22-04-2009, 02:27 AM
(This post was last modified: 22-04-2009, 02:34 AM by Bruce Clemens.)
These came soon after the bombing. I include commentary in red and other emphases are mine.
The New York Times April 23, 1995, Sunday, Late Edition – Final[/FONT]
TERROR IN OKLAHOMA: THE WITNESSES;[/FONT]
Those Who Lived, Mostly Just by Chance, Tell Their Stories[/FONT]
BYLINE: By The New York Times
SECTION: Section 1; Page 34; Column 1; National Desk
LENGTH: 2928 words
DATELINE: OKLAHOMA CITY, April 22
4. "The building just started sliding into the street." -- RICHARD S. SLAY Mr. Slay, 49, is an auditor for the Department of Health and Human Services. I arrived at just about 9 o'clock and walked into the Federal building. I walked right over to the elevators, punched the "up" button. I was on the far side, as far away from the street as you can get, standing in front of the elevator. As soon as the doors opened, the air in the elevator shaft started whooshing out. There must have been little pebbles and dirt in the elevator shaft getting sucked up. It pelted my right hand and my right arm, where I was just wearing a button-down shirt -- I had it rolled up. The blast of air came first, and then the explosion.
"The blast of air came first, and then the explosion." A blast of air strong enough to pelt Mr. Slay's arm with pebbles and dirt must certainly have been be caused by compression of the elevator shaft. But "the explosion" came later. The building was already deconstructing before the truck went off.
6. "I was sitting maybe three feet away, and where I usually sat was gone." -- BOBBIE PURVINE Ms. Purvine, 24, worked in the Federal Employees Credit Union on the third floor of the Murrah building. There was no warning of any sort. First it went black, and I thought the electricity had just gone off, because we don't have any windows on that side and it had done that before. Then stuff started falling, and smoke, the nastiest-smelling smell, like burnt tar. I'm a teller, and I wasn't at my station because I was posting mail. And the tellers, where they were had collapsed. I was sitting maybe three feet away, and where I usually sat was gone.
"First it went black, and I thought the electricity had just gone off...Then stuff started falling, and smoke, the nastiest-smelling smell, like burnt tar." Notice the latency between the room going black and the destruction? That certainly is not the description of one bomb that takes out half the building. Something took out the power before the main bomb(s) did their damage.
Here're are some VERY interesting clippings from other media after the blast.
(Emphases mine)
WORKERS AT COMPLEX HERE WORRY ABOUT OTHERS, THEMSELVES / FEDERAL EMPLOYEES KEPT TABS ON COLLEAGUES IN OKLAHOMA CITY. " . . . HERE WE ARE, ALL JUST SITTING HERE," SAID A WORKER.
BYLINE: Joseph A. Slobodzian, INQUIRER STAFF WRITER, Inquirer staff writer Jeff Gelles contributed to this article.
SECTION: NATIONAL; Pg. A22
LENGTH: 791 words
At other federal offices, colleagues worried about people they knew who worked in the Murrah building.
At the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms office in the historic Customs House at Second and Chestnut Streets, Robert F. Graham, the assistant agent in charge, was on the phone trying to find out the status of the bureau's small Oklahoma City office, on the ninth floor of the ruined building.
All 10 agents and support staff were accounted for, Graham said, but one agent was known to be trapped on the ninth floor. By mid-afternoon, said ATF agent Stephen T. Haskins, the bureau here got some of the sparse good news to come out of Oklahoma City. The colleague had been found uninjured, trapped in an elevator.
Daily News (New York) April 20, 1995, Thursday
BYLINE: By MICHAEL DALY Daily News Columnist
SECTION: News Pg. 25
LENGTH: 707 words
...Only greater horror lay below. The blast that had shredded the front of the building had also torn into a day care center on the second floor. Espe had often ridden the elevator with the children who now had been left mangled and screaming.
One other adult who had been as lucky as Espe was the local agent in charge of the federal Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms. The agent had been in an elevator at the time of the blast, and he had plummeted several floors. He walked away in good enough shape to call his supervisors, and the agents agreed what had happened.
Back in July 1994, ATF agents had flown to Argentina to help investigate the car bombing of a building where several Jewish organizations were headquartered. A white Renault van packed with explosives had proven able to tear the front off the structure, killing 95 and injuring 200.
What happened to the federal building in Oklahoma City was nearly identical. [Worth looking into. Maybe a precursor to a precursor?] The hunt for these other car bombers was already beginning as Espe and the other survivors were helped from the scene.
NPR
GUESTS: Rev. LARRY JONES, Director and Founder, Feed the Children
BYLINE: WADE GOODWYN
SECTION: News; Domestic
LENGTH: 992 words
HIGHLIGHT: Wade Goodwyn reports live from Oklahoma City, site of the terrorist bomb attack yesterday. He talks of eyewitness accounts and the efforts being made by volunteer and relief groups to help the many injured.
