Visiting the UW-Madison campus today, it would be hard to believe that it was the scene of the most powerful and the most damaging domestic terrorist bombing in the U.S. up until 1995. On Aug. 24, 1970, at 3:42 a.m., the bomb, consisting of more than a ton of ammonium nitrate fertilizer soaked in fuel oil and packed in a Ford van, exploded outside Sterling Hall, killing a physics researcher and damaging 26 buildings.
The explosion devastated the physics department, which occupied the basement and first floor of Sterling Hall. The bomb's target, the Army Mathematics Research Center, a Department of Defense project that occupied the second through fourth floors, was scarcely damaged. The blast was so powerful that it was heard in Belleville, 30 miles from the heart of the University campus. Pieces of the stolen 1967 Ford Deluxe Club Wagon that had held the bomb were found on top of an eight-story building three blocks away.
One of those responsible for the bombing was Leo Burt, who has been on the run from the law for almost 40 years. Here are excerpts from a post from left-wing blogger Michael Leon:
Pardon Leo Burt and All Johnson/Nixon War Criminals
Leo Burt was the only one of the four who has escaped the U.S. government's pursuit of the perpetrators of the bombing, which inadvertently resulted in the tragic killing on a researcher working in the early morning.
I say the DoJ has a bit too much time on its hands.
If criminal violence during the Vietnam War period is really a concern of the government, there are many possible targets who served in the Johnson and Nixon administrations that perpetrated this criminal war under false pretenses and myriad misrepresentations made to the American people.
It gets better. Here is a comment left on that post:
One measly white guy with a Ph.D. gets killed by accident (and if he was such a fabulous wonderful dad and husband, why wasn't he home taking care of his family at that hour?), and it's suddenly some huge crime.
People die all the time. People are killed. For economic reasons. For political reasons. Just because. But somehow a Madison Ph.D. guy is more valuable than millions of others.
And here's the coup de grâce:
I hope they find Leo Burt and try him for murder. Indiscriminately bombing a university building is an act of terror. Right or wrong war is war and it's an attempt to gain control to stop the killing, not start it like Leo did. To not be able to differentiate between the two acts shows ignorance.
Mr. MAL probably doesn't realize that he, and myself , indirectly caused the loss of 2.5 million lives by our marching for "peace" back in the day.
Posted by: BigT | 04/17/2008 at 01:41 PM