Oklahoma City Case

What happened in Oklahoma City to me should be considered terrorism. It should be considered

terrorism because the definition of terrorism is, the use of violence and threats to intimidate or

coerce, especially for political purposes. And in this case on April 19, 1995 a man named

Timothy Mcveigh had a 5,000 pound bomb, hidden inside a Ryder truck, parked outside the

Alfred P. Murrah Federal Building, and had it exploded. The explosion caused massive damage

to the building killing 168 people, 19 of them were children. The motive or reason for the

bombing was, "according to the prosecutors, McVeigh plotted the bombing in retaliation for the

government's 1993 raid on the compound of the Branch Davidian religious sect near Waco,

Texas. The Waco raid reportedly incensed McVeigh, already on the fringes of the anti-

government militia movement, who held the government responsible for the deaths of the

roughly 80 people inside the compound.

McVeigh believed his attack, timed on the second anniversary of the Waco raid would inspire a

popular uprising, prosecutor said." This bombing was the worst terrorist attack on the U.S. until

September 11, 2001. "McVeigh, angered by the Waco tragedy, decided to enact retribution to

those he felt responsible -- the federal government, especially the FBI and the Bureau of

Alcohol, Tobacco, and Firearms (ATF). In downtown Oklahoma City, the Alfred P. Murrah

Federal Building held numerous federal agency offices, including those of the ATF." Ninety

minutes after the explosion, McVeigh was pulled over by a highway patrol officer for driving

without a license plate.

Then the officer discovered that McVeigh had an unregistered gun, then arrested him on a

firearms charge. Before they could release McVeigh they tied him to the bombing and on June 3,

1997, McVeigh was convicted of murder and conspiracy and on August 15, 1997 he was

sentenced to death by lethal injection. On June 11, 2001, McVeigh was executed. Now Terry

Nichols who was also a part of the bombing, was brought in for questioning two days after the

bombing