Deafening Silence

The Perfect Storm?

Just some brief, but disturbing thoughts on a Friday afternoon:

Yesterday, Nidal Hasan was formally charged with 13 counts of murder for gunning down soldiers preparing to deploy to Iraq and Afghanistan.

That same afternoon, reports surface that President Obama is looking for "off ramps" to get the U.S. out of Afghanistan.

This is the P.R. equivalent of screaming "Uncle!  You win!  You win!" at Jihadists everywhere.

It simply does not matter that most rational people realize the two events are unconnected.  The two events occured together, and will make excellent propaganda for  violent radical groups : See!  All we have to do is kill a few soldiers on U.S. soil, and they can't run away fast enough!

And now we have today's announcement that Khalid Sheikh Mohammed will be tried in a New York court.  If this arrangement provides KSM with a platform to effectively place America on trial- and I suspect it will- Jihadists will be swimming in a warm bath of propaganda encouraging them to attempt yet more murders on U.S. soil.

Because such murders appear to be very effective. 

A delay of even 6 weeks between the announcement of Hasan's murder charges and news that the Obama administration wants to exit Afghanistan might have avoided this.  Now extremists can claim that the murders caused the calls for withdrawal, and then sit back while the faithful bask in the anti-American statements burbled by KSM at his show trial.

This will not end well.

The Fort Hood Shooting and Nidal Hasan: Links and Resources

As more information surfaces about the Fort Hood shooting and it's sole suspect, Nidal Hassan, 3 distinct viewpoints on the situation are emerging:

1. Hasan was a mentally ill man whose actions had nothing to do with Jihad.

2. Hasan was a mentally ill man whose delusions and violent impulses were channelled into Jihad.

3. Hasan was a terrorist, and any mental illness is a secondary issue.

I thought I would collect some informational links to help Deafening Silence readers form their own conclusions.

NPR has done surprisingly thorough coverage of the shooting. (As Instapundit recently observed, "NPR’s Daniel Zwerdling has owned this story from the beginning.")

Here are some NPR links worth reading or listening to:

Walter Reed Officials Asked: Was Hasan Psychotic? D. Zwerdling

When a group of key officials gathered in the spring of 2008 for their monthly meeting in a Bethesda, Md., office, one of the leading — and most perplexing — items on their agenda was: What should we do about Hasan?

Hasan had been a trouble spot on officials' radar since he started training at Walter Reed, six years earlier. Several officials confirm that supervisors had repeatedly given him poor evaluations and warned him that he was doing substandard work.

Both fellow students and faculty were deeply troubled by Hasan's behavior — which they variously called disconnected, aloof, paranoid, belligerent, and schizoid. The officials say he antagonized some students and faculty by espousing what they perceived to be extremist Islamic views. His supervisors at Walter Reed had even reprimanded him for telling at least one patient that "Islam can save your soul."

Portrait Emerges of Hasan as a Troubled Man J. Brady

But with the few details that are emerging about Hasan, it's possible to start painting a picture of him.

"The person who carries out a mass shooting wants to create a spectacle and seeks immortality," says Dr. Michael Welner, chairman of The Forensic Panel in New York. Welner testifies as an expert in trials involving mass shootings. He has interviewed four mass shooters over the years.

He says it's clear that the attack at Fort Hood was planned well in advance. For example, Welner says, Hasan allegedly bought the gun used in the attack shortly after moving to Fort Hood.

This informative and interesting discussion between Mr. Zwerdling and Melissa Block gives a clear timeline of Hasan's career, describes his behavior and- in the final two minutes- torpedoes the notion that Hasan was driven to desperation by anti-Muslim bullying.

Hasan's Story Won't Be Easy to Sort Out T. Gjelten- This piece is dated November 6 and I'm including it just to show how recent information has completely changed the debate.  Compare this excerpt to those above:

The vital facts of Hasan's life do not suggest a man determined to kill dozens of his fellows as they sat unarmed in a crowded waiting room. He was born in Arlington, Va. His parents were immigrants, but so are millions of other Americans. His heritage was Palestinian, but he didn't even speak Arabic. He went to Virginia Tech and in 1997 joined the Army. It was through the Army that he got his medical training. He was due to be deployed to Afghanistan.

In this interview, author/researcher Jarret Brachman calls Hasan's association with a certain imam a "huge red flag."

Mr. BRACHMAN: Yeah, I mean, the fact is theres no reason an active-duty officer should be in any sort of conversation with Anwar al-Awlaki. You know, one email maybe for academic research purposes is understandable, but prolonged contact and interaction is just totally, you know, beyond the pale. And this should have sent flags throughout the chain. If you understand that the kind of message that Anwar al-Awlaki is promoting, this is a massive oversight.

