Transcripts For CSPAN3 Oklahoma City Bombing 25th Anniversar

Joining us as the executive director. Of 1995, from april these words by president bill clinton. His first comments about the bombing. [video clip] citye bombing in oklahoma was an attack on innocent children and defenseless citizens. Andas an act of cowardice it was evil. States will not tolerate it. I will not allow the people of this country to be intimidated by evil cowards. With our team, which we assembled to deal with this bombing, and i have determined to take the following steps to ensure the strongest response to this situation. First, i have deployed a Crisis Management team under the leadership of the fbi working with the department of justice, the bureau of alcohol, tobacco, and firearms, military and local authorities. We are sending the finest to solve these murders. Second, i have declared an emergency in Oklahoma City and at my direction, the director of the federal Emergency Management agency, is now on his way there to make sure we do everything we can to help the people of oklahoma deal the tragedy. Third, we are taking every precaution to reassure and protect people who work in, or live near, other federal facilities. Let there be no room for doubt the people who did this. Justice will be certain and severe. These people are killers and must be treated like killers. Finally, i ask all americans tonight to praise. Pray. Pray for the people who have lost their lives. Pray for the families of the wounded. Pray for the people of Oklahoma City. May gods grace be with them. Meanwhile, we will be about our really dating back to 1992 with ruby ridge and the siege in waco. Just over an hour later, he was Florence Rogers was the ceo of a Credit Union House inside the building. Here is what she remembers. [video clip] i turned around in my chair and reared back with him ready to discuss the next item i mentioned when the bomb went off. It was it had to be longer, but it was just like second. All the girls in the office with thoughtpeared and i they had left me alone. Where arehollering you guys, where are you guys . The realization set in somewhat and i realized i dont know where they are. They have gone. When they, i found out bomb went up and everything started coming down, there were federal floors up above us that all good things, but we cannot take it to the extreme to the right or the left. The one thing we learned is to meet people in the middle. Everyone has an opinion and we need to be in the middle of the road to work the issues out. That is something that we feel very strongly about. We want to keep teaching the next generation to meet people in the middle of the road. Bombing he pulled over Timothy Mcveigh for Traffic Violation only to arrest him. Here he tells the story. [video clip] he was headed to Oklahoma City based on highway dispatcher call for all available troopers. It got discontinued. He was 62 miles north of Oklahoma City and he turned around in the media in the median. As he started to head back north he is passed by this yellow mercury marquis that is missing its rear license plate. So he polls that car over and the driver gets out of the car and they order him to stay by the door of his car. Theso he gets out, tells guy to back up toward him and as mcveigh is acting toward him, he notices mcveigh has a bulge under his left jacket and he reaches out. He grabs it. They said, its a gun and is loaded and he has his gun to his head and says, so is mine. He relieved mcveigh of his gun, which was loaded with those rounds that can shoot through an armored rest. Andso, once he had that gun a knife that mcveigh had hidden on his person, he took him into custody and took him to the noble county jail in perry, oklahoma. And so our investigator asked what happened to him . And he said, i dont know. He may still be in custody, he may not. So one of our investigators contacted sheriff jerry cook and talk to him and he said, mcveigh is in custody, but hes got to be released within probably an hour. So, we put a federal hold on him and at that point, myself and several other agents got into a mcveigh about an hour after the bombing and oh city. Peopleth toll, 119 including children. 86 vehicles were burned or destroyed. The explosion was that we have quite present here in america if you look at bombings and assassinations particularly related to things like apportion clinics, and that he had been at the incident in waco text with the branch divinity christian group. I wonder if we should not do a disservice, saying he was sympathetic and involved in the basically religious terrorism. We will leave it there and get a response, thank you. Making sure there are different sides of the story, and we present the facts, for the federal and the state courts. What we have is pieces from evidence pieces of the trial. There are people that have different conspiracies and we recognize that and we have a panel that talks about this but it is important to reck need it has been tried once in federal course. Those judges offered several times that there were other things involved in the story to bring them to the court. They would be admissible and nothing was brought forward. I think it is easier for it not to be told, but for the people that died here they have justice, and i think it is important that we keep telling the story so people understand the risk and also what goes into the hatred and people that do not deal with their issues and their violence. We have to keep making sure that were giving our people the tools necessary to get through their anger and work through their issues there. Part of the issues say to keep teaching, there are ways in place already that you can work through issues within the government, within whatever there are ways to resolve these issues. Were talking with kari watkins. The wilding, alfred p. Murah, why was the building named after him . He was a very