When you think about terrorist attacks using bombs a number of attacks come into mind that being the USS Cole October 12th 2000, the African embassy bombing of 1998, Parris France train attack of 1996, and Tim McVeigh and the Oklahoma bombing in 1995. It is always a tragedy when one person’s disagreements affect other people especially innocent people that live normal everyday lives.
The Oklahoma bombing of the World Trade Building, Alfred P. Murrah Federal Building located in downtown Oklahoma City left 168 people dead the bomb was felt 30 miles away levelling the Alfred Murrah Federal Building and damaging at least 300 other buildings reported seismograph activity at Oklahoma State University distinguishing more than one blast. Pentagon officials reported 5 separate blasts. The FBI, CIA, and ATF joint task force members were assigned to the Oklahoma bombing case by President Clinton that involved over 1200 helpers to recover and clean up.
On April 19th 1995 9:02 am. Timothy McVeigh accomplished by Terry Nichols manoeuvred a Ryder truck to the parking lot of the World Trade Building little to the officials knowledge there were 5000 pounds of explosives in the 20 foot truck it was filled with ammonium nitrate and fertilizer that are a very dangerous combination when you have an igniter such as PETN with a improvised timed detonation device hooked to the vehicles gas tank. Timothy McVeigh was caught an hour and half later driving a 1977 Mercury Marquis with no license plate he was eventually arrested for illegal transport of a loaded fire arm. After checking the Ryder van rental agreement officials found that Timothy McVeigh was the one responsible for the Ryder van and subsequent building of the bomb. Investigators found McVeigh’s finger prints on a receipt that was for 2000 pounds of ammonium nitrate. McVeigh was latter sentenced to lethal injection and was executed on Jun 11th 2001.
Many people were disappointed about the Oklahoma bombing because we pay millions in tax dollars every year the ATF, NSA, CIA and FBI should be able to prevent terrorist acts from occurring in the United States. Home front attacks are a major issue because once they have been initiated they are almost impossible to counter this means that we need to use preventive measures to capture suspects before they commit a terrorist act. Using surveillance and having security in place to stop high threat situations is mostly the way our new culture is leaning. Using the Home Land Security division of the government to combat internet, building and top secret vulnerabilities helps in the fight against terrorism. Some of the vulnerabilities that are due to terrorism are located overseas, surveillance must be extended overseas to stop the threat of terror by putting pressure on the overseas terrorist units keeps the terrorist from being able to plan attacks. Other operations in the Middle East that are meant to combat terrorism by going directly after the source involve the American Armed Forces, the Army, Navy, Air Force and Marines have been fighting the war on terror for nearly 22 years now.
America has been in the fight against terror every since the September 11th, 2001 World Trade Center Twin Tower destruction that took place in New York City and left more than 3000 people dead. The asylum Bin Laden took the credit for the worst destruction in United States history this leads us to believe that after Timothy McVeigh’s demonstration the United States still did not prepare its self for any type of destructive attack on our own ground after six years our response became reactive instead of proactive.
Getting rid of the financers of terror has been a growing issue, subsidiary corporations and small countries overseas that finance terrorist acts have to be brought to the media and used as a examples of what happens when you mix business with terror. Some of the issues are keeping the dangerous radioactive material away from the wrong hands making sure the Green Peace Core is able to keep a tag on materials that have potential destructive power such as plutonium and radioactive sludge from power plants also making sure possible destructive devices are not able to be made by terrorist groups that intend to impose on our way of living. Proper disposal of radioactive materials will help with the fight against terror making sure that people are not using environmentally damaging materials to produce illegal arms.
Some of the investigative work that was performed at the Oklahoma Bombing site included the proper procedures for bomb scene investigation.
The procedures of bomb scene investigation start with the collection of fragments left on the crime scene. Looking for an explosive device is a tedious job some of the fragments you might want to look for are piping, cables, blasting caps, wads such as C4, dynamite, and TNT. In some cases you may find gunpowder as an igniter for bombs.
An explosion or point of impact will most commonly be in the area that has the most destruction. You will find a black bang residue on the ground that leaves a clear open area where the exploding device, bomb or peripheral was placed. Finding residue is important to solving the case because once the fragments and residue are found you can analyze what type of explosive device the asylum used.
Military weapons of mass destruction can be mortar rounds, sheet explosives, 40mm rounds with white phosphorous, and other remote and timing devices found on the scene. Try to identify the Military round by its Nomenclature and DODIC (Department of Defence Identification Code). The DODIC may be present on the fragments and able to be traced to a weapon.
References
Fisher, Berry A. (2004) CRC Press, Techniques of Crime Scene Investigation
Saferstein Richard (2007) Pearson Prentice Hall, Criminalistics, An Introduction To Forensic Science Tenth Edition
