ONE OF the most important criminal trials in US history began yesterday when a Gulf War veteran, Mr Timothy James McVeigh, faced the accusation that he was responsible for the Oklahoma City bombing in 1994.
Mr McVeigh (28) and a former army friend, Mr Terry Nichols, are both charged with bombing the Alfred P. Murrah federal building on April 19th, 1995. The blast, which killed 168 people and injured 500 others, was the worst attack on civilians on US soil. Nineteen children who were in a day care centre in the federal building were among those killed.
Mr McVeigh and Mr Nichols, who will be tried at a later date, have both pleaded not guilty. They face the death penalty.
Tight security surrounded the federal complex in Denver where the first stage of the trial began with jury selection. In the style of the O.J. Simpson trials, people queued for a prized seat in the courtroom. Twelve seats were set aside for the blast's victims - survivors and family members of those killed - who travelled to the Colorado capital to attend the proceedings.
In Oklahoma City a special closed circuit telecast, restricted for use by victims, will be viewed at a Federal Aviation Administration facility under tight guard.
Security was high in Denver. Concrete barricades surrounded the city block where the federal courthouse and a federal office were housed. Cameras were in posit ion, man hole covers were sealed shut and police ringed the area.
Prosecutors will argue that Mr McVeigh and Mr Nichols harboured anti government sentiment after an attack by federal agents on the Branch Davidian compound at Waco, Texas, which led to the deaths of about 80 people on April 19th, 1993, exactly two years before the Oklahoma City blast.
The defence is expected to argue that the government has the wrong man and that the bombing may have been planned by an unholy alliance of international terrorists that included Iraq and neo Nazis.
The government has characterised such a possible scenario as fanciful, and will argue that Mr McVeigh and Mr Nichols were the masterminds of the plot to bomb the federal building.
The first task of the trial is to seat an impartial jury. Notices were sent to 1,000 prospective jurors in Denver and 22 surrounding counties, the largest potential pool of jurors in Colorado history. They will be questioned closely on what impact recent pre trial publicity about purported confessions by Mr McVeigh has had on them.
Mr McVeigh's lawyers tried unsuccessfully last week to halt the trial, but an appeals court turned them down.