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World News See other World News Articles Title: A journalist's reflections on Timothy McVeigh 25 years after Oklahoma City bombing A journalist's reflections on Timothy McVeigh 25 years after Oklahoma City bombing Lou Michel at Oklahoma City National Memorial in the Field of Empty Chairs, Thursday, Feb. 27 2020. (Sharon Cantillon/Buffalo News)Lou Michel at Oklahoma City National Memorial in the Field of Empty Chairs, Thursday, Feb. 27 2020. (Sharon Cantillon/Buffalo News) By Lou Michel Published 4:30 a.m. April 18, 2020|Updated 1 hour ago Oklahoma City bomber Timothy J. McVeigh told me he did not know what he would encounter on the other side, once the chemicals from the lethal injection killed him. But on the chance the Pendleton native had an express ticket to hell, he defiantly said he would be in the company of many generals and world leaders who murdered their opposition. As the first and only journalist to repeatedly interview McVeigh face to face, my job was to keep him talking. My colleague Dan Herbeck and I needed every scintilla of his thought process, no matter how outrageous, so that we could provide a window into the worst domestic terrorist in U.S. history. We were working on writing a book, “American Terrorist: Timothy McVeigh and the Oklahoma City Bombing.” Time was short. McVeigh had a date with the executioner. He had been convicted of delivering a homemade, 7,000-pound truck bomb that killed 168 innocent people and wounded more than 800 in and around the Alfred P. Murrah Federal Building. Oklahoma bombing suspect Timothy McVeigh arrives at court Jan. 31, 1996, in Oklahoma City. (Photo by Pool/Liaison) For days, I sat across from McVeigh at the “super-max” prison in Colorado and later on death row in Indiana as he methodically explained his reasoning for the bombing. He never showed any emotions for the victims, except flashes of anger and profanity. How dare they call him a coward for lighting the bomb’s two fuses and walking away? McVeigh repeatedly assured me that if the fuses failed to ignite the bomb, he would have returned and shot it at close range with his handgun, sealing his own fate. It wasn’t easy sitting in a chair across from McVeigh, in a bunker- like concrete cubicle, separated by a thick sheet of Plexiglas with a circular steel vent in its center to allow for our exchange of words. But as a journalist, it was more than merely my job. When McVeigh had asked his father, Bill, if he knew of a journalist who could tell his story, my name was suggested. I lived in rural Niagara County 15 minutes from Bill McVeigh’s house and would often stop to say hello, long after other reporters had lost interest. A tall man who is painfully shy, Bill and I often discussed our common love of vegetable gardening. His son’s name rarely came up. Bill McVeigh, father of Tim McVeigh is at his home in Pendleton, Wednesday, March 4, 2020, 25 years after his son bombed the Alfred P. Murrah Federal Building in Oklahoma City. Tim McVeigh was executed for his crimes in 2001. (Sharon Cantillon/Buffalo News) When Dan and I did write stories about McVeigh or his family, we remembered that they, too, were entitled to fair treatment. McVeigh had received countless letters from journalists at much bigger newspapers than The Buffalo News, but he was unimpressed with their typed requests beneath fancy letterheads. After Bill suggested my name, McVeigh sent me a letter asking if I would be interested in writing a book on his life. And so began an exchange of several letters before our first set of in-person interviews. Unlike other reporters, I wrote my letters in long hand and on cheap yellow legal pad paper. To solidify our connection, I shared details of my life with him. I was married and had three kids. My boys and I were active in Cub Scouts. McVeigh, a survivalist, loved the outdoors and shared tips for camping out. It was mundane yet meaningful enough to unlock the prison doors within a couple of months. When I said I wanted to include Dan in helping write the book, I explained that there was a lot of ground to cover before the execution. Dan is a great journalist and a guy I would trust my life with. Tim had served in the Army during the First Gulf War in Iraq and had “battle buddies” to whom he had entrusted his life. I believe he viewed Dan as my battle buddy. In time, Dan would also sit down with McVeigh for an interview and regularly correspond in letters. As a civilian, McVeigh was on the side of militias. The enemy was the U.S. government because of the role of federal agents at Ruby Ridge and Waco. In both those events, civilians had been killed. It soon became clear to me that McVeigh had two sides. There was the friendly, boyish Tim who would go on about the Buffalo Bills or his love of his grandfather who taught him about guns. But when he discussed how he carried out the bombing, he was a military tactician, hiding or lacking any compassion for those he had blown up. If anything, he took pride in what he had done. In that prison cubicle, only a few feet away from McVeigh, I sometimes felt like I had stepped into an alternate universe. Was I really hearing this? But there I was sitting and nodding, while my soul ached. Oklahoma City National Memorial-2020 A goose spends time in the reflecting pool as the sun sets behind the 9:03 Gate at the Oklahoma City National Memorial, Wednesday, Feb. 26, 2020. The moment of destruction was 9:02. The 9:01 Gate to the east, represents the time of innocence and the 9:03 Gate to the west, represents the healing that began after the blast. (Sharon Cantillon/Buffalo News) McVeigh enjoyed discussing his coming execution, how he was eager to be done with life and the confines of his prison cell. I was there when McVeigh, 33, was executed at the federal penitentiary in Terre Haute, Ind., on June 11, 2001. Unsure of how I should react, I smiled and sort of waved a thumbs up when he looked at me from the table on which he was strapped. Yes, that’s strange. But I knew from all the hours we had spent together that he was getting his final wish – death. I half expected him to flash a smile, but he looked back stoically in soldier mode. As I watched the three intravenous tubes fill with chemicals, one at time, and make their way to an unseen incision in his body beneath a white sheet, I could see the life drain out of him. His skin turned pasty and he died with his eyes open. In the corner of his left eye, I noticed a tear. President George W. Bush told America “justice” had been served. The execution also served as a warning to others who might be contemplating a terrorist act. But three months later to the day, 19 terrorists linked to al-Qaida flew airplanes into the World Trade Center towers and the Pentagon. A fourth plane almost reached the nation’s capital, but for the bravery of passengers who overpowered terrorists on board. That plane crashed in a remote Pennsylvania field, killing everyone. Many people at the World Trade Center and Pentagon survived. There were also many survivors in Oklahoma City and their stories were a crucial part of the book Dan and I were writing. It hardly seems as if 25 years has passed since the bombing. Before the coronavirus hit, I spent six days in Oklahoma City. The editors of The News sent me and photographer Sharon Cantillon there to report in words and images the legacy of the bombing. I can tell you Oklahomans have overcome the horror inflicted by McVeigh. Poster Comment: The whole trouble with the OKC bombing is that Tim McVeigh was a patsy. Some of the charges on the columns did not go off. The Murrah Building was supposed to be a total collapse. When this was discovered, the EMTs were called out and the Bomb Squad was sent on to defuse those explosives. Dave from the X22 Report has interviewed the person responsible for setting those charges on the columns. Post Comment Private Reply Ignore Thread Top • Page Up • Full Thread • Page Down • Bottom/Latest
#1. To: BTP Holdings (#0)
This guy obviously believes what politicians and news readers tell him -- amn't sure we can trust anything he says :-s
_____________________________________________________________ USA! USA! USA! Bringing you democracy, or else! there were strains of VD that were incurable, and they were first found in the Philippines and then transmitted to the Korean working girls via US military. The 'incurables' we were told were first taken back to a military hospital in the Philippines to quietly die. – 4um
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