THE prosecution opened its case yesterday against Mr Timothy McVeigh, the defendant in the Oklahoma bombing, saying he had murdered innocent men, women and children "so that blood would flow in the streets".
The chief prosecutor, Mr Joseph Hartzler, told the jury that Mr McVeigh (29) who is a decorated Gulf War veteran, wanted to send a message of hate and "impose his will on America".
Mr McVeigh is accused of bombing the Alfred P. Murrah federal government building in Oklahoma on April 19th, 1995, when 168 persons died, including 19 children.
The trial has been transferred to Denver, Colorado, as it was not possible to select an impartial jury in Oklahoma because of the passions the bombing aroused.
As heavy snow fell in Denver, Mr Hartzler set out the case against Mr McVeigh and said he would be calling several hundred witnesses. He claimed that Mr McVeigh had rented the truck in which the explosives had been planted and was arrested later that day as he drove away from the scene in an unlicensed car.
Mr Hartzler said that Mr McVeigh was motivated by revenge feelings against the government for its handling of the siege at Waco where a large number of the Branch Davidian sect and their families died.
He also cited the finding of a book in Mr McVeigh's car which he called a "blueprint for murder", a novel describing the bombing of an FBI building in Washington.
Mr Hartzler said that federal agents later found a file in Mr McVeigh's sister computer that he obviously wanted them to read. It was marked "ATF READ", an apparent reference to the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms which was involved in the Waco siege. It had the words: "All you tyrannical mother f...ers will swing in the wind some day for your treasonous actions against the Constitution ... Die you spineless, cowardice bastards."
The prosecutor said Mr McVeigh and codefendant Mr Terry Nichols, who is to be tried later, "became friends in part because they both shared a distaste for the federal government".
In the autumn of 1994, Mr McVeigh showed his plans to a former army comrade, Mr Michael Fortier, and his wife, drawing diagrams and stacking soup tins to show how to arrange the barrels in a truck for maximum destruction.
Mr Fortier who has pleaded guilty to lesser charges in exchange for this testimony, will testify that Mr McVeigh compared the federal building's occupants to the troopers in the film Star Wars. He told Mr Fortier, "Even if they are innocent, they work for an evil system and have to be killed," Mr Hartzler said.
The prosecutor concluded his opening statement by condemning Mr McVeigh's claims to be a patriot on the model of the first American settlers. "Our forefathers did not build bombs and run away wearing earplugs," he said.
At the start of the trial Mr McVeigh stood and said "good morning" to the jury of seven men and five women. The jury is shielded from the view of the press by a special wall to protect their privacy.
The chief defence lawyer, Mr Stephen Jones, caused surprise by reading out a list of the 168 victims. After reading the list, he focussed on the public outrage that followed the bombing and the rush to arrest someone. "The question is did they get the right man?" He said his client was innocent.
He also referred to testimony by one of the victims who survived, Ms Dana Bradley, whose leg had to be amputated. He said she would say that the man she saw getting out of the truck with the bomb did not correspond to the appearance of Mr McVeigh.
Mr Jones is also expected to use a recent critical report of the FBI laboratory which did forensic tests following the bombing. The report said that the scientist who did the tests made his findings fit what the investigators believed about the bomb.