Two Minutes Past Nine

In the run up to the 2020 Presidential election, journalist Leah Sottile explored the motivations and agendas of America’s far right for the Radio 4 series Two Minutes Past Nine. Recordings were made against a backdrop of a country that felt tense, divided and dangerous.

25 years after Timothy McVeigh bombed the Murrah Building in Oklahoma City, journalist Leah Sottile investigates the far-right today in a divided and turbulent America.

Presenter: Leah Sottile

Narration recorded by Joe Preston

Featuring Archive from the Oklahoma City National Memorial & Museum, Richie McGinniss/ Daily Caller and Brendan Gutenschwager

When Timothy McVeigh bombed the Murrah Building in Oklahoma City he believed he was firing the first shot in a revolution that would bring down the American Government. He expected that others would flock to his cause.

That didn’t happen. In the immediate aftermath many left the movement.

But in the years that followed events would unfold that would see the far right re-align.

Journalist Leah Sottile investigates the fallout of McVeigh's actions amongst America's far-right in the decade after after the bombing.

Presenter: Leah Sottile

Narration recorded by Joe Preston

Archive: CBS News' 60 Minutes, March 2000

On April 19th 1995, 26 year old Timothy McVeigh committed the deadliest act of domestic terrorism in American history.

In investigating the events that led up to the attack, journalist Leah Sottile learned that at the heart of McVeigh’s story were inherently American things: an Army boy. A love of guns. And a version of the great American road trip.

In the years leading up to the bombing, McVeigh drove across America; touring gun shows, visiting acquantances who would go on to be accomplices, even paying a trip to area 51.

But there was one place he spent longer than anywhere else, a town way out in the desert of Arizona.

Journalist Leah Sottile tells the story of Kingman Arizona, a place where the wild west cowboy myth persists.

Presenter: Leah Sottile

Narration recorded by Joe Preston

Archive recordings from Dave Hawkins.

25 years on from the largest domestic terror incident in American history, journalist Leah Sottile investigates what made Timothy McVeigh the home-grown terrorist he was.

Two weeks before the Oklahoma City Bombing, the FBI learnt that Timothy McVeigh made a phone call to a secretive Christian Identity compound in the remote hills outside Oklahoma City, a place called Elohim City. Journalist Leah Sottile investigates the story behind the call and the secretive community.

Presenter: Leah Sottile

Narration recorded by Joe Preston

When Timothy Mcveigh bombed the Murrah Federal Building in Oklahoma City, he committed the worst act of domestic terrorism in US history.

The reasons he gave shocked people around the world. A hatred of the government that was so strong, so virulent, he hoped to start a revolution that would bring the government down.

But lots of people dislike the government. And because of this, some take off, find somewhere to live where they can get away from society. In America, it’s easy to find somewhere remote, then buy a plot of land, get off grid, ‘live free’.

We meet someone who did just that and joined a group who he believed shared his values. But slowly, over time and through the group’s isolation, he found himself arming for war and even plotting an act of domestic terrorism himself.

Leah Sottile investigates the story of The Covenant, the Sword and the Arm of the Lord, and explores what can be learnt from the story of others who felt that same need for retaliation against the government that Mcveigh did.

Presenter: Leah Sottile

Narration recorded by Joe Preston

25 years on from the largest domestic terror incident in American history, journalist Leah Sottile and producer Georgia Catt work to understand what made Timothy McVeigh the home-grown terrorist he was – and how that informs what’s unfolding today.

Episode 5: How standoffs at Waco and Ruby Ridge became flash-points for Timothy McVeigh.

As Leah and Georgia start recording the series in early 2020 the world changed: a global pandemic, calls for racial justice that rang out around the globe, conspiracy theories suddenly going mainstream. Reacting to events as they unfolded, Leah and Georgia didn’t realise quite how relevant and on point it would be to examine the Oklahoma City Bombing right now, at this exact moment in world history. As one journalist tells them: ‘McVeigh would have loved this’.

Recorded over some of the most divisive, turbulent, and quite frankly dangerous feeling months in recent American political history, Two Minutes Past Nine aims to understand the changing face of far right extremism in all its chaos and conspiracism.

Presenter: Leah Sottile

Narration recorded by Joe Preston

25 years on from the largest domestic terror incident in American history, journalist Leah Sottile and producer Georgia Catt work to understand what made Timothy McVeigh the home-grown terrorist he was – and how that informs what’s unfolding today.

Episode 4: After he left the army, Timothy Mveigh became steeped in gun shows, conspiracies and government distrust. Leah Sottile investigates that world.

As Leah and Georgia start recording the series in early 2020 the world changed: a global pandemic, calls for racial justice that rang out around the globe, conspiracy theories suddenly going mainstream. Reacting to events as they unfolded, Leah and Georgia didn’t realise quite how relevant and on point it would be to examine the Oklahoma City Bombing right now, at this exact moment in world history. As one journalist tells them: ‘McVeigh would have loved this’.

Recorded over some of the most divisive, turbulent, and quite frankly dangerous feeling months in recent American political history, Two Minutes Past Nine aims to understand the changing face of far right extremism in all its chaos and conspiracism.

Presenter: Leah Sottile

Narration recorded by Joe Preston

25 years on from the largest domestic terror incident in American history, journalist Leah Sottile and producer Georgia Catt work to understand what made Timothy McVeigh the home-grown terrorist he was – and how that informs what’s unfolding today.

Episode 3: Leah Sottile explores the influence of a man considered America's most dangerous white nationalist on Timothy McVeigh.

As Leah and Georgia start recording the series in early 2020 the world changed: a global pandemic, calls for racial justice that rang out around the globe, conspiracy theories suddenly going mainstream. Reacting to events as they unfolded, Leah and Georgia didn’t realise quite how relevant and on point it would be to examine the Oklahoma City Bombing right now, at this exact moment in world history. As one journalist tells them: ‘McVeigh would have loved this’.

Recorded over some of the most divisive, turbulent, and quite frankly dangerous feeling months in recent American political history, Two Minutes Past Nine aims to understand the changing face of far right extremism in all its chaos and conspiracism.

Presenter: Leah Sottile

Narration recorded by Joe Preston

25 years on from the largest domestic terror incident in American history, journalist Leah Sottile works to understand what made Timothy McVeigh the home-grown terrorist he was – and how that informs what’s unfolding today.

In episode 2, April 19th 1775 was the day the American Revolution began. And, in some ways, the story of the Oklahoma City Bombing started that day too, 220 years before Timothy Mcveigh steered the yellow Ryder truck into Oklahoma City.

Recorded over some of the most divisive, turbulent, and quite frankly dangerous feeling months in recent American political history, Two Minutes Past Nine aims to understand the changing face of far right extremism in all its chaos and conspiracism.

Presenter: Leah Sottile

Narration recorded by Joe Preston