In this weeks discussion board, you are asked to discuss the events of the Oklahoma City bombing (April 19,1995). At the time, this was one of the largest terrorist attacks to occur on U.S. soil prior to the September 11, 2001 (9/11) attacks.

As asked in Unit I about the 9/11 attacks, could the Oklahoma City bombing could have been prevented? If so, how? If not, why? Please be detailed in your responses to the questions above. You are to provide scholarly, peer-reviewed, and authoritative supporting evidence through research.

REPLY TO MY CLASSMATE’S RESPONSE TO THE ABOVE QUESTION AND EXPLAIN WHY YOU AGREE? (A MINIMUM OF 200 WORDS EACH)                   

In your responses should be substantive in nature, meaning you should present discourse by asking questions of your peers (how did they arrive at their conclusion or what was the premise of their argument). You can challenge one another and present an alternative analysis. All of this should be supported by the research of scholarly, peer-reviewed articles, and authoritative reporting (government). DO NOT USE NEWS OR MEDIA.

CLASSMATE’S POST

Could the Oklahoma City bombing could have been prevented? Great question! Professor thanks for the question. Obviously, 9/11 overshadows Oklahoma City bombing a lot but I think there is a certain hypocrisy as well. Oklahoma City bombing was done by Americans. That is hard for some people to accept. Much easier just to push it to the recesses of one’s mind.

I believe there are copious amounts of gaps and literal dead ends concerning the Oklahoma City bombing that yet remain unanswered. In other words that our government is more interested generating narratives than truth?

Yes, I do believe it could have been prevented simply because the Oklahoma City bombing involved multiple perpetrators at multiple levels throughout the buildup to the actual mass murder via explosives and only two of them were ever brought to justice because only two of them fit the narratives the Clinton Administration was trying to sell to the American public at the time.

The Philippines NICA Intelligence Agency had a file on Terry Nichols three inches thick replete with pictures of him with terrorist leaders on multiple occasions. I strongly believe that the Clinton FBI and Justice Department wasn’t interested before the Oklahoma City bombing when it was first offered could have saved lives and was even less interesting during the prosecution of the Oklahoma City bombing terrorists despite that file exposing multiple figures involved in the plot who remain free to the best of my knowledge.  

Plus, the amount of evidence suppressed in the Oklahoma City bombing trial is actually of greater volumes than the prosecution’s final evidence.

Also, the Oklahoma City bombing was a plot involving multiple people from multiple terror groups, such as paid informants including Melvin Lattimore who should have warned US authorities but didn’t or were ignored.