Inside The FBI: The Oklahoma City Bombing 25 Years Later - Reflections Of An FBI Agent

The FBI released an interview with an FBI special agent who was on the scene of the Oklahoma City bombing 25 years ago.

Steve Lewis: On the morning of April 19, 1995, an ex-Army solider named Timothy McVeigh parked a Ryder truck in front of the Alfred P. Murrah Federal Building in downtown Oklahoma City.

A powerful bomb was inside the vehicle. It was made out of a deadly cocktail of fertilizer, racecar fuel, and other chemicals. McVeigh got out of the truck, locked the door, and headed toward his getaway car. He ignited one timed fuse and then another.

At precisely 9:02 a.m., the bomb exploded.

Within moments, the surrounding area looked like a war zone. A third of the Murrah Building had been reduced to rubble. The blast incinerated dozens of cars and damaged or destroyed more than 300 nearby buildings.

Just outside the city limits, FBI Special Agent Barry Black was sitting in his car tracking a fugitive, when he heard the explosion. Black switched on his radio and immediately heard fellow agents on the other end. Speculations of a gas main break or maybe a plane crash.

Switching channels, Black reported what he was hearing and seeing to his supervisor. Not long after that call to his boss, Black would be re-directed from his fugitive case to the site of the explosion.

Twenty-five years after the deadly bombing that took the lives of 168 people, now-retired Special Agent Barry Black provides us with his firsthand experience investigating the Oklahoma City case, known as OKBOMB, in this episode of Inside the FBI. You’ll hear the challenges he faced during the investigation and his perspective on how such a tragic event helped shape the FBI’s approach to investigating domestic terrorism today.

I’m Steve Lewis, and this is Inside the FBI.

Late that tragic April morning, Black linked up with fellow investigators and first responders at the Murrah Building to figure out what happened and assess the damage. 

You can read the rest of the piece and listen to the audio of the interview via the below link:

https://www.fbi.gov/news/podcasts/inside-the-fbi-oklahoma-city-bombing-25-years-later-041520?utm_campaign=Podcast&utm_content=Podcast+-+Inside+the+FBI%3A+The+Oklahoma+City+Bombing%3A+25+Years+

Later&utm_medium=email&utm_source=Podcast&utm_term=email 

A Fixed Figure For The Time Of Scorn: O.J. Simpson, The Othello Of Our Time

In light of the upcoming TV miniseries on O.J. Simpson's murder trial, Steve Lewis offers a comparison between O.J. Simpson and Shakespeare's Othello in a piece in the Philadelphia Inquirer. 

The similarities will seize you by the throat.

In Shakespeare's Othello, we are presented with a warrior of impeccable grace, courage, and character who murders his wife.

Nearly 400 years later, we would bear televised witness to an athlete-warrior of publicly impeccable grace, courage, and character who (everyone but the jury agrees) murders his wife.

You can read the rest of the piece via the below link:

http://mobile.philly.com/beta?wss=/philly/opinion/inquirer&id=367296611

Defense Department Official Examines Federal Facilities Security Practices

Amaani Lyle at the American Forces Press Service offers the below piece:

WASHINGTON, Dec. 17, 2013 – In the wake of the Sept. 16 shooting spree at the Washington Navy Yard, officials have initiated evaluations to gauge the ability to deter, withstand and recover from the full range of threats at military installations, a senior Defense Department official said today at a Senate hearing called to examine physical security at federal facilities.

Steve Lewis, deputy director for personnel, industrial and physical security policy, told the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee that the Defense Department evaluated facility security policies and the practices it uses to reduce vulnerability of people and property.

“Based upon the results of these evaluations, active and passive measures are tailored to safeguard and prevent unauthorized access to personnel, equipment, installations and information by employing a layered security concept known as ‘security-in-depth,’” he said. 

Lewis said the deputy defense secretary will consolidate key recommendations based on concurrent independent and internal reviews to identify and recommend actions that address gaps in security programs, policies and procedures, including clearance grants and renewals for DOD employees and contractors.  The final report, Lewis explained, will be sent to the secretary of defense for review and, if approved, will be addressed in an implementation plan, in coordination with the DOD components and key federal agency partners, as appropriate.

DOD also calls for the development and maintenance of comprehensive plans to address a broad spectrum of natural and man-made scenarios, including joint response plans to adverse or terrorist incidents, such as shooters and unauthorized access to facilities, Lewis reported. Natural and man-made scenarios could include chemical and biological attacks, unauthorized access to facilities and physical security breaches. “Military commanders or their civilian equivalents, using risk-management principles, are required to conduct an annual local vulnerability assessment, and are subject every three years to a higher-headquarters assessment, such as a Joint Staff Integrated Vulnerability Assessment,” he said.

A JSIVA considers both the current threat and the capabilities that may be employed by both transnational and local terrorist organizations. “The department has worked very hard to foster improvements that produce greater efficiencies and effectiveness in facility securities,” Lewis said.  DOD efforts to harmonize facility security posture with more than 50 federal departments and agencies and with military commanders located in DOD-occupied leased space includes incorporation of the Interagency Security Committee’s physical security standards in DOD guidance, Lewis reported.

“These forums enable the sharing of best practices, physical security standards, and cyber and terrorist threat information in support of our collective resolve to enhance the quality and effectiveness of physical security of federal facilities,” he said. 

Other initiatives include the development of an Identity Management Enterprise Services Architecture, or IMESA, that will provide an enterprise approach to identity sharing and physical access control information. “IMESA will provide real-time vetting of individuals requiring unescorted access to DOD facilities, and these will be run against DOD, federal, state and other … data sources,” he said. Because IMESA users will be able to authenticate individual access credentials and fitness to enter the facility, Lewis added, “IMESA will vastly enhance the security of DOD personnel and facilities worldwide.”

Note: For the last 21 of my more than 37 years of U.S Navy/Defense Department service, I oversaw  security programs for a Defense Department command in Philadelphia.