Oklahoma City: Part 1


It Wasn't Just fertilizer.

The first thing I am going to do here is destroy the government's story. Actually... It's been done a hundred times before. So it isn't really that tough for me. What you will find here was compiled from several sources in a book by David Hoffman. The information is easily verifiable, should you choose to distrust Mr Hoffman's word or his extensive bibliography. I've actually looked up some of the numbers myself, just to check. Buckle up kids. Here we go:

- In a letter hand-delivered to each member of Congress U.S. Air Force Brigadier General, Benton K. Partin stated:

"When I first saw the pictures of the truck-bomb's asymmetrical damage to the Federal Building, my immediate reaction was that the pattern of damage would have been technically impossible without supplementing demolition charges at some of the reinforcing concrete column bases. For a simplistic blast truck-bomb, of the size and composition reported, to be able to reach out on the order of 60 feet and collapse a reinforced column base the size of column A-7 is beyond credulity. "

When it comes to things like this, we should listen to General Partin. He was personally responsible for practically every non-nuclear test the Air Force ran on this sort of thing... meaning... when it comes to blowing up buildings with bombs, particularly pattern damage... he's one of the brightest guys on the planet.

- Dr Samuel Cohen also knows a little about explosives... considering he invented the Neutron Bomb. In a letter sent to Representative Charles Key he states:
"It would have been absolutely impossible and against the laws of nature for a truck full of fertilizer and fuel oil, no matter how much was used… to bring the building down."

- Dr. Roger Raubach, a Professor of Chemistry, who served on the research faculty of Stanford University says: "General Partin's assessment is absolutely correct. I don't care if they pulled up a semi-trailer truck with 20 tons of ammonium-nitrate; it wouldn't do the damage we saw there." He goes on to say, in an interview with The New American magazine: "The detonation velocity of the shock wave from an ANFO (ammonium-nitrate/fuel-oil) explosion is on the order of 3,500 meters per second. In comparison, military explosives generally have detonation velocities that hit 7,000 to 8,000-plus meters per second. The most energetic single-component explosive of this type, C-4--which is also known as Cyclonite or RDX--is about 8,000 meters per second and above. You don't start doing big-time damage to heavy structures until you get into those ranges, which is why the military uses those explosives."

- Blasters agree: Sam Gronning has been blowing things up professionally for over 30 years. He also told New American: "I set off a 5,000 lb ANFO charge. I was standing 1,000 feet from it, and all it did was muss my hair, take out the mud in the creek that we were trying to get rid of, and shatter a few leaves off the trees around it. It didn't cause any collateral damage to any of the deeply set trees that were within 20 feet of it."

- ANFO just isn't a very good explosive for big work. A publication from the Atlas Powder company states:
"agricultural fertilizer prills when made into ANFO had very poor explosive characteristics. They would not detonate efficiently because of their high density, lack of porosity and heavy inert coatings of anti-setting agents. The ability of an oiled prill to be detonated depends greatly upon the density of the prill. Dense prills, such as agricultural grade, often are not detonable at all; or if initiated, perform at a very low rate of detonation and may die out in the bore hole performing no useful work.

-- Army demolition manuals clearly state, ANFO is not good for destroying concrete or steel, as stated in Army Manual TM 31-210: Improvised Munitions Handbook.

- 4800 pounds of ANFO mixed with racing fuel (the 4th and final report the government gave on the explosive McVeigh used) would produce a pressure wave of roughly 300lbs per square inch at the blast point, and the force would dissipate quickly with distance. In other words, 30 to 40 feet away, it wouldn't have even scratched the paint off the Murrah Building, which, contrary to Soldier of Fortune's hit piece, was actually designed to withstand earth-quakes, and explosive attack.

- According to the engineers and architects who designed the Murrah building, the concrete used was designed to withstand pressures of 2000 to 4000 pounds per square inch.

- According to concrete manufacturers that estimate is very low, and doesn't account for steel reinforcement, which would put the numbers closer to 10,000 psi.

- Several otherwise intelligent people who would like to refute this evidence like to site several other ANFO bombings that produced substantial damage, such as the Marine Bunker that got trashed in Beirut in 1982. They neglect to consider that the bomb in that case was detonated from inside the building, and the building was smaller, and infinitely lighter than the Murrah building. Some other examples:

In the summer of 1996, an IRA truck-bomb detonated in the heart of Manchester's financial district. The device, constructed of ANFO and 3,500 pounds of Semtex, a high-velocity, military-grade plastic explosive, caused considerable damage to the surrounding buildings, but left them relatively intact. Although the device managed to break a lot of windows and injure 206 people, no one was killed.

