Hinrichs Case Moves Sideways

Michelle has done yeoman's work trying to pore through all the records that were unsealed in a November 18 order by U.S. Magistrate Judge Valerie K. Couch, who determined there was no longer any reason for the records to remain sealed. She's done the great service of scanning those documents for review. Where was the rest of the media outlets to do this?

In any event, we're no closer to figuring out what motivated Joel Hinrichs to blow himself up than before the records were unsealed. And, we haven't learned anything new since I wrote about the records being unsealed earlier this month. We know conclusively that he used TATP in his bomb, which is the explosive of choice for Islamic suicide bombers. However, the papers do not prove or disprove whether he blew himself up due to depression, angst, religious, or some other reason.

The local CBS affiliate, News 9, continues to stand by its story that Hinrichs visited the Islamic mosque near his apartment.

Meantime, the medical examiner's office released its report stating the obvious. The FBI/Joint Terrorism Task Force have yet to complete their investigation, though an FBI spokesman told me it's nearing an end. The OU Daily reports that the FBI says it "may never know if Hinrichs tried try to enter the stadium or purchase a ticket for the game, even though surveillance tape was taken from the stadium." Local TV reports of Hinrichs' attempt to buy ammonium nitrate fertilizer before the bombing incident still stand, and News 9 stands by its reporting on Hinrichs' alleged visits to a nearby mosque.

Generation Why? wonders whether any remaining questions, and there are a bunch, will ever be adequately answered. I think the answer will be an unsatisfying no.

Michelle also wonders why Vaughn Ververs of the CBS blog was asking whether other bloggers to correct the record after the records became unsealed. I have to wonder whether Vaughn ever bothered to check my own blog, which
not only noted the unsealing of the records, but that the evidence remains inconclusive, unless Ververs himself has access to information that isn't already in the public domain.

Also blogging the document drop: Stuck on Stupid, Dustbury.com, and Kuru Lounge.