The 50 Worst Terrorist Attacks (22 page)

On September 29, 1999, Aum announced it would close its branches and cease using that name.

Between 1998 and 2000, courts sentenced to death Kazuaki Okazaki, Masato Yokoyama, Yasuo Hayashi, and Satoro Hashimoto.

Asahara was sentenced to death on February 26, 2004.

Overview:
The public wants to
know
. So analysts shuffled before television cameras and radio microphones speaking hurriedly and so soon after an incident and can be way off the mark in surmising what is really
going on. From the famous Dewey Beats Truman headline to the fog of war, pundits frequently speculate beyond the data and miss the call. So it was in the case of the Oklahoma City bombing—and the later bombings of Madrid subways in 2004. Pundits rushed to judgment and declared that the mass casualty bombing had all the hallmarks of al Qaeda and that Middle Eastern terrorism had come to the heartland of America. Cursory investigation soon put the lie to that theory, as authorities determined within hours that the bombing was the handiwork of a small band of right wingers inspired by racist literature. The case of a decorated army veteran dragged on for years but ultimately led to the execution of bomber Timothy James McVeigh and the jailing of his coconspirators.

Incident:
On April 19, 1995, a bomb in a 1993 Ford truck exploded at 9:02
A.M
. at the nine-story Alfred P. Murrah Federal Building at Fifth and Hudson Streets in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma, killing 169—including 19 children—and injuring over 500. Among the dead were 15 children who were in the America's Kids day care center, which was destroyed when the second story of the building collapsed. Two people were found dead in a neighboring building that had been damaged. People heard the blast from 50 miles away. At least 75 buildings were condemned and at least 312 damaged. Ten buildings collapsed. Damage estimates ranged from $750 million to $1 billion.

The dead included Baylee Almon, 1, who was carried away bleeding by a fireman. The photo, sent worldwide, became a symbol of the horror of the bombing.

Approximately 250 children lost one or both of their parents in the blast.

Among the injured was a man on a Russian ice-dancing team, which had been camping out on the floor of the YMCA across from the federal building.

The bomb likely contained at least 4,800 pounds of explosives, probably including fuel oil and ammonium nitrate, a fertilizer ingredient.

Federal employees in the building worked for the Social Security Administration; the Departments of Health and Human Services, Labor, Agriculture, Veterans Affairs, Defense, Housing and Urban Development; the Secret Service; the Drug Enforcement Administration; the General Services Administration; the U.S. Customs Service; the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms; and the General Accounting Office.

Rebecca Anderson, 37, a nurse helping at the scene, was killed by falling rubble. Her heart was transplanted into a 55-year-old Oklahoma man.

A caller to Brussels RTL-TVI claimed membership in the Nation of Islam and said it was responsible. He gave his name as Mohammed Ali. Hamas (the Islamic Resistance Movement) and the Islamic Jihad in Gaza denied involvement. The FBI received hundreds of calls claiming credit for the blast.

Federal facilities around the country were evacuated when several hoax bomb threats were received. Calls were received at federal buildings in Los
Angeles, Orange and Ventura counties, at a county office building in San Diego, and at city halls in Riverside, Anaheim, and Santa Ana. Banks, post offices, and businesses received similar calls. The John F. Kennedy Federal Building in Boston was evacuated after an Internal Revenue Service (IRS) employee found several doors open that should have been locked. Federal buildings in Dallas and Fort Worth, Texas; Wilmington, Delaware; New York City and Rochester, New York; Cincinnati, Dayton, and Steubenville, Ohio; Miami, Florida; Spokane, Washington; Washington, D.C. (including the FBI, the Department of Justice, and the Capitol buildings); Omaha, Nebraska; Kansas City; Portland, Oregon; and Boise, Idaho were also evacuated after phone threats.

Pundits initially suspected Middle Eastern terrorists after a man flew to London with bags in Rome checked on to Jordan was found carrying what appeared to be bomb-making materials. U.S. citizen Abraham Abdullah Hassan Ahmad, 31, had flown to Chicago on an American Airlines flight and was to go from Chicago to Rome and Amman on an Alitalia flight. Customs officials in Chicago questioned him for so long he missed his flight. Italian authorities opened his luggage, which contained needlenosed pliers, spools of electric wire, kitchen knives, photographic materials, a video recording device, aluminum foil, and silicon that could be used in making a bomb. Also included was a photo album with pictures of military weapons, including missiles and armored vehicles. Police also found three gym suits similar to those worn by a person seen near the site of the bombing. British authorities returned him to the United States. After questioning, he was released. On November 9, 1995, he filed a $1.9 million suit against the federal government. The FBI issued an all-points bulletin for three men seen speeding from the city in a brown pickup truck.