On June 25, 1996, a tanker-trailer packed with RD-X plastic explosives blew up outside the Khobar Towers apartment complex at King Abdul Aziz Air Base in Saudi Arabia, killing 19 American servicemen and injuring hundreds more. While the blast produced a crater 35 feet deep and 85 feet across (the crater in Oklahoma was approximately 6 feet deep and 16 feet across, although the government claimed it was 30 feet), it didn't do the same amount of damage done to the Murrah Building--a building constructed to much more rigorous codes and specifications. Yet authorities claim that the bomb was at least the size as that which blew up the Federal Building.


Enough of that silliness. So what did happen? I've not heard any credible talk that denies that there was fertilizer, and probably a fertilizer bomb present. Most likely it was a diversion. Smoke and Mirrors for the real thing, or more specificly things, inside the building. And speaking of that...

- Strategic Investment newsletter reported that a Pentagon study had been leaked which backed up General Partin's analysis:
A classified report prepared by two independent Pentagon experts has concluded that the destruction of the federal building in Oklahoma City last April was caused by five separate bombs. The two experts reached the same conclusion for the same technical reasons. Sources close to the Pentagon study say Timothy McVeigh did play a role in the bombing but peripherally, as a "useful idiot." The multiple bombings have a Middle Eastern "signature," pointing to either Iraqi or Syrian involvement.

- David Hall, general manager of KPOC-TV in Ponca City, Oklahoma, who has investigated the ATF's role in the bombing. He gave us some tastey quotes relating to deliveries to the Murrah Building: "We do know that explosives were delivered there without a doubt. We know there were six boxes of 25 to 35 pounds marked 'high explosives' delivered to the building two weeks prior to the explosion. We had contact with the truck driver who was involved in that delivery. The name of the trucking company is Tri-State, located in Joplin, Missouri."

- Tri-State is an explosives carrier.

- Mr Hall also says: "We also know that the ATF had a magazine inside the building, which was illegal. But the floor was blown out of that magazine. And there's some question about what was in there too that created that damage, because that was a foot of concrete that was blown out of that magazine."

- Mr Hall stopped investigating the matter in 1995 when the IRS audited him.

- Oklahoma City Fire Marshal Dick Miller reported that a bomb was found on the third floor of the building (in the ATF office actually) that had timer. The timer was set to 9:10am. The bomb had malfunctioned. Other witnesses at the scene saw the bomb squad carry it away, and local news casters mentioned it on air.

- Investigator Phil O'Halloran has Bill Martin of the Oklahoma City Police Department on tape stating that one of the bombs found in the building was two to three five-gallon containers of Mercury Fulminate--a powerful explosive--one not easily obtainable except to military sources.

- According to the CIA Mercury Fulminate residue was found on the roof-tops of several buildings near-by.

- Governor Frank Keating told reporters: "The reports I have is that one device was deactivated, and there's another device, and obviously whatever did the damage to the Murrah Building was a tremendous, very sophisticated explosive device."

- During live coverage KFOR announced: "The second explosive was found and defused. The third explosive was found--and they are working on it right now as we speak. I understand that both the second and the third explosives were larger than the first."

-Channel 4 interviewed terrorism expert Dr. Randall Heather. Dr. Heather stated: "We should find out an awful lot, when these bombs are taken apart. We got lucky today, if you can consider anything about this tragedy lucky. It's actually a great stroke of luck, that we've got defused bombs. It's through the bomb material that we'll be able to track down who committed this atrocity."

To sum up... The Government would have you believe that a couple guys got together... bought fertilizer, rented a truck, mixed up 1000.. I mean... 2000... no.. 4000.... wait... 4800 pound bomb... parked the truck 40 feet from the Murrah Building... and created an explosion that did so much damage to the building that it had to be demolished.

As you can see, this is not possible. ANFO cannot be used to make a shaped charge. Any dynamic engineer or blaster will confirm this. If it were even possible, it would require the same type of electronics used in our nukes.

I reckon at this point you've either been convinced that a truck full of ANFO couldn't have possibly done what they say it did. Either that, or you're gonna head of on a fact finding mission. If you choose the latter, I am confident you will eventually conclude the same thing I did.

Say... Did I mention that Timothy McVeigh was in a COHORT unit?

Check back soon for Part II.