BOB EDWARDS: What stories have you heard from rescue workers?
WADE GOODWYN: Well, it's- it's hard to imagine that the- that the effects of a bomb of this size has on- on- on the human body. I've heard stories about- from people who were a few blocks away and who felt a- the effects of the concussion. Reporters have talked about the fact that- that eardrums, people who were two or three blocks away, immediately burst upon impact, and a number of people have been blinded by the effects of the concussion on their optical nerves, and doctors don't know whether or not they're going to get their sight back.[ WTF???] And these are people who were otherwise untouched by the effects of the blast. One witness told me a story about he was on the scene within 15 minutes after it happened and he saw a man being led away by rescue workers. From the front he seemed completely- perfectly dressed, but as- as he passed you, all of his clothes in the back had been torn away, and he again had- had been otherwise untouched by glass or debris. He was not bleeding, it was just the- the effects of the concussion.
Daily News (New York) April 24, 1995, Monday
MARCH OF THE TEDDY BEARS
BYLINE: BY MIKE McALARY
SECTION: News Pg. 2
LENGTH: 776 words
Once, Timothy McVeigh was a child, too. For some reason, visitors to the ceremony here were struck by that thought yesterday as teddy bears were handed to the mothers of the children McVeigh allegedly slaughtered. He had a mother, too, who was once joyful at the thought of him but later quit him and his father to live in Florida. Twenty-seven years ago yesterday he was born. Now his birthday a day that once meant the celebration of Timothy McVeigh is a national day of mourning.
We live in a time of kooks. We enable them, and allow them to carry on, with our freedom of speech.
They are the waste product of democracy. The child who the feds say grew into a bomber and filled a city with teddy bears was not born with a chip on his shoulder.
Once, McVeigh was as pure and right as the children the feds say he bombed. Hate is an acquired trait. So is madness. By the time McVeigh got out of the Army after the Gulf War, the chip was secure on his shoulder. So was the madness. Reportedly he has told a friend that the Army implanted a computer chip in his body.
The New York Times April 23, 1995, Sunday, Late Edition – Final[/FONT]
TERROR IN OKLAHOMA: THE WITNESSES;[/FONT]
Those Who Lived, Mostly Just by Chance, Tell Their Stories[/FONT]
BYLINE: By The New York Times
SECTION: Section 1; Page 34; Column 1; National Desk
LENGTH: 2928 words
DATELINE: OKLAHOMA CITY, April 22
4. "The building just started sliding into the street." -- RICHARD S. SLAY Mr. Slay, 49, is an auditor for the Department of Health and Human Services. I arrived at just about 9 o'clock and walked into the Federal building. I walked right over to the elevators, punched the "up" button. I was on the far side, as far away from the street as you can get, standing in front of the elevator. As soon as the doors opened, the air in the elevator shaft started whooshing out. There must have been little pebbles and dirt in the elevator shaft getting sucked up. It pelted my right hand and my right arm, where I was just wearing a button-down shirt -- I had it rolled up. The blast of air came first, and then the explosion.
"The blast of air came first, and then the explosion." A blast of air strong enough to pelt Mr. Slay's arm with pebbles and dirt must certainly have been be caused by compression of the elevator shaft. But "the explosion" came later. The building was already deconstructing before the truck went off.
6. "I was sitting maybe three feet away, and where I usually sat was gone." -- BOBBIE PURVINE Ms. Purvine, 24, worked in the Federal Employees Credit Union on the third floor of the Murrah building. There was no warning of any sort. First it went black, and I thought the electricity had just gone off, because we don't have any windows on that side and it had done that before. Then stuff started falling, and smoke, the nastiest-smelling smell, like burnt tar. I'm a teller, and I wasn't at my station because I was posting mail. And the tellers, where they were had collapsed. I was sitting maybe three feet away, and where I usually sat was gone.
"First it went black, and I thought the electricity had just gone off...Then stuff started falling, and smoke, the nastiest-smelling smell, like burnt tar." Notice the latency between the room going black and the destruction? That certainly is not the description of one bomb that takes out half the building. Something took out the power before the main bomb(s) did their damage.
Here're are some VERY interesting clippings from other media after the blast.
(Emphases mine)
The Philadelphia Inquirer
APRIL 20, 1995 Thursday FINAL EDITION
WORKERS AT COMPLEX HERE WORRY ABOUT OTHERS, THEMSELVES / FEDERAL EMPLOYEES KEPT TABS ON COLLEAGUES IN OKLAHOMA CITY. " . . . HERE WE ARE, ALL JUST SITTING HERE," SAID A WORKER.
