Oklahoma Bomber Update

The story of the Joel Hinrichs "suicide" bombing in Oklahoma still refuses to go away. There was a segment on CNN about it that included Mark Tapscott of Tapscott's Copy Desk. Not surprisingly, the show was quite critical of bloggers, but at least it did pose the questions and expose the lack of real answers. Tapscott has a transcript of the program (evidently a draft).

There is also a report (fairly nosy registration required) that Hinrichs left a "suicide note." The "note" itself is just one line on a computer screen, typed by someone. The actual words have not been revealed to the public.

Tapscott asks more good questions:

1. Since the lone, depressed student suicide theory has been played up as the whole story, why no mention of the "suicide note" that would support that until now?
   
2. What did the "note" say, and how do we know Hinrichs wrote it?
   
3. Since the standard federal practice is to assume all bombings are terrorist actions until proven otherwise, why the early and persistent claims to the contrary in this case?
   
4. Since the federal Joint Task Force takes charge when terrorism is involved and ATF normally takes over for a "lone bomber" scenario, is that going to happen soon?

Powerline also weighed in on the Wall Street Journal article on the case and gets to the heart of things:

"As we have said before, we have no independent knowledge of Joel Hinrichs. We don't know whether he was a free-lance terrorist, part of an extremist group, or just a depressed student. But it simply won't do to cite bland, 'no known link' statements by the FBI as an excuse to sweep all questions under the rug. It is important to know whether Hinrichs intended a spectacular terrorist attack at an Oklahoma football game. If he did, it is important to know whether he was inspired by extremist ideology, and it is important to know whether he was part of an extremist group that is still operating. The answers to these questions may be No, No and No. But at this point, we have no reason to believe that the authorities actually know the answers. And the Journal's effort to stifle discussion of the subject is unworthy of that newspaper.

Speaking for myself, I'm still waiting for an explanation of why Hinrichs wanted that load of fertilizer."

Another very good question.

Technorati: Joel Hinrichs, OU Bomber, terrorism

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