Ut Humiliter Opinor

Think this will be the end of the jihadist conspiracies at Powerline and Michelle Malkin?

Yeah, I’m kinda doubting it.

OU student wrote death note

Joel Hinrichs Jr. said he understood investigators found the message on the computer screen when they arrived at the apartment. “It was a single line of text on his computer,” his father told The Oklahoman. “The cursor was still blinking at the end.” The elder Hinrichs said he could not recall the exact wording but said his son used profanity in the message and was obviously very angry. “He wrote he was dissatisfied with the situation and was going to quit living,” the father said. Investigators have said they might never know whether the student wanted to get inside the stadium. The student did not have a season ticket. FBI officials also have said the investigation has not found any links between the student and terrorist organizations.

Now, Michelle is taking the University to task for publishing an evacuation plan. Can you imagine the response if they did nothing? By taking sensible precautions and telling people how to handle themselves (which they have been doing before games since 9/11), and they are hiding a plot. Doing nothing, however, would probably be seen as burying their head in the sand.

Okay, after a nearly a week of reports on the explosion last weekend, we still seem to know very little. Many of the blogs are already condemning Hinrichs as an American Islamic convert who turned suicide bomber. The MSM has not been following up very extensively.

Here’s what we know:

1) An explosion happened, killing Hinrichs 2) The explosive has been identified, but not the method (was it a pipe bomb? an explosive vest? a bottle? a timer?) 3) Hinrich was apparently seeking counseling for depression 4) Hinrich lived with a Pakistani roommate who was held and released 5) No ties to extremist groups have been identified 6) Like many engineers, Hinrich was very introverted, and liked playing with gadgets 7) An indeterminate amount and type of explosives has been found at his apartment 8) There is a sealed search warrant.

Putting all this together and you have a few options:

A) This was a serious accident from an experiment gone bad. B) This was an intentional suicide with no harm meant to others C) This was an attempt at mass homicide with a device that prematurely detonated. D) This was an attempt at a joint suicide/homicide with a devide that prematurely detonated.

C & D also have the possibility of political/idelogical motives.

Before 9/11, the assumption likely would have been A or possibly B. These days, B is considered the most likely and is the view most common in the mainstream media, with C/D being considered in many corners.

The parents consider B the most likely option, resisting all attempts to paint Joel as an extremist. I still wonder why A is not getting at least some consideration, however.

I suppose, on balance, I’m leaning towards B. The parents and the depression are compelling enough. I’m still not convinced enough by the rumor mill that this was an attempt at homicide as well.

Wizbang is discussing the possibility that the Oklahoma Suicide Bomber was really a failed terrorist. I still don’t buy it, though. I started seeing sites like Northeast Intelligence Network yesterday that proposed the same thing. However, looking at this picture, the “blast” doesn’t appear to have done much damage to the surrounding area. The grass looks worn from walkers, not explosives, and the pole doesn’t look like anything has happened.

Until the FBI releases a formal report, this is all idle speculation, and doesn’t seem to hold up to scrutiny.

We were out the OU-Kansas State game Saturday evening. During the game, a student - Joel “Joe” Hinrichs - sat down on a bench near the stadium and killed himself with some sort of homemade bomb. The explosion took place almost directly west of the stadium on the South Oval of the campus near the Microbiology building. The University of Oklahoma did an outstanding job of keeping things under control. No panic ensued. In fact, no one really knew what was going on, and the game continued.

During the second quarter, we heard the explosion. Deeper and louder than thunder, everyone knew there was something happening, but we couldn’t tell from the stands. The explosion was loud enough to hear and feel, but not something that shook people from their seats or made anyone nervous.

Let me add here that OU has an evacuation plan for the stadium that they announced before the start of each game. Had they felt the need to evacuate, most of the patrons should have known their route.

During the third quarter the announcer came on and requested that all bus drivers on the South Oval should report immediately. It was odd, but still, the game continued.

During the fourth quarter the announcer came on again and informed everyone that they could not go west of the stadium from Lindsey Street to the campus library. That covers a good chunk of the south side of the main campus. At that point, people became concerned. Someone next to us let us know about a “suicide bomber” near the Microbiology building but that no one was injured. I started tuning into to my radio to get more information. As you would expect the initial reports ended up being different from reality.

Initially we heard that a second device was found nearby and exploded. Also, that a parking garage on the northwest side of campus was restricted.

As the game concluded, we stayed in the stadium for a while. You could see from the stands that foot and car traffic was already at a standstill. I saw little reason to rush out with a crowd of people into an unknown situation. An empty stadium seemed safer. We stayed for at least a half hour after the final gun and the crowds were noticably thinner. No new information was coming out beyond what we had heard in the first few minutes, so we walked across campus to our car and drove off.

It turns out that the second “device” was just a suspicious backpack detonated per police procedure. The parking garage that is adjacent to the stadium was searched, but the northwest parking garage was never an issue, apparently.

Reading today’s media reports, Michelle Malkin and Flopping Aces, Joe appeared to be a disturbed young man. I really hope that’s all there is to this. Powerline is linking to a site that claims Islamic literature was found in his apartment.

From afar, my gut feeling (and fervent hope) is that Joe was a lost young man with an unfortunate flair for the dramatic. My thoughts and prayers are with his family right now. His father gave a brief interview to the Daily Oklahoman:

“I don’t want him defined by whatever limitations led him to this,” said Joel H. Hinrichs Jr. of Colorado Springs. “He was quite introverted. He was a very quiet, introverted, intelligent young man. I can’t approximate what led him to make such a final decision.”