There is an interesting mystery in Oklahoma
There is an interesting mystery in Oklahoma.
By the time you read this itâs possible the story will be front-page news, or will have been debunked, but right now the mainstream media is virtually ignoring the bomb explosion outside the University of Oklahomaâs stadium during the Kansas State-Oklahoma football game October 1.
Joel Hinrichs III, a 21-year-old engineering student at OU, was killed when the explosive device detonated outside the stadium. Authorities immediately labeled it a suicide. OU President David Boren has reportedly tried to calm the university community by claiming it was simply a troubled young man taking his own life. But the truth is no one knows whether Hinrichs deliberately detonated the bomb or it went off accidentally.
One Oklahoma news outlet quoted witnesses who said Hinrichs tried to enter the stadium carrying a large backpack, but took off running when a security guard tried to look inside the backpack.
At the university-owned apartment Hinrichs shared with a student from Pakistan, police found a large cache of explosive materials.
A news report in Oklahoma said Hinrichsâ apartment building and three adjoining buildings were cordoned off with police tape, and on Sunday night FBI and ATF agents and the Norman police bomb squad were removing the materials. A later report claimed the material in the exploded bomb was TATP, said to be the same material used by the London bombers in July. It also was alleged that a few days before his death, Hinrichs tried to buy a large amount of aluminum nitrate.
An Associated Press report quoted the president of OUâs Muslim Student Association as saying Hinrichsâ roommate, Fazal M. Cheema, and three other Muslim men were taken into custody immediately after the bombing, led in handcuffs from a party they were attending. All were later released. The Tulsa World reported October 6 that authorities were questioning Muslin students.
According to Oklahoma News 9, Hinrichs had been attending âthe same Norman mosque once attended by convicted 9/11 conspirator Zacarias Moussaoui.â
Is it possible Hinrichs intended to detonate his bomb inside the stadium, standing somewhere among the 84,000 attending the game?
My source in Oklahoma, Kevin Donahue, asks some interesting questions: ââŠwhy would a suicide bomber who reportedly didnât want to hurt anyone else, have such a large cache of explosives that police had to clear four buildings? âŠwhy build a bomb to kill yourself? Why not just slash your wrists? âŠWhy is the Joint Terrorism Task Force the lead agency in the case? Why is OU increasing security measures if this was a single guy committing suicide?â
I donât know if this was a case of a depressed kid who decided to kill himself in a way that would attract a lot of attention, or whether it was a terrorist incident gone awry. I have believed for a long time that terrorism in the nationâs heartland might have more impact on Americans than attacks in New York or other large cities. It will be interesting to see whether the mainstream media, especially the cable news shows, grab this story and force federal authorities to tell us what they know.
Posted by: anonymous5089 2005-10-08 |