OKLAHOMA CITY FEDERAL BUILDING BOMBING - OKLAHOMA CITY...

OKLAHOMA CITY FEDERAL BUILDING BOMBING
9/24/2015
CJ230
Mr. Robins
The Oklahoma City bombing was a domestic terrorist bomb attack on the Alfred P.
Murrah Federal Building
.
The Plan and executed by Timothy McVeigh with assistance from
Terry Nichols and Michael Fortier. On April 19, 1995, a rented Ryder truck, containing over
4,800 pounds of explosives, detonated in front of the north side of the nine-story Alfred P.
Murrah Federal Building. The explosion destroyed a large part of the building, killing 168 people
and injuring 680. This was the largest terrorist attack on US soil before 9-11, and serves as one of
the strongest case studies to date, since the planning for this attack was so extensive, and so
much information is known about it. Yes this attack was considered a terrorist attack. A number
of federal buildings were considered for this attack, including locations in: Missouri, Arizona,
Texas, and Arkansas. McVeigh traveled to each of his potential targets to get a general idea about
them, and to compare each target to the others in order to determine which was the best/ and
easiest target.
The Oklahoma City federal building fit all the requirements set by McVeigh because it
was easy to physically park a truck-bomb in front of the building it even had a part of the curb
dedicated to delivery trucks; it was easy to collect information about the building. During the
entire process of surveillance operational, advanced and last minute no one had ever noticed
what McVeigh was doing, much less questioned him about it. The Alfred P. Murrah Federal
Building was also seen as a good target due to the large open space in front of it was a parking
lot. But would allow for good media coverage of the attack by supplying many angles from
which the destruction could be photographed. McVeigh and his accomplices had started to
gather, buy, and steal large amounts of explosives storing them in a rented storage unit. By that

OKLAHOMA CITY FEDERAL BUILDING BOMBING
time McVeigh had already decided that the attack should not take place when the building was
empty and should instead inflict many casualties in order to make a stronger political statement.
McVeigh conducted training by putting together a prototype bomb using a plastic Gatorade jug
containing ammonium nitrate, liquid nitromethane, a piece of Tovex sausage, and a blasting cap.
McVeigh still conducted a considerable amount of advanced surveillance. This advanced stage of
surveillance, and subsequent planning, could only come after the general details of the
operational planning had been decided. Having knowledge about the location of the truck-bomb