty Law Center

If you’ve viewed any of the Rachel Maddow shows during the past week she has been having a few reports about this upcoming expose with clips of the McVeigh jail interviews, the ones she has played are very chilling and eye opening to say the least, but similar can be heard by others but not as often as read, especially on line, on many websites of individuals and groups seeking out like minded to join them, or in very similar words as to the criminal terrorists of these times, the later twentieth century and growing in the twenty first, especially as we as a country have caused the hatreds of us to grow.

Stuart Wright provides insights in OKC bombing documentary

4/16/2010

The insights of Lamar University scholar Stuart Wright will be part of a television documentary commemorating the 15th anniversary of the Oklahoma City bombing, which claimed 168 lives and injured 680 on April 19, 1995. Nineteen of the dead were children.

The blast destroyed or damaged 324 buildings in a 16-block radius when Timothy McVeigh detonated a truck filled with explosives in front of the Alfred P. Murrah Federal Building. McVeigh was tried, convicted and executed by lethal injection on June 11, 2001.

“The McVeigh Tapes: Confessions of an American Terrorist” will premiere from 8 to 10 p.m. (CDT), Monday, April 19, on MSNBC, dramatically unveiling interviews with McVeigh. The documentary, hosted by Rachel Maddow, will air again at 9 p.m. Friday, April 22, and 8 p.m. Sunday, April 25 (both CDT).

Producers obtained 45 hours of taped interviews with McVeigh by two Buffalo news reporters who had access to McVeigh and later wrote the best-selling book, “American Terrorist,” said Wright, professor of sociology and director of research in Lamar’s Office of Research and Sponsored Programs.  The tapes have never been made public, he said. –>–>–>

On April 16 2010 the following was held with live online streaming, and while it shows a three hour time frame the forum lasted only two hours and roughly fifteen to twenty minutes.

The Tragedy of Oklahoma City 15 Years Later

April 16, 2010, 9:30am – 12:30pm

Opening the symposium will be a keynote speech by former President Bill Clinton who will discuss Oklahoma City and its aftermath.

Following the speech will be a panel discussion of experts who will discuss Oklahoma City, how the country reacted to it, and what lessons we can lean from it today about our political discourse.

This is some two hours and twenty minutes long, opening statements and then into a longer question and answer session. the archived video can be found here as well, or above link.

Many Questions Surround OKC Bombing

Almost 15 years to the day, families of Oklahoma City bombing victims say they still don’t know the real story.  Dozens were at the Capitol Thursday still seeking answers about what happened.

Jannie Coverdale says she has been looking for answers for 15 years. Since the day her two grandsons, Erin and Elijah were killed in the Oklahoma City bombing.

“I had custody of those boys and I put them in that daycare center and I feel like I owe my son an explanation,” said Coverdale.

Coverdale says she was told to attend the trials of Timothy McVeigh and Terry Nichols and then she would get answers.

But, she says many things still don’t add up. –>–>–>

Clinton draws parallels between ‘upheaval’ of 1995, today

April 16, 2010 Former President Clinton said he sees parallels in the mood of the country now and on April 19, 1995, when the bombing of a federal building in Oklahoma City killed 168 people while he was in the White House.

“There’s the same kind of economic and social upheaval now,” he told CNN’s Wolf Blitzer in an interview to air Friday on “The Situation Room.”

“Then, you had the rise of extremist voices on talk radio. Here, you have a billion Internet sites,” Clinton said. –>–>–>

What does Clinton mean by the similar times, many were in and some just starting to come out of the long recession following Reagan and the ‘free marketers’ start of our small ‘c’ capitalism. Many were still carrying on and ramping up the attacks on him that had started in Arkansas. And yes the rise of extremism was coming forward and out of their holes.

Oklahoma City bombing survivor strives to preserve memory

April 17, 2010 Richard Williams, working for the General Services Administration, was serving as the assistant manager of the Alfred P. Murrah Federal Building at the time of the April 19, 1995, bombing.

His office was on the first floor, on the west end of the building.

Williams received more than 150 stitches from shrapnel wounds he suffered. His right ear was torn off and sewn back on. His cheek was fractured. He had staples placed in his head. His hand was crushed, leading to several surgeries.

But he survived. And he wants to make sure those who didn’t survive, as well as those who did, and those who helped, are never forgotten.

“I personally knew most of the people who worked in the building, if not by name, by face, as I was responsible for the building and for those people for all those years,” said Williams, 64. “If we continue to tell the stories about those most affected and what happened that day, people will never forget and hopefully we can educate them about the impact of violence and how it affects so many.” –>–>–>