Former Colleagues Say Hasan was Detached D. Zwerdling- This interview details how supervisors and colleagues struggled against bureaucracy to get rid of Hasan:

You have to show that you've tried to remediate his behavior. Two committees have to vote on it. Then the resident can hire a lawyer and appeal, there are hearings. So psychiatrists at Walter Reed tell me that residents are hardly ever kicked out of the program, even when they've done something really egregious.

Plus, one of the key officials at Walter Reed, who's close to the policy committee, told me that they - some of the members sat around saying, and how would it look if we kick out one of the few Muslim residents in our program?

......

You have to show that you've tried to remediate his behavior. Two committees have to vote on it. Then the resident can hire a lawyer and appeal, there are hearings. So psychiatrists at Walter Reed tell me that residents are hardly ever kicked out of the program, even when they've done something really egregious.

Plus, one of the key officials at Walter Reed, who's close to the policy committee, told me that they - some of the members sat around saying, and how would it look if we kick out one of the few Muslim residents in our program?

MSNBC has just announced that Hasan is charged with 13 counts of murder:

Military prosecutors charged Fort Hood shooting suspect Maj. Nidal Malik Hasan with 13 counts of premeditated murder Thursday.

Hasan, 39, is accused of opening fire at Fort Hood's crowded Soldiers Readiness Processing Center, where troops get medical checkups before deploying abroad. The rampage is described as one of the worst mass shootings on an American military base.

Hasan will be tried in a military court.  This is an NPR interview with his lawyer, Retired Col. John P. Galligan:

Can he get a fair trial at Fort Hood? I have my doubts. Ill just say that your listeners should join me in requesting that everybody make sure, as we go down this road that we call military justice, that we make sure that we stay on track so that Major Hasan gets a fair, impartial hearing and trial. Thats what we want, not just for him because its also what we want for each and every one of us.

ABC News took a tour of Hasan's apartment and reports on what they found here.

Madness on Holy Ground

"You can safely assume that you've created God in your own image when it turns out that God hates all the same people you do."

Anne Lamott

Travelling Mercies

I was a teenager, still living with my parents, when John Lennon was shot.  Not long after his murder, I was sitting in church with my family, listening that Sunday's sermon, when a young man rose from the front pew and walked up to the pulpit.  The minister, no doubt as stunned as everyone else, simply stepped aside as the young man began speaking to the congregation.

The young man seemed calm, but the message he delivered to the assembled worshippers was so convoluted and surreal that I could not follow it.  It had something to do with Lennon's last album.  The album was some kind of prophecy; we were all advised to purchase it and "listen to it carefully." 

After a minute or two, the minister gently put his arm around the young man's shoulders, spoke a soft word, and led him down from the pulpit.  He was handed off to a chorister who quietly led him out of the sanctuary.

When the door had closed behind them, the minister stepped back to the pulpit and addressed the congregation again.  He told us the young man's first name and said only that "he has some problems," and "we're doing all we can to help him."

He asked us to be kind.

It was my first experience of mental illness in church.

The next experience was some years later.  I had grown up, moved out and begun attending a different church in a different town with my sweetheart.  I began to notice a young man with long hair who seemed to appear at every church function.  He was very quiet, but there was something odd about him.  His eyes always seemed to be out of sync with the scene before him- as though the person he was greeting didn't exist in the reality he saw.

During the period when we attended this church, a man began stalking one of my coworkers.  He phoned her with death threats.  He left frightening notes.  He followed her to work so often she had a 'panic button' installed at her desk, so she could contact the police.  Eventually, a police sketch was pinned up in the employee lounge and we were all asked to tell the police if we saw the stalker.

It was the young man with long hair from church.  He was mentally ill.  The church was trying to help him, encouraging him to seek treatment and providing support.  But when he stopped taking his medication he began stalking my coworker.

During the past week, much has been said about the Army's failure to recognize the warning signs of violence coming from Nidal Hasan.  Hasan, the sole suspect in the November 5 Fort Hood shooting that killed 13 people, was said to have made repeated anti-American statements and lectured his coworkers on the importance of violent jihad.  Hasan joined the Army in 2001 and was posted at Walter Reed Hospital for 6 years before landing at Fort Hood, but it looks as though none of his superiors took any serious action to eject him from the Army.

Yet during all those years Hasan did not spend his every waking moment in the hospital or on base.  He is said to be a devout Muslim who spent hours at various mosques.  He attended the Dar al-Hijra mosque in Falls Church, Virginia, the Muslim Community Center in Silver Spring, Maryland and another mosque in Killeen, Texas.

Did no one in these religious communities see the warning signs?