Attorney General Janet Reno announced a $2 million reward for information leading to the arrest of the bombers.

On April 21, 1995, the U.S. Department of Justice reported the arrest of McVeigh, 27, a member of the right-wing Michigan Militia, which views the U.S. government as the enemy of the common man. McVeigh was angry with the federal raid on the Branch Davidian compound in Waco, Texas, two years earlier, in which scores died. Eight minutes after the bomb went off, he was picked up in a 1977 Mercury Marquis 20 miles from the bombing site on a traffic offense; federal authorities did not know until later that he was in custody. Police found residue of ammonium nitrate and high explosives inside the car.

According to records unsealed on November 3, 1995, McVeigh was also carrying political documents and a note citing the right to kill political oppressors. The package included a copy of the Declaration of Independence, material on the Branch Davidian raid, material on the battles of Lexington and Concord, an antigovernment leaflet, and quotations from political philosophers, including 17th-century philosopher John Locke.

McVeigh had served in the army, and was decorated for his service as a gunner on a Bradley fighting vehicle in Desert Storm. After returning from the Gulf War, an injury prevented him from successfully competing for a position with the Green Berets. He was discharged as a sergeant on December 31, 1991. He developed contacts with various militia groups in Michigan and Arizona, and stayed with his friends, the Nichols, on their Dexter, Michigan, farm. He supported himself buying and selling guns as “T. Tuttle.”

The truck used in the attack was rented from the Ryder rental agency in Junction City, Kansas, by two white men using aliases. John Doe One, later identified as McVeigh, was described as 5 feet 10 inches tall, of medium build, weighing about 180 pounds with light, close-cropped hair, and right-handed. John Doe Two was of medium build at 5 feet 9 inches tall, 175 pounds, with brown hair and a tattoo on his lower left arm, and possibly a smoker. Months later, investigators were uncertain of his identity, or whether he even existed.

On April 25, 1995, federal authorities charged Terry Lynn Nichols, 40, and his brother, James Douglas Nichols, 41, with conspiring with McVeigh to build explosives at their farm in Michigan. The charges were unrelated to the specific Oklahoma bombing, but permitted federal officials to keep them in prison while they investigated further leads. Terry Nichols was charged with involvement in the bombing on May 9, 1995.

Michael Fortier, 26, of Kingman, Arizona, told federal investigators that he and McVeigh drove to the Murrah building a few days ahead of time, apparently on a reconnaissance mission. McVeigh told him that he was going to blow up the building. His wife, Lori, testified before a grand jury after being given immunity, as did Jennifer McVeigh, 21, Timothy McVeigh's sister. Fortier had sold one gun apparently stolen in a November 5, 1994, robbery from a Royal, Arkansas, gun dealer, Roger E. Moore, that may have funded the Oklahoma bombing. The thief stole $60,000 worth of property, including 60 firearms, precious metals, and ammunition, some of which was recovered in the home of Terry Nichols.

Jennifer McVeigh told the FBI that Timothy had said that he had robbed a bank and drove around the West in a vehicle loaded with explosives. She was initially considered as a principal suspect, but the federal authorities later decided to use her as a witness.

On May 2, 1995, FBI agents arrested Gary Alan Land and Robert Jacks as material witnesses. Their movements in Kingman, Arizona, and Perry, Oklahoma, mirrored those of McVeigh.

On May 12, 1995, Steven Garrett Colbern, 35, a California biochemist and acquaintance of McVeigh, was arrested after he pulled a loaded revolver and scuffled with U.S. marshals in an Arizona mining town. He knew McVeigh by the alias Tim Tuttle. Police raiding his residence seized
four rifles, three handguns, and 16,000 rounds of ammunition, including 4,000 bullets used in assault rifles. Documents suggested that the residence was used to produce methamphetamine, known on the street as “crank.” Colbern has ties to the Arizona Patriots militia group.

Michael E. Tigar, Terry Nichols's court-appointed lawyer, said McVeigh rented the Herington, Kansas, storage shed in the name of Shawn Rivers. The Ryder truck was seen backed up to the shed on April 18, 1995. Fortier had claimed that Nichols had helped mix the explosives.

By August 8, 1995, Fortier, McVeigh's army buddy, had reached a tentative deal to turn state's evidence in return for not being named a principal in the case and facing a death penalty. Under the agreement, he would plead guilty to illegal firearms trafficking, knowledge of the bombing, and lying to federal agents.

On August 15, 1995, McVeigh and Terry Nichols were arraigned before U.S. magistrate Ronald L. Howland. They pleaded not guilty to an 11-count indictment that charged that they carried out a terrorist attack. A grand jury formally accused them on August 10, 1995. Fortier was charged in a separate indictment of knowing of the plan and concealing it from law enforcement authorities, lying to the FBI, and involvement in a robbery that financed the attack. Prosecutors said they would seek the death penalty against McVeigh and Nichols.

