Home > David Boren Undermines Investigation of University of Oklahoma Bomb

David Boren Undermines Investigation of University of Oklahoma Bomb

by Open-Publishing - Sunday 2 October 2005
48 comments

Attack-Terrorism USA Michael P. Wright

by Michael P. Wright
Norman, Oklahoma, USA
mpwright9@aol.com

Rojan Gunaratna, author of Inside Al Qaeda, is a terrorism expert who testified
before the 9/11 Commission. In his book he reports that there was an Al Qaeda
cell in Oklahoma in 2001. After 9/11, Norman became famous as the residence of Zacarias Moussaoui for six months, when he was taking flight lessons there. It now appears that Al Qaeda still might be active in the community.

On the evening of Saturday, October 1, officials of the University of Oklahoma in Norman told the press that a person was found dead after an explosion near the stadium while a football game was in progress. KCCI news of Des Moines reported that Kerry Pettingill, Oklahoma homeland security directory, said the motive behind the explosion is unknown.

http://www.theiowachannel.com/news/...

The Oklahoman, Oklahoma City newspaper, made this statement in its Sunday issue: "It was unclear late Saturday if the explosion was an act of terrorism, said Sgt. Gary Robinson of the university police department."

But OU President David Boren, the former U.S. Senator widely known as the mentor and patron of George Tenet, seems very interested in undermining the investigation. He is sending a strong signal to the police that he will not tolerate any conclusion that terrorism was involved. Contradicting both the OU police and the state’s homeland security director while acting like a monarch accountable to no one, Boren is quoted by the AP as saying that the death was "an individual suicide." He also told the press that no one inside the stadium was ever in any danger.

http://abcnews.go.com/US/wireStory?...

The Oklahoman also reports that a second bomb was found after the first explosion. It was detonated by a robot. Coincidence ? Did someone else leave the second bomb? Certainly that one wasn’t intended as an "individual suicide."

Additionally, the blast from the first bomb could be heard and felt at least four blocks from campus. Boren would have us believe that someone intent only on committing suicide without killing others would:

1. use a bomb;
2. use a bomb of such magnitude;
3. be in the vicinity of the stadium on a game day;
4. apparently leave a second bomb.

It appears that the bomber was on his way to the crowd with the device, but it accidentally detonated earlier. And if officers agree with Boren that there is no reason to fear terrorism, why was entry onto the South Oval of the campus being prohibited on Sunday morning while the bomb search was still under way?

The bomber has not been identified to the press. Unconfirmed reports circulating on the Internet allege that he was a resident of Parkview Apartments, which are a short distance from the Mosque.

While claiming that no one inside the stadium was ever in any danger, Boren himself admits to having ordered a search of the garage area near the stadium along with lower levels outside the stadium. This was reported by The Norman Transcript.

http://www.normantranscript.com/hom...

Among Boren’s many problems is the fact that his gargantuan stadium expansion undertaken in 2002 encumbered the athletic department for 30 years with an annual debt service of $5 million. He has already been raising tuition and robbing the OU general fund to pay off this debt. He would hate to see revenues from
ticket sales decline because of bombing fears. He prefers keeping football fans uninformed about a realistic assessment of risk associated with being part of an OU stadium crowd. That explains the "individual suicide" nonsense.

See this for information about Boren, Tenet, and 9/11:

http://bellaciao.org/en/article.php...

Forum posts

  • Looks like he taking the same action bush does stop the investigation so the truth will not come out.

    Great article, I hope they get Boren and Tenet along with bush gang.

    You bet. maybe bush and boren know the truth behind the bomb, right on, why would they need such a highly powerful explosive. Why, if he was to do away himself take such measurers to be at the game. Has the man who has been identified, or just another secret murder. To use this to scare the American people, makes you wonder.
    just be another secret in the cover ups.

    Why indeed would he go to the game and blow himself up, unless the plan was to kill people at the game . Mass murder???? bush needs a event that he thinks would boost his ratings.
    bush and his loyal followers are despreate at this point.

    This is more cover ups, gets exposed form the Top down.

    Boren, what are you hiding?????????

    Boren, who are you protecting???????

    Boren are you part of the axis of evil in our country????

    • Pardon my conservative ass....but I’m with you on some of this.

      Why isn’t this being talked about in the press?

      Working on it myself.

