19-04-2009, 06:21 PM
Again, emphases are mine.
The Washington Post April 20, 1995, Thursday, Final Edition
The Washington Post April 20, 1995, Thursday, Final Edition
BYLINE: Pierre Thomas; Ann Devroy, Washington Post Staff Writers
SECTION: A SECTION; Pg. A01
LENGTH: 1333 words
Snippet:
...The sophistication of the attack, believed to be the product of a car or truck bomb, and the choice of a federal building as the target made it very likely that terrorists carried out the assault, administration and federal law enforcement officials said...
...The bomb's likely components were powerful C-4 plastic explosive, dynamite, or some combination of ammonium nitrate and another substance, law enforcement sources said. Bomb experts also were investigating the possibility that the car was bunkered, or rigged with solid material on one side to direct the massive force of the blast toward the intended target...
[Note there is a HUGE difference in destructive power, speed of the pressure wave and the ability to obliterate reinforced concrete between C4 and a combination of ammonium nitrate and anything.]
...A senior administration official said Reno told the president that the "sophistication" of the bomb materials and its target placement led to a conclusion that the bombing was not the work of a deranged individual or individuals but instead of what the official called "terrorists."
[Oops...they're going to have to backtrack on that one- the final official line will pin the whole thing on McVeigh and a buddy mixing ANFO in the back of a truck. And besides...what characteristics of the "bomb materials" made them "sophisticated"? I'd like to know how Reno got her inside scoop on the bomb materials so early in the investigation...]
...Still, law enforcement officials warned that it would be ill-advised to jump to conclusions about who staged the assault, particularly because hundreds of leads are coming in and the probe was in its embryonic stages...
[Note this statement came after the "first intelligence reports" referred to in my posting above that had already labeled this as a Branch Davidian reprisal]
...Officials in Washington discounted the importance of an Oklahoma television station report that authorities had ordered a search for two individuals with a "Middle Eastern" appearance, traveling in a brown Chevrolet pickup truck. That could have been just one of hundreds of tips that automatically would have been pursued, the officials said...
[Note- why are people in Washington already discounting importance of leads?]
To me it is of interest to review these early media reports because you can often find what are likely inadvertently truthful slips of the tongue that come out before everyone is on the same page with the official line.
"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