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Apr 19th, 2011


Today is the 16th anniversary of the Oklahoma City bombing and the 18th anniversary of the Branch Davidian assault in Waco, Texas, which prompted Timothy McVeigh’s revenge attack on the Alfred P. Murrah Federal Building.

Victims’ Families Observe 16th OKC Bombing Anniversary


Regina Bonny, a retired Midwest City, Okla., police officer from Moore, Okla., kneels at the chair of DEA agent Kenneth Glenn McCullough in the field of chairs at the Oklahoma City National Memorial and Museum in Oklahoma City, Tuesday, April 19, 2011, on the 16th anniversary of the Oklahoma City bombing. (Photo credit: Sue Ogrocki / AP)

By Tim Talley

April 20, 2011

OKLAHOMA CITY — Antonio Cooper Sr. walked across a field of empty chairs that represent the victims of the Oklahoma City bombing, occasionally stopping to read names inscribed in glass panes as he searched for the one dedicated to his 6-month-old son, Antonio Cooper Jr.

“I feel it’s a necessity to be here,” Cooper said Tuesday as he strapped a colorful bouquet of spring flowers to the chair bearing his son’s name on the 16th anniversary of the bombing of the Alfred P. Murrah Federal Building, the worst domestic terror attack in U.S. history and the deadliest on U.S. soil before the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks.

The boy’s grandmother, Wanda McNeely, wept softly as she placed a beige stuffed bear on the metal chair that stands on the federal building’s former site. McNeely said the death of her grandson still evokes strong emotions and observing the anniversary of the April 19, 1995, attack doesn’t get easier with the passing years. …

Cooper wore a red T-shirt bearing the smiling image of his young son that read “Our Lil’ Angel” as he and more than 300 other people attended ceremonies at the Oklahoma City National Memorial & Museum on the anniversary of the bombing that killed 168 people, including his son and 17 other children who were being cared for at a day care center on the building’s second floor. …

Federal prosecutors said Army veteran Timothy McVeigh planned the bombing as revenge for the deadly standoff between the FBI and Branch Davidians in Waco, Texas, that killed more than 70 people on April 19, 1993 — exactly two years earlier.

McVeigh was convicted on federal murder and conspiracy charges in 1997 and executed in 2001.

His Army buddy, Terry Nichols, was convicted on federal and state bombing-related charges and is serving multiple life sentences in a federal prison.

Full story

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FROM THE ARCHIVES: One Year Ago — April 19, 2010

Oklahoma City Bombing: 15 Years

Video

In McVeigh’s chilling confession, no remorse (NBC Nightly News, April 19, 2010) — In never-before heard audiotapes, Timothy McVeigh, who bombed an Oklahoma City government building in 1995 expresses no compassion for the 168 people he killed, including 19 children. (03:15)

One year ago today, I reported that U.S. Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano, at a somber ceremony marking the 15th anniversary of the Oklahoma City bombing, warned of the need for continued vigilance against terrorists.

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FROM THE ARCHIVES: Two Years Ago — April 19, 2009

Remembering Oklahoma City

Copyright © 1995, Charles H. Porter IV / AP

Two years ago today, on April 19, 2009, I commemorated the 14th anniversary of the Oklahoma City bombing; at 9:02 a.m. on April 19, 1995, a truck bomb containing approximately 5,000 pounds of ammonium nitrate fertilizer exploded outside the Alfred P. Murrah Federal Building in Oklahoma City, killing 168 people and injuring more than 600 at the hands of Gulf War veteran and militia movement sympathizer Timothy McVeigh. It was the worst terrorist attack on U.S. soil until the September 11, 2001 World Trade Center attack.





One Response to “Oklahoma City Bombing: 16 Years”
  1. Immelman for Congress » Blog Archive » Columbine: 12th Anniversary Says:

    […] April 19th was the anniversaries of the Oklahoma City bombing and the Branch Davidian assault. […]

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