As many of you probably know, a young man blew himself up outside the University of Oklahoma Stadium on Saturday. The school president has said it was only a suicide, nothing more, etc.
Now it looks like that might not be the case. The guy tried and failed to buy large amounts of Ammonium Nitrate a few days before. Lots of explosives were found at his apartment. He had a Pakistani roommate, and the bomber was spending a lot of times at a Mosque. I don’t want to jump to any conclusions, but does this sound like a regular old suicide to any of you?
My question is this: why is there not more national coverage? I am not saying there should be, but what happened to “If it bleeds it leads”? Do you wise folks think there is a coordinated cover up at work here? I don’t mean, the masons, Denver airport, faked moon landing nonsense, but do you think major news outlets collaborate to keep us interested in missing girls in Aruba and Tom Cruise’s baby and the like to cut down public panic and possible suspicion of Islam? I don’t think terrorist fever has been cured. Granted, it was over 2 years ago, but I remember watching the Columbia failure and all the news people were practically begging someone to admit that the shuttle may have been shut down. (As the experts politely rolled their eyes)
Another possibility, perhaps a little far out there: OU prez David Boren was pretty high up in federal government. Could he be actively keeping a lid on things lest ticket sales for the mighty sooners fall off?
Here are some links if you’d like to catch up on the story.
There’s been plenty of coverage, but the bottom line is that he was unsuccessful. Had he succeeded there might be more to say, but he didn’t so he’s just another dumb fuck who was too stupid to talk about.
Boren was a Senator who resigned his seat in 1994 because of allegations that he was gay. Does that really sound like the kind of guy who could orchestrate a huge coverup of a story by news outlets that the government doesn’t run anyway? Over football ticket sales? For a “mighty” team that’s 2-2 and fell out of the Top 25?
Doors is correct. I was surprised by the initial lack of coverage when this happened, but if there are real links to foreign terrorism here, then this will get to be a bigger and bigger story. If it’s a guy who decided to kill himself with a bomb, it’s less of a story.
Marley- I guess I should have been more clear- I don’t think Boren has any pull with the media. I know he still has pals in the national security biz though. I think the limit of Boren’s doings, if any, is the blowing of smoke up the asses of students and Oklahomans, though he may know there is much more to the story. It appears the kid may have tried to enter the stadium, and was turned away now.
If the kid was smart, he would know you are not going to get in a stadium with a backback. You have to hide your beer (or whatever) in a winter coat or in the trousers of a female pal.
Something like 200 college students a year commit suicide. This is the first one I have ever heard of that involved a body-bomb.
That’s a damn good question. One of the things that I read early on was that the U prez seemed to be going out of his way to downplay the incident. Worried about applications/alumni donations? I have no idea.
I find it hard to believe that it would be attempted, and harder to believe that it would succeed. What would motivate the media to do so?
I don’t think his past has much to do with it. It is, however, mighty strange that the story seems to died off so quickly.
And, may I add that a similar question might be perfect for GC. Something like “What the hell is going on in the media …?”. Asking for factual answers…
Right, because when you’re getting your internal organs ripped to shreds by flying shrapnel, you really, really care if the individual is doing it to support international terrorism. If it’s just some nutjob with a backpack bomb, who cares? If it’s a swarthy Middle-Eastern man, then holy shit, alert the president.
The feds don’t look good because they were not on top of this particular cell of possible terrorists. The locals in charge of “homeland security” (or whatever) don’t look good for the same reason.
This wasn’t a government thwarted plot - it was just dumb luck (for the US) that he couldn’t get into the stadium with the backpack. What politician or police official wants to reveal ignorance or possible incompetence to the media? That is the subtext of this story.
Keep in mind that this particular area’s local mosque had ties going back to September 11th attacks and related individuals. Supposedly, there was a Pakistani room-mate and circle of friends, who may or may not now be in custody for “questioning”. If it was in fact just some random troubled teen who committed suicide then I feel sorry for the room-mate and friends.
Because no terrorist has ever come up with the dastardly and complicated plot of entering a large crowd of people with explosives hidden on his person with intent to blow as many people as possible to Kingdom Come before?
Apologies, wasn’t trying to be too snarky. This is just a perfect example of how Islamic nations aren’t the only ones capable of producing people that feel that strapping a bomb to oneself and entering a crowded place is a good idea.
I think the point of the post was that there WAS an Islamic connection. From a news standpoint the roommate and mosque are worth a look-see. The recent announcement that Islamic terrorists were trying to recruit people from a non-Middle Eastern background only strengthens the case to look at this from all angles.
This is not newsworthy because it failed. Just the opposite, it’s newsworthy because it was attempted. The questions that need to be asked are:
-Was the intent to harm others? (given the location and the intent to secure large quantities of explosives this is not only logical but almost a certainty)
-Was there assistance given to construct the bomb?
-Did someone else construct the bomb?
-Who financed it?
-Was this kid actively recruited?
Let’s pull back a minute. We had one guy apparently setting off an explosion and killing himself. Death toll wise, it’s no different from hundreds of murders and suicides that happen all across the country every day. That takes care of the argument that it should lead because it bleeds.
So other than that, what do we have? Not very much. Of the two links above, the local OK news link doesn’t appear to have any current articles about the event. The other one goes to a right wing blog that only links to other places. It mainly links to freeper forums and David Horowitz’s Frontpage Magazine. The Freeper forums don’t say much. Horowitz, well, he’s being his usual self. The entire Frontpage article says absolutely nothing about the incident at the football game. Instead it says: “The MSA (Muslim Student Organization) is instructed to march arm in arm with the Stalinist organizations on America’s left-wing campuses.” Have you seen any Stalinist organizations at left-wing campuses lately? Me neither.
But back to the point. Why should the football game incident be getting national attention. The only article linked to by the aforementioned blog in a real news source has two bits of information. First, one employee of a feed-and-seed store claims to have seen the guy trying to buy fertilizer. Second, the FBI says they’ve found no evidence of the guy being linked to any terrorist organization.
And that’s it. No al Queda, no conspiracies, no terrorist cells, no FBI failing to round up a terrorist cell, no nothing. People’s speculations may justify giving this tons of attention, but the facts do not.
I have a bed feeling this incident will be a case of 20/20 hindsight, as the first WTC attack in the 1990s is now seen. Someone needs to be looking at the bigger picture here. The media won’t do it simply because there weren’t enough bodies to attract their attention.
I wouldn’t be surprised that an Okie is downplaying the incident. In light of the Murrah building bombings, I would guess that people there are a little more edgy about this sort of thing.
I’m not inclined at this date to take American Intelligence estimates of real threat at face value. There have been far too many missed calls in recent years.
I disagree with your logic on this starting with the suicide. There are NOT hundreds of similar suicides (either by the method used or the location).
I agree the information available is weak, but that is the point of the thread.
Because it represents a very visible public location that would draw a great deal of attention for terrorists. The increased security at such events is the direct result of terrorist attacks around the world. Look at the recent attacks in Bali and consider the threats Al Queda have made regarding US interests.
How do you know this? More importantly, why wouldn’t you suspect this to the point you would at least consider the possibility? I agree that this could be a bizarre suicide by a despondent student, However, an apartment full of weapons would indicate a violent nature beyond that of self distruction.