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CNN Sunday Morning

McVeigh Remains Unapologetic

Aired June 10, 2001 - 08:32   ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
MILES O'BRIEN, CNN ANCHOR: Twenty-four hours before his scheduled execution, Tim McVeigh is now in the death house at the federal prison in Terre Haute and prison officials are methodically carrying out the final steps. Twelve hours to three hours prior to the execution, McVeigh will be served a final meal. He will be allowed visitors at the discretion of the warden. Access to the prison property will be strictly limited.

Within three hours before McVeigh is put to death, the execution log begins. The executioner is escorted into the facility to ensure that everything is ready. Two hours prior to the execution, visiting privileges are terminated. An open phone line is established to the Department of Justice command center in Washington and other execution room staff will assemble for final instructions.

An hour to a half hour before the execution, McVeigh is removed from the holding cell. He will be strip searched and dressed in khaki pants, a shirt and slip on shoes. He will be secured with restraints if necessary. McVeigh will then be escorted to the execution room and strapped into the execution table.

In the final hour to 30 minutes, government witnesses should be in their assigned area. Community witnesses will be escorted to their area. Witnesses selected by McVeigh will be escorted in and media witnesses will be the last to be admitted.

In his final hours, McVeigh has written letters to his hometown newspaper, the "Buffalo News." Two staff writers for that paper are the authors of the book, "American Terrorist: Timothy McVeigh and the Oklahoma City Bombing." Lou Michel and Dan Herbeck join us from Terra Haute, Indiana this morning. Gentlemen, good to have you with us on CNN SUNDAY MORNING.

DAN HERBECK, AUTHOR, "AMERICAN TERRORIST": Good morning, Miles.

LOU MICHEL, AUTHOR, "AMERICAN TERRORIST": Good morning, Miles.

O'BRIEN: All right, Mr. Michel, the letter was addressed to you, Tim McVeigh's letter. If you had to encapsulate it for us, for those who haven't read the full text of it, give us a sense of it and give us a sense if there's any surprises in there that you saw knowing McVeigh as you do.

MICHEL: Well, Timothy McVeigh wrote that letter to me in the last several weeks and basically he wanted the people of Oklahoma City to know that he held nothing personal against him, his enemy was the federal government. He's sorry that so many people had to die.

However, he's not taking back the act. He feels it was necessary. He ripped a page out of the federal government's foreign policy when we send war planes over to Bosnia for Slobo -- to take out Slobodan Milosevic or to Iraq -- it was similar to that. He felt that the Murrah building was a command center for federal agents who were trampling the rights of American citizens. That was his firm belief.

However, he doesn't want to go over -- overdo causing pain to citizens in Oklahoma City.

O'BRIEN: So you get the sense, Mr. Herbeck, we'll turn it over to you, you get the sense that there's really nothing new in there and that for those who perhaps were hoping for maybe some sort of 11th hour expression of contrition, that's not going to happen.

HERBECK: Well, if anyone would consider that an apology, it's a very hollow apology and I'm sure it doesn't bring much peace to the people of Oklahoma City. And really it's not much of an apology. It's more of an acknowledgement, at least, that people in Oklahoma did suffer tremendously. But he blames, he still puts all the blame on the federal government.

O'BRIEN: Mr. Michel, you will be in one of the witness viewing areas and I believe you were invited by Mr. McVeigh. Is that correct?

MICHEL: Yes, it is. It's in line with the access that he's granted Dan Herbeck and I all along.

O'BRIEN: Well, give us a sense of what you anticipate his final words might or might not be.

MICHEL: Personally, I don't think that Timothy McVeigh is going to make a final statement. I think in our book he chose the poem "Invictus" as a way of making a statement. His lawyers may say something after he's executed, but Timothy McVeigh, I believe, will go out the stoic soldier that he's always presented himself as to us.

O'BRIEN: Mr. Herbeck, in getting to know Tim McVeigh and writing this book, were you ever troubled by the concern that you might, in fact, be playing into McVeigh's overall plan here in helping him achieve some level of martyrdom?

HERBECK: I don't think he's going to be viewed as a martyr in this country because a person who is so universally hated is not really going to be viewed as a martyr. I think people are going to remember Timothy McVeigh as a murderer, not a martyr, and I don't think that that's a great concern.

O'BRIEN: But did you have a concern when you actually got down to writing that you might in some way glorify his deeds in some form or another?

HERBECK: No, because anyone who reads our book can see that it's the exact opposite of glorification. We're relating a story for American history that will be sitting on bookshelves 100 years from now, just as any author would want to pursue a story about Adolph Hitler or any other famous historical figure.

O'BRIEN: Mr. Michel, you want to add to that?

MICHEL: Our book humanized Timothy McVeigh. A lot of people thought he was a monster and it would be so easy to simply dismiss him as that. But it would be to our peril as a society if we didn't try to look into his mind and understand him. Nobody wants another Oklahoma City bombing and this book gives insights that others don't and it was done as a public service.

O'BRIEN: Mr. Herbeck, you're not going to witness the execution. Why not?

HERBECK: Well, there's a number of reasons. Part of it is the fact that we're both covering this event for the "Buffalo News" and I want to be outside the prison seeing what's going on with the protesters and others. Also, I witnessed an execution for a magazine story some years ago and it's something that I didn't enjoy seeing and I wouldn't want to see again, although if I was assigned I would do it again as part of my job. But it's not a thing that I would want to repeat.

O'BRIEN: Dan Herbeck and Lou Michel are the co-authors of "American Terrorist: Timothy McVeigh and the Oklahoma City Bombing." They are reporters for the "Buffalo News." Thanks very much to both of you for being with us on CNN SUNDAY MORNING.

HERBECK: Thank you, sir.

MICHEL: Thank you.

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