facial replacement technology, we transform recreation shot with actors into visuals that graphically place mcveigh into the very scenes he describes. drawing from 45 hours of exclusive audiotapes, we'll go deeper than ever thought possible into the mindset of this calculating killer. >> people have compared oklahoma city to pearl harbor as far as the impact of a psyche on the american people. one of the chief intentions was the same as dropping the bomb on hiroshima. what was that? to say, listen. if you don't knock it off, there's more of this to come. >> this is one kid who got it in his head that he could play god. >> when mcveigh talks about the actual bombing, he's not almost bragging, he's boasting completely. but, you know, what the guy is talking about is mass murder on an incredible scale, including

the murder of children. >> first of all, i believe there is no hell. but if i go further and say, even if there is, i don't think i'm going. >> can you imagine like, if lee harvey oswald had had the chance to spill his gults or john wilkes booth? i knew i had one of the most saddest and horrible stories that has ever been told in american journalism. >> i never had trouble admitting to my involvement in what i did, because i feel no shame for it. you see, with these tapes, i feel very free in talking. you've got this adrenaline pumping, but you force yourself to stay calm. i then pulled up to the light which and let the fuse which was approximately two minutes.

you could see someone calling me a coward with a 7,000 pound bomb. the fuse burning behind my back. i lit the two-minute fuse at stoplight and i swear to god that was the longest stoplight i ever sat in in my life. i'm thinking, okay, it's lit. green. green. i'm down, what, a minute 30? i pulled up to the building, pulled the parking brake, turned it off, and then i made sure my door was locked. stepped out and walked across the street. the mission was accomplished. i knew it was accomplished and it was over. >> without warning, all of a sudden, you hear this, you know, kaboom. it's just seconds that you just don't know what's happening. >> the first sound was the blast

itself. the second sound was -- because the whole front of the building was glass. >> we've got everybody on the second floor out. >> everybody from the second up there, okay? >> i was hollering help, and there was six floors on us, but we didn't know it. people were everywhere, babies were crying and they were saying, where are you? we'll get you. where are you? >> i just remember the ceiling falling in, the windows shattering glass everywhere, and it being smokey. >> were our children on there? >> this is our office. we don't know the children. >> i saw mothers running down the street screaming because they couldn't find their kids. i was trying to get in the building, and this policeman yelled at me.

and i said, but you don't understand. my little boy's in there. i've got to go in there and get them. >> hell is breaking loose because nobody knows what's going on. and you walked out in the street and people are running and yelling and it seems like everybody's bleeding. >> the blast destroys one-third of the alfred p. murrah building creating an eight-foot deep crater and equivalent of a 3.0 earthquake. overall, 324 buildings in a 16-block radius are damaged or destroyed. >> i thought first, well, maybe we had a natural gas explosion. but if it wasn't that, maybe we had an earthquake. and if it wasn't an earthquake, maybe a plane hit the building. >> but investigators quickly determine the cause of the massive destruction. >> the fbi, we are told now, has confirmed that it was a bomb that caused this explosion. >> this is one of the critical. >> millions around the world

watch and wrestle with the mystery of why such a quiet midwestern city could be the target of a terrorist attack. >> it's a pretty all-american, average city. so you think, why here? why on earth would somebody do something so vicious in the middle of the heartland? >> up to that point, nothing like that had ever happened in the united states. >> as soon as we get an ambulance here, we'll have you in the air, all right? >> immediately after the bomb went off, there were commentators all over this country saying, you know, it's the muslims. it's the foreigners. >> some group calling itself the nation of islam saying it was responsible. that has not, however, been confirmed. but it does look like it could have been the kind of device that we saw outside the american embassy in beirut. >> this is the kind of thing that came out of the immediate rush to judgment, about this could never be an american. this has to be some terrible foreign person who is coming into, you know, attack us and our freedoms. >> while rumors and speculation about who is responsible swirl among the media, fbi agents are fortunate to catch a solid lead early on day one.