      Mark Shannon
      930am WKY

    • Mark, this is not a "liberal" or "conservative" issue. Boren is outside of both camps. Part of the time he’s a monarchist thinking he’s king of Oklahoma. The rest of the time he thinks he’s God. Send me an email. — Michael Wright — mpwright9@aol.com

    • Wouldn’t Bush have everything to gain by another act of domestic terriorism by Al Qaeda? Why would he try and cover up such a thing. Such an attack would only bolster his pole numbers.

    • It was in the press, but not commented (FOX).

    • It may be that FOX, CNN, MSNBC, and other news are controlled. Independant media gives more of the truth behind the scenes than what these controlled medias tell or show.

    • I’m afraid you may be misinformed about the intensity of the bomb. I was at the game and neither felt or heard the explosion. I also rode my bicycle by the unguarded site of the explosion the next morning and there was no damage to the botany building or the sidewalk or the grass or trees that are all easily within 15 feet of the blast area. I hope this helps clear up some of the rumors.

    • MICHAEL WRIGHT REPLIES ON INTENSITY OF BOMB (10/3/05)

      I inquired at the building today and was told that two windows were blown out. Additionally, the bench where the bomber was sitting was destroyed and has already been replaced. A woman living four blocks from campus told me yesterday that she felt the impact of the explosion vibrating her floor. The Oklahoma Daily (campus newspaper) reports today that the blast was heard as far as five miles away. Why would someone whose only intention was to kill himself need a bomb that powerful? The Oklahoman (OkC newspaper) quotes police as saying that it might take as long as 24 hours to remove all the bomb-making materials from the bomber’s apartment. The newspaper also states that investigators have not commented on whether they believe the bomber intended to go inside the stadium before the detonation happened. Of course, had he been planning a terrorist attack, obstructed by an accidental detonation, he could have accomplished it by mingling with the crowd after the game. If that were his intention, and if other people assisted him in obtaining explosives, then a terrorist conspiracy existed. I do not claim to have the answers to these questions, but I strenuously condemn OU president David Boren, mentor and patron of George Tenet, for interfering with the investigation and sending signals to the cops that he does not want these questions explored.

    • I think he is quite informed. I felt the blast. It was not to misunderstood as anything other than intense. And you rode your bicycle through the police line the next morning? Is that legitimate, i think not. I was in the area the next day also and there were federal agents and law enforcement controlling the perimeter. If you would have crossed a federal barracade you would have been in jail. The botany building was missing several windows by the way.

    • He should be investigating the other ass-clowns.

      Sincerely,

      Ass-Clown Observer in Oklahoma

    • look back a couple of yrs and you’ll find another incident with Boren & Middle Eastern men.....it was either just before or after 9/11. Boren shut that down immediately and there was some thought that Boren may have had more than a Business relationship with these guys & because of his past shut down the info fast.... Boren is a very controversial character. He has always had aspirations to be President Boren but after "resigning quickly just before a big sexual harrassment investigation was about to break when male congressional aids were tired of the advances" he had to settle for Pres. Boren as in President of OU.
      His father, Lyle was a member of Congress & legendary Speaker of the House Sam Rayburn spent many hours "playing" with young David...... Now, Mr Sam as he was affectionaly known was suspected of having an alternative life style which was very unacceptable in the 40’s & 50’s.
      Boren is Skull & Bones as in Yale......he served as a Democratic legislator as does his son Dan who was sworn in as a member of the House in Jan 2005.
      Boren having served as the chair of the Intelligence committee continues to have have lots of power and can control lots of material and situations & how they are hushed or leaked.
      He is a VERY powerful, controversial man with long arms that reaches out and puts a stop to most things that he doesn’t want "out there".
      In spite of his controversary, he has done lots of development and promotion of OU to which he has great loyality. Lots of people in OK overlook his controversary or they aren’t aware of his past, his controversary,etc. If you google Boren, you’ll get a bundle of material.
      I know that when we attended OU game several yrs ago & parked in the garage which is next to the stadium, we had to provide to the president’s office several days before the game personal information and the vehicle that would be used to gain security clearance prior to arrival. Security around Boren is still a pretty big thing. The particuliar day I have in mind I believe the guy’s name was Alan Taylor?? who had recently retired as the head of CIA or national intelligence director of Australia. also in attendance of the game was another man by the name of Bob Gates who used to head up the CIA before taking over the reins of TAMU and becoming Pres Gates.... Lots of men with big time intelligence connections present and together in a stadium ( several of them in the same suite) at a huge OU football game... the stadium is huge and the number of people that could be harmed should some zealot decide to make a statement remind me of that old movie was it Black Sunday.....where someone tried to cause havoc during a Super Bowl?
      I think there was something much more sinister planned by this bomber that didn’t maybe go off as expected. I don’t think he only planned to take himself out & I feel sure that David Boren doesn’t think he only planned to take himself out. For this reason I suspect to maintain a sense of safety and hide the real agenda, Boren has put a lid on the situation with the help of his "old CIA connections,etc.
      Check Him Out.........

