It looks like part of the building has been blown away. An American Bombing: The Road to April 19th, helicopter news report, Sky Documentaries 2024
It felt to me as if my skin was burning off. ibid. Nancy Shaw
In the heart of Oklahoma, in the heart of the capital city, a terrible bomb has exploded … ibid. TV news
The bomb killed 168 people, including 19 children. ibid. caption
I didn’t want to believe an American could do this. ibid. man
So McVeigh and Nichols represent the crisis in American agriculture and the crisis in American industry. ibid.
He [McVeigh] comes back home [from Iraq] and has a nervous breakdown. ibid.
Waco: The turning point for McVeigh. He said that at that moment he decided he was going to commit an act of terrorism. ibid.
The idea of blowing up the Murrah building was hatched ten years earlier among members of The Covenant, Sword & Arm of the Lord. ibid.
One man’s terrorist is another man’s freedom fighter, and Timothy McVeigh is a great man. ibid. Richard Butler, cited investigating mother
Excuse me, this case is not in your way, is it? The Wednesday Play: The Compartment/Playmates by Johnny Speight, starring Marty Feldman, madman to passenger, ITV 1969
See, this is why so many trains get lost … ibid.
You have ignored me! Is that polite? ibid.
When the revolution comes, you’ll be one of the first to go. ibid.
You didn’t know I had a gun. ibid.
Bark like an Alsatian …. Down on the floor … We’ve had a lovely game. ibid.
Big house like this. Miles away from anywhere … ibid. Playmates, madman terrorises woman home alone
Woman like you living in a big house like this … ibid.
Mumbai, India, November 2008: The world watches on as a fire rages at the city’s most famous landmark, the luxury Taj Mahal hotel. It’s rumoured that up to sixty terrorists [Lashkar-e-Taiba] are behind a series of commando-style attacks. 59 hours after the attacks began, 166 innocent people are dead. Seconds from Disaster s5e6: Mumbai Massacre
Two men armed with machine guns enter the Concourse. ibid.
2 car bombs explode in different parts of the city. ibid.
A populist revolution in Iran, hostage crisis at an embassy, in Mecca the assassination of an Egyptian head of state, a military invasion in Afghanistan, a series of terrorist attacks in the Philippines, an official reception in Washington DC. All these events are pieces of a giant puzzle scattered around the world. The Terror Routes I: 1979-1993: They Were On the Side of the Angels, Amazon 2011
We should attempt to follow that road: it winds through a transforming Arab world, a crumbling Soviet empire, and an American nation at the hands of would-be sorcerers, the object of mounting hatred. ibid.
Kabul, Afghanistan, 24th December 1979: Operation Storm 333 has just begun. That is the codename given by the Soviets for the invasion of Afghanistan. ibid.
All along the road leading to September 11th are a number of men who are part of an Islamic galaxy. ibid.
Ayman al-Zawahiri is released after three years spent in Egyptian jails. Under torture, he reveals the names of a number of underground Islamist leaders. There years are crucial in al-Zawahiri’s evolution. They only served to reinforce his radicalism. ibid.
Peshawar near the border of Pakistan and Afghanistan is now a strategic hub in the war against the Soviets. Support for Afghan rebels, the Mujahideen, is organised with the help of western powers led by the United States. ibid.
‘Ali Muhammad created the encyclopaedia of jihad, the training syllabus that was used extensively in Afghanistan.’ ibid. US man in the know
‘Reagan openly supported jihadists, including some that are now fighting us.’ ibid.
‘Everybody took credit for it but they all forgot that there was this Islamic muscle which took credit for Allah. And nobody thought of devising some sort of a strategy or policy to contain this muscle. Indeed, they did the opposite.’ ibid.
‘I don’t know why the blind sheikh was issued with a visa to come to the United States.’ ibid.
The Towers held but the countdown to their demise was launched. The Terror Routes II: 1993-2001 The Countdown
Americans and jihadists lose their common enemy. Exhilarated by their victory against the Soviet Union, Islamists turn against their former protectors. ibid.
During the same period, in the middle of the ’90s, Saudi Arabia is facing an important surge of Sunnite extremism. ibid.
