Plan Against Federal Building Or Individuals
McVeigh told Fortier of his plans to blow up a federal building, but Fortier declined to participate. Fortier also told his wife about the plans. McVeigh composed two letters to the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms, the first titled “Constitutional Defenders” and the second “ATF Read.” He denounced government officials as “fascist tyrants” and “storm troopers,” and warned:
ATF, all you tyrannical mother fuckers will swing in the wind one day for your treasonous actions against the Constitution of the United States. Remember the Nuremberg War Trials.
McVeigh also wrote a letter to recruit a customer named Steve Colbern:
A man with nothing left to lose is a very dangerous man and his energy/anger can be focused toward a common/righteous goal. What I’m asking you to do, then, is sit back and be honest with yourself. Do you have kids/wife? Would you back out at the last minute to care for the family? Are you interested in keeping your firearms for their current/future monetary value, or would you drag that ’06 through rock, swamp and cactus… to get off the needed shot? In short, I’m not looking for talkers, I’m looking for fighters… And if you are a fed, think twice. Think twice about the Constitution you are supposedly enforcing and think twice about catching us with our guard down you will lose just like Degan did and your family will lose.
With Nichols Waco Siege And Radicalization
In April 1993, McVeigh headed for a farm in Michigan where former roommate Terry Nichols lived. In between watching coverage of the Waco siege on TV, Nichols and his brother began teaching McVeigh how to make explosives by combining household chemicals in plastic jugs. The destruction of the Waco compound enraged McVeigh and convinced him that it was time to take action. He was particularly angered by the government’s use of CS gas on women and children he had been exposed to the gas as part of his military training and was familiar with its effects. The disappearance of certain evidence, such as the bullet-riddled steel-reinforced front door to the complex, led him to suspect a cover-up.
McVeigh’s anti-government rhetoric became more radical. He began to sell Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives hats riddled with bullet holes, and a flare gun that he said could shoot down an “ATF helicopter”. He produced videos detailing the government’s actions at Waco and handed out pamphlets with titles such as “U.S. Government Initiates Open Warfare Against American People” and “Waco Shootout Evokes Memory of Warsaw ’43.” He began changing his answering machine greeting every couple of weeks to various quotes by Patrick Henry, such as “Give me liberty or give me death.” He began experimenting with making pipe bombs and other small explosive devices. The government imposed new firearms restrictions in 1994 which McVeigh believed threatened his livelihood.
Waco Siege And Gun Shows
In 1993, McVeigh drove to Waco, Texas, during the Waco siege to show his support. At the scene, he distributed pro-gun rights literature and bumper stickers bearing slogans such as, “When guns are outlawed, I will become an outlaw.” He told a student reporter:
The government is afraid of the guns people have because they have to have control of the people at all times. Once you take away the guns, you can do anything to the people. You give them an inch and they take a mile. I believe we are slowly turning into a socialist government. The government is continually growing bigger and more powerful, and the people need to prepare to defend themselves against government control.
For the five months following the Waco siege, McVeigh worked at gun shows and handed out free cards printed with Lon Horiuchi‘s name and address, “in the hope that somebody in the Patriot movement would assassinate the sharpshooter.” Horiuchi is an FBI sniper and some of his official actions have drawn controversy, specifically his shooting and killing of Randy Weaver‘s wife while she held an infant child. McVeigh wrote hate mail to Horiuchi, suggesting that “what goes around, comes around”. McVeigh later considered putting aside his plan to target the Murrah Building to target Horiuchi or a member of his family instead.
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Column: Woods’ Results Inspire Hope His Words Offer Caution
ORLANDO, Fla. The moment offered great hope for the immediate future of Tiger Woods.
Golf had gone all year without his blazing red shirt on Sunday and suddenly it had two of them. Woods and 12-year-old son Charlie, decked out just like Dad, headed down the 18th fairway tied for the lead in the PNC Championship, and for a moment the unthinkable seemed possible.
Winning no matter that it was a scramble in his first tournament in the 10 months since a car crash that mangled his right leg?
But then Woods missed the green to the right, both chipped too strong trying to hole it for eagle, both missed birdie putts and par was never going to be enough. The championship belt went to John Daly and his college son.
The words asked for restraint.
No, no, no, no, Woods said with a smile.
The topic was an observation from Matt Kuchar, who played with Woods in the final round and suggested that walking aside, his game and swing looked ready for the PGA Tour.
I totally disagree. I’m not at that level. I can’t compete against these guys right now. No,” Woods said.
For those keeping track, that was his fifth No.”
It’s going to take a lot of work to get to where I feel I can complete against these guys and be at a high level, Woods said, and then he was gone.
He at least ended the year on an uplifting note.
Motivations For The Bombing
McVeigh claimed that the bombing was revenge against the government for the sieges at Waco and Ruby Ridge. McVeigh visited Waco during the standoff. While there, he was interviewed by student reporter Michelle Rauch, a senior journalism major at Southern Methodist University who was writing for the school paper. McVeigh expressed his objections over what was happening there.
McVeigh frequently quoted and alluded to the white supremacist novel The Turner Diaries he claimed to appreciate its interest in firearms. Photocopies of pages sixty-one and sixty-two of The Turner Diaries were found in an envelope inside McVeigh’s car. These pages depicted a fictitious mortar attack upon the U.S. Capitol in Washington.
In a 1,200-word essay dated March 1998, from the federal maximum-security prison at Florence, Colorado, McVeigh claimed that the terrorist bombing was “morally equivalent” to U.S. military actions against Iraq and other foreign countries. The handwritten essay, submitted to and published by the alternative national news magazine Media Bypass, was distributed worldwide by the Associated Press on May 29, 1998. This was written in the midst of the 1998 Iraq disarmament crisis and a few months before Operation Desert Fox.
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