    • I am personally shocked and surprised to read all this controversial stuff about Boren! I
      lived in Oklahoma City for 30 yrs. and one of my daughters graduated from O.U. Always thought Boren was a straight shooter.....plus.......isn’t he married ...with a son..? Are you insinuatinng that he "played both sides"?

      Your pages are Very Interesting.....as I am extremely interested in controversy, expose’
      and under cover investigations, etc.

      Thank you for this information....................B. Shaw

  • Some totally excellent coverage bro -TY

  • They have released the name of the student. He was an American by the name of Joel Hendrix, who has been at OU for 3 years, was an out-of-state student, and had a history of emotional difficulty. I don’t think Boren is trying to hide anything, and it’s interesting that you assumed he is. You are assuming the bomb was related to terrorism or Islam when the information that is available indicates that it is not.

    • REPLY FROM MICHAEL WRIGHT

      Are you on Boren’s payroll, buddy? I wouldn’t be surprised. He wastes a lot of taxpayers’ money hiring his special friends and loyalists, and they are usually pretty dumb. It’s no wonder you can’t do any better. I checked the OU online directory and there is no one named Joel Hendrix listed. I also tried Hendricks. I looked at last year’s printed directory too, and these names weren’t in there. Readers can duplicate my search. Go here: http://www.ou.edu

      Try again, dude. As for my "assumptions," I have assumed that the police are entitled to conduct an investigation without interference from Boren. I guess you don’t agree. Are you Boren?

    • Joel Henry Hinrichs III

    • Al Qaeda. Ha!

    • REPLY FROM MICHAEL WRIGHT:

      Sure enough, the FBI is now claiming that they have identified the body as that of Joel Henry Hinrichs III, an OU student and engineering junior.

      If this is true, it does not verify Boren’s claim that this was just an "individual suicide" with no terrorist intentions. As we have seen in the case of Timothy McVeigh, Americans can conduct terrorism against other Americans.

      The fact that an undetonated pipe bomb was also found in the area indicates that someone wanted to damage some other people. Boren sent a strong signal to the police that he desires certain conclusions from their investigation. That is misconduct by Boren.

    • All of you need to do some reading. And I don’t mean shitty message board news. His name is Hinrichs. He was in one of my brother’s engineering courses. And don’t try to say that i’m just one of boren’s little gremlins sent to do his bidding, cause I’m not a fan of him either but that’s just because he keeps raising my tuition. And in reality he has made alot of improvements to the school with that extra money. But hey, that’s off subject so i’m done with this post.

    • What you’re calling "another explosive device" was just a part of the original explosive that did not detonate. Only one explosive device. Only one intended casualty... himself.

    • REPLY FROM MICHAEL WRIGHT:

      One of the reasons Boren keeps raising your tuition is that he has transferred money from the OU general fund to the athletic department to pay off their debts. Chances are good that this practice will continue for three decades, during which the $152.7 million bonded indebtedness for the 2002 stadium expansion must be paid off. This amounts to an annual debt service of about $5 million. My information comes right out of OU’s legal prospectus for selling the bonds. Boren is under pressure to keep revenues high from ticket sales to meet this obligation. Fear of terrorist bombing attacks can definitely impact ticket sales. That’s why he’s so desperate to spin the incident as just an "individual suicide" by an "emotionaly troubled" individual. He wants to rule out any consideration of the possibility that the bomber intended to attack a crowd and experienced a premature accidental detonation. You seem to have a residue of Boomer-Sooner loyalty to Boren. Get over it. He doesn’t deserve your loyalty.

