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Book:
McVeigh Remorseless About Bomb
By
CAROLYN THOMPSON
BUFFALO,
N.Y. (AP) - Detailing his motives in the Oklahoma City bombing for
the
first time publicly, Timothy McVeigh says he pulverized the federal
building
to avenge Waco and Ruby Ridge - and that he regrets having killed
children
only because it undercut his cause.
``I
recognized beforehand that someone might be ... bringing their kid to
work,''
McVeigh says in a new book. ``However, if I had known there was an
entire
day care center, it might have given me pause to switch targets.
That's
a large amount of collateral damage.''
In
75 hours of prison interviews, McVeigh talked to Lou Michel and Dan
Herbeck,
reporters for The Buffalo News, near his hometown of Pendleton,
about
how and why he bombed the Alfred P. Murrah Federal Building. The April
19,
1995, attack killed 168 people, 19 of them children.
In
the interviews, which began in May 1999, McVeigh got choked up while
talking
about killing a gopher in a field, but never expressed remorse for
the
bombing.
``I
understand what they felt in Oklahoma City. I have no sympathy for
them,''
he told the authors of ``American Terrorist: Timothy McVeigh and the
Oklahoma
City Bombing.''
Before
deciding to bomb the Murrah building, McVeigh says he considered a
number
of possibilities, including assassinating elected officials.
But
he chose the bombing, in part, for its visual impact and decided on
the
Murrah
building because it had federal agents and glass in the front, making
it
vulnerable and giving TV cameras a good shot.
Michel
told ABC's ``PrimeTime Thursday'' that McVeigh's only regret was that
the
children's deaths proved to be a public relations nightmare.
CNN
on Wednesday quoted Danny Defenbaugh, the FBI's lead investigator in
the
case,
saying he had no doubt McVeigh knew children would be among his victims.
``No
matter what and how you go by that building, if you look at the
building,
you're going to see all the little cut-out hands, all the little
apples
and flowers showing that there's a kindergarten there - that there are
children
in that building,'' Defenbaugh said.
Defenbaugh
also said the FBI found evidence that McVeigh may have considered
other
attacks in Dallas and Omaha, CNN reported.
McVeigh,
32, told the authors he was disappointed when part of the building
remained
standing after his 7,000-pound bomb went off. ``Damn, I didn't knock
the
building down. I didn't take it down,'' he said.
Authorities
have said the bomb was between 4,000 pounds and 4,800 pounds, but
McVeigh
told the authors it was heavier by more than 1 ton.
He
said he was the sole architect of the plan and resorted to threats against
Terry
Nichols' family when his Army buddy, also convicted in the attack,
hesitated
before helping to load the explosives into a rental truck.
McVeigh
is scheduled to be executed May 16; Nichols is serving life in prison.
McVeigh
was in the living room of Nichols' Michigan home when the Branch
Davidian
compound near Waco, Texas, burned to the ground in 1993 during an
assault
by federal agents, killing about 80 members of the cult. It brought
him
to tears.
The
model soldier had left the Army disillusioned, unable to live with the
thought
that he was an ally of ``the biggest bully in the world, the U.S.
government,''
according to Herbeck. Then when Congress banned certain assault
weapons,
``I snapped,'' McVeigh said.
The
morning of the Oklahoma City bombing he had cold spaghetti for breakfast.
``Meals
ready to eat ... are meant for high intensity. I knew I was going
through
a firestorm and I would need the energy,'' the Gulf War veteran said.
McVeigh
was two blocks away when the bomb exploded and was lifted off the
ground
by the force of the blast. As he fled, he thought of the song ``Dirty
for
Dirty'' by Bad Company. ``What the U.S. government did at Waco and Ruby
Ridge
was dirty. And I gave dirty back to them at Oklahoma City,'' he said.
In
1992 at Ruby Ridge, Idaho, the wife and son of white separatist Randy
Weaver
were killed during a standoff with federal agents.
McVeigh
told the authors he knew he would get caught and even anticipated
execution
as a form of ``state-assisted suicide.'' Yet he worried initially
about
snipers as he was being charged.
``He
was ready to die but not at that moment - he wanted to make sure that
his
full message got out first,'' Herbeck said.
The
authors also talk of McVeigh's regrets over not having a family, saying
he
has thought about smuggling sperm out of prison. Overall, he has found
prison
bearable. ``I lay in bed all day and watch cable television. ... I
don't
pay the electrical bill or the cable bill,'' he said.
McVeigh
dismisses those who believe foreign terrorists or domestic militias
helped
him with the bombing. ``The truth is, I blew up the Murrah building,''
he
said, ``and isn't it kind of scary that one man could reap this kind
of
hell?''
In
Oklahoma City, bombing memorial foundation chairman Bob Johnson said
the
organization
would not accept proceeds from the book because it appears to
contradict
the center's goals.
``Any
time you give McVeigh or (Terry) Nichols an opportunity to talk about
what
led them to do what they did, you are furthering their cause, in my
mind,
to become a national martyr,'' Johnson said.
Johnson
said the foundation was offered an advance copy of the book but never
got
one because he refused to sign a confidentiality agreement. Johnson
said
he
saw the back cover, which he said includes a photograph of the memorial
and
a mention that proceeds from the book will go to the center.
The
memorial's museum opened Feb. 19 with a dedication by President Bush.