young federal judge, the youngest at the time, and he had a great history on the bench. And the government named it after him as when it was built in the 70s, those kids would later be in the museums as well. He was an orphan and he put himself in high school, and he started at such a young age. Of those in the building at the time, as we reported, 168 total were in the building. How many are still alive today. There was 650 that are on the survivor wall. So how many of those are still alive today, we lost some due to age, health, but i cant give you an exact number that are alive today, but many of those people would be here today, they are still involved in the process, and we still talk to everyone. Just looking at the picture of the building, when you saw a firsthand account, what was your first reaction . I could not believe it. I was pretty familiar with the location of it. And i walked past that building hundreds of times, often. I knew where it was, i saw the p playground in the plaza area, but seeing that hole in the side of the building is not something you expect to see in Oklahoma City, even 25s ago. They say it is something you might see in beirut, but not i wanted to mention the book that he wrote two years after Oklahoma City, it was called perpetual war for perpetual peace. I remember it is a very, very good book but people in america dont read any more, that is obvious. At the time, there was a wanted poster when they were looking for suspects and they had a middle eastern terrorist guy, and that was supposed to be the guy connected in the middle east or whatever, and also i would like to know what happened to Terry Nichols who was his army buddy and they constructed the bomb in the area near terry n k nickels. Where he terry today . He is serving a life sentence at the federal and state level. In the toughest prison we have in colorado. Can you walk us through the process of how this became a crime scene to a memorial today . What was the thinking of city and state officials and how that all evolved . Well, i think the mayor started to receive ideas for the process. Ideas of what the site should become, what should be put there. Should the Building Stay or go and it became a collaboration. They are in the darkest hour, and in collaboration. And that is something they keep replicating today. It was thought about, discussed, and a Memorial Task force was appointed. They were led by bob johnson, appointed by the mayor and the governor, and started to think about what do we want the sight to feel like. It was a process from july, to drafting a Mission Statement in march of 1996, and the First Anniversary happened, and we started the process of what will it be. There was designs from 23 different countries, all 50 states, and we narrowed it down to the top five. And both the stage of judging and professional designers and architects, urban designers involved in our labs, and a great facilitator that had done this, and they helped guide this process and did a remarkable job all under a design committee. And people just did a remarkable job of just guiding this process to what we have today. We had a budget, we werent willing to go over that budget with the memorial and the museum, and it was about 25 million believe it or not. Once we got to the final stages, we had the models to prove they could build it in our 10 million budget, and we also received an endowment that todays like today prove to be invaluable. All of that was possible in the darkest hard eest days of the community. We passed a tax on ourselves before the bombing, but people were worried about the projects, but it proved to also be important for the rebuilding of our city. We have one of the top ten museums in the country. Were proud of the storety it tells, but its not an easy process. It involved a lot of families and First Responders. At the same time they were dealing with going to denver for the courts and the trials. So i think it was something that we had to balance as a community. The website is memorialmuseum. Com. We have been looking at some of the scenes inside the memorial to commemorate what happened on this day 25 years ago. Well look at that and listen to mike in mmodesto, california. I read a book way back when called the secret life of bill clinton. And one of them is about his outrageous behavior with ladies in arkansas, and another is ben sloster, and mike, i have to jump in. What does this have to do with Oklahoma City. The third part was all about Oklahoma City, and it follows him through his group. A weird name, and it also, he went to europe with these with this right wing group, and it goes all into depth about the whole deal of how he came to these crazy ideas and follows the ideal. So i took that thing out of the library about four times because it is such a mind blower. I dont know the truth to those other two parts. But i wondered if your guest has ever heard of it. Im sure there are other books about the same thing, but this guy was a muckraker of international i could not for my life, but the secret life of bill clinton, the third part goes really into depth and it was amazing. Okay, mike, well leave it there, are you familiar with the book . I am not. And i dont i wouldnt go there. One thing about bill clinton is he stood with us in 1995 and said as many tomorrows as it takes. In todays oklahoma there was an incredible krecredible oped he us. I dont think he won one county in oklahoma, but he stood us with in our very darkest times, and he continued to come back time and time again. He is a big friend to families and survivors and the First Responders. I would never criticize the work that he has done on our behalf. He has been remarkable to the city and he didnt have to be. He travelled four days after the bombing to Oklahoma City and had these remarks. Yesterday hillary and i had the privilege of peaking with children of federal employees. Children