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Oklahoma city bombing survivors feel slighted
alledan
Member Posts: 19,541
OKLAHOMA CITY, Oklahoma (AP) -- A new federal program offering compensation to families of those killed in the September 11 attacks is frustrating some relatives of the Oklahoma City bombing victims. Survivors of the 168 people killed in the Alfred P. Murrah Building were never offered a compensation program like the one for this year's attacks, which will give victims' families an average of $1.65 million. "I don't want to do a hierarchy on terrorism here, but that's kind of minimizing what happened to the people of Oklahoma City," said Marsha Kight, whose daughter Frankie Merrell was killed in the April 19, 1995, bombing. "The individual loss was just as great for us." More than 3,000 people were killed in the attacks on the World Trade Center and Pentagon and in the four planes that were hijacked and crashed September 11. The government fund, set up in September as part of a $15 billion airline bailout package, will give their survivors a minimum of $300,000, with the exact amount depending on such factors as the victim's salary, age and number of dependents. Spokesmen for Sens. Hillary Clinton and Charles Schumer of New York, who pushed for the bill, did not return calls seeking comment on why Oklahoma City victims were not included, as some families proposed. After the 1995 bombing, the government paid out death or disability benefits for federal employees. Dan McKinney, whose wife was a federal employee, estimated spouses received $100,000 on average. "Some people may have gotten rich off of it, but none that I know of," he said. Other federal aid given to the state for the victims totaled only about $75,000, said Suzanne Breedlove, director of victims' services for the district attorney's office. Oklahoma City collected about $35 million in charitable donations, mostly to the Red Cross, Breedlove said. Victims had to prove loss of income or other reasons for assistance to receive any of it, and much of the money was used for mental health counseling and medical care. Jannie Coverdale, whose two grandsons were killed in the day care center, said she has always felt the government treated the families of the bombing victims unfairly. "They never offered us anything," she said. "Since we're stuck here in Oklahoma, our state representatives haven't done anything to help us." On Thursday, Congress did agree to waive some income taxes and provide other tax relief to families of the September 11 victims as well as the Oklahoma City victims. But last year, Oklahoma City victims were left out when Congress passed a law that helps compensate American families who lost loved ones in terrorist attacks in other countries. The law makes it easier for victims to claim damages from the frozen assets of countries suspected of supporting terrorism. The law retroactively covers the 1998 U.S. embassy bombings in Africa and the 1988 bombing of Pan Am Flight 103 over Lockerbie, Scotland. But the Oklahoma City bombing is not covered because it took place in the United States. Martin Cash, who lost an eye in the 1995 blast, said the law should not treat one terrorist attack differently from another. "A lot of us were a little bit miffed that we were excluded because they are making a distinction between homegrown terrorists and foreign terrorists," he said. "There are a lot of people who could use it. It's still mass murder, or attempted murder for those of us who made it through."
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