Home > News Video About David Boren and the University of Oklahoma Bombing
News Video About David Boren and the University of Oklahoma Bombing
by Open-Publishing - Sunday 9 October 2005Michael P. Wright —
Norman, Oklahoma, USA
mpwright9@aol.com
On the evening of Saturday, October 1, while a football game was in progress at the nearby stadium, a University of Oklahoma engineering student, packed with explosives, was seated on a bench near a sidewalk in front of the microbiology building. He knew that within a few minutes the sidewalk would be full of people during the halftime break. The bench was only a two-minute walk from the west stadium gate. Three minutes before the half, the bomb exploded and killed him.
The bomber has been identified as Joel Hinrichs, originally from Colorado.
The bomb was very powerful and it could be heard five miles away. It rattled floors at least four blocks from the campus. It also destroyed the bench where the bomber was seated, disintegrated his upper body, and blew out two windows in the microbiology building. Football fans have reported feeling the stadium vibrate when the blast happened.
University of Oklahoma president David Boren, the former U.S. Senator widely known as the mentor and patron of George Tenet, has been frantically trying to convince the public that this was just an "individual suicide" by an "emotionally troubled" student, and that he had no intention of killing anyone else. Others, myself included, have voiced the suspicion that Hinrichs had intended to kill others, but experienced an accidental early detonation.
In this post I am providing two links to interesting Oklahoma City TV news videos about this event. KFOR might archive this and relocate it, but now it can be find it from their front page. Go here:
Scroll down to "Frantic moments after game day explosion in Norman" and click
there. If it’s not there, bring up any video and enter this in the search frame:
frantic moments.
TRANSCRIPT:
KFOR introduced the segment with a news narrator making this statement, while the camera was on an OU scene with police cars:
"We begin with an OU alum’s plea for university president David Boren to give a full accounting of what happened that night."
Then the camera is on me, with the microbiology building and new bench (to replace the destroyed one) in the background.
MW: "...and I’m just saying I want the police unfettered in investigating that. I don’t want to see any political pressure on them coming from a man who wants to
make it clear that everybody is safe to keep on buying football tickets. That’s not as important as getting out the truth."
[Camera back on news man in studio]
News man: "Well this afternoon OU president David Boren addressed concerns that the university is not exploring all possible scenarios. He says he is briefed by the FBI daily and he says there is no concrete evidence of anything beyond
a single deadly bomb."
[Camera on Boren]
Boren: "I think we have been very forthcoming now. You know, if people want me to tell some sensational story that we simply don’t have any information that indicates, I don’t know any sensational story to tell."
[Back to news studio]
News man: "And late today FBI investigators released their initial findings. They say there is no current threat posed by any additional explosives and there is no known threat to any other person or persons related to this incident. They say at this time there is no link between Hinrichs and any terrorist or extremist
activity."
[Camera on Linda Cavanaugh]
Cavanaugh: "However tonight we’ve learned that just last week Joel Hinrichs tried to buy one of the ingredients which can be used to make a large bomb — an ingredient we’re now all familiar with — ammonium nitrate"
Cherokee Ballard gave the details of Hinrichs’ appearance at Ellison Feed and Seed, where he attempted to buy this explosive. Indicating some doubt about the FBI’s claim that there was no link to terrorism, she said that it MAY be true that Hinrichs was not connected to a terrorist group.
Comment from Michael Wright:
Cavanaugh’s statement about the "familiar" ingredient relates to the fact that ammonium nitrate fertilizer was a component of the Oklahoma City bomb which destroyed the federal court building in 1995.
The broadcasters appear to have used me to make an accusation against Boren, and then they let him make his comments about how "some people" want him to tell a "sensational story" but he doesn’t have one.
Next they unloaded a truly sensational story — Hinrichs trying to buy ammonium nitrate — and made Boren look like a fool.
KFOR misrepresented me in the beginning by saying that I was "pleading" with Boren to give a full accounting. Of course they only used a few seconds of what they recorded of me. I made it clear that my wish was for Boren to shut up and let the investigators to their job.
I do not wish to empower Boren by asking him for anything. I am pleading only with the people of Oklahoma to demand that he be ousted from office.
KWTV Reports that Hinrichs Had Visited the Mosque
In this KWTV broadcast, Tamara Pratt reports that Hinrichs had been seen visiting the Mosque. Hinrichs’ attempt to buy ammonium nitrate is also reported. (Registration might be required):
http://www.newsok.com/video/1633639
It was earlier reported that explosives were removed from Hinrichs’ apartment by police, after the bombing incident.
Go here for earlier BellaCiao posts about this: