Oklahoma+City+Bombing+-+1995

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by (Rachel Vesey), (Courtney Harber), (Tony Pisto) (Karly Harris)

=__Overview__=

• [] • [] • On April 19, 1995 a bomb exploded inside a rental truck parked at the federal building in Oklahoma City • 168 were killed including 19 children, and half of the 9-story building was destroyed • McVeigh charged with and ultimately executed for the bombing
 * Over 800 injured
 * Damaged/destroyed an addition 300 buildings
 * Felt as far away as 30 miles
 * McVeigh was first arrested for having no license and plate and a handgun on him that was illegal
 * He was in county jail for 2 days and was about to be released on $500 bond when he was handed over to FBI agents and in federal custody
 * His accomplice, Terry Nichols, lived with his brother James in Dexter, MI
 * All charges on James were dropped because of lack of evidence
 * They searched the farm and found bomb making materials
 * They constructed the bombs on the farm in Lapeer, MI
 * The OK bombing was on the 2nd anniversary of the raid of a cult with illegals weapons that killed 80 cult members
 * McVeigh and Nichols had ties to this right wing militia group in Michigan
 * McVeigh and Nichols both served in the same unit in the army
 * McVeigh was executed on June 11, 2001
 * His accomplice, Nichols, was sentenced to jail for life
 * The children who were killed were playing in the America's Kids day-care center on the 2nd floor which was directly above the blast of the bomb.
 * On May 23, a decision was made to destroy what was left of the building. They were certain that no survivors remained, but after the demolishing the building, 3 more bodies were found in the rubble
 * An estimated $500 million in damage was caused
 * June 2, 1997, McVeigh was sentence to die by [|lethal injection]

 The morning of April 19th, 1995 was peaceful until 9:02 AM for the people of Oklahoma City, Oklahoma. Outside of the Murrah Federal Building, a Ryder rental truck exploded, the blast killing 168 people, damaging about 200 other in the city, totaling about $500 million in damage. The blast was so big that many people thought that there were 2 explosions, as the AFT (where bombs are legally stored) may have blown up also; there is evidence to prove both theories.  This terrorist attack was the worst on American soil (before 9/11) and many citizens were freaked out about their security: Oklahoma was in the heartland of America, deep into the middle of the country. Many assumed that it was the work of Islamic extremist because of the World Trade Center bombing in 1993 was similar technique wise.  Hours after the bombing, FBI agents were looking for suspects, when they got footage from a security camera of the Ryder truck that was carrying the bombs before it exploded ; it was tracked down from Junction City, Kansas. The man said it was rented by two unidentified white men came in and rented it 2 days before the bombing. FBI got hold of sketches and one was identified as Timothy McVeigh. He was already in jail by this time; he was driving without a license plate and was carrying a gun with him when he got pulled over by a police officer (near the Kansas boarder) about 80 minutes after the bomb went off. (He was not a suspect at this time when he was arrested, but since he was he had to go to court; his trial started in 1997.)  Why would an American attack his homeland though? There could be so many different reasons to, but it McVeigh's case it was hatred towards the government. Two years before the Oklahoma City Bombing, the government had mission to control the Branch Davidian group, a religious cult that held illegal weapons and was opposed to the government, hiding out in Texas. In the attack, 84 people were killed, 80 of the cult members and 4 government agents. McVeigh reacted to this by questioning ‘what America has become.’ This event occurred on April 19th, 1993 and triggered McVeigh to plan his attack on the anniversary of it. ====A man named Timothy McVeigh and his [|accomplice] created a car bomb and parked it outside of a Federal building. This car exploded the whole north side of the building and created a huge crater that covered all nine floors. The floor that was directly above the blast was a day care center which means shortly before that is when the kids were just getting dropped off there. This explosions did damage not only to the building but to the surrounding area covering house and other buildings with debris and other materials. A mass amount of people were injured and killed in this tragic attack.==== =__Source Annotation__=

Source 1 - Kevin Caruso. Oklahomacitybombing.com. This source seems to be a report telling a story of what happened but it's very strongly opinionated. The information seems accurate because the creator of the site seems to have had personal experience or relation with the bombing. This source gave me a good summary for my overview and a lot of very graphic pictures to use as well. It also included a lot of statistics and facts about what happened.

Source 2 - Indystar.com This source is a summary at first but goes into becoming a list of dates similar to a timeline of what happened after the attack. It also shows what happened BEFORE the attack and dates of McVeigh's planning for the bombing and steps he took. The information seems very accurate as well because it seems like a very popular and famous websites with many other articles written on big events like this one.

Source 3 - The Americana Annual 1996 This source is a story with a lot of description and details of exactly what happened, how it affected people and what happened after wards. This was the worst terrorist act ever on U.S. soil it says. It also states that as firefighters continued to search for survivors, law enforcement officials had already begun looking for clues. Useful evidence was found in all the rubble. This information seems accurate but some of the numbers and statistics are different than what I found from my other two sources on the internet which seem more recent. It seems to me like it must be valid info because it's in the Americana Annual, which is a famous and very popular series of books or encyclopedias. This Info will help me with my summary because it's a lot longer with more details about the trial than the websites I found.

**Source 1**- http://www.fema.gov/emergency/usr/usrok95.shtm **Summary**-This source has good quick information about the Oklahoma City Bombing in 1995. It does not go into details about the incident just brief note. Good to look back on for information. Would need more information on the bombing. **Assess**-The sources information is good and thorough. The source has true facts, not have false information. A trusted website is the U.S. Department of Homeland Security. **Reflect**-The source is good to look back on for any quick information. Has a lot of good facts that other websites don't.

**Source 2** -Kallen Stuart the 1990's **Assess -** This book is full of great information to give you very descriptive details on what happened. All of the information from the book matches up correctly with other websites that I have seen which means that the information is not false. **Reflect -** This is a good reference if you want to know facts about what happened and want it quickly and not for it to take over half an hour.
 * Summary- ** This source was good and had step by step of what happened. Good information of what happened first to the final punishments of Terry Nichols and Timothy McVeigh. A lot of background information on the men.

** Summary **- ﻿This source was very accurate and pact with useful information. Descriptive information of the bombing before, during, and after. Details of what were citizens and FBI where doing to fix the problem and rescue as many people and children as fast as possible. Using description of the building and interviews of witness was very useful and getting a better understanding of the bombing. **Reflect-**I would use this source to have a good over view of the bombing and to know the reactions of citizens, victims, and FBI. This website was very detailed and I would use the source again.
 * Source 3- history1900s.about.com Oklahoma City Bombing **
 * Assess- ** Using this source I trusted having correct inforamtion. Having citation to insure that information was a lie or made up. Not a lot of advertisments and distractions so I know it is a trusted website.


 * Source 1 - [|The Oklahoma City Bombing]**
 * Summary**- This website has some really interesting points that I have only heard on this website. If gives a ton of information along with some pictures and videos to help with visualizing the bombing effect.
 * Assess**- I feel that this information is correct and very realistic. It gives a couple of instances that makes me think of why I haven't heard this from a different source. The information on this website matches up with those of other sites and books.
 * Reflect**- If I had to pick one source then I would choose this source because of all of the visualization I can get from it. I am a visual learner and am able to learn better when I can see instances of what has occurred or taken place.


 * Source 2- [|The Oklahoma City Bombing 1995]**
 * Summary**- I was able to get a lot of information that helped me to clearly see what happened during all of this. It starts from the beginning of the day to the end with the death toll from the explosion with very thorough details.
 * Assess**- The information was very clear and was easy to understand. I feel that some of the picture on this website had nothing to do with the bombing of Oklahoma.
 * Reflect-** This source doesn't reflect on what happened before the truck exploded and how McVeigh was able to set up the truck and explosion. This source did talk about the morning of the explosion though but didn't have a lot of information that explained what happened after that bomb.


 * Source 3**- [|American Terrorists]
 * Summary-** This book is based purely off of Tim McVeigh's life. This book tends to show the good in McVeigh and not the evil as everybody claims him to be. The book tells you why McVeigh was led to do such a thing and who led him to do this.
 * Assess-** This information was really helpful to me but it all depends on what you are reading the book for. Are you reading the book to find more reasons on why McVeigh is such a terrible person or are you reading it to see why he would blow up a huge building?
 * Reflect-** This book was enjoyable to me and I believe that it can change the way you think of McVeigh and see the real reason to why he set the car bomb. If you truly want to know why he did it then you should definitely read this book. This book also has tons of information about his early child hood and while he was growing up.