Perhaps they chose not to, says Asra Q. Nomani.  Her article "Inside the Gunman's Mosque" appeared on the Daily Beast yesterday.  It describes a conflicted atmosphere among some American muslims:

"... From Seattle to my hometown of Morgantown, West Virginia, and the mosque in Silver Spring, I have heard an ideology that Muslims belong to an “ummah,” in which Muslims can’t turn against other Muslims. As a Muslim-American writer-activist, challenging rules that banish women to the back corners of mosques, I have been told that I must stay quiet so as not to cause “fitna,” or division, inside the community."

According to Ms. Nomani, this fear of fitna creates an atmosphere that hides radicalism rather than exposing it:

"The story of Hasan at his local mosque is a cautionary tale to all Muslim communities about the consequences when we fail to win the war of ideas in the Muslim world with moderate interpretation of Islam over rigid, literal interpretations. Part of the problem is that many Muslims are clinging to the notion of an “ummah,” or “community,” with a capital “U,” a view that inhibits dissent and encourages blind loyalty to a global Islam.

In that struggle, we whitewash the truth of men like Hasan responding defensively, rejecting any links to Islamic teachings and, ultimately, I believe, denying the reality of a radicalized ideology of Islam that sanctions violence. In this ideology, men like Maj. Hasan believe they are betraying their fellow Muslims if they fight for the U.S. Army in wars in Iraq and Afghanistan."

Many media outlets have speculated that  Hasan was mentally unbalanced rather than radical.  If he is mentally ill, did the conflicted environment Ms. Nomani describes prevent fellow worshippers from reaching out to him?  Possibly, says Ms. Nomani, but not entirely:

“So many times I talked with him,” said Akhter, a community leader who is sort of like a mosque gadfly, challenging congregants to reject literal, rigid interpretations of Islam. “I was trying to modernize him. I tried my best. He used to hate America as a whole. He was more anti-American than American.”

Despite all the conversations, Akther said, “I couldn’t get through to him. He was a typical fundamentalist Muslim.”

It wasn’t a label assigned lightly. Rather, it emerged after many one-on-one conservations between the engineer and the doctor in quiet spots from the library to the lobby to the prayer hall, discussing issues of interpretation like jihad, polygamy, assimilation, foreign policy, and the cutting of hands for theft. Other members of the community confirm this portrait of Hasan.

It's worth noting that the Muslim Community Center in Silver Spring, which Hasan attended, has issued a statement about the Fort Hood shooting:

We the members of the Muslim Community Center are deeply pained at the events that transpired at Fort Hood, Texas on November 5, 2009.

We offer our heartfelt prayers and condolences for all the men and women who lost their lives and suffered injuries.

We also extend our prayers and sympathy to the families and the community at Fort Hood.

We condemn all indiscriminate acts of violence regardless of who commits them.

The Dar al-Hijrah mosque in Falls Church, Virginia has also published a statement on their website:

We at Dar Al-Hijrah Islamic Center reiterate our condemnation of this brutal murder. We continue to send our condolences and prayers for the recovery of all the families and victims of this godless act.

Yet this same statement also repudiates their former imam, Anwar al-Awlaki, who served the mosque from January 2001 until April 2002.  Al-Awlaki, now living in Yemen, publicly praised the Fort Hood attack on his website (since taken down):

We openly denounce the statement of Mr. Al-Awlaki as posted on his website. During Mr. Al-Awlaki's short employment at our center, his public speech was consistent with the values of tolerance and cooperation. After returning to Yemen, Mr. Awlaki now claims that the American Muslims who have condemned the violent acts of Major Hasan have committed treason against the Muslim Umaah [community] and have fallen into hypocrisy. With this reversal, Mr. Al-Awlaki has clearly set himself apart from Muslims in America.

Mr. Awlaki now claims that the American Muslim who have condemned the violent act of Major Hassan "committed treason against the Muslim Umaah and have fallen into hypocrisy". With this reversal Mr. Al-Awlaki has clearly set himself apart from this community. He served a brief term of employment at Dar Al-Hijrah from January 2001 until his depart of April 2002.

Was the Fort Hood shooting a desperate act by a mentally ill man?  If so, did internal conflicts at the mosque inhibit the faithful from reaching out to a troubled worshipper?

 

 

 

 

Remembering the Fallen

The following 12 soldiers and 1 civilian perished at Fort Hood on November 5th, 2009:

Lt. Col. Juanita L. Warman, 55, of Havre De Grace, Md. She was assigned to the 1908th Medical Company, Independence, Mo.
 
Maj. Libardo Caraveo, 52, of Woodbridge, Va. He was assigned to the 467th Medical Detachment, Madison, Wis.
 
