April 19th Anniversary of Oklahoma City Bombing Approaches:Did McVeigh Have Foreign Accomplices?

The date April 19, 1995 will always be a sad day for our nation. This is the date when the Murrah Federal Building in Oklahoma City was bombed. The attack caused the deaths of 168 people. Timothy McVeigh was executed for this crime.

However, questions remain about if there was also foreign involvement in the crime. There were reports of men with a Middle Eastern appearance fleeing the Murrah building near the time of the bombing. There was a bulletin put out to capture them.

The Wall Street Journal reported that Larry Johnson, former deputy director of the Oklahoma Office of Counter Terrorism, said "Without a doubt, there's a Middle Eastern tie to the Oklahoma City bombing." To see the article, go here.

While it is still hard to comprehend how an American could want to bomb a government building, it is even harder to think about the possibility that foreign terrorists could have bombed an American government building in the heartland. Could there be foreign operatives who planned and helped carry out this attack who are still free?

Although the media has backed off from coverage of possible foreign involvement in the attack, there are still many unanswered questions about the Oklahoma City bombing. However, since the first attack on the World Trade Center on February 26, 1993 was several years before the Oklahoma attack, it was obvious that foreign terrorists had already shown their eagerness to attack our nation.

Due to the attack on the WTC in New York City, it can hardly be too far fetched to think that foreign terrorists could have been involved in the planning and execution of the attack on the Murrah building in Oklahoma City. A firefighter on the scene in the aftermath of the Oklahoma bombing told the New York Times, "I hope this opens people's eyes." The newspaper added "Like others, he believes it was intended to send a message to the United States: not even your heartland is safe."

Middle Eastern Men in the Murrah Building Prior to Attack

An employee for HUD in the Murrah Building, Jane Graham, had noticed men with a Middle Eastern appearance wearing uniforms resembling those worn by the maintenance staff in the building on the day before the attack and that morning, notes the Office. Via watching video of the bombing originally aired on television, she saw those same Middle Eastern men again in the news coverage. She had never seen them around the building prior to near the time of the attack. On the morning of the bombing she said they were in the first-floor stairwell. The men were holding wires and bickering about design plans of the building. It seems she perhaps stumbled upon the men planning the final details of the attack. Jane made an affidavit about seeing the Middle Eastern men and also discussed them with the FBI.

Oklahoma Bombing: "Quickly Solved" or an Incomplete Investigation?

The FBI says this crime was "quickly solved. No stone was left unturned to make sure every clue was found and all the culprits identified," notes the FBI website. Timothy McVeigh was executed for the attack on the Murrah building. Did he have some foreign men working with him on the attack? That question may never be fully answered.

A Media Fade on Theory of Foreign Involvement

Matthieu Deflem of the University of South Carolina did a presentation on a paper called "The Globalization of Heartland Terror: The International Dimensions of the Oklahoma City Bombing." In it he noted that major media publications such as the New York Times and CNN were at first talking about Middle Eastern suspects in the Oklahoma City attack. He adds that they then later backed away from the prior reports. Were the initial reports erroneous or was later information blocked from the media? To read the full paper go here.

Journalist Jayna Davis has written that witnesses confirmed that "eight specific Middle Eastern men, the majority of who are former Iraqi soldiers, collaborating with McVeigh and Nichols during various stages of the bombing plot. The witnesses signed sworn affidavits confirming their testimonies," notes FreeRepublic. Witnesses place one Iraqi man in the truck with McVeigh as he parked at the Murrah building. To read more about Jayna's research go to her website, here.

As years pass after this horrific crime, there is still doubt about whether everyone involved in the attack was brought to justice. While the United States still ponders the fiasco Iraq war, based on falsehoods about weapons of mass destruction, questions remain as to whether Iraqi men were involved in the Oklahoma City bombing.

RIP to the victims of this horrible attack. Was justice fully obtained for them? Perhaps many years from now that question will be fully answered.

Sources:

Jayna Davis

Free Republic

Wall Street Journal

FBI

New York Times

The Office

South Carolina University