
By: David Rice
Re: Bomb #1

4-22-95

OKLAHOMA CITY (ITN) * A former soldier was arrested Friday and
accused of bombing the federal office building in what the FBI
suggested was an attempt to exact vengeance against the U.S.
government for the [Branch Davidian] disaster at Waco, Texas,
precisely two years earlier. A second man surrendered in Kansas.

Timothy McVeigh, 26, was arrested by the FBI at a small-town
Oklahoma jail where he had spent two days on minor traffic and
weapons charges before federal agents realized he was right under
their nose.

He had nearly gotten out on bail before the trooper who stopped him
spotted a resemblance to an FBI sketch of one of the men wanted in
the bombing, the deadliest terror attack in U.S. history.

Later in the day Friday, Terry Nichols, 40, surrendered in
Herington, Kan., where he lived. He was not immediately charged.
Details of the surrender were not disclosed.

The capture of the two Americans an incredible 48 hours after the
attack seemed to indicate that the bombing was not an act of
international terrorism, as some had suspected, but homegrown
right-wing American violence.

The death toll, meanwhile, rose to 78 as more bodies were found in
the tangled steel and concrete of the Alfred P. Murrah Federal
Building. About 150 people remained unaccounted for, and about 200
others were injured in the blast, caused by thousands of pounds of
fuel-and-fertilizer explosives packed into a Ryder rental truck.

In court papers, the FBI said that a former co-worker of McVeigh's
had called the bureau on Friday to say he had seen the sketch on
television and recognized the suspect as McVeigh.

The unidentified co-worker said McVeigh, who had served in the Army,
held "extreme right-wing views, was a military veteran and was
particularly agitated about the conduct of the federal government at
Waco, Texas, in 1993."

According to the co-worker, "McVeigh had been so agitated 'that he
had personally visited the site.' After visiting the site, McVeigh
expressed extreme anger at the federal government and advised that
the government never should have done what it did."

The court papers also said that three witnesses who saw the sketch
of McVeigh told the FBI he closely resembled a man they saw
lingering outside the federal building minutes before the explosion.

The Waco debacle began with a deadly gun battle between the Branch
Davidian religious commune and agents of the Bureau of Alcohol,
Tobacco and Firearms. After a 51-day standoff, FBI agents stormed
the commune's home on April 19, 1993, and the compound went up in
flames. Eighty-six people, including leader David Koresh, died in
the inferno, which some investigators believe was caused by the
Davidians.

The catastrophe at Waco has become a rallying cry for right-wing,
anti-government extremist groups, and ATF and the FBI were among the
agencies that had offices at Oklahoma City's office building.

"At this point, every evidence indicates that it is domestic in
nature," Attorney General Janet Reno said. She would not say whether
more arrests were expected.

Investigators Friday raided a farm owned by Nichols' brother in
Decker, Mich. Neighbors said the brothers attended meetings of the
Michigan Militia, a right-wing, antigovernment extremist group, and
similar organizations.

During the investigation, authorities had questioned Middle Eastern
men in Dallas and a Palestinian who had been seized in London and
flown back to the United States.

The government has said it will seek the death penalty in the attack.

The FBI arrested McVeigh on bombing charges late in the afternoon
and took him in handcuffs and leg irons from the courthouse in Perry
for a helicopter trip 60 miles south to Oklahoma City for
arraignment. McVeigh, dressed in orange prison garb, showed no
emotion as people in the crowd of 250 outside jeered, "Baby killer!"

On Friday night, McVeigh appeared at a hearing before a U.S.
magistrate at a converted courtroom at Tinker Air Force Base. He
appeared calm and grim and answered the magistrate's questions
tersely with "Yes, sir" and "No sir." He did not enter a plea.

The arrest warrant charged McVeigh with "malicious danger and
destroying by means of an explosive a building or real property,
whole or in part, possessed or used in the United States."

McVeigh's arrest and Nichols' surrender came less than a day after
the FBI flashed sketches of two unidentified suspects around the
world and offered a $2 million reward for information leading to
their capture. The FBI said the two suspects were believed to have
rented the truck used in the attack.

Reno said that McVeigh had been pulled over for a traffic offense on
Wednesday morning -- less than 1 1/2 hours after the bombing -- by a
Highway Patrol officer in Perry, a farming community of 5,000 north
of Oklahoma City. She said he was arrested and thrown into the Noble
County Jail because he was carrying a gun.

