This diary entry begins with one question. Before you read on, or Google for the answer, I want you to answer this question honestly.
Does the name Joel Hinrichs mean anything to you? Either you know who he is, or you don't. If you're thinking of Joe Hinrichs, the current V.P at Ford, it's not that guy.
Answer the question, then join me below the fold...
The other way I was thinking of starting this diary was with a question. The last suicide bombing on US soil was performed by... who?
a - a Muslim foreigner.
b - a Muslim US citizen.
c - a non-Muslim foreigner.
d - a non-Muslim American.
The answer is: d. Joel "Joe" Henry Hinrichs III, a student at the University of Oklahoma (UO) was the only death in a 2005 bombing.
Don't remember it in the news? Don't feel shame if you don't. I watch and read the news a fair bit. And I had never heard of this incident until I read the latest issue of Wired. The question above is part of an article that reviews a book that questions the reasoning behind deep-seated anxieties.
So here's what we know about Joel: he makes a batch of triacetone triperoxide (TATP) out of stuff like acetone (found in nail polish remover), chlorine bleach and drain cleaner. And detonates the bomb ...possibly accidentally, because it is pretty volatile stuff. Yet searching Google News does not generate a match for this incident that happened in 2005.
TATP was also used in the July 2005 London bombings and the attempted shoe bombing by Richard Reid in 2001. Two incidents that happened before the October 1, 2005, incident. Oh, and the UO bomb? It exploded less than 200 yards west of Oklahoma Memorial Stadium, when 84,501 spectators were attending a football game. Yet the same Google News that had no mention of Joel and UO has mention of the London bombings on 7/7 (understandable, as it became the focal point of a nation) ...but also news stories that reference The Shoebomber. Even though that was a failed attempt from four years beforehand, and nobody died.
One such story that mentions Richard Reid and the shoe bomb is out of Sweden, with recent arrests that were made connected to a sabotage attempt at a Swedish nuclear reactor. The article says:
The explosive material was believed to be TATP, which is relatively easy to make and has surfaced in a number of recent terrorism investigations, including bombings in the Middle East and the London bombings in July 2005.
It was the same type of explosive that Al-Qaeda "shoe bomber" Richard Reid tried to detonate on a Miami-bound flight in December 2001, three months after the September 11 attacks in New York and Washington.
Although the recipe for TATP is complex, its ingredients can be found in simple household goods: sulphuric acid -- found in drain cleaner -- hydrogen peroxide, and acetone, often a constituent of nail polish remover.
It's the chemistry kit version of an explosive. The story out of Sweden and the Wiki page that mentions the 2005 University of Oklahoma bombing both mention the ingredients needed to make TATP. From Wiki:
Hinrichs detonated triacetone triperoxide (TATP), an extremely unstable compound which can be made by mixing common household products like acetone (found in nail polish remover), chlorine bleach and drain cleaner. According to a Norman bomb squad agent, Hinrichs had between two and three pounds of TATP in a bag in his lap.
...hardly the best kept secret in the world of the internets. Now you know why you should never mix your toilet cleaners...
Here's the thing. The FBI concluded that Joel's manufacture of two to three pounds of a volatile home-made explosive, and his near vicinity to a stadium holding over 84,000 people, wasn't terrorist related. And the news didn't cover it in any great detail.
Possibly, and this is just my assertion, because he wasn't brown or Muslim enough.
If you think that maybe, just maybe, there would have been nothing for the newscasters to segue to on that day, you would be wrong. The bombings in Bali, Indonesia (which killed twenty and injured 129) happened on the same day.
And yet the incident that happened right here at home was ignored. Incidents that killed and injured others, perpetrated by a Muslim, will (of course) get mentioned. Incidents that killed nobody, but still involve a Muslim, get mentioned. But home-grown, non-Muslim terror acts are brushed under the carpet.
In fact, I'm not the only one saying that home-grown seeds of terrorism are being ignored because it doesn't fit the profile as laid out by Fox News or this Administration.
In 2002, U.S. federal agents arrested Jose Padilla, a U.S. citizen, at an airport in the central city of Chicago. The Justice Department says he is an Al-Qaeda operative and was planning to find a good site to explode a so-called dirty bomb in the United States. Officially declared an enemy combatant, Padilla has had only limited access to his lawyer and is being held indefinitely.
A few months later, federal agents in Texas arrested William Krar, who was found to have a bomb like the one used in Oklahoma City, as well as a half-million rounds of ammunition. Krar is now serving an 11-year prison term.
Padilla has no record of militant activity and had no weapon when he was arrested. Krar was known as a right-wing zealot and was heavily armed.
The disparity in their treatment indicates a double standard, according to Daniel Levitas, the author of "The Terrorist Next Door," which studies indigenous American terrorist movements. He told RFE/RL that he attributes this double standard simply to the government saving face.
"I think it's embarrassing to the United States to present frightening evidence that there are people in this country who are just as fanatical and murderous as Islamic terrorists halfway around the world," he said. "Because in the view of some in the Justice Department, [domestic terrorism] somehow undermines the moral authority of the United States to condemn Al-Qaeda."
As a result, Levitas said, the Justice Department made little of Krar's arrest, but took pains to publicize Padilla's. In fact, he notes that then Attorney General John Ashcroft interrupted a trip to Russia to announce the Padilla arrest.
Levitas said that even though their numbers have been dwindling, Americans should be just as concerned about domestic terror groups as they are about Al-Qaeda.
This is a dangerous thing, and I'll tell you why. In a few months, most of us here hope, a black man will become the 44th President of the United States. There are a lot of pissed off (and dare I say it: bitter) people around that are already sending death threats in. I found the freaking ingredients for TATP just by searching Google News for articles for this diary (so I'm guessing a more determined search will get you the name of a nut-job somewhere that holds classes on how to make this stuff). And we have a faction of Republican supporters that frequently threaten others online, and blame Democrats for all the woes their idols have caused this Nation.
You don't think for one second that one or two of them won't think of making bombs, and then detonate them in 2009, so they can claim the country is less safe under Obama? You don't think the average FreeRepublic contributor won't be whipped into a frenzy enough to do it?
If you don't think these loons are that far gone, I have three words for you: Chad Conrad Castagana. The 39 year-old, living in his parent's basement, Freeper. Who sent white powder to Nancy Pelosi, David Letterman, Charles Schumer, Jon Stewart, and Keith Olbermann. If they're so detached from reality that one of them would send fake anthrax to those he hated (and I'm pretty certain it was only the lack of access to the real stuff that stopped him from sending real anthrax through the post), don't bet against one of them kicking it up a notch.
Just don't expect it to make the news if their plan fails and they blow themselves up instead.
Unless they're Muslim.