Yes, poor Tim Mcveigh. If he's innocent then he is one more victim of the OKC bomber.
I'm surprised at the concern. After all I've not noticed militia supporters and appologists speaking out against the death penalty.
Tim McVeigh certainly acted for the right reasons. This does not make him any less guilty, he killed innocent children in that building (no, I`m not subscribing to the "save the children!" mentality, and do not believe that an innocent childs life is more valuable than that of an innocent adult, merely noting that as children they could not have been guilty of acts of agression against McVeigh or anyone else because they were under the age of criminal responsibility), if we were to say he were any less guilty we would be allowing ourselves to believe in thoughcrime, and not judging the overt act. Whether McVeigh himself did it or not is questionable, I believe he did, this is just a gut feeling, no jury should have convicted him on the pathetic collection of circumstantial evidence presented.
If one is driving away from the scene of the biggest single terrorist incident on US soil one is probably well advised to both have license plates on the car and not be carrying unlicensed firearms.
Of course, but stupidity does not signify guilt. McVeigh almost seemed to WANT to be caught, this is backed up by the fact that he has right wing militia literature in his car at the time of his arrest.
If one is arrested its probably not advisable to counter interrogation by refusing to give more than name rank and serial number, a request to see a lawyer is probably a more sensible choice.
McVeigh certainly didn`t make the smart choice, but he made the right choice, he was at war with the US government, name rank and number were all he was obliged to release.
The one problem I have with the trial is the leaking of the defense notes. I suspect that they are genuine and that McVeigh really did confess.
I personally feel the same, McVeigh pleading not guilty suprised me, he originally planned a suicide attack I believe, which would lead me to suggest he would not later back down from his actions like that.
In the UK publication would be barred for the duration of the trial and heavy jail sentences imposed since the right to a fair trial is considered a reasonable justification for a temporary bar on the right to free speech.
In the UK anything is considered reasonable justification for restrictions on free speech, there are draconian restrictions on the freedom of the press. Of course, freedom of speech is absolute, if you believe a few rags printing allged defense notes will affect a prosecution you are probably right, that does not make censorship acceptable.
However I would not argue that the trial be halted as a result since one possible explanation is that the defense saw that there was no chance of aquital and gambled on gaining a mistrial.
The defense is a joke, but what do you expect? Whether McVeigh did it or not, the government wants someone to blame and McVeigh is the idea target, an anti-government "evil terrorist" to parade in front of the media.
Appologists for McVeigh should consider that his actions did not advance the militia cause an iota, it destroyed it and along with it much of the right wing fringe. It forced Rush Limbaugh off television and many right wing hosts off radio.
Indeed, McVeigh has harmed the cause of freedom. Quite the opposite of his intentions.
McVeigh ripped the heart out of the militia movement, he demonstrated what it was really about. Ironically the Oaklahoma bombing may have had precisely the effect McVeigh desired but in a very different sense. It was a wake up call to defend the country from fascism but the fascist threat was McVeigh and the millitia movement.
Of course, if the militia movement were to have any effect a concentrated effort or even a few bombings killing only government employees would have been a better course of action.
recovered from the beer hall putsch. Alternatively they can loudly claim that McVeigh was "framed" in the same way that other neo-NAZIs on the net claim the holocaust a fake, i.e. so that nobody really believes it. I suspect that this script
The militias would be better to disown McVeigh and condemn his alleged actions because he killed innocents. Datacomms Technologies data security Paul Bradley, Paul@fatmans.demon.co.uk Paul@crypto.uk.eu.org, Paul@cryptography.uk.eu.org Http://www.cryptography.home.ml.org/ Email for PGP public key, ID: FC76DA85 "Don`t forget to mount a scratch monkey"