McVeigh on 'Barbarians'

Timothy McVeigh, convicted of the murders of 19 children and 149 other people, accuses the government of "hypocrisy" because of the deaths of Iraqi children during the Gulf War. He claims that while U.S. officials knew of the presence of children in buildings they targeted, there is no proof that the Oklahoma City bomber had similar knowledge.

"Who," the convicted bomber asks, "are the true barbarians?"

In an article in the June issue of Media Bypass, a magazine popular in the antigovernment Patriot movement, McVeigh complains that the 1995 Oklahoma bombing is "viciously condemned" while U.S. attacks on Iraq are seen as "a 'justified' response to a problem in a foreign land."

The magazine's editors say they have confirmed the handwritten manuscript was by McVeigh.

"Whether you wish to admit it or not, when you approve, morally, of the bombing of foreign targets by the U.S. military, you are approving of acts morally equivalent to the bombing in Oklahoma City," writes McVeigh, who has been sentenced to death.

In a related development, The New York Times reported in July that there is "tantalizing" evidence that McVeigh may have been linked to a militia group.

According to summaries of FBI interviews the newspaper obtained, one witness, a corrections officer in Kingman, Ariz., saw McVeigh with 10 to 15 other people dressed in camouflage in the desert in 1994. The group had firearms spread over the hood of an old station wagon.

Although it has been reported that McVeigh and convicted co-conspirator Terry Nichols had some militia ties, that has never been definitively proven.

McVeigh's sister, Jennifer, told the FBI that her brother once told her he planned a bank robbery with others who carried it out, the Times said. He showed her a stack of $100 bills that he said was his share. In a 1993 letter, McVeigh also told his sister that he was bothered by not being able to confide in his family about his "'lawless' behavior and anti-gov't attitude."

Members of McVeigh's family, including his mother and father, told the FBI they suspected him of the bombing almost immediately, the Times said.