Capt. John P. Gaffaney, 54, of San Diego, Calif. He was assigned to the 1908th Medical Company, Independence, Mo.
 
Capt. Russell Seager, 51, of Racine, Wis. He was assigned to the 467th Medical Company, Madison, Wis.
 
Staff Sgt.  Justin Decrow, 32, of Plymouth, Ind. He was assigned to the 16th Signal Company, 62nd Signal Battalion, 11th Signal Brigade, Fort Hood,
Texas.
 
Sgt. Amy Krueger, 29, of Kiel, Wis. She was assigned to the 467th Medical Company, Madison, Wis.
 
Spc. Jason Hunt, 22, of Tillman, Okla. He was assigned to the 1st Brigade, 1st Cavalry Division, Fort Hood, Texas.
 
Spc. Frederick Greene, 29, of Mountain City, Tenn. He was assigned to the 510th Engineer Company, 20th Engineer Battalion, Fort Hood, Texas.
 
Pfc. Aaron Nemelka, 19, of West Jordan, Utah. He was assigned to the 510th Engineer Company, 20th Engineer Battalion, Fort Hood, Texas.
 
Pfc. Michael Pearson, 22, of Bolinbrook, Ill. He was assigned to the 510th Engineer Company, 20th Engineer Battalion, Fort Hood, Texas.
 
Spc. Kham Xiong, 23, of St. Paul, Minn. He was assigned to the Forward Support Company, 20th Engineer Battalion, Fort Hood, Texas. 

Pvt. Francheska Velez, 21, of Chicago, Ill. She was assigned to the 15th Combat Support Battalion, Fort Hood, Texas.
 
Chief Warrant Officer retired Michael Cahill of Cameron, Texas. He was a civilian employee on Fort Hood.
 

They were were the beloved of 13 different families.  They were fathers, mothers, sisters, brothers, husbands, wives, lovers, friends.  They represented 11 different states.  Their surnames are a mix of asian, european and latino names, as befits the nation they had volunteered to serve.

We are the poorer for their loss.

The official Fort Hood website can be found here.

 

Suspect Named in Arkansas Car Bomb Case

About 8 a.m. on February 4, 2009, Dr. Trent Pierce walked out to his Lexus sport utility vehicle to warm it up for the ride to work.  Oddly, there was a spare tire propped against the front of the car. 

Dr. Pierce leaned down to move the tire.

The explosion threw Pierce 6 feet into a flower bed.  It embedded shrapnel in his neck and abdomen, broke one of his legs and one wrist, destroyed his left eye and burned 18% of his body.

It also peeled back the driver's side of the car.  The blast was heard up to one mile away.

When agents from the ATF analyzed the bomb they said it was a homemade device, not military-grade. 

Dr. Pierce, 54, was  chairman of the Arkansas State Medical Board.  According to its official website:

"The Medical Board's mission is to protect the public and act as their advocate by effectively regulating the practices of Medical Doctors, Osteopathic Medical Doctors, Physician Assistants, Medical Corporations, Respiratory Therapists, Occupational Therapists, Occupational Therapy Assistants, Radiology Practitioner Assistants and Radiologist Assistants.

The Medical Board serves as the State licensing and regulatory agent for these occupations in the State of Arkansas."

The Board regulates over 8,000 doctors, 3,000 therapists and 400 osteopaths.  In his role as Chairman, Dr. Pierce would cast the deciding vote in cases where Board members could not reach a consensus.

Dr. Pierce also had a thriving private medical practice, seeing 68-80 patients per day.

After more than 15 hours of emergency surgery, Dr. Pierce regained consciousness and mouthed to his wife, What happened?

By then, Arkansas State Police investigators and ATF agents had descended on the little town of West Memphis (pop. 28,000) and were asking the same thing.

Their first move was to examine decisions made by the Arkanasas Medical Board, looking for practitioners who had been disciplined.

One of those doctors was Dr. Randeep Mann.

According to the Arkansas Times:

"Mann has a history of problems before the medical board for overprescribing pain medications to patients -- investigators linked eight deaths to Dr. Mann, though he said not all of them were his patients -- and prescribing methadone without the proper clinical license. His DEA license was revoked in 2003 for one year and in 2006 for an indefinite period and his efforts to get the license restored have been unsuccessful.

At a hearing before the board in 2003, when the board revoked Mann's license for prescribing methadone, Pierce was the only doctor to vote against the stay, predicting the board would be seeing Mann again. In 2007, when Mann went before the board seeking reinstatement of his DEA license, Pierce was quoted in the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette as telling Mann not to bother seeking reinstatement of the DEA license "in any forseeable time frame ... because you don't need one, doctor." "

Unfortunately, Dr. Mann had attracted the attention of other authorities as well.