The indictment said “McVeigh attempted to recruit others to assist in the act of violence” and noted that McVeigh and Terry Nichols “conspired with others unknown to the Grand Jury.” The indictment did not mention John Doe Number 2, nor did it discuss any motive or where the bombing was plotted. It said the duo planned and “caused” the robbery, but did not specify who committed it. The duo were charged with conspiring to use a weapon of mass destruction to kill people and destroy federal property, with using a truck bomb to kill people, and with malicious destruction of property resulting in death. The other eight counts cited the murders of federal law enforcement officers.

On June 2, 1996, the jury found McVeigh guilty on all 11 counts of murder, conspiracy, and using a weapon of mass destruction. The jury recommended execution on June 13, 1996; Judge Richard P. Matsch sentenced him on August 14, 1996. On June 11, 2001, an unrepentant McVeigh was executed by chemical injection.

On December 24, 1996, a jury acquitted Terry Nichols of first-degree murder, but convicted him on eight counts of involuntary manslaughter and conspiracy to blow up the building. On June 4, 1998, Judge Matsch sentenced Nichols to life in prison with parole. On May 25, 2004, a jury found Nichols guilty of all 161 counts of murder; he was sentenced on August 9, 2004, to 161 consecutive life sentences without parole.

On May 12, 1998, Fortier was sentenced to 12 years in prison and fined $200,000, a sentence echoed on October 8, 1999. He was released early on January 20, 2006, for good behavior.

Overview:
Chechen separatist terrorists tended to engage in high-profile, high-risk, high-casualty attacks. Waves of bombings against apartments and airliners routinely caused scores of casualties, while barricade-andhostage operations secured hundreds of hostages, many of whom later died in rescue operations or at the hands of nervous terrorists. Although never formally becoming an affiliate or franchise of al Qaeda, the group nonetheless developed ties to the more famous terrorist network and certainly matched al Qaeda for conducting large-scale operations with little regard for an exit strategy for the attack force.

The leader of the attack team, Shamil Basayev, believed in leading from the front. He became a key rebel commander during the first Chechen war of 1994–1995, having returned to Russia after hijacking an Aeroflot flight to Turkey in 1991. Although he escaped at the end of the incident, authorities had not heard the last of him. On August 22, 1995, he threatened to carry out terrorist attacks using radioactive substances. On November 8, 1995, he told Independent Television Network where there was a buried container of cesium isotope and said that four containers were wrapped in TNT and could be detonated. He led the Islamic International Peacekeeping Brigade, which was established in 1998, and the Riyadus-Salikhin Reconnaissance and Sabotage Battalion of Chechen Martyrs (Requirements for Getting into Paradise). He claimed credit for the May 14, 2003, suicide bombing of an Islamic prayer meeting in Iliskhan-Yurt, a village outside Gudermes, killing 18 people and injuring between 45 and 150; and the September 1, 2004, attack on the school in Beslan in which hundreds were killed. He also directed two suicide bombers onto two Russian jets in 2004. The Federal Security Service on March 15, 2005, offered a $10 million bounty.

Incident:
On June 14, 1995, some 75 Chechen rebels invaded the town of Budennovsk, Russia, killed scores of people, and then took over the local hospital, seizing more than 1,300 hostages. The rebels announced that they had killed five hostages and demanded that Russia withdraw troops from the region. The next day, they executed on the street another six captives, including two Russian pilots and some police officers. During tense negotiations with Russian authorities and following two failed rescue attempts by the armed forces elite Alpha Group, the rebels released 400 hostages. The rescuers managed to free 200 hostages, but fire spread through the hospital and the troops withdrew. More than 20 troops were injured in the firefight, which included the use of heavy machineguns, rocket-propelled grenades, cannons, and assault rifles. At least 20 hostages died—some reports say 100—and dozens were wounded in the rescue attempt, which was bitterly protested by their families. Prime Minister Viktor Chernomyrdin initiated publicly televised telephonic
negotiations with Basayev, 30, a Chechen guerrilla leader, who demanded to give a news conference. On June 19, 1995, the rebels were permitted to go by bus to Zandak with 139 volunteer hostages, including 9 members of parliament and other politicians, 16 journalists, and local residents. The terrorists then fled to the Caucasus Mountains after freeing the final hostages. Another 764 hostages left the hospital; many did not wait to be tallied. Moscow agreed to a cease-fire in its six-month efforts to end the Chechen independence movement and to begin negotiations to settle the conflict.