>> within three hours of the bombing itself, the rear axle to the bomb-laden truck was found. that rear axle had a confidential vehicle identification number. we were able to identify that an individual by the name of timothy mcveigh was probably one of the main primary subjects. and the investigation started from there. >> on friday, just a couple of days after the bombing, we discovered all of a sudden that this fellow, timothy mcveigh, was sitting in a jail, a local jail, north of oklahoma city and had been sitting there since the afternoon of the bombing. so all of a sudden it kind of came crashing in on all of us that this was very much a domestic event. >> i think that the first reaction was total shock. that it was a kid from the american countryside who had done the work of international

terrorists. >> i think people were intrigued by mcveigh. he was a decorated veteran. he came back from desert storm, so it made it doubly tough for people to figure out. >> in buffalo new york, lou michelle, local print reporter, was already looking for a way to work the hometown angle to get to the heart of who this guy really was. >> the fact that timothy mcveigh lived in niagara county, 15 minutes from my home, i wanted to know how niagara county could spawn such an evil act. i made it my business to become an expert on timothy mcveigh. because it isn't every day that one of the worst domestic terrorists in american history comes from your backyard. >> by the winter of 1999, four years after the bombing, timothy mcveigh has been tried, convicted and sentenced to death. the looming execution sparked a mad sprint among media outlets

around the world to get an exclusive interview. on paper, lou michelle didn't stand a chance. >> you had "the new york times," you had the "l.a. times," you had the "washington post" vying for interviews. so i had very low expectations. and in '99 he sent me this letter saying, lou, i've considered a lot of different print journalists wanting to tell my story and i'd like you to consider it. and i was just flabbergasted. >> what resulted was "american terrorist," the only authorized biography ever written on timothy mcveigh. the 45 hours of audiotapes from those jailhouse interviews had been boxed up and collecting dust. until now. >> i was really glad the tapes were rolling so that other people at some point in the future would hear this. and gain a better understanding of what a terrorist thinks.

>> nobody has ever heard mcveigh in his own words speak about the bombing. >> well, here is a blueprint, an oral blueprint of what turned one young man into one of the worst mass murderers and terrorists in american history. >> the shrink would conclude, i'm not sure if they used the word psychopath or sociopath, that is they have no respect for human life. far from that. i have great respect. but i also realize that my nature as a human being, that humans kill. if you think all batteries are the same, consider this:

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lou michelle is about to meet timothy mcveigh for the first of a series of interviews that will become the backbone of the only authorized biography of the oklahoma city bomber.

by may of 1999, mcveigh has been convicted and sentenced to death for the oklahoma city bombing. but he's still appealing the conviction. >> mcveigh is sitting there drumming his fingers across the table, and he says, you're late. you know, timothy mcveigh considered himself a military man. i said, you're right, i'm late, but it was because of all the security checks i had to go through, and then he smiles at me and he says, i knew it was the government. >> the men spend the first several hours of the interview with basic small talk. mcveigh eventually delves into a darker place, pulling lou michelle into the mindset of someone facing imminent death. >> i'm not going to go into that courtroom and krurl into a fetal ball just because the victims want me to. i've already said to the victims, you can have what you want. i'll go to my death. you can be happy, i'll be happy.

>> mcveigh was done with life. this was his ultimate statement. i knew i was there to get a confession from him. >> i learned to put a check on anything that comes out of my mouth, but today i'm deciding basically [ muted ] that, we've got to lay down the record as it is. >> up to this point, mcveigh had said nothing publicly about his involvement in the bombing. involvement in the bombing. but with a death sentence approaching, mcveigh chooses to trust lou michelle and wastes little time getting to the core of the story. he begins by describing what drove him to choose the murrah building as his target. >> there had to be at least two law enforcement agencies in the building. criteria was vulnerable but isolated from other buildings so you minimize collateral damage. i didn't have the ability to scope out every federal building in the nation, but i did scope out a number so i could pick the best out among those.