On February 4th, 2009, State Police Investigators and ATF agents had interviewed Dr. Mann.  During that interview, Dr. Mann showed the investigators an M203 grenade launcher that he legally owned.  Dr. Mann was also a federally-licensed weapons dealer and collector.

This hobby would soon draw him into the Dr. Pierce case.

On March 3, 2009, workers for the city of London, Arkansas slipped into the woods near Dr. Mann's home to urinate.  One of them tripped over something half-buried in the ground. The worker dug the object up and it proved to be a military canister wrapped in plastic and sealed with tape.  It contained 98 40mm HE, M406 grenades- a type that can only be legally possessed by the military.

They are also the type fired by the M203 grenade launcher Dr. Mann had shown the authorities on Feb. 4.

The workers called the local Sheriff's office, which in turn contacted the ATF.  A search warrant was obtained and agents of both offices searched Dr. Mann's property.  They discovered $50,000 in cash, 5 more canisters of grenades, and 110 machine guns worth $1million.

Eventually, all the machine guns would be proven to be legally registered to Dr. Mann, but he was arrested on weapons charges for possession of the grenades.  He pleaded innocent at his arraignment.

From this point onward, Dr. Mann's life -and the course of the Pierce car-bomb investigation- would become more and more complicated.

On March 11th, U.S. Magistrate Judge H. David Young deemed Dr. Mann a flight risk and ordered that he be kept in jail until his trial on the weapons charge.  ATF Special Agent David Oliver testified at this same hearing that Dr. Mann's father, Kuldip Mann, was an international arms dealer and that both father and son had freqently crossed the U.S. border since 2007.  Dr. Mann's attorney ridiculed this claim, saying that Kuldip Mann was an invalid suffering from prostate cancer and many other ailments who needed a wheelchair to get around.  He also pointed out that a practicing physician such as Dr. Mann had no time for the extensive travel described by agent Oliver.

Judge Young appeared skeptical of some of the ATF charges but ordered Dr. Mann returned to jail without bond.  Dr. Mann is a naturalized U.S. citizen born in India, and the judge said that Dr. Mann's family connections in India and his recent transfer of money to that country made him a flight risk.

By April 17 Dr. Mann- still imprisoned and awaiting trail on the weapons charge- decided to sue the Arkansas Medical Board and many of its individual members, including Dr. Trent Pierce.  He charged that the board was prejudiced toward him because he was a Hindu and an Indian.  At the same time, Dr. Mann became the target of a wrongful death suit brought by the family of one of his patients.

By April 18, Dr. Mann had been formally indicted on weapons charges and faced a possible $10,000 fine and up to 10 years in prison.  On April 22, he pleaded not guilty to the charges.

Dr. Mann was now the defendant in two legal cases and the plaintiff in another.

On August 8, Dr. Mann and his wife, Sangeeta, were indicted on 7 counts of obstructing the Federal probe into his weapons collection.  Sangeeta Mann was accused of lying to a Grand Jury and attempting to hide several signed, blank checks.  Two new  weapons charges were added- possession of an unregistered 12-gauge shotgun and an unregistered 7.62mm machine gun.

A detention hearing was held for Sangeeta Mann on Monday, August 10.  While it was determined that she was not a flight risk, at that hearing ATF agent Grover Crossland announced that Dr. Randeep Mann was now the prime suspect in the bombing of Dr. Trent Pierce.  Sangeeta Mann was released to her own home on the provision that all weapons be removed.

On August 28 the date of Dr. Mann's trial for unlawful possession of weapons was moved to March 15, 2009.  While he remains the prime suspect in the Pierce bombing, he has not yet been charged with that crime.

The multiple legal actions swirling around Dr. Mann and his wife make this case difficult to follow.  A few points stand out:

• Dr. Mann was a licensed gun collector and dealer. While it may seem unusual to some people for a man to have a million dollars' worth of weapons in his home, he was legally entitled to do so. Only 2 guns were found to be unregistered.
• The grenades found buried on Dr. Mann's property cannot be lawfully kept by anyone outside the military.
• None of these weapons- the guns or the grenades- has any connection to the bombing.
• The bomb that exploded in Dr. Pierce's driveway was not military grade. It didn't even contain dynamite. Investigators said it was a homemade type of device. Thus far no one has connected any evidence from the bomb scene to Dr. Mann or his property.
• Dr. Mann fell under suspicion in part because his prescription privileges had been revoked by the Arkanasas Medical Board. He is now suing that board- and Dr. Pierce in particular- for allegedly acting out of anti-Hindu, anti-Indian bigotry.
• Yet at the same time, Dr. Mann is being sued for wrongful death and has been accused of overprescribing powerful drugs to his patients.

