The Victims of Terrorism: An Assessment of Their Influence and ...

Pan Am 103: The Predecessor to 9/11 25D.C., where she works for the National Organization for Victim Assistance (Kight, 1999;Horne, 2001).The final two victims’ groups similarly reach out to provide their members with the supportthey need. Paul Heath survived the bombing and created the Oklahoma City MurrahBuilding Survivors Association. A former psychologist with the Department of Veterans Affairs,Heath had both the professional and personal experience that made him a good candidate tostart a support group to help those suffering from post-traumatic stress disorder. In addition,Heath is largely responsible for the arrangement and provision of the closed-circuit televisiontransmission of McVeigh’s execution (Foxhall, 2001). Outside of his own organization, he wasalso involved with the design selection of the Oklahoma City National Memorial and serves onthe Memorial Institute for the Prevention of Terrorism’s (MIPT’s) outreach committee (Stowers,2000). MIPT was established as a research institute in 2000 with the goal of “preventingterrorism or mitigating its effects” (MIPT, undated). Upon its creation, MIPT started anoutreach committee for victims that is currently led by bombing survivor Dorothy (Dot) Hill.This group conducts monthly meetings in addition to providing assistance to other victims ofterrorism, which has involved members making trips to Israel as well as New York City followingthe 9/11 attacks (Jenkins, 2005).These three victims’ groups share very few similarities with others we have described inthis paper. The remaining Oklahoma City groups are even more dissimilar in that they werenot created by victims or their families, but rather by third parities having no direct connectionto the bombing. Although this response is not rare, as seen in the efforts of organizationssuch as the American Red Cross and those assisting victims in Israel described in the nextchapter, it is unusual in the United States for such groups to be nearly as prominent as—if notmore prominent than—traditional victims’ groups. The Oklahoma Department of MentalHealth and Substance Abuse Services, for example, founded Project Heartland. In operationfor five years, Project Heartland worked to address the needs of victims facing a variety ofmental health disorders. Likewise, the Colorado Oklahoma Resource Council (CORC) wasestablished on March 14, 1996, to collect donations; coordinate medical and mental healthassistance; and provide food, lodging, and transportation to victims staying in Denver for thetrial proceedings (DOJ, 2000, pp. x, 14, and 15).The functions served by all of the Oklahoma City groups were critical components inthe recovery process of survivors and families. Because of the arrest and trial of McVeigh andNichols, these groups could concentrate solely on providing emotional support to the victims.This is in contrast to the families of Pan Am 103, for example, that pressured the U.S. governmentto identify and punish those responsible for the bombing of the plane. As a result, theOklahoma groups did not attain the same level of advocacy and influence found among thosefor Pan Am 103 and 9/11 and, as such, presumably have little causal relationship to the latter’ssuccess.