. atf, fbi, didn't matter. anybody who carried a gun, carried a badge, had the ability to knock down your door, take away your personal possessions, incarcerate you. anybody like that, to him, became the enemy. >> the building was chosen out of a phone book. looking in the blue pages and looking under law enforcement agencies. if you look under dea and u.s. marshall, atf, if they started giving the same address, you know, they're all in one building. >> i think that what most people probably have not realized is how very carefully some of the details of this were planned out and for how long he had really been thinking about how to carry this off. >> mcveigh's plan requires the acquisition of thousands of pounds of materials. all needing to be stored without detection.

a job this big is too much for one person, so mcveigh calls on one of his only friends. ex-army buddy terry nichols. >> terry nichols certainly believed the federal government was against the average person. he considered himself to be a prisoner in a country that wasn't his. >> beginning in september of '94 is really when they started to gather the ingredients. >> the both of them were buying the material for the bomb and collecting it. it was like a long-term project for them. because this is a 7,000-pound bomb they're building. >> they are going and making large purchases of ammonium nitrate in these 50-pound bags. this granular fertilizer that will make up half the bomb. they go around, they've got various storage sites where they're storing it and getting ready to pull it all together.

>> mcveigh had nichols totally under his control. from the beginning, the plan was mcveigh's. nichols was a bit player. >> in october 1994, mcveigh and nichols break into a rock quary in marian, kansas. they already have tons of material to create the bomb but still need the mechanism to ignite the device. >> he steals a lot of explosives. that, a, would have been very difficult to get, and if you could get it, would have been very expensive and could have possibly left a trail or could have tripped them up. so stealing it of course would be the best office. >> i know very much the science of demolitions and using explosives from my military experience. i used the ammonium nitrate and adding nitromethane. with high explosives you've got

high velocity. to shatter concrete and steel you have to have a high-yield or high-powered explosive. >> the fertilizer itself is an explosive. the stuff that they steal from the quarry ignites that explosion. the nitromethane they get makes it can create the kind of destruction you see in oklahoma. ♪ (laughing through computer) good night, buddy. good morning, dad. (announcer) oreo. milk's favorite cookie. (announcer) oreo. male announcer: be kind to your eyes with transitions lenses.

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out. >> mcveigh in his confession in the second day of the four-day interviews, you know, really picked up some steam. and he was finally getting it off his chest, how he managed to do this. and he was finally able to take credit. >> timothy mcveigh continues to give reporter lou michel a detailed account of how and why he blew up the murrah building and who helped him. terry nichols was involved in gathering the bombing materials but there was another man that shared their anti-government fury. michael fortier. >> mcveigh met fortier in the army. as this idea started to percolate in mcveigh's head that, you know, we've got to strike, he needed some help. and fortier looked like he would help. >> michael fortier was a rebel. and i think tim was attracted to that.

he also shared tim's anti-government views and mcveigh has an edge over him intellectually and can manipulate him as well. >> in mid december of 1994, mcveigh and fortier are traveling from the nichols' farm in michigan to fortier's trailer in arizona. they make an up close look at their target. >> mcveigh and fortier took a drive through oklahoma city and looked over the murrah building and mcveigh said, that's the one. he liked it because it was uncluttered. >> mcveigh's focus and belief in the mission is becoming laser sharp. but by late winter 1995, nichols and fortier are having doubts. >> you've got to remember, fortier and nichols are more family oriented. they have wives, they have kids. mcveigh, in my opinion, had nothing to live for.

so as they're starting to back off, he's revving up. >> and he holds himself apart as, i have to be by myself because i'm the true believer of this ideology and i'm going to further it the most. >> this was something that i saw as a larger good, and i know that, as i analyzed the history of not just the u.s., but all nations throughout the history of mankind, people have killed for what they believed was the greater good and it's accepted. sometimes killing is accepted. >> by early april 1995, michael fortier bails out. no longer willing to aid mcveigh, but still pledging to remain silent about his friend's deadly scheme. terry nichols is the only one remaining to help mcveigh carry out the terrorist plot but he, too, starts to lose his will.

>> in the last week as mcveigh is really going fully operational, terry nick alcohols is withdrawing more and more and more. so there's several occasions where nichols is supposed to meet mcveigh and he just doesn't show up. you know, it ultimately comes to a head on the sunday before the wednesday bombing. >> i mean, he calls this guy up. the guy's barely sat down to dinner, get your butt down here, do it now. he put the screws to him quite a bit. >> and nichols was afraid of mcveigh and with good reason. he knew that mcveigh would stop at nothing at this point to get the crime done. >> they drive up to oklahoma city, they drop off the getaway car. at this point there's a lot of fury between them. they're barely talking as they drive all the way from kansas to oklahoma city and then back again. >> and at this point mcveigh's thinking to himself, i still

