BUFFALO, N.Y. (AP) — Defiant to the end, Oklahoma City bomber Timothy McVeigh says he is sorry 168 people died at his hands, but insists the blame rests on a U.S. government bent on bullying its citizens.

"I am sorry these people had to lose their lives," McVeigh wrote in a series of recent letters to The Buffalo News to be published Sunday, the day before his execution. "But that's the nature of the beast. It's understood going in what the human toll will be."

In the letters to his hometown paper, McVeigh reiterated that what he did was necessary to defend the personal freedom of all Americans and exact revenge for the disastrous government raids at Ruby Ridge, Idaho, and Waco, Texas.

The bombing, he wrote, was "a legit tactic" in a war against what he considers an out-of-control federal government.

McVeigh is scheduled to die by lethal injection in Terre Haute, Ind. He is responsible for the worst act of terrorism on U.S. soil — the April 19, 1995, bombing of the Alfred P. Murrah Federal Building. His victims included 19 children, who McVeigh has referred to with the military jargon of "collateral damage."

McVeigh, who grew up in nearby Pendleton, N.Y., wrote the News that he might have chosen another tactic for expressing his hatred of the government. He said he sometimes wishes he had carried out a series of assassinations against police and government officials instead.

In the letters, McVeigh insisted he has no fear of his execution. An agnostic, he said he will "improvise, adapt and overcome" if it turns out that there is an afterlife.

"If I am going to hell," he wrote, "I'm gonna have a lot of company."

In the letters to reporters Dan Herbeck and Lou Michel, authors of a book about McVeigh, he said he hopes he will be remembered as a freedom fighter akin to John Brown, the 1800s abolitionist.

Among other topics, McVeigh wrote that:

—He, Terry Nichols, and Michael and Lori Fortier were the only people who had any knowledge of the blast and that he alone had all the pieces of the puzzle.

"For those die-hard conspiracy theorists who will refuse to believe this, I turn the tables and say: Show me where I needed anyone else," he wrote. "Financing? Logistics? Specialized tech skills? Brainpower? Strategy? ... Show me where I needed a dark, mysterious 'Mr. X!"'

Nichols is serving a life prison sentence after being convicted as a co-conspirator. Michael Fortier is serving a 12-year sentence after pleading guilty to having prior knowledge of the bombing plan but not alerting authorities. His wife, Lori, testified against McVeigh, and never served any jail time.

—He turned down the FBI's request for a final interview for fear the information would be used to hurt people who stood up to the government.

—His body will be cremated and his ashes scattered by one of his lawyers in a secret location. At one point, he wrote that he considered having his ashes dropped at the site of the memorial where the Murrah building once stood, but decided that would be "too vengeful, too raw, cold."

—He is convinced an Oklahoma jury will eventually convict Nichols of state murder charges and sentence him to death.

—He has had a number of requests for organ transplants. He said he would be willing to provide organs, but that prison regulations prohibit it.

—The siege at Waco was the defining event in his decision to retaliate against the government with the bombing, which occurred two years to the day after the fiery end of the Texas standoff.

"If there would not have been a Waco, I would have put down roots somewhere and not been so unsettled with the fact that my government ... was a threat to me," McVeigh wrote. "Everything that Waco implies was on the forefront of my thoughts. That sortof guided my path for the next couple of years."