The attorney general said McVeigh resembled the sketch of the
crew-cut white man being sought. And Nichols, according to the
Justice Department, generally resembled the sketch of the other
suspect -- a scowling, thick-haired, man with a square jaw and heavy
brow.

Vicky Beier, a lawyer in Perry, and a second attorney who spoke on
condition of anonymity said the trooper who had arrested McVeigh
recognized him from the sketch just hours before he was scheduled
for an arraignment that could have resulted in his release on $500
bail for the gun and illegal-tag charges.

"He came desperately close to making bail," said Mark Gibson,
assistant district attorney.

McVeigh had been caught carrying a loaded Glock semiautomatic
pistol, according to court papers seen by the lawyers. Normally,
McVeigh would have been arraigned on Thursday, but the judge was
busy with a trial, and the arraignment was moved to Friday, the
lawyers said.

Noble County District Attorney John Maddox said McVeigh was
nonchalant when he was arrested and afterward.

Cable TV workers in Herington, Kan., said Nichols came to their
office Thursday -- the day after the bombing -- anxious to get CNN
installed in his home as soon as possible.

"He said he didn't know anything about the bomb and he wanted to
know where he could watch (the coverage) from," said Chad Albin, who
installed the cable Friday morning.

President Clinton praised the speedy work of law enforcement
officials.

"Their continued vigilance makes me sure that we will solve this
crime in its entirety and that justice will prevail," he said after
word of the first arrest. "We will find them and we will convict
them and we will seek the death penalty."

At the same time McVeigh's arrest was announced, the FBI were
conducting the raid in rural Decker, Mich., looking for Nichols and
his brother, James Douglas Nichols. James Nichols was questioned and
released.

A federal law enforcement official described the target of the raid
as a fringe group. Asked if it was connected to a "citizens
militia," the official, speaking on condition of anonymity, said,
"They're people that the militia doesn't want to be associated with."

The Michigan Militia is a paramilitary organization founded in 1994.
It believes that the government has overstepped its authority,
particularly in its role as an enforcer of gun-control laws. The
militia has condemned the federal raid at Waco as an example of
government tyranny.

Investigators believe the truck used in the attack was rented on
April 17 in Junction City, Kan., about 30 miles north of Herington,
packed with explosives and parked outside the office building. The
bomb gouged out a nine-story hole in the building and blasted a
crater 8 feet deep and 30 feet across.

An axle thought to have come from the vehicle was found about two
blocks away, according to a police source. Major auto parts are
marked with an ID number to thwart thieves. Two years ago, the ID
number on a piece of axle enabled investigators to break the World
Trade Center bombing case.

The fast-moving developments Friday came as rescuers dug through
tons of debris in the pit of the office building amid growing doubts
more survivors would be found.

Rescue teams shifted their focus to the basement and three lower
floors, where they faced a gruesome task -- the remaining areas
include part of a day-care center and the Social Security office.
Rescuers were expected to reach that area by Saturday morning.

Authorities had identified 12 children among those killed. Melva
Noakes, the day-care center operator, said there were never more
than 30 children enrolled there, and at least six were absent
Wednesday morning.

"When you hold a child in your arms, and you give it medicine and
you change its diapers, and the next day you find out that it's gone
...." she said, unable to go on as she broke into tears.

Keith Coverdale, a cross-country trucker, said his sons Aaron, 5,
and Elijah, 2, are missing from that center.

"Elijah wanted me to come back so he could see my truck and ride in
it and Aaron's two front teeth had just fallen out and the tooth
fairy was leaving a dollar under the pillow," he said. "That's the
last conversation I had with my son."

"Even though I'm hoping they are alive," he said, "it is comforting
to me that they were together in life and together in death."

Earlier on Friday, Clinton, declaring a national day of mourning on
Sunday, addressed himself to young people: "And my message to the
children is that this was an evil thing. And the people who did it
were terribly, horribly wrong. We will catch them and we will punish
them."

Clinton and his wife, Hillary, plan to visit Oklahoma City on Sunday
for a memorial service.

More than 100 experts were working in the medical examiner's office,
including FBI fingerprint experts, to help identify the victims.

Fire Chief Gary Marrs said the process of retrieving and identifying
bodies is extremely difficult, in part because there were so many
unattached body parts.


... Doubt it? Gimme a kidney.
 * DaveRice@EdenBBS.com