    • REPLY FROM MICHAEL WRIGHT (10/2/05)

      I have done plenty of reading, thank you. Now I suggest you try some yourself. Start with OU’s legal offer for selling the bonds to finance the gargantuan stadium expansion which Boren orchestrated in 2002. This expanded the bonded indebtedness of the athletic department to $152.7 million. This means, for 30 years, an annual debt service of about $5 million. Official records confirm that Boren has already been tapping the till of the OU general fund to help out his pals in the athletic department. That’s YOUR money, dude. Boren is desperate for cash. That explains the huge tuition hikes. To deal with these debts, he needs to see all the revenue he can get his hands on to flow into the athletic department, through ticket sales too. That’s why he doesn’t want football fans to think they might be at risk of a terrorist suicide bomb attack by going to his games.

      That’s why he’s spinning out the incident as just an "individual suicide" by an "emotionally troubled" individual. Now check some facts on the bomber. Today’s OkC paper reports that his apartment was so full of explosives that the cops are saying it would take up to 24 hours to remove it all. The student paper reports that the blast could be heard five miles away. Personnel at the microbiology building told me that two windows were blown out and the bench was destroyed. I saw the new bench this morning. Why does someone only interested in killing himself need an explosive that powerful? Further — check it out — the bench was close to the SIDEWALK, and the explosion happened in the second quarter not long before half-time. He knew there would be people on that sidewalk during half-time. Connect the dots, and make up your mind independently of what Boss Boren wants you to think. He does not deserve your respect or loyalty. He’s been picking your pocket.

    • It seems to me that boren is much more worried about the money of the 84,000 people that attend the football games then he is about their safety.

      I would like to say that OUPD and other agencies did a very good job at responding. I was at the game and i saw it first hand. I could only imagine how it was for them being scared but still calming people. wow

  • The victim was a white kid from Colorado, not a terrorist, and there was no second bomb accoding to an official press release on OU’s homepage. There was no undermining of any investigation by anyone so please put all of these kook accusations to rest.

    • so the only terrorists in the United States are colored people?

    • Obviously some racists think that white people can’t be terrorists. See update:

      http://bellaciao.org/en/article.php3?id_article=8606

    • While I have deep respect for Boren (and have had several mentoring sessions by him), I too have been completely shocked by the lack of media coverage on this. Immediately after the incident, it made the LAST 5 MINUTES OF THE 10:00 NEWS. Yes, they went through the weather...through the sports...even talked about a cute little pet rescue story first.

      A few years ago some friends of mine made a pipe bomb and blew it up in a rural field (just to see it blow up). They were arrested and the lead story for 3 days. Even assuming that this one was just ’an individual suicide,’ there still was a bomb involved. And there just happened to be 84,000 people right there on a game day. What news organization wouldn’t want to "bring you this story first?!" There is definitely some major PR work going on here.

      I live in Las Vegas now (although was in Norman for the weekend), and am often witness to similar media control. This city will NOT let bad things be said about it (where tourism is involved). I have seen someone jump off the roof of the Bellagio to kill themself, and had it not even make the news.

      So to the point: Why are you holding any credit to an "official OU media release?" In cases like this, that should just be called "damage control." Examine your source.

      – Jack Colton
      www.myspace.com/jcoltonlv

  • Another Explosion on Campus at about 9:30PM Sunday night.

    Called 911 and they said is was a controlled detonation.

    Don’t know what is going on, but there had better be some answers.

  • This article is misleading, uninformed, and downright false in parts. The decision to expand the football stadium wasn’t Boren’s alone; he just put his stamp on it. And guess what? The games SELL OUT EVERY SINGLE TIME. Yes, even when we have a losing record.

    I personally thought Boren’s response was fitting considering the safety concerns involving 84000+ already emotionally charged people. Do you *really* want to see mass panic on that level, something of which kind would have resulted from an announcement during the game of ’suspected terrorist activities’? Seriously.

    Oh, and a-duh. Turns out it *was* suicide. Penser avant de juger, mon ami... pensez!!

    • Please bring forward your evidence that any claim I made was "downright false." You are absolutely wrong if you don’t think Boren took leadership in the stadium expansion decision. Also, if you’re going to make accusations, let’s play on an even field. Have the courage to identify yourself. I am not impressed by cowardly anonymous accusers. Let’s see the evidence. My factual statements about the explosion were taken from The Oklahoman of 10/2/05. My information on the huge 30-year bonded obligation for the stadium expansion, and the transfer of funds from OU to the athletic department, come from official records in my possession.