This collection of circumstances can be looked at as either implicating or exonerating Dr. Mann.  Comments left by readers beneath local news stories show that he has fierce advocates and equally fierce detractors.

But as of today no one has directly connected him to the bombing on February 4.

On August 7, Dr. Trent Pierce returned to his work as Chairman of the Arkansas Medical Board. 

"This board," he announced, "has not and will not be intimidated by any type of threat."

But the exact nature of that threat- and who made it- is still in question.

References

Affidavit in Case of Dr. Randeep Mann/Arkansas Online

March 5 Affidavit Against Randeep Mann

Character Witnesses on Stand for Accused Doctor/Daniel Shea, AP

 Jailed Doctor Randeep Mann Sues Arkansas Medical Board/AP

Dr. Randeep Mann is Car Bomb Suspect/a11news.com

Doctor Injured in Bombing Says "Not Intimidated"/Stephanie Scurlock/WREG.com

Doctor is Prime Suspect in West Memphis Car Bombing/Chuck Bartels, AP

Jailed Doctor Named Prime Suspect in Bombing/WREG.com

Russevllville Doctor's Weapons Trial Moved to March/Arkansasnews.com

Tires, Files Examined in Trent P. Pierce Car Bombing Case/AP

A Town Takes a Car Bombing to Heart/Robbie Brown, NYT

 

 

 

Woodburn Recovering from Bomb Blast

Little by little, Woodburn is recovering.  The Oregon town, traumatized by a December '08 bank bombing that killed a police officer, a state trooper and severely maimed a police chief, is quietly pulling itself together.

(Background on this story can be found here, here,here, and here.)

On July 20, 2009 Valerie Hurst of KATU News reported:

On Monday that West Coast bank branch reopened for business, with a new memorial outside the building. The bank's regional president said he hopes friends and neighbors will stop by to see the new place. Managers say the staff is eager to be back.

This KATU News video shows the new memorial and discusses the attack.

In this RedCrossRealHeroes vidoes, Sgt. John Mikkola and Sgt. Nick Wilson describe entering the bank just after the bomb exploded, looking for survivors:

Woodburn Police Chief Scott Russell, whose rescue is described in the above video, is now back at work part-time, after 28 surgeries and months of physical therapy.  He managed to survive the blast, but lost a leg:

"He said he does not remember anything from that fateful day, Dec. 12, when Woodburn Police Capt. Tom Tennant and Oregon State Police Senior Trooper William Hakim were killed inside a Woodburn West Coast Bank branch.

They were trying to open what Hakim believed was a hoax bomb when it exploded. Russell was nearby.

He said Tuesday he believed he survived for a reason. “I have a bigger mission to fulfill,” he said. “I’m not sure what that is yet. That'll be my life's work to look for that. But there’s something left for me to do.”

As to Bruce and Joshua Turnidge, the father and son arrested in connection with the deadly bombing, Russell said they are in the right place – behind bars.

“I have forgiven them,” he said. “I have to forgive them. It’s a matter of my personal belief that hatred will eat you up. And so that’s my choice and my family's choice.”

(reported by Melica Johnson KATU News and KATU.com Staff)

After the bombing, a group of citizens formed Woodburn Proud, an organization devoted to supporting Woodburn police and emergency personnel.

Woodburn, Oregon (population: 20,100) is an example of good people standing up to terrorism.  It has become a community of heroes.

(AP is now reporting that the State of Oregon will seek the death penalty in the upcoming trial, which will begin in September, 2010.)

Update. Classical Values and Deafening Silence Find Common Ground on "Incitement."

Classical Values has a post up that touches on aspects of two of my recent posts- Who's Inciting Who(m)? aand The Mensa Murderer and The Bigot in the Pulpit.

Here's a quote:

Why people don't focus on the individuals themselves, I don't know. It would be one thing if a killer were acting on behalf of (or with the approval of) someone else, or an actual identifiable organization. But when a murder is committed by a single individual, it makes about as much sense to blame "the right" or "the left" (much less a "climate" created by either) as it would to blame the Republican or Democratic Party if he happened to belong to one of them. (In that regard, it wouldn't matter if the sum total of the man's political views consisted of an exact laundry list ticking off every last item in the GOP platform; that still wouldn't make the Republicans in any way responsible for his outrageous crime.)

It makes even less sense to blame a man talking on the radio, but quite predictably, a climate allegedly created by Rush Limbaugh is being blamed for the actions of the suspect in the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum shooting.

And also:

Sure, any nutcase can turn on the radio and plug what he hears into his schizophrenic stream of consciousness, but does that make Rush Limbaugh responsible?

..........

Anyway, I'm not impressed with her argument. This doesn't even rise to the level of guilt by association.