 * __[] __
 * **Summary: ** This source gave me basically most of the information I have, details of Tim McVeigh’s life and how the planning of the bomb happened.
 * **Assess: **Of all the sources I used, this is the one that I liked the most and trusted the most for accurate information.
 * **Reflect: ** I would use this source to get details of how the planning of the bomb happened, specific dates of important events and small details which you wouldn’t find anywhere else.
 * Simon, Jeffrey. //<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; font-size: 16px; text-align: start; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">The American Annual. // Grolier incorporated. United States. 1996.Print.
 * <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: serif; font-size: 16px; text-align: start; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">**<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; font-size: 16px; text-align: start; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Summary: **<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; font-size: 16px; text-align: start; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"> Gave basic information found in all of the other sources, though there was lots of little details also that I didn’t read about in the other sources
 * <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: serif; font-size: 16px; text-align: start; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">**<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; font-size: 16px; text-align: start; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Assess: **<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; font-size: 16px; text-align: start; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"> Since this was written the year after the attack, there are somethings that are not mentioned in there becuase people didn’t know that stuff yet, but it does have good information about the FBI on the case.
 * <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: serif; font-size: 16px; text-align: start; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">**<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; font-size: 16px; text-align: start; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Reflect: **<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; font-size: 16px; text-align: start; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"> I would use this source for statistics and learning about the FBI investigation.
 * <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: serif; font-size: 16px; text-align: start; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">//<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; font-size: 16px; text-align: start; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">The American Scene: Events, 9 volumes, //<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; font-size: 16px; text-align: start; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"> Danbury, CT: Grolier Education, 1999. Print.
 * <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: serif; font-size: 16px; text-align: start; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">**<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; font-size: 16px; text-align: start; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Summary: **<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; font-size: 16px; text-align: start; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"> Information about the trail of McVeigh.
 * <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: serif; font-size: 16px; text-align: start; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">**<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; font-size: 16px; text-align: start; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Assess: **<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; font-size: 16px; text-align: start; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Theres not much about the actual trail, though there are a few interesting facts, but overall I got most of what this said in the first source.
 * <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: serif; font-size: 16px; text-align: start; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">**<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; font-size: 16px; text-align: start; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Reflect: **<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; font-size: 16px; text-align: start; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"> Details about the McVeigh trail.
 * <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; font-size: 16px; text-align: start; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Jennings, Peter; Brewster, Todd. //<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; font-size: 16px; text-align: start; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">The Century for Young People. // Random House, Inc. New York, New York. 1999. Print.
 * <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: serif; font-size: 16px; text-align: start; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">**<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; font-size: 16px; text-align: start; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Summary: **<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; font-size: 16px; text-align: start; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Went over the basics that I learned already.
 * <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: serif; font-size: 16px; text-align: start; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">**<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; font-size: 16px; text-align: start; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Assess: **<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; font-size: 16px; text-align: start; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"> Simple facts everyone knows already, nothing new or interesting.
 * <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: serif; font-size: 16px; text-align: start; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">**<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; font-size: 16px; text-align: start; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Reflect: **<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; font-size: 16px; text-align: start; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Use to learn about what the Branch Davidians are.

=__Reflections and Conclusions__= I don't really understand why two soldiers, who must have pride for their country, would go and bomb it. My best understanding is that they were angry at the government and were trying to rebel or make a point, no matter if it were wrong or right. But I think they did it in the wrong way completely by killing innocent people and children. I also find it extremely shocking and scary that the brother of Terry Nichols, James, lived in Lapeer Michigan! It's very scary to think they were in and out of his farm in Lapeer, building bombs and planning an attack to kill hundreds of people. Why would they think this would help change our government in any way? Why did the cult being attacked affect them so much? Was it related to the militia group they were apart of? Thinking of 9/11 United airlines flight 175 hit the southern tower at 9:03. The Oklahoma City bombing that occured over six years before the bombed blasted at 9:03. I was shocked to find out that the bombing was one of the first terrorist attacks until the 9/11. The men Timothy McVeigh and Terry Nichols planned the bombing together. They used fertilizer for an ingredient ammonium nitrate the main ingredient for a bomb. What suprised me the most was they made the bomb in there backyard shed. When learning that the building had a day care and was right near where the bomb exploded made me mad. The reason was to destroy some federal offices that where in the building. I think the punishment where fair for McVeigh and Nichols. I feel that McVeigh is being mistaken as the worst man to have happen to this Country. I don't believe that, that is necessarily true because he had reasons to do it and that is why he attacked that building on purpose. Maybe he taught our Country a lesson on what could happen from our government making a couple of people mad at them. We should be more careful about who we attack and how we do it because this can happen again and day and year. I still think that it was terrible for McVeigh to have killed so many innocent people and cost so much money in damages, but was it for a good reason or bad. =__Multimedia__= __http://www.oklahomacitybombing.com/oklahoma-city-bombing-pictures-8.html__

__http://www.oklahomacitybombing.com/oklahoma-city-bombing-pictures-4.html__

__http://www.cbsnews.com/video/watch/?id=1501061n__

http://www.truthmove.org/workspace/photos-content/Oklahoma_City_bombing.jpg

=__Works Cited__=

"FEMA: Oklahoma City Bombing, 1995." //FEMA | Federal Emergency Management Agency//. FEMA, 11 Aug. 2010. Web. 24 May 2011. <http://www.fema.gov/emergency/usr/usrok95.shtm>.

//Indystar.com//. Gannet Co. Inc. May 10 2011.

Kevin Caruso. //Oklahomacitybombing.com//. May 10 2011.

Kallen, Stuart. A Cultural History Of The United States Through The Decades: The 1990's. Lucent Books. San Diego, California. 1999. Print.

Rosenberg, Jennifer. "Oklahoma City Bombing - The 1995 Oklahoma City Bombing of the Murrah Federal Building." //20th Century History//. Jennifer Rosenberg. Web. 24 May 2011. <http://history1900s.about.com/cs/crimedisaster/p/okcitybombing.htm>.

The Americana Annual 1996. Grolier Limited. Canada. 1996. Print.

"Oklahoma City Bombing 1995." dart2.arc.nasa.gov. 4 Mar. 2009. Web. 21 May 2011.

"The Oklahoma City Bombing: Were there additional explosive charges and additional bombers?" Whatreallyhappened.com. Web. 21 May 2011.

Michel,Lou. American Terrorist: Timothy McVeigh & The Oklahoma City Bombing. Harper. 2001. Print.