McVeigh Wanted to Assasinate Reno
W A S H I N G T O N, April 27, 2001 -- Timothy McVeigh said he considered assassinating former Attorney General Janet Reno and others instead of bombing the Oklahoma City federal building to retaliate against the government.
"I considered, among other things, a campaign of individualassassination," McVeigh said in a letter to Fox News releasedThursday.
McVeigh said "eligible" targets included Reno, "making heraccept 'full responsibility' in deed, not just word," for thedeaths resulting from the federal raid on the Branch Davidiancompound near Waco, Texas.
Other targets included federal Judge Walter Smith, who presidedover the Waco trial, and Lon Horiuchi, an FBI agent involved at ashootout at Ruby Ridge, Idaho.
Wanted To Send A Message to Government
McVeigh said he bombed the federal building in Oklahoma City asa retaliatory strike against a government that he believed hadwaged violence against its citizens.
"I decided to send a message to a government that was becomingincreasingly hostile, by bombing a government building and thegovernment employees within that building who represent thatgovernment," McVeigh said in the letter.
McVeigh, 33, is scheduled to be executed by lethal injection onMay 16 for the bombing of the Alfred P. Murrah Federal Building inOklahoma City, which killed 168 people, 19 of them children.
The bombing occurred on April 19, 1995, the second anniversaryof the fire that ended the 51-day standoff at the Waco compound,where sect leader David Koresh and some 80 followers died.
Feels His Actions Were Justified
Until recently, the former Gulf War veteran had not admitted hisinvolvement in the bombing or explained his reasons for doing it.Last month, though, in a book about the bombing written by tworeporters who interviewed him, McVeigh admitted his actions andcalled the children killed "collateral damage."
Asked about the passage, McVeigh told Fox: "Collateral Damage?As an American news junkie; a military man; and a Gulf War Veteran,where do they think I learned that (It sure as hell wasn't OsamiBin Laden!)" — he wrote, misspelling the name of a suspectedterrorist.
As in the book, McVeigh said he bombed the federal building toavenge the deaths at Waco and contended his actions were justified.
"Bombing the Murrah Federal Building was morally andstrategically equivalent to the U.S. hitting a government buildingin Serbia, Iraq or other nations," McVeigh wrote. "Based on theobservations of the policies of my own government, I viewed thisaction as an acceptable option."
He denied that he was seeking publicity by writing to Fox. "Iexplain this not for publicity. … I explain so that the record isclear as to my thinking and motivations in bombing a governmentinstallation."
News organizations are barred from interviewing McVeigh oncamera or on audiotape under federal prison rules recentlyannounced by Attorney General John Ashcroft.