Thursday, April 26, 2007

OU OUTRAGE! - Bomber Hinrichs gets memorial stone on campus

I give credit to The Oklahoman today for featuring this as their top story - "OU bomber's memorial stone causes shock".
In light of the fact that witnesses said bomber Joel Henry Hinrichs III was trying to get in the stadium that day, this is totally outrageous, particularly in light of the mass shooting at Virginia Tech a week-and-a-half ago.
Anyway, the story, written by crime/terrorism beat "repeater" Nolan Clay, who has covered up for the FBI and former Gov. Frank Keating regarding the Alfred P. Murrah federal building bombing, is interesting.
What is OU President David Boren (Skull & Bones, CFR, CIA insider, etc., etc.) up to?

Here it is:
NORMAN -- The University of Oklahoma has put outside the student union a patio stone engraved with the name of the student suicide bomber."I was just kind of horrified,” said OU football fan Jenny Clemons, who spotted the stone after OU's Red-White game April 7.
"I don't think he has any business being out here.”
OU's student affairs division arranged to have the stone placed, an OU alumni affairs employee said. OU officials say families pay for such memorials but the student's father said OU offered to place the stone and never billed him.
A stone costs $150.
Joel "Joe” Henry Hinrichs III, an engineering student, died Oct. 1, 2005, when his bomb went off at a campus bench a short distance from an OU night football game.
The FBI investigated whether the student, 21, tried or intended to enter the packed stadium but reported finding no conclusive evidence.
The student's father traveled from Colorado to Oklahoma to visit with university officials after the death. Joel Hinrichs Jr. said OU's dean of students, Clarke Stroud, offered to have the stone placed.In an e-mail, the father told The Oklahoman the dean "very kindly understood that Joel's act was one of loneliness, not of aggression, and offered to have the stone placed in the memorial courtyard; he also indicated that the wife of the university president might select a tree to be placed on campus, also in Joel III's memory.”
The father said he asked to pay for the stone and tree "but was never told anything.” He repeated his offer to the dean in an e-mail Monday after being contacted by The Oklahoman. He said, "They never sent me any indication of cost, or even that they had moved forward.”
In a statement, OU President David Boren said, "As is well known, the death of Joel Hinrichs III was an apparent suicide. A tree was not planted on the campus. Instead, the university gives the opportunity for those who desire to purchase pavers in the union courtyard for students, graduates, or friends of the university."Some are given to honor graduates or friends of the university and some are given as memorials. They are paid for by those who have them placed there and the proceeds go towards the upkeep of the student union. The university tries to be sensitive to all the families who have lost sons or daughters while they were students.”

Stroud said in an e-mail: "We invite all parents or members of the university family to purchase stones in the courtyard honoring friends or family members. In this case it is certainly appropriate to allow Mr. Hinrichs to honor the memory of his son who tragically died while he was a student at the university.”
The father said his son was only committing suicide. FBI agents said they do not know if the student intentionally set off the bomb on the bench as a suicide or if he also had intended to kill others elsewhere. A Norman police bomb expert has said he believes the bomb went off accidentally and that the student had further plans.
Clemons, 50, a hospital nurse, said, "I was in the stadium the day that guy blew himself up. ... I feel like ... if he'd been successful he would have killed a whole bunch of us at the football game.”

Read the rest here.
--END--
Why was the university so eager to feature Hinrichs and give him a memorial stone and not have the family pay for it. Hinrichs clearly wanted to take out people at that stadium. And if the comments at NewsOK.com are any indication, people are outraged about the placement of this stone and will demand it be removed, pronto!

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