BYLINE: Joseph A. Slobodzian, INQUIRER STAFF WRITER, Inquirer staff writer Jeff Gelles contributed to this article.
SECTION: NATIONAL; Pg. A22
LENGTH: 791 words
At other federal offices, colleagues worried about people they knew who worked in the Murrah building.
At the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms office in the historic Customs House at Second and Chestnut Streets, Robert F. Graham, the assistant agent in charge, was on the phone trying to find out the status of the bureau's small Oklahoma City office, on the ninth floor of the ruined building.
All 10 agents and support staff were accounted for, Graham said, but one agent was known to be trapped on the ninth floor. By mid-afternoon, said ATF agent Stephen T. Haskins, the bureau here got some of the sparse good news to come out of Oklahoma City. The colleague had been found uninjured, trapped in an elevator.
Daily News (New York) April 20, 1995, Thursday
BYLINE: By MICHAEL DALY Daily News Columnist
SECTION: News Pg. 25
LENGTH: 707 words
...Only greater horror lay below. The blast that had shredded the front of the building had also torn into a day care center on the second floor. Espe had often ridden the elevator with the children who now had been left mangled and screaming.
One other adult who had been as lucky as Espe was the local agent in charge of the federal Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms. The agent had been in an elevator at the time of the blast, and he had plummeted several floors. He walked away in good enough shape to call his supervisors, and the agents agreed what had happened.
Back in July 1994, ATF agents had flown to Argentina to help investigate the car bombing of a building where several Jewish organizations were headquartered. A white Renault van packed with explosives had proven able to tear the front off the structure, killing 95 and injuring 200.
What happened to the federal building in Oklahoma City was nearly identical. [Worth looking into. Maybe a precursor to a precursor?] The hunt for these other car bombers was already beginning as Espe and the other survivors were helped from the scene.
NPR
April 20, 1995
SHOW: Morning Edition (NPR 6:00 am ET)
A Live Report From Oklahoma CitySHOW: Morning Edition (NPR 6:00 am ET)
GUESTS: Rev. LARRY JONES, Director and Founder, Feed the Children
BYLINE: WADE GOODWYN
SECTION: News; Domestic
LENGTH: 992 words
HIGHLIGHT: Wade Goodwyn reports live from Oklahoma City, site of the terrorist bomb attack yesterday. He talks of eyewitness accounts and the efforts being made by volunteer and relief groups to help the many injured.
BOB EDWARDS: What stories have you heard from rescue workers?
WADE GOODWYN: Well, it's- it's hard to imagine that the- that the effects of a bomb of this size has on- on- on the human body. I've heard stories about- from people who were a few blocks away and who felt a- the effects of the concussion. Reporters have talked about the fact that- that eardrums, people who were two or three blocks away, immediately burst upon impact, and a number of people have been blinded by the effects of the concussion on their optical nerves, and doctors don't know whether or not they're going to get their sight back.[ WTF???] And these are people who were otherwise untouched by the effects of the blast. One witness told me a story about he was on the scene within 15 minutes after it happened and he saw a man being led away by rescue workers. From the front he seemed completely- perfectly dressed, but as- as he passed you, all of his clothes in the back had been torn away, and he again had- had been otherwise untouched by glass or debris. He was not bleeding, it was just the- the effects of the concussion.
Daily News (New York) April 24, 1995, Monday
MARCH OF THE TEDDY BEARS
BYLINE: BY MIKE McALARY
SECTION: News Pg. 2
LENGTH: 776 words
Once, Timothy McVeigh was a child, too. For some reason, visitors to the ceremony here were struck by that thought yesterday as teddy bears were handed to the mothers of the children McVeigh allegedly slaughtered. He had a mother, too, who was once joyful at the thought of him but later quit him and his father to live in Florida. Twenty-seven years ago yesterday he was born. Now his birthday a day that once meant the celebration of Timothy McVeigh is a national day of mourning.
We live in a time of kooks. We enable them, and allow them to carry on, with our freedom of speech.
They are the waste product of democracy. The child who the feds say grew into a bomber and filled a city with teddy bears was not born with a chip on his shoulder.
Once, McVeigh was as pure and right as the children the feds say he bombed. Hate is an acquired trait. So is madness. By the time McVeigh got out of the Army after the Gulf War, the chip was secure on his shoulder. So was the madness. Reportedly he has told a friend that the Army implanted a computer chip in his body.
"If you're looking for something that isn't there, you're wasting your time and the taxpayers' money."
-Michael Neuman, U.S. Government bureaucrat, on why NIST didn't address explosives in its report on the WTC collapses
-Michael Neuman, U.S. Government bureaucrat, on why NIST didn't address explosives in its report on the WTC collapses