need terry nichols to help me build the bomb. >> i was the principal planner for this. i did manipulate people, including terry nichols. >> on the way back from dropping off the getaway car in oklahoma city, nichols drives mcveigh to the dreamland motel in junction city, kansas, a short distance from his own home. two days later, mcveigh hitches a ride to elliott's auto shop and rents the ryder truck that will act as the vessel for the bomb. all the pieces are in place and ready to go. mcveigh also settles on a specific date for the bombing. >> the two most significant events in the history that occurred april 19th, to me, was not just one, waco, but, number two, was the shot heard around the world, april 19th, 1775. the spark that started the

american revolution. >> so that was another grandiose way of saying how important his actions are to those in the world, compared to everyone else's. his actions mark him a place in history. he matters. >> people have compared oklahoma city to pearl harbor. as far as the impact of a psyche on the american people, that it was a surprise, it was a shock to the nation and all that. one of the chief intentions of it was the same as dropping the bomb on hiroshima. >> and what was that? >> hit them hard, by surprise and heavily. you know, to say, listen. if you don't knock it off, there's more of this to come. i'm gonna take allison jenkins to the senior prom

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>> i'm lynn berry. here's what's happening. the president and vice president will travel to west virginia this weekend to attend a

memorial for 29 miners killed in a coal mining explosion. florida governor charlie crist says he is considering running for u.s. senate as an independent after struggling to round up votes for the gop primary. air traffic officials are carving air space into three safety zones allowing at least some flights to resume, despite a cloud of volcanic ash that's still growing. we take you back to "the mcveigh tapes." i take full responibility for all my actions and for who i am. i'm not looking in any way, shape or form to blame anything on my parents or my upbringing. >> tim was born into a working class family just north of buffalo, new york. >> it's a hard working community of blue collar folks. his father, his grandfather

worked at an auto plant. the family he was born into was very typical american. timothy mcveigh was the first son in that family. he'd had an older sister and then later a younger sister came along. >> growing up, to me, i was taught with my family that even getting a speeding ticket was like a sin-type thing. it wasn't this religious thing. i don't want to say sin in a religious tone. i mean, any breaking of the law is bad, tim. you should never break the law. >> an energetic, generally happy kid, mcveigh did not see too much of that joy inside his own home. his parents, bill and mickey, were constantly at odds with one another. >> his parents didn't mesh together well together. >> mickey, i think she wanted something bigger, something better, and just wanted to be free. >> the sisters and tim were put in a very difficult situation. when the family broke up.

the sisters decided to go with the mom, and she moved down to florida. and tim said, no, i'm staying with dad. >> with my parents, to be completely honest, i can't sit here today and tell you that i truly love them. i know what love is. and i don't think i feel it toward my parents. you asked if there's any men i loved. i love my grandfather mcveigh. >> ed mcveigh lived just a mile or so down the road and became a role model and constant presence in young mcveigh's life, once his mother and sisters moved away. >> ed did a lot of child rearing with tim. and thank god ed was there. because he would have had no one. >> he would go shooting with his grandfather. he did everything with his grandfather. >> in contrast to the safe haven

he found with his grandfather, tim struggled with the social aspects of high school. highly intelligent by all accounts, mcveigh's problems were not in the classroom. >> they started calling me noodle mcveigh. noodle because i was thin like a noodle. lanky. so then they started calling me chicken noodle soup, chicken mcnuggets, mcveigh mcnuggets. >> he got picked on. that was one of the resentments he harbored throughout his entire life. bullies. he hated bullies. >> you'll find most of the bullies in school are jocks. they're jocks are taught on the field of competition after school to dominate others. right? football, anything else. they're taught to dominate out there. the problem is they don't leave it when they come back in the doors of the school. leave the domination on the field of competition. >> he gains a serious resentment early on for people who were bigger and stronger, who could impose their will.

