U.S. Had Data Hinting of Okla. Bombing
- Two federal law enforcement agencies had information before the 1995 Oklahoma City bombing suggesting that white supremacists living nearby were considering an attack on government buildings, but the intelligence was never passed on to federal officials in the state, documents and interviews show.
The bulk of this story is not necessarily new. Most of its outlines have been known for awhile, and were published in Kerry Noble's excellent Tabernacle of Hate: Why They Bombed Oklahoma City, which details very clearly how and why the white supremacists targeted the Murrah Building, especially on April 19.
I explored the Carol Howe matter among the other stories that I sifted through en route to preparing this piece for Salon. As I mentioned there, Howe's story was full of holes; there were many good reasons for law-enforcement officials to view her information with skepticism, and there still is. Kerry Noble, on the other hand, is highly credible.
What is new here is the confirmation of the failure for this information to be properly channeled to the agencies that would have been affected. As TalkLeft astutely points out:
- We think the main value to the article is not in concluding that the white supremacists and separatists were involved in the 1995 OKC bombing, but that there is a dismal failure of communications between and within law enforcement agencies in this country when it comes to locating and sharing information about possible attacks.
I couldn't have said it better. There's more; go read it. I'll offer some further thoughts on these issues regarding law enforcement in upcoming posts, especially as this story develops.
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