Posted on 04/19/2006 5:57:10 AM PDT by Coop
BBC archive:
1995: Many feared dead in Oklahoma bombing
A huge car bomb has exploded at a government building in Oklahoma City killing at least 80 people including 17 children at a nursery.
At least 100 people have been injured and the number of dead is expected to rise.
In an emotional speech, President Bill Clinton vowed "swift, certain and severe" punishment for those behind the atrocity.
"The United States will not tolerate and I will not allow the people of this country to be intimidated by evil cowards," he told a White House news conference this evening.
Trapped in the rubble
The blast happened just after 0900 local time when most workers were in their offices. It destroyed the facade of the ten-storey Alfred Murrah Building.
One survivor said he thought there was an earthquake: "I never heard anything that loud. It was a horrible noise...the roar of the whole building crumbling,"
There were scenes of chaos as paramedics treated the wounded on the pavement and rescue workers battled to dig out those still trapped in the rubble.
The building housed a children's nursery on the second floor as well as social security, customs, agriculture and the Federal Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms (ATF).
Some federal agents noted that the ATF mounted the operation two years ago today which ended the siege of David Koresh's Branch Davidian cult in Waco, Texas. However members of the cult commemorating the siege have angrily denied any connection.
The State Department would not discuss the possibility of this being a terrorist attack but the FBI and Oklahoma police put out an alert for three men believed to be of Middle Eastern origin driving a brown Chevrolet pick-up truck.
Sheikh Omar Abdel Rahman and ten of his supporters are currently on trial for the World Trade Center bombing in February 1993.
Government buildings in Washington and all over the US have been put on high alert. Federal offices in Wilmington, Boston and Rochester were evacuated after bomb scares.
I was at work, listening to people immediately assume it was Muslims. Nothing much has changed.
We were in a post office and people were talking about it
in shocked hushed tones, the P.O. workers looked concerned.
We rushed home and watched the horror of it all on TV, shocked.
I was on Maternity Leave. Can't believe it is 11 years.
I was out working when I heard the news. Another mark of the Clinton legacy.
I remember Clinton blaming this on "right wing radio"
I also remember looking for a second bomber - for at least a little while
The exception that proves the rule.
i was a freshman in college. seems like forever ago.
I had just finished getting new tires put on my car and was heading home when I heard the first news report on the radio.
I was at the Orlando Airport waiting for a flight to Boston and feeling very uncomfortable about being there as my gut felt it was international terrorism.
I had just returned to my dorm room from my 8 o'clock class. I only had one other class that day - Wednesday afternoon fluff class.
I spent most of the morning, and afternoon, on the phone with relatives and scanning the TV coverage for my uncle, since we hadn't heard from him. Finally heard from him about 6.
Long day.
I was on a Bombing Range in Arizona, wondering which Islamic faction was responsible.
That's adorable. I was a freshman in college in 1972. Now THERE's your definition of "forever ago"!
I was returning to the US Diplomatic Mission in Havana after a physical therapy session at the Cuban Army Hospital (CIMEQ). I was driving down 5th Avenue, listening to a Miami AM station and the announcer said, dismissively, that there was "a big bang somewhere out in the midwest."
I was in London.
I was in Norman, OK. Having recently graduated college, I was attending a job fair. As I was leaving, I overheard someone say it was "all over the news." I knew that I would soon find out what "it" was. I went home, my roommate was glued to the TV. He told me my mom just called, that my father was fine (he worked several blocks away), but that his car may have been destroyed (turns out, the car was fine). I still had no idea what was going on, but through the course of days and weeks a glimpse of the truth started to emerge.
I did not pay attention to the calendar today--I forgot it was April 19th. I now work about five blocks from the memorial. I think I will visit it today.
I was at work in the Crecent Center building in Memphis. My secretary came in and said her husband, who was on a business trip in OK City, had called. He had heard a loud explosion from his hotel room and said there were emergency vehicles running everywhere.
In Cancun in a pool for spring break in my senior year in HS.
Serving jury duty in downtown Indianapolis. I couldn't believe what I was seeing on TV. IIRC Senator Richard Lugar was doing a speech downtown that same day.
I was at work in Houston. A friend called and told me and then we all turned on the radio and listened, horrified.
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