Was the dirty-bomb suspect Oklahoma City’s John Doe #2
Bryan Preston has compiled a creepy, thorough and fascinating essay, that manages to be speculative without drifting into conspiracy theory. Executing McVeigh was a huge mistake. Were he rotting in a cell somewhere, at least he could be interrogated about potential connections to al Qaeda. There’s also a Metafilter discussion about the possible connection, with additional links.

10% of this essay may turn up on the evening news tomorrow or this weekend, and if anything is substantiated, 70% of it will show up on one of the prime-time news magazines. Regardless, big media news was stumped yet again.