‘Bin Laden had come to our attention because his money was increasingly linked to people that the US was worried about.’ ibid. man in the know
‘It’s an open wound for Italy, because the powers that be do want the country to know the embarrassing truth.’ Political Deception: The Years of Lead: An Italian Conspiracy, comment, Amazon 2017
‘The Italian state was responsible for the civil war in Italy.’ ibid. Vincenzo Vinciguerra
Zero Hour, Piazza Fontana Bombing: The start of what would become known as The Years of Lead … Friday, December 12th 1969, at 4.37 p.m. a bomb devastated the central hall of the National Agrarian Bank, the Piazza Fontana. Carnage ensued. 17 dead, 88 injured. Then within the hour, 4 further bombs went off in Milan and Rome. ibid.
The Piazza Fontana Bombing was the result of a conspiracy and the template for the wave of terror attacks to come. ibid.
The ‘black lead’ was the one that led to the far right. ibid.
‘The secret services played a twin role … They did not intervene … The secret services played a major role in muddying the waters by pointing the finger at those who were not the real culprits.’ ibid. comment
A strategy, one whose name gained great notoriety in 1969 – a Strategy of Tension. ibid.
Gladio, the double-edge sword: One of the best kept secrets of the post-war period. The codename for the secret army intended to lead the resistance against any potential Soviet invasion. ibid.
Italy never really settled its scores with fascism. ibid.
The bombs of 1969 aimed to cause chaos as a prelude to a show of military strength. ibid.
July 1970: A bomb on a train in Calabria: 6 dead, 50 injured. ibid.
May 1973: A grenade outside the Milan Prefecture: 4 dead, 52 injured. ibid.
1974: A bomb on the Italicus train between Rome and Brennero: 12 dead, 44 injured. ibid.
Secret protection ensured the impunity of the true perpetrators of this terrorist plot, a small fascist group called Ordine Nuovo, or New Order, a veritable nerve centre of black terrorism. ibid.
‘Rather as part of a hidden structure linked to the Italian and American secret services.’ ibid. Vincenzo Vinciguerra
Bologna Railway Station, Saturday August 2nd 1980, a bomb exploded: 85 dead, more than 200 injured. ibid.
If the instigators of the massacre were never discovered, it is undoubtedly thanks to the manoeuvres of this man, convicted of obstruting justice in the course of the Inquiry, Licio Gelli, the venerable master of a Masonic lodge known as Propaganda Due, or P2. ibid.
He was driven by a single motive: to keep the communists away from government. ibid.
Gelli emerged from the shadows in 1981 during the investigations into the collapse of a bank, implicating the Mafia, the Vatican’s banker, and P2. ibid.
‘Many people thought they had finally identified the brains behind all the horrific and criminal goings-on that had beset Italy during the post-War period. From Mafia activities to the terrorism. In reality, what was P2? It was a protected, secret, covet Masonic lodge which acted as a haven for the most authodox kind of Atlanticism.’ ibid. comment
The truth? Italy is still waiting for the judicial truth. ibid.
27th March 1986 was just a regular day in the heart of Melbourne. But just after 1 p.m. that normality was shattered when a car bomb exploded outside the city’s police headquarters. Crimes that Shook Australia s2e3: The Russell Street Bombings, CI 2016
The Russell Street taskforce were made aware of a bank robbery that took place just hours after the bombing. ibid.
Police raided three addresses connected to Reed and his brother. ibid.
‘The Robbery Squad members who went to Peter Reed’s address were met with gunfire.’ ibid. rozzer
12:59 p.m. Thursday 27th March 1986, Melbourne, Victoria: The Russell Street bombing rocked the foundations of a city, its residents, and police force to the very core. But a 100 strong team of detectives, bomb and forensic experts were determined from day one that the culprit would not get away with it. Forensic Investigators s2e9: Russell Street, Seven Network 2005
After 40 minutes the fires were extinguished, the city sealed off, and 21 people including the severely injured Constables Taylor and Donadio were in hospital. ibid.
‘Good evening. Terrorism hit Melbourne today. Bomb after bomb exploded outside the city’s police headquarters injuring dozens and causing extensive damage.’ ibid. TV news
The clue as to who was responsible lay in the debris that had scattered over several city blocks. ibid.
‘The number plate was still in the vicinity of the vehicle and that enabled us to very quickly identify who the owner of the vehicle was.’ ibid. rozzer
‘[Claudio] Crupi was seen wrapping up what was believed to be gelignite.’ ibid.
‘He [witness] was shown a series of photographs and identified Peter Reed.’
‘We got the forensic people out to Reed’s address.’ ibid.
Stan the Man: The task force identified Stanley Brian Tayler. ibid.