>> after graduating from high school, mcveigh attends a local business college but gives it up after only one year. he is restless and looking for focus. >> he wanted excitement. he comes home, he tells his father, i'm joining the army, dad. his father says, when. well, i go in tomorrow. and bill said, okay. >> in the spring of 1988, mcveigh chops off his hair and is shipped down to ft. benning, georgia, for basic training. from there, he is assigned a post at ft. riley, kansas. immediately mcveigh takes to the discipline and regimentation of military life. >> i wanted to get out and experience the rest of the world. i wanted to get out of my isolation of pendleton and i wanted to be part of a team. i was a bit of a gun enthusiast, so you can't go wrong both brushing up your skills, and the

army has free ammunition. the military experience for me were some of the best years of my life. >> i think that mcveigh found success, really, probably for the first time in his life in the army. i think mcveigh was looking for some kind of family that would make him happy. >> tim mcveigh at ft. riley was like the model soldier. >> he bought a second army uniform just to wear during inspections. so he looked crisp and top-notch. >> he was an amazing marksman. he was an amazing student of guns and explosives. >> he would spend time cleaning his gun. he didn't go out and get drunk. >> mcveigh did not socialize much but he did connect deeply with two other soldiers at ft. riley who made a lasting impact. >> mcveigh really met his main confederates in the army. he met terry nichols, of course, and michael fortier. >> terry nichols i think represented a little bit of what

he liked in his grandfather, in that very seemingly solid, calm, older, somebody you could look up to. michael fortier, on the other hand, was a bit more of a party guy and, hey, let's go do -- a bit more spontaneous. >> these are people already wrapped up in that world, especially nichols, of conspiracy theories and so on. >> i like to get to know people that know things that i don't. and that way i can learn off of them by hanging around them. he was pro second amendment and at the time that was one of my only political, pro second amendment and survivalist. >> they would talk about the government trying to take over the whole world and about the government trying to take guns from people. >> despite mcveigh's growing interest in the anti-government ideology while at ft. riley, he continues to excel as a soldier.

but by fall 1990 his inner turmoil about the government is put to the ultimate test when mcveigh is sent to fight in the persian gulf. >> i think mcveigh was a bundle of contradictions. >> he believed the united states and the integrity and justness of its government. >> but at the same time, he's maturing in his anti-government views. it's like a jekyll/hyde, the good angel and bad angel in a way.

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>> left -- if you look back at where i come from, it's a military background, military mindset. and i want to be clear that the military didn't brainwash me into thinking this way. the truth is that the military helped introduce me to the cruelty of the real world and the way things work. >> in november of 1990 in response to saddam hussein's invasion of kuwait, timothy mcveigh and his ft. riley unit are shipped out to the persian gulf. with the u.s. army's first infantry division. >> the gulf war for tim was sort of the culmination of his young

military career. the way that that mission was described to him, the mission of the u.s. was noble. >> within weeks of his arrival, mcveigh's intense focus and determination to be a model soldier pay off. >> a promotion came while he was in the field there. he was made sergeant, and, of course, that, you know, gave him a greater sense of pride. >> during the gulf war, battles on the ground are rare. but for mcveigh and his platoon, one bloody encounter stands out from the rest. >> mcveigh looked into his pathfinder and saw the bradley fighting vehicle, and saw way out in the distance a group of iraqi soldiers. >> i put the cross hairs up there, pulled off my shot. and the next thing i saw was everything from above his shoulders disappear in red dust. it was like a red mist.

and the guy next to him dropped. i did kill in self-defense. it was a single shot that got two guys. >> the fact that it was a kill shot for two in one kind of made him a legend in his unit. >> that moment for tim was a moment of pride. he did what he had been trained to do, did it very effectively. >> i think tim's time at war, as short as it is, did teach him to kill. but then you start to see these people who are starving and suffering the effects of war and beginning to realize that the government is evil because it can go kill these innocent people. >> my overall experience in the gulf war taught me that these people were just that, they were people. they were human beings that, even though they speak a different language, at the core they're no different than me. right? then i had to reconcile that with the fact that, well, i

killed them. >> he couldn't believe that his government would be doing that. and would be misleading people like him to do this. >> you have to understand that mcveigh hated the bully. and i think he felt like he was wearing the bully's shoes at that point. >> despite misgivings about the war and the u.s. government, mcveigh is still determined to further his military career. while in the gulf, he is selected to try out for special forces. mcveigh reports to ft. bragg, anxious to make the elite unit, but burned out from combat. >> he probably shouldn't have tried out that soon. he probably should have just waited and gotten himself into better shape. but that's tim mcveigh. mr. impulsive. mr. i want it now. >> they sent us on a five-mile march. after that march, i got a blister on my right heel and a bigger one on my left one. as i changed my socks to keep them try, so when i looked and