like those who were lost here. And one little girl said something that we will never forget. She said we should all plant a tree in memory of the children. So this morning, before we got on the plane to come here, at the white house, we planted that tree in honor of the children of oklahoma. It was a dogwood with its wonderful spring flower and deep enduring roots. It embodies the lesson of of a psalm. My fellow americans, a tree takes a long time to grow. And wounds take a long time to heal. But we must begin. Those who are lost now belong to god. Some day, we will be with them. But until that happens, their legacy must be our lives. Thank you all, and god bless you. That was in Oklahoma City on april the 23rd, 1995, just four days after the bombing of the building that resulted in deaths of 119 people. I want to thank everyone, miss kerri and all in Oklahoma City. Im married mrs. Claudine bitters daughter, and i just want to thank everyone but as miss kerri said, it takes time for recovery, yes it does. I have been married to woman for 20 years. I have never missed a supper. Thank you, im certain you hear that often. Thanks, jeff. Working on behalf of families, survivors, and First Responders, we take being the guardians of this place to heart. We have an Incredible Team and staff. And in claudines honor and the other 167 that we do every day. Typically on the anniversary, what have we seen over the years . Typically you would have a thousand or more people outside. Three to fivehering on the grounds of the memorial. A president , Vice President , or president clinton would be here. The governor, the mayor, and families, survivors, reading the names of those killed. We pause for 168 seconds of silence and you begin to understand why it seems to long. It is a long time. One second for each person killed is a long time, and you start to understand the enormity of that loss. You heard jeff talk about the loss in their family. They dont go away because time marches on. It changes, they have a new normal, but it doesnt replace the mom or dad in their house. Families had to raise teenagers and have grand babies without these loved ones and their memory is eternal. Neil, good morning. Good morning. I was working for the telco when that all went down. We were working nights and someone didnt show up and i was waiting for relief, and then our terminals started to light up like christmas trees. My relief came in at that moment, and i was glad because there was a million things that went down. There was an at t office across the street, and that completely they were a hub, so they took a big hit so to speak, i found out later they were right across the street from there and it blew out all of their windows and et cetera. I would also like to comment on terrorism and civil disobedience. I was in chicago for the 68 riots, my dad was a firefighter. What happened after Martin Luther king was assassinated, i could smell the smoke, and once in awhile i would be playing baseball, and you could see the black smoke and you could almost see the flames. If you ever went down madison avenue, which i didnt too many times, but his house was there, the housing projects, there was civil unrest going on. I personally, not to ramble here, i was radicalized when i was like ten. I was arrested 26 times before i was 17 years old. We were used to credit civil unrest during the war. And a lot of these things fester and there are people who are naive out there that may think this guy was after killing babies and all that. That is only my opinion, thats what i got. Neil, thank you for the call. Any response Kerri Watkins . Im a big proponent of the First Amendment and the right to attemptable, but you to do it civilly. Constitutional rights are important, and your duty as a citizen to do that with suspere to the laws in place. One of the things we teach here is about service, honor, and kindness. We want people to step up and be kind and show things. My kids were young, and i remember watching them go to the state capital and march on behalf of the cousins and aunts, and teaming them to be kind but strong in their belief. We have strong beliefs but we have to do it in a respectable way. That does not bring harm, damage, or anything that would even remotely look like violence or terrorism. Good morning, kim. Good morning, how are you . Were fine, thank you. I want today call in. I worked in the Oklahoma Water Resources Board building. I now serve on the memorial board and chair the Conscious Committee, and the Conscious Committee is made up of family members, survivors, and First Responders. I wanted to just call in and say, you know, were celebrating today because we have hope, and this memorial sight gives all of us a chance to remember those killed and those that survived and those changed forever. The site is a place of peace. I would just encourage anyone throughout the United States or around the world to come see this memorial. It is a truly remarkable place. Thank you for the comment, your respontsresponse . Im grateful for kim and the other members of the Conscious Committee. Keeping those most closely involved, kim chairs that committee for us and i think we have relied on them greatly in the last five weeks. Moving our marathon, our largest fundraiser, closing our site, the memorial and the outdoor sight, and changing how duo today, and they ahave all been part of that decision making, but they all saw the Bigger Picture and the need for public health. And it allowed us to sleep a little at night because they will help us explain that story to their peers. Having them involved has been a highlight of my life understanding and walking the journey with them. The fact that theyre willing to dive themselves and serve on our committees in the last 25 years, i got a bunch of it in the last 24 years, they gave up, they lost the most, or they have cars that are very deep, but they figu