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Jewish World Review Oct. 12, 2005 / 9 Tishrei, 5766 The media is remarkably incurious about terrorism coincidences By Jack Kelly
http://www.JewishWorldReview.com |
On Oct. 1st, Joel Henry Hinrichs, 21, an engineering student at the
University of Oklahoma, died when an explosive device he was wearing
detonated while he was sitting on a park bench 100 yards away from the
stadium where 84,000 fans were watching Oklahoma's football team play Kansas
State.
Because the death is considered a suicide, it has attracted little attention
beyond Oklahoma. A Nexis search for "Joel Hinrichs" the day of this writing
produced just 41 mentions.
Hinrichs' father said his son was a troubled loner, but he had no idea he
was suicidal. No suicide note has been found.
About 30,000 people in the United States commit suicide each year. Oklahoma
native Mark Tapscott notes Hinrichs is apparently the first ever to commit
suicide by blowing himself/herself up.
Hinrichs used considerably more explosive than was required to kill just
himself:
"The explosion that killed Hinrichs also burned a large area around the
bench," reported Mick Hinton of the Tulsa World.
"A tree near the detonation site exhibits numerous small round holes that
look like those that would be made by a ball bearing or a nailhead, both of
which are routinely used by Middle Eastern terrorist bombers," said
Tapscott, who works for the Heritage Foundation in Washington D.C. The
holes were only on the side of the tree facing the bench where Hinrichs was
seated.
The FBI found more explosives in the apartment Hinrichs shared with a
Pakistani student, Fazil Cheema. The apartment is a couple of blocks from
the mosque where "20th hijacker" Zacarias Moussaoui worshipped when he was
attending flight school in Norman.
The FBI also reportedly found Islamist literature and a ticket to Algeria in
the apartment, but journalists can't confirm this, because the FBI has had
the search warrant sealed, something not typically done in cases of
suspected suicide.
The FBI found 13 plastic bottles in Hinrichs' car.
The FBI did confirm that "dangerous materials" were removed from the
apartment, and subsequently destroyed at the police range in Norman.
Whatever those "dangerous materials" were, they apparently weren't enough
for Hinrichs, because he tried to buy ammonium nitrate fertilizer — the key
ingredient in the bomb that leveled the Murrah building in Oklahoma City in
1995 — at the Ellison Feed and Seed two days before his death.
The principal component of the bomb Hinrichs was wearing was TATP
(triacetone hyperoxide). It can be made by combining drain cleaner and
bleach.
TATP rarely is found in explosives in the United States, but is popular with
Muslim extremists, who call it "Mother of Satan." The compound is highly
volatile, and can explode spontaneously.
OU senior Adam Smith told reporters a ticket taker at Gate 6 told him a
young man had tried to gain entrance to the stadium, but sprinted away when
the ticket taker went to search his backpack. The ticket taker refused
comment when reporter Jayna Davis asked him about the alleged incident.
Oklahoma University President David Boren said there is no evidence Hinrichs
had bought a ticket to the Kansas State game, nor can he be identified on
surveillance cameras at the stadium.
But Hinrichs could easily have purchased a ticket from a scalper outside the
stadium. And, Tapscott notes, since Hinrich's upper body was destroyed by
the blast, we don't know what he looked like on the day of his death.
OU Professor Stephen Sloan, a terrorism expert, told the Tulsa World's
Hinton the size and timing of the explosion that killed Hinrichs "make it
logical to think he was trying to get into the stadium."
If Hinrichs were trying to take a lot of his fellow students with him, he
was acting as a lone wolf, the FBI says. No connection has been found
between Hinrichs and extremist groups, the agency said.
Three bombs contained in plastic bottles were found in a courtyard on the
campus of Georgia Tech Oct. 10th. One of them exploded, injuring the
custodian who found them.
The Friday before, a bomb was found on the campus of UCLA. That night, a
Muslim student shot himself after police surrounded his apartment near the
San Diego campus of the University of California. A chemical lab was found
in the bathroom.
These may be just remarkable coincidences. But the news media are
remarkably incurious about them.
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© 2005, Jack Kelly |
Mitch Albom | |||||||||||
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