saw those blisters and knew i was tuckered out, i did an analysis. it wasn't an instant decision like people think, i'm just going to drop out, i can't handle it, you know? it was just too much at that time. >> he just sort of gave up. he just didn't have the spirit to do it. physically he was depleted but he also just, more importantly, emotionally. >> mcveigh says it is more than just physical and emotional exhaustion. he claims his mixed feelings for the government are also part of the decision. >> in the gulf, i realized that i didn't like being someone's pawn. because i felt it was abused in the gulf. it just rubbed the wrong way. that's one of the reasons i got out of the military. >> he failed so he had to demonize the military itself and the government itself to make a reason for him, an honorable enough reason for him to leave. >> upon returning home after almost four years in the army,

mcveigh discovers civilian life is not as liberating as he had hoped. >> i was so excited to get out of the military and go home. and when i got home there was no excitement there. once you've had that adrenaline rush, once someone's walked on the razor's edge, everything is dull by comparison. some people get addicted to it. >> when tim came home, he really seemed changed. you just really didn't, at that point, want to talk about his army experiences at all. it was like he just washed his hands of the whole thing. >> he'd gone from being a person that he thought would have a career in the military to a person whose focus was gone. >> it begins this kind of slippery slope. he starts to voice this opinion. he's trying to preach, he's trying to vent it out that way. it starts with editorial letters.

>> he started seeing oppression and repression by the federal government in every direction he looked. >> that world, the world of hatred ideology and militias and so on, you know, gave some structure to what he thought. it wasn't just that the whole world was screwed up and that he had been screwed in these various ways. it was that there was an actual evil agent out there. >> the spiral continues. with each disappointment, his anger and disillusionment grow until one frigid winter day something snaps. >> he shows up at his grandfather's house in the middle of the winter just with sweat pants on and no shirt or anything. you know? and it's pretty cold in western new york in the winter. knocks on his grandpa ed's door and says, grandpa. ed mcveigh opens the door. timmy, timmy, what's wrong with you? i don't know, grandpa. i don't know. this is when he has his nervous breakdown. >> i came back from the gulf war. it was within three months that i had this breakdown.

i think this is also when my post-traumatic stress kicked in a little later. >> so he's got all of these things going. it's like this tsunami building inside of him. and he's got to get away. he's got to do something. >> you know, at that point, tim >> at that point, tim mcvay decides to hit the road. >> and his odyssey begins. 50+ advantage... has gingko for memory and concentration. plus support for bone and breast health. just what i need! one a day women's. so, doctor... i've been thinking... no. you know how... no. so, doc, i've got this friend... [ male announcer ] talking to your doctor about erectile dysfunction isn't easy. actually, doc, there is something i want to talk to you about. [ male announcer ] but it's definitely a conversation worth having. twenty million men have had their viagra talk.

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in january 1993, timothy mcveigh is frustrated by the dead-end existence he has been enduring since leaving the army and he is still is shaken by his experiences in the gulf war. eager to figure out his mission in life, mcveigh packs up his car and says good-bye to his quiet hometown of pendleton, new

york. >> i lasted at home for one year and one month. this whole neighborhood, this ain't for me. i don't have a place here, i haven't fallen in love, and then i hit the road. >> the odyssey that he was living in the early '90s was really bizarre. he thought nothing of getting in his car and driving hundreds or even thousands of miles, and he was searching for something. >> as a guy who i think had a lot of trouble relating to other people, that was a world that was very amenable to him. >> he was gathering inspiration and information for what he thought was his mission in life. he wasn't going to be the super-soldier, so who was he going to be now? >> mcveigh's mission is still unclear, but he's beginning to hone in on his main focus of fury -- the u.s. government. he finds like-minded thinkers on