Go have a look!

Who's Inciting Who?

Regular readers of Deafening Silence will know already that I do not like Rush Limbaugh, do not watch Fox (or any network TV), have never listened to Sean Hannity, think Ann Coulter might just be out of her mind, am not a Republican, and will never register with any political party.

(For more on the above, see here.)

Regular readers will also know that I try to keep an eye on terrorism in all it's forms: jihad, animal rights terrorism, anti-abortion terrorism, bank bombings.  I refuse to tolerate or excuse terrorism in any form.

So I'm about to say something that will not be popular.

Paul Krugman today used his perch as a Nobel Laureate to command our attention and accuse Rush Limbaugh- and indeed, Republicans in general of "inciting" terrorism.  The Moderate Voice is also running an essay by a Cleveland writer saying the same thing.

If they think the Fox New people and the Republicans are actively soliciting terror, they are unfamiliar with what actual incitement looks like.

Allow me to demonstrate:

For example, in 2001 Brian Cass, Huntingdon Life Sciences' managing director in Great Britain, was savagely beaten by three men armed with baseball bats.  When told of the attack, Ronnie Lee, founder of Britain's ALF, expressed his approval:

"He has got off lightly.  I have no sympathy for him."

And also this:

 It's one-stop shopping for terrorist wannabes: the ELF website features manuals with such titles as Setting Fires with Electrical Timers: an Earth Liberation Guide and Arson Around with Auntie ALF; sympathetic websites offer instant gratification to terrorists who can post communiques and photos of their attacks.

And also this:

The NAALPO website is managed by Dr. Jerry Vlasak, a trauma surgeon living in the Los Angeles area.  When it comes to animal rights terrorism, the surgeon doesn't mince words; in a 2004 interview with the London Observer, he said:

"I don't think you'd have to kill too many [researchers].  I think 5 lives, 10 lives, 15 human lives, we could save a million, 2 million, 10 million nonhuman lives."

                                                      and later, in a web posting:

"The use of force saves lives in a way that can be readily documented.  It has saved the lives of humans and it has saved the lives of non-humans.  When it becomes dangerous to be a vivisector, vivisection will stop."

And also this:

"I told the folks in Eugene that I came from a long line of cop killers.  I told them that had it not been for my ancestor's willingness to kill their oppressors I might not be alive today."

                                            and this:

"Every time a protestor is beaten cop cars should burn.  Every time an activist is pepper sprayed tires should be slashed and windows of the offending agencies should be broken."

  These sentiments come from an essay called The High Price of Pacifism, written by Rodney Coronado, which appears on the NAALPO website run by Dr. Vlasak.

And this:

Mr. Coronado is not breaking new ground with these ideas.  In a BBC interview in 1987, Tim Daley, then a leader of the British Animal Liberation Front, said:

"In a war you have to take up arms and people will get killed, and I can support that kind of action by petrol bombing and bombs under cars, and probably at a later stage, the shooting of vivisectors on their doorsteps.  It's a war, and there's no other way you can stop vivisectors."

............................................

That is incitement, folks.  The open call for violence; the posting of instructions for committing arson on websites that praise violence.

Incitement is not being sarcastic, or vehement or even obnoxious.  It is not having a large and loyal fan base for your broadcasts.  It is not vilifying the political opposition.  If extreme and untrue claims are made about political opponents, there is another word or two for that: slander.  Libel.

As much as we all wish it were not so now and then, there is no law against being an asshole of any political type.

But attempting to criminalize political speech makes the law an ass.

If it is somehow discovered that elements of Fox News met with von Brunn and urged his attack, or that Rush Limbaugh sent letters to fans urging the murder of Doctor Tiller, fine.  Investigate.  Leave no stone unturned, and if anyone is guilty, toss the book at them.

But editorials that essentially say, "Well, you can't tell 'em all apart, so they all must be guilty of something," are a very big step down the wrong road.

Man up and learn to ignore the assholes and hold individuals accountable for their own behavior.

Word.

 

References

Here andhere.

The Mensa Murderer and the Bigot in the Pulpit.

Between the two of them, an elderly WWII vet who claims to be a member of MENSA and a bigoted preacher who had the President's ear for twenty years kicked over a rock yesterday.  And they seem to be the only ones who are comfortable with what came slithering out.

Let's start with a quick rehash of the facts:

Yesterday, Wednesday, June 10, an 88-year-old man named James W. von Brunn (allegedly) walked into the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum and opened fire with a 22-caliber rifle.  He shot and killed security guard Stepen T. Johns before being gravely wounded himself by other security guards.  Von Brunn is now in the hospital.  His prognosis is uncertain.