  • The second "device" was not explosive, but was detonated as a precaution. Also, some material from the young man’s apartment was detonated Sunday. So far, though, there is no evidence of a plot to do anything other than commit suicide. He was unhappy in his classes and life from the sounds of it.

    He sat on a park bench. No one was around. The explosive caused very little damage even to the area right around the bench.

    Everyone needs to take a "chill pill".

  • I do not know anything about the student or the president of the college. However, I do know that NFL football games held on Saturday had many unhappy fans due to a new initiative that was adopted, overnight apparently, that mandated pat-downs and inspections of each and every fan entering the arena. At least, this was the case in Atlanta. Does that seem like a coincidence? That, along with the fact that most news sources said little to nothing about the incident has put red flags on my radar.

  • COMMENT FROM MICHAEL WRIGHT (10/03/05)

    Unfortunately, BellaCiao is experiencing technical difficulties and not posting my replies to specific comments. At least, they do not appear on my screen after I send them, so I have to try it this way. One individual has suggested that I need to "do some reading" and has also complained about Boren’s tuition hikes. He praises Boren for his "improvements" to the school.

    Here is my reply to that:

    I have done plenty of reading, thank you. Now I suggest you try some yourself. Start with OU’s legal offer for selling the bonds to finance the gargantuan stadium expansion which Boren orchestrated in 2002. This expanded the bonded indebtedness of the athletic department to $152.7 million. This means, for 30 years, an annual debt service of about $5 million. Official records confirm that Boren has already been tapping the till of the OU general fund to help out his pals in the athletic department. That’s YOUR money, dude. Boren is desperate for cash. That explains the huge tuition hikes. To deal with these debts, he needs to see all the revenue he can get his hands on to flow into the athletic department, through ticket sales too. That’s why he doesn’t want football fans to think they might be at risk of a terrorist suicide bomb attack by going to his games.

    That’s why he’s spinning out the incident as just an "individual suicide" by an "emotionally troubled" individual. Now check some facts on the bomber. As you say, "do some reading." Today’s OkC paper reports that his apartment was so full of explosives that the cops are saying it would take up to 24 hours to remove it all. The student paper reports that the blast could be heard five miles away. Personnel at the microbiology building told me that two windows were blown out and the bench was destroyed. Why does someone only interested in killing himself need an explosive that powerful? Further — check it out — the bench was close to the SIDEWALK, and the explosion happened in the second quarter not long before half-time. He knew there would be people on that sidewalk during half-time. Connect the dots, and make up your mind independently of what Boss Boren wants you to think. He does not deserve your respect or loyalty. He’s been picking your pocket.

  • Do you really want to know why people hate Americans? Its not because we have different opinions or we are are allowed to speak about them how we please. It is because certain individuals speak without cause or evidence and place un-validated trash out for everyone else to feed on. This article has so many unsubstanciated points it is total trash. What happened to printing the TRUTH and do no harm. This is why people hate us as Americans. It is because individuals are so apt to immediately talk trash about items and events they do not know about. You are not asking others to think you are printing false and misleading information just because you can. That is not right. That a large part of why we are hated. I deal with individuals like you on a daily basis and it makes me sick to my soul. I am saddened as an American that their are so many individuals like you that you over run the good and honest Americans whose voices are true and should be heard.

    Angel Panther

    • MICHAEL WRIGHT REPLIES TO ANGEL PANTHER’S PASSIONATE TIRADE

      You accuse me of of printing "un-validated trash." Physician, heal thyself (from Aesop’s Fables).

      I challenge you to produce evidence which will contradict any specific factual claims I have made.

      The report of the second explosive device being found in the vicinity of the bomber was in the Oklahoma City newspaper on Saturday. Investigators have since discarded this, so I have not asserted this information in my update, to which I have provided a link in another post.

    • What a completely assinine and idiotic post. "Everyone hates Americans, and let me tell you why...blah, blah, blah."

      Here’s a clue, buddy: it’s your post that’s total trash.

  • MICHAEL WRIGHT’S UPDATE ON THE UNIVERSITY OF OKLAHOMA BOMB (10/3/05):

    http://bellaciao.org/en/article.php3?id_article=8619

    This has scans of official documents demonstrating Boren’s financial misconduct and desperation to keep up the sales of tickets to OU football games.

