18 Years Since the Oklahoma City Bombing

Eighteen years ago a rental truck filled with ammonium nitrate fertilizer, liquid nitromethane and commercial explosives was detonated outside of the Alfred P. Murrah Federal Building in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma. 168 people lost their lives on April 19, 1995; 99 were federal employees and a further 19 were children in the building's daycare center. As the country had recently experienced a terrorist bombing at the World Trade Center in 1993, initial suspicion fell on elements from the Middle East. Soon, however, the United States was faced with the grim reality that this was an act perpetrated by a fellow citizen. America was not a stranger to domestic terrorism. Groups such as the Weather Underground, the Animal Liberation Front/Earth Liberation Front and the "Unabomber" had carried out attacks against perceived "enemies" on the domestic front for over two decades; however, this self-described "patriot" was to become the symbol of right-wing extremism in America's heartland. Timothy McVeigh's act is somberly remembered for the motivations behind it, the scope of the attack and, most importantly, for the lessons learned from it. Firstly, McVeigh timed his attack to coincide with the second anniversary of the end of the siege at the Branch Davidian compound in Waco, Texas. For this right-wing extremist and Christian Identity follower, the Government's handling of the siege was illustrative of the "Zionist Occupied Government" which was intent on suppressing liberty and bringing about a New World Order. McVeigh had been to Waco during the stand-off and had returned shortly after the compound's destruction. McVeigh wanted to avenge the deaths at Waco in addition to those at Ruby Ridge in 1992. Importantly, April 19th was also the date of a FBI raid on a Christian Identity (CI) movement compound at 'Elohim City' in Adair County Oklahoma in 1985. "The Covenant, The Sword, and the Arm of the Lord (CSA)" a white-supremacist organization is also based on CI and linked to McVeigh. On the same day that he planned the Oklahoma bombing, another CI follower and CSA member, Richard Snell, was scheduled for execution in Arkansas for killing a black State Trooper. (See also: "Violence, Terrorism, and the Role of Theology: Repentant and Rebellious Christian Identity" , "Christian Extremism as a Domestic Terror Threat" and "Pass Em' Right: Assessing the Threat of WMD Terrorism from America's Christian Patriots" ).

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