Also on that day, the dailypress.com published an interview with the Rev. Jeremiah Wright, former pastor to President Obama, in which the preacher said that the "Jewish vote and AIPAC vote"are controlling" the President. (The complete and correct quote can be heard in the video accompanying this article.)

Wright believes that "the Jews" are "controlling" the President.  In 1983 von Brunn believed that "the Jews" controlled the Federal Reserve.

Whenever people begin to speak of a nebulous group like "the Illuminati" or "the Opus Dei" or "the Jews" and claim they are "controlling" things like interest rates and Presidents, it is usually because the speaker has run out of facts and now has to begin dealing in fear and suspicion.  If he or she can create acute fear and suspicion of some group in the listener, than his/her own anger and bigotry will be justified.

Von Brunn's wife is on record saying that he never shut up about Jews and African Americans as the root of all evil.  There was no doubt in her mind that his hatred was consuming him.  Wright had a 2,000+ flock to preach to for over 20 years.  When YouTube snippets of his sermons began making the rounds, they were followed by a wave of excuse-making- everything from the evergreen "taken out of context" to "it's a black thing- you wouldn't understand."

Yet now, with his "them Jews" and "controlling" remarks, Wright makes himself clear.

Two weeks ago, when abortion provider Dr. George R. Tiller was shot to death in his church, some pundits tried to blame political commentators on Fox News for inciting his assassin.  Will those same pundits now cast aspersions on Wright for inspiring von Brunn?  After all, Wright is an influential figure and he was publicly stating that "the Jews" "control" the President.

Of course not.  Wright will not be held responsible- and indeed, should not- because, in addition to hating Jews, von Brunn apparently loathed African Americans as well.  He would not look to Wright for leadership.

But here is the rich irony:  the  "far-right" white man who apparently loathed African Americans shared a similar view of Jews with the "far-left" African American preacher.

I wonder how Wright feels about that, seeing as von Brunn murdered an African-American guard during his rampage at the museum.

I call this kind of phenomenon WrapAround Hate.  The world is a circle and if you go too far in one direction you will inevitably collide with someone coming from the opposite direction.

And each of you will still think yourself morally superior to the other.

So, how do recommend Americans respond to this terrible thing?  I'm not sure, but I think Laurence Simon is on the right track:

The train took me to Museum District.

I ran off and headed to the Houston Holocaust Museum.

When I arrived, I walked to the front desk and put down my credit card.

The volunteer was preparing to head out for the day.

They close at five, and it was pretty close to five.

"Not before you put a $100 on this," I said.

 

(Hat tips: Don Surber,Anne Althouse)

The official website of the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum is here.

(Final thought: What does it say about the world that such a museum requires a staff of fully-armed, highly-trained guards?)

 

(photo courtesy of Museum website)

Killing People Who Kill People to Show that Killing People is Wrong

They're at it again.

Those Who Know Better.

Those Who Serve the Cause.

Killing those who kill to stop the killing.

Dr. George Tiller, a man (in)famous for performing late-term abortions, was shot to death in a Lutheran Church this past Sunday during services.

He was murdered by Scott Roeder, 51, an anti-abortion activist.

The next day Pvt. William Long, 23, was murdered as he stood outside the Army-Navy Career Center in Little Rock, Arkansas.

He was murdered by Abdulhakim Mujahid Muhammad (aka Carlos Bledsoe), also 23.

From the Fox News article describing Pvt. Long's murder:

Interviews with police show that the suspect "probably had political and religious motives for the attack," Thomas said.

The same could be said of Dr. Tiller's murderer, word for word.

From the same Fox News article:

A prosecutor said Muhammad admitted shooting Long and another soldier "because of what they had done to Muslims in the past."

Roeder might well have said he murdered Dr. Tiller "because of what he had done to innocent infants in the past."

Many people are trying to say that Roeder was put up to this by anti-abortion rhetoric and Fox News commentators.

Many other people are trying to say that Muhammad was put up to this by extremist Muslim rhetoric and (mis)leaders like Osama bin Laden.

Anti-abortion groups are rejecting such statements.

Muslim groups will no doubt soon reject such statements.

Scott Roeder believed he was serving a higher cause by committing murder.

Abdullah Mujahid Muhammad believed he was serving a higher cause by committing murder.

Scott Roeder believed he was avenging the deaths of innocents and protecting more innocents from harm.

Abdullah Mujahid Muhammad believed he was avenging the deaths of innocents and protecting more innocents from harm.

Roeder believed his moral imperative to kill outweighed the rule of law.

Muhammad believed his moral imperative to kill outweighed the rule of law.

If these two incidents don't seem similar to you, then you're part of the brave and ugly new world these two men are trying to make.

And I'm not interested in accommodating you.