Nothing to See Here, Move Along ...

The Wall Street Journal's a bash piece on those who dare question the Joel Hinrichs suicide-by-bombing on the University of Oklahoma campus hinges on the ol' straw man argument. Reporters Ryan Chittum and Joe Hagan apparently ignore legitimate questions about whether Hinrichs had set out to rack up a huge body count when he exploded himself Oct. 1 minutes away from Owen Stadium and more than 82,000 fans. Instead, the intrepid Woodward and Bernstein wannabes focus on what they consider unequivocal truths:

"... blogs and local Oklahoma TV stations added several apparent inaccuracies, including: that Mr. Hinrichs was a Muslim and visited the [Norman, Oklahoma] mosque frequently; that he tried to enter the stadium twice but was rebuffed; that he had a one-way airplane ticket to Algeria; that there were nails in the bomb and that Islamic extremist literature was found in his apartment.

"None of these claims are true: Mr. Hinrichs's family, university officials and the Federal Bureau of Investigation say Mr. Hinrichs suffered from depression, and the explosion was an isolated event.

"The FBI's investigation is nearly complete. On Oct. 4, the FBI issued a statement saying, 'At this time, there is no known link between Hinrichs and any terrorist or extremist organization(s) or activities.'"

A-ha! But the question that many bloggers -- and, yes, even non-bloggers -- have is not about whether Hinrichs was part of an Islamic terrorist plot. That is awfully unlikely, despite some still-tantalizing coincidences regarding OU and al Qaeda.

There are some decidedly more reasonable questions. Does anyone really believe that this is how a depressed, lonely 21 year old kills himself? It's a question worth asking, especially when you note that three days before the suicide, Hinrichs tried to purchase ammonium nitrate, the same fertilizer used for the homemade explosive that took down the Oklahoma City Alfred P. Murrah Federal Building.

But whatever. Apparently we're not supposed to be skeptical of such things. At any rate, Hinrichs waits until Game Day to blow himself up, and chooses to do it on the campus' South Oval, which is always bustling during home games.

Here are tangentially related questions: Why exactly is it that the mainstream news media has paid such little attention to this mystery? And why does it seem that only the right-wing blogs are interested? What makes this strange case of Joel Hinrichs something that would cut along ideological lines? Being no right-winger, I don't get it.

And for the record, the FBI concedes that it has no idea whether Hinrichs tried to get into the stadium for the game. At least one ticket-taker at the stadium indicated to KWTV, Oklahoma City's CBS affiliate, that a young man that day scurried away after refusing to let his backpack be checked. Granted, there is nothing to identify Hinrichs as that unknown person, but there is no definitive answer to that question, either -- despite what the WSJ wants to believe.