I just came across an interesting article by Gore Vidal, written shortly before 9/11. It is, this month, an archive feature on Vanity Fair's website.

To be clear, the Oklahoma City bombing was heinous, no matter the specific circumstances of the plan to carry it out. However, Vidal points out a number of things that were done, and a number of things that were said, that, especially with the Bush administration's record largely in the rear-view mirror, make the hair on the back of my neck stand up.

He quotes Bill Clinton a couple of times. Clinton spoke words that many of us would have protested, had they come from the mouth of George Bush.



He quotes former CIA director William Colby talking about the "militia movement."


Does that description remind you of anything in particular?

He mentions a letter that McVeigh wrote to his sister, in which he tells her that he has joined a “Special Forces Group involved in criminal activity.”

Gore Vidal writes about the clear suppression of evidence in the McVeigh case by the federal government, and about how the government was so surely wrong in its handling of the Ruby Ridge and Waco situations. He writes clearly (though I admit that a few of his literary references fly about a mile over my head), about a federal government that is becoming more and more authoritarian, under the guise of protecting the American people. And, remember, this was written before 9/11 and all the Bush legislation that followed.

Read the full article here.