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Sunday, October 02, 2005

Bomb Outside of College Football Game - 1 Dead

[UPDATE: Michelle Malkin has much more. Instapundit points to Gateway Pundit having a roundup.]

This is an interesting and developing - and troubling - story:
An apparent suicide bombing on the University of Oklahoma campus Saturday evening killed at least one person.

According to a statement from OU President David Boren, a second explosive device was found and detonated. Initial reports had that occurring about 9:15 p.m.

The blast happened shortly after 7:30 p.m. on the South Oval, across the street from the Gaylord Family-Oklahoma Memorial Stadium, where more than 80,000 people were watching the OU-Kansas State football game. One person who responded to the scene said she heard the blast from four miles away.
I am sincerely hoping this is not the beginning of small suicide attacks along the lines of what Israel has faced for years, and as it has not yet been coined a terror attack, perhaps I am jumping the gun. But the worry we must all face is the possibility that suicide bombings and planted bombs will come to this country, devestating our way of life in addition to the pure terror, destruction, and murder that they cause.

So far, the one question I have not heard addressed at all is what the ethnicity of the suicide bomber was. Perhaps Arabic/Middle Eastern? If it is, what comes next? While many have raised the issue, there are no plans - to the public's knowledge, at least - of how to handle the problem. Many believe there should be profiling (an issue I've discussed a number of times), others believe more pressure should be pressed in other parts of the world, thereby taking the focus away from the United States.

Regardless of whether this had anything to do with terrorism or not, it serves as a reminder of just how vulnerable we are to attack here in the United States. Not only was there a suicide bombing just a few hundred feet from a stadium with close to 100,000 people in it (including staff), there was a second bomb found nearby - which was only detected after the first bomb had detonated. The explosion from a bomb is extremely loud. That people inside a racous stadium of Sooner fans could hear it is telling enough; imagine if the bomb had gone off inside the stadium: I heard a Palestinian terrorist blow himself up near a bus in Israel, though I was inside a car, on a highway, with some traffic, over a half-mile away - and it was not a quiet sound. Now, place that sound in the middle of tens of thousands, and imagine the panic that would ensue immediately afterwards. Forget how many may be killed in the blast itself: Far more would be hurt or even killed in the rush for the exits, perhaps rushing right into a planted, second, bomb - a tactic often used by the Palestinians against Israelis.

Thank God nobody was hurt, save the suicide bomber. Let us hope we learn from this instance; not from one that has far worse consequences.

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4 comments:

  1. From what I'm seeing it's being written off as just a suicide.
    However it appears that Oklahoma has been a point of convergence for Jihadists in the past.

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  2. Thanks. But how often does someone commit suicide outside a football stadium, and plant a second one nearby? It's a little strange to me.

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  3. This is an extremely troubling development no matter what. If you want to see a lunatics reaction to this you should read the comment someone left on my site about this story. It's repugnant.

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  4. Chaim - that was pretty sick. Sadly, I've seen too many like him...

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