    • Michael,

      I understand your points regarding the bond issue and I actually tried to look at the documents but could not read them on my 19 inch monitor. (must be going blind)

      If I remember correctly, when I worked at the athletic department in the late 80’s, the athletic department bailed out the university general fund because of the declining state revenues (read university funding) caused by the oil bust.

      I agree with your points on Boren. I have never, nor do I currently believe that Boren has an ounce of leadership in his body. Just remember the "new policy" he came up with in August that all incoming freshmen, including those from Norman, must live in the dorms. How stupid is that one? The average family income in Oklahoma is probably around $40,000 or less. It will cost around $8,000 for housing and a meal plan for a year. Therefore, he wanted to raise the cost of going to college for metro students by 20% of the average FAMILY income!

      I also agree that he raises tuition unnecessarily due to the lame excuse that we have the lowest costs in the Big 12. The part he’s missing is that we have the lowest average income for the Big 12 and our costs for college should be lower.

      One other random thought, since when should college costs be tied to athletic conferences?

      Sorry for the rant!
      College of Business Graduate

    • "The student paper reports that the blast could be heard five miles away. Personnel at the microbiology building told me that two windows were blown out and the bench was destroyed. Why does someone only interested in killing himself need an explosive that powerful?"
      ====================
      I don’t know the characteristics of a bomb made with acetone peroxide/TATP, but I have experience with 1.3G fireworks.

      An areial salute with as little as 10 grams/tablespoon’s worth of titanium flash in a tightly confinded container would easily kill you, and cause a significant concussion that could break nearby windows, as well as be heard & possibly felt for miles away.... and at the same time, someone 15 feet away may only suffer hearing loss and a few minor burns, in addition to being knocked on their tail.

      Just becuase there was a significant "boom" doesn’t necessarily mean it was powerful enough to do serious harm to those nearby.

      We’ve all seen the vids on the news where the firecracker blows up the watermelon. I’ve seen some experienced pyrotechnicians make an extremely loud "boom" device that you felt from a distance when detonated, but without destroying the watermelon is was placed upon.

      "Boom" + concussion wave does not automatically mean it’s a destructive device. It’s understanble why some may jump to that conclusion, but it’s by no means enough information to accurately do so. Considering the little physical damage to sidewalks, trees, etc... its evident that this device’s destructive power was confined to an extremely limited area, and thus exposing another problem to your theory.

    • REPLY FROM MICHAEL WRIGHT (ON SOME REPLIES I HAVE FORGOTTEN TO IDENTIFY MYSELF);

      Some browsers (like the one at OU) do not screen up the documents full size. You have to run your mouse over them, until you see a box turn up in the lower right corner. Then you click on the box, and the document will then come up full size. Before doing that, you need to click on the links or small documents in the BellaCiao frame.

    • REPLY FROM MICHAEL WRIGHT (ON SOME REPLIES I HAVE FORGOTTEN TO IDENTIFY MYSELF);

      Some browsers (like the one at OU) do not screen up the documents full size. You have to run your mouse over them, until you see a box turn up in the lower right corner. Then you click on the box, and the document will then come up full size. Before doing that, you need to click on the links or small documents in the BellaCiao frame.

      EARLIER THIS REPLY CAME OUT IN THE WRONG PLACE, SO I HAVE POSTED IT AGAIN.

  • For someone who says Boren is undermining the situation and giving false statements, you sure are coming up with a lot of conclusions based on what you think happened rather than fact!!! Your article is INACCURATE in several areas which leads to me believe that YOUR FALSE REPORTING IS MUCH WORSE THAN ANYTHING BOREN HAS DONE!!

  • Boren doesn’t single-handedly raise tuition, the Regents do. To imply the debt is not servicable when the University of Oklahoma makes WAY more than enough money per annum to pay 5mil in "rent debt" for the stadium is bad reporting. Otherwise, I think you’re right on all points. We’re not hearing much from the investigation, are we?

  • TECHNICAL PROBLEMS WITH BELLACIAO (FROM MICHAEL WRIGHT)

    Twice I have replied to the post from the Business College student who was having trouble reading my scans, but they have come out in the wrong place, at least on my screen. In my screen they are displayed beneath the message from the character who claims to know all about fireworks, and seeks to discredit me.

    The post from the self-proclaimed fireworks expert is most interesting. I received a similar communication by private email recently from a fellow calling himself "Mr. Anchovy." He also claimed to have expertise about fireworks, and used some of the exact phrases. Further, his headers disclosed this IP address: 24.253.211.222.