the gun show circuit. during the early 1990s, they expos become gathering places for the fast-growing militia and patriot movements. it is in this subculture that mcveigh finally finds an outlet for his growing rage. >> i mean, you could find an amazing amount of literature on insurgency, on forming militias, on building weapons. they're amazingly antigovernment. >> one of my favorite bumper stickers, you've heard the one that says "when guns are outlaws, only outlaws will have guns." there's a new one -- when guns are outlawed, i will become an outlaw. it was at that point when i was fully intent on my life that i was going to live outside the law. >> he started to believe our government was going to come into people's homes and take their guns away. and this scared the hell out of tim mcveigh. >> that same mentality is what

you say from gun show to gun show to gun show. get your weapons now, stockpile them now. >> for tim mcveigh, this must seem like the next war that's about to be waged. >> tonight at least four federal agents and one cult member are debt. at least 14 other people were wounded in the gun battle. >> on february 28th, 1993, outside the central texas town of waco, many in the patriot movement believed the spark to that next war is ignited. >> you can't point guns in the direction of my wives and kids. damn it, i'll meet you at the door anytime. >> in an effort to take david koresh into custody, federal agents raid his compound, and a massive fire fight breaks out. >> six davidians and four atf agents were killed. that started the 51-day standoff. >> it was a clash between federal law enforcement might and withdrawn people who were fiercely protective of their

community. >> the bond is they're fellow gun owners and believes in gun rights and fellow survivalists, and freedom lovers. when do you draw the line and say enough is enough? somebody has to send a message to say, you can't go any further. >> and mcveigh got in his little junk car and drove to waco, texas, to find out what was going on. >> michelle roush, a college newspaper reporter at the time, was at the branch davidian compound outside waco to investigate the story. it wasn't until one year after the oklahoma city bombing that she realized the man she interviewed on the hood of his car was none other than timothy mcveigh. >> he was very unaassuming, literally very casual sitting on

the hood of his car, very articulate. tim said, people need to watch what's happening and heed any warning signs. at the time, i thought, well, what does that mean? well, when i went back and read that in my article, it gave me chills. i thought, did that mean oklahoma city? was he foreshadowing? >> after camping in his car com pourchd for a few days, compound for a few days, mcveigh drives to terry nichols' farm in northern michigan. >> in less than an hour, the compound was destroyed in a raging inferno. >> on april 19th, 1993, mcveigh and nichols watched the violent end of the waco siege on television. >> watching flames lick out windows, and i'm watching tanks ram walls, and my eyes just welled up in tears, and tears started coming down my cheeks,

as i'm watching this scene unfold, just stood there in stunned silence. what is this? what has america become? i just remember that scene. it burned into my memory. i'm emotional as i talk about it. you know, i felt absolute rage. >> tim saw this as an act of war against the people. >> it was the bully again, this time the horns were on the head of the federal government. >> the rules of engagement, if not written down, are defined by the actions of an aggressor. okay? now, what rules of engagement would you interpret in examining waco? kids are fair game? women are fair game? >> i think that that was the final moment for mcveigh, and he says so himself, right? after waco, now is the time for action, right? now we're going operational.

>> with oklahoma city being a counterattack, i was only fighting by the rules of engagement introduced by the aggressor. waco started this war. hopefully oklahoma would end it. thank you, saltwater spray-tunnel and shaker machine. thank you to all the 5,000 tests that helped make the nissan altima better for everyone who drives it. the nissan altima. made to make your life better. and highest ranked in initial quality by j.d. power and associates. now lease a new altima for $199 a month for 39 months. ♪

as i talk about these things, i hope that you already realize that i have emotion, and that i'm human, okay? but when i go and i start talking about these things in a clinical way that's going to sound cold, the truth is that that's the way you talk about things of this nature when you're, quote, a professional. >> lou michelle's intense interview is approaching the core of timothy mcveigh's grisly narrative.

it's april 18th, 1995, just 24 hours before the tragedy in oklahoma city, and mcveigh is in possession of the rented 20-foot ryder truck. the horrific plan is in motion, but co-conspirator terry nichols is trying to back out, yet again. >> he told mcveigh, i'm out, i don't want to be involved with this. mcveigh got him on the phone and yelled and screamed at him, and told him you're in this, you are going to help me put this bomb together. >> mcveigh convinces nichols to stick with him, to see it is see the mission through. >> mcveigh is in charge. mcveigh becomes the alpha male in this small conspiracy to get even with the federal government. >> from a military perspective, to get a message across, you need to hurt them where they hurt the most. they could care less about a building.