    BellaCiao deletes part of the address of my critic here, but discloses 24.***211.***

    I think that it is fair to assume that this public comment post is from Mr. Anchovy, who concluded his email to me with this statement, about Hinrichs’ bomb: "...was it a destuctive device? Over a small, say 10ft, radius, absolutely!"

    OK, without going into all the technical questions he raised, let’s just work with that. Simple geometry tells us that a circle with a radius of 10 feet would have an area of pi times 10 squared, or 314 square feet. Hinrichs was seated on a bench adjacent to a sidewalk when the bomb exploded. Lets assume there would only be people in front of the bench, during half-time, when I suspect Hinrichs was planning an intentional detonation. That leaves us with a semi-circle with area of 157 square feet. How many people walking down a crowded sidewalk would fit into an area that size? By Mr. Anchovy’s own reckoning, that’s how many could have been killed by Hinrichs’ bomb.

    Nice try, Mr. Anchovy.

    • I will not be following this report, but I did want to add my two cents. While I don’t agree with some of what you are saying, my point is not to prove you wrong. I just wanted to add my thoughts on his location, among other things. If he were intending to set off the device at halftime, it seems to me that there would be other locations with many more people. I’ve never left the stadium at halftime, and I have been to every home game in my three seasons as a student, so I can’t speak for the habits of those who leave at halftime. However, I don’t know why any significant number of people would go to the South Oval. Most would be on the other side of Cross Hall, probably going to Campus Corner or the area south of the stadium, I would guess. While there may be quite a few people on the South Oval, I doubt there would be any more than 6 or 8 within 10 feet of that bench at any given time, and I would expect even that to be a high estimate. If he were in fact waiting for halftime, why not wait nearer to the gates? Of course, there is always the possibility that he was resting/thinking/meditating/whatever while waiting until closer to halftime before going to the gates.

      Obviously, I don’t know any more than any other OU student at the moment. These are just my personal thoughts and observations. Right now, it is my opinion that he at least considered trying to take out many others with him. In fact, I believe that that was his objective as late as Saturday evening. I think that he failed to get into the stadium with his bag and then ran to that bench to regroup and try to come up with a new plan. I believe that either he changed his mind and decided to set off the bomb, killing only himself, or the bomb went off accidentally. Either way, I don’t think that an individual suicide was his intention even a half hour before the explosion.

    • And yet on a day when crowded sidewalks are easy to find, Hinrichs explodes by his lonsome sitting on a bench in an area completely devoid of potential victims. How devious!

    • I’ll be the first one to admit I love a good conspiracy theory as much as the next person. But at a certain point my logic refuses to take a back seat to flights of fantasy. I’m a soldier just returning from Iraq, and a student at the University of Oklahoma. I heard the percussion of the explosion, and viewed the results the following Monday. In viewing the after effects of the explosion, I saw the bomb didn’t leave a crater. There was no damage to vegetation, but the bench itself may have protected it. The smallest mortar leaves a visible blast area, and yet there was no site damage. I didn’t see any chips of concrete.
      I took the explosion personally, returning from Baghdad I thought I had left that stuff behind me. Logic makes me think if this young student was a terrorist, then his destination wasn’t the stadium. The payload wasn’t sufficient. His destination would have been the bus itself. Sitting there waiting for the maximum number of people to board. A remote detonator may have caused the premature explosion. OU uses alot of the wireless spectrum. Of course these are all educated guesses. Maybe I am getting my money’s worth of education.
      The whole idea of Boren being scared about the stadium cost is unfounded, and probably just your subjective opinion of Boren. So here is mine in return, I think Boren understands that Sooners are Southerners first, and students second. There would have been a backlash of students against Muslims. Like there was in Murray Bombing. Norman is the cultural center of Oklahoma, an intellectual oasis. If Boren was protecting anything, I think that would be it.
      P.S. I think the education, recourses, and personal experiences provided by University of Oklahoma dictated the tuition increase. The students produced here are on par with IVY league schools.

  • Pres Boren
    Please open up this investigation. We need to know when USA is at war and where. OKLA is not immune and if the officials will cooperate, then we can help win the War.
    Playing like the Gov of Louisiana is not like the ex -governor of OKLa . Truth willset us free and win the war on Terror. Act like theScorland Yard and find the enemy and Dep0rt it.
    Thank you.
    Ron Allison Yale 1963 ----