Texas pilot air attack on US tax office

The pilot of a plane which crashed into an office block in Austin, Texas left a note expressing his anger at federal tax authorities, police say.

Police are linking the apparent suicide note left online to Joseph Andrew Stack, the man named as the pilot.

The note criticised the Internal Revenue Service - based inside the office block and declared: "Violence is the only answer".

Firefighters continue to search for one person who is still unaccounted for.

'Leaping flames'

The single-engined Piper Cherokee airplane hit the second floor of the seven-storey building at 0956 local time (1556GMT).

It had taken off from nearby Georgetown airport in Texas, and did not file a flight plan, Lynn Lunsford of the Federal Aviation Administration said.

http://newsimg.bbc.co.uk/media/images/47329000/jpg/_47329706_austin-cu_landscape_226b.jpg
Twisted metal and debris seemed to be the only thing left on some floors

Heather Wills, from Austin, told the BBC that she was driving past when she saw the huge cloud of black smoke.

"As I got nearer I could see flames leaping out of the building - the flames were two storeys high. I could hear the glass windows shattering from the heat.

"My first thought was that it was a fire. The traffic was backed up all along the freeway."

Around 190 IRS employees work in the office complex and some were forced to climb out of windows after the plane burst into flames.

Two people were taken to hospital, but it is not clear if they were seriously injured. There has been no official statement on the status of the pilot.

Grievance

Police are also investigating whether Mr Stack set fire to his house before crashing the plane.

The message on the website apparently registered to and signed by Mr Stack speaks of having problems with the IRS.

"Well, Mr Big Brother IRS man, let's try something different; take my pound of flesh and sleep well," the note reads.

Austin Police Chief Art Acevedo said there was no cause for concern and assured residents that it was an isolated incident.

The White House said the crash did not appear to be an act of terrorism. (code for: He's not Muslim)

White House spokesman Robert Gibbs said President Barack Obama had been briefed about the incident.

The Department of Homeland Security was investigating the crash, he added.

As a precaution, the North American Aerospace Defense Command scrambled two F-16 fighter jets from Houston, Texas, to patrol the area.

Source: BBC

abu_rashid wrote on Feb 19^th, 2010 at 2:16pm:

The White House said the crash did not appear to be an act of terrorism. (code for: He's not Muslim)

Exactly. 'Not an act of terrorim' IS code for 'not a Muslim'. Why? Because every time something crazy like this happens, everyone, muslim and non-muslim alike, immediately thinks: 'is this another terrorist attack by Islamists?'

Another. That's the operative word here.

Nope, when I heard about it I figured it was a disgruntled Yank. Like the one back in the 90's who tried to hijack a plane and fly it into the head office of his company which was going to fire him for lying on his resume.

I think it is quite obvious these kinds of attacks are carried out by Christians for the most frivolous of reasons. Tax audits and fired from job etc.

abu_rashid wrote on Feb 19^th, 2010 at 8:15pm:

Nope, when I heard about it I figured it was a disgruntled Yank. Like the one back in the 90's who tried to hijack a plane and fly it into the head office of his company which was going to fire him for lying on his resume. I think it is quite obvious these kinds of attacks are carried out by Christians for the most frivolous of reasons. Tax audits and fired from job etc.

Yeah, this one and the one back in the '90. I can see the pattern you mean...

Look, I obviously don't know you but I have a sense that you are not a shallow grunt. So I have to tell you just for that very reason that the kind of apologetics you put up here and presumably in all other encounters in your life are just smacking nuts.

Please don't misunderstand me, I am not trying to abuse you as a person, I am trying to address the condition you find yourself in. I am not saying that you are a psychopath or a sociopath. We have been sparring for a long time and I have a degree of respect for some of your personal qualities. I do say it with goodwill: you do not realise the stark, even startling cognitive dissonance you examplify. So here's a tip for when you do meet a guy who agrees with you - be careful, he is as mad as you are.

soren - you flatter the obsessive dangerous fkwt

abu rancid deals with the issue of mass murdering muzzies like a true muzzie osama lover - divert attention to other issues, "Oh look over there - a unicorn!". Pathetic. Can't wait for Cronulla part 2.

Its too late, their here and we cant do a thing about it, untill immigration wakes up and draws a line through all their names we are asking for more trouble. It wont be long before one of these crazies blows something up.

don't surrender pope.

we will chuck the crazy buggerers from our shores.

Pope and Sprint, what do you propose to do with Australian converts to Islam like Abu?

Don't ask Annie.

Some of these guys would've been quite at home in Germany during the 1930's and 40's. They are excited by the prospect of doing to Muslims what the Nazis did to Jews.

US Muslim group calls IRS plane attack terrorism

A major US Muslim group has decried officials' "double standard" in refusing to label Texas suicide plane crash as an act of terrorism.

"The position of many individuals and institutions seems to be that no act of violence can be labeled 'terrorism' unless it is carried out by a Muslim," said Nihad Awad, national executive director of the Council on American-Islamic Relations.

"Terrorism is terrorism, regardless of the faith, race or ethnicity of the perpetrator or the victims," said Awad, adding in a statement that "if a Muslim had carried out the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) attack, it would have surely been labeled an act of terrorism."

"The attack on the IRS office in Texas perfectly fits the legal definition of terrorism, yet it is not being labeled as such. This apparent double standard only serves to render the term meaningless."

Software engineer Joseph Stack flew his single-engine plane into an IRS office building in Austin, Texas on Thursday, apparently killing himself and at least one federal government employee, while injuring 13 others.

In the hours that followed the crash, Austin Police Chief Art Acevedo told reporters that the incident looked to be "a criminal act by a lone individual." However, Awad labeled it an "act of terror."

US officials called it a deliberate assault on a US government institution, stressing there were no apparent connections to international terrorism, although White House spokesman Robert Gibbs did not rule out that it could still be considered an act of domestic terrorism.

Source: PressTV

This seems like terrorism to me. It was politically motivated, violent, and not a conventional war. It ticks all the boxes.

In other words, he must have been a muslim after all.

Another case of those terrorist like acts which are "not terrorism".

---

Pentagon shooter dies, no terrorism links

A California man who opened fire on security officers outside the Pentagon in the United States yesterday has been killed, police said.

Police say it appears John Patrick Bedell, 36, was acting alone, with no links to domestic or international terrorism.

He was apparently trying to gain entry to the US defence headquarters when he approached a security checkpoint and started shooting, before being shot in the head by guards.

Two guards received superficial bullet wounds and were treated and released from a local hospital, Pentagon police chief Richard Keevill said.

He says Bedell's motives in the shooting are unknown, but authorities are looking into a series of internet postings by a user identified as "JPatrickBedell" for clues.

These postings make reference to US marijuana laws and marijuana-related felony charges in 2006 in California against John Patrick Bedell.

They also refer to the September 11, 2001 attacks against the United States and the case of a US Marine Corps colonel who died in 1991.

Mr Keevill says authorities had not yet determined whether those postings were made by the gunman.

He says Bedell was well armed, with "two nine-millimetre semiautomatic weapons and many magazines".

The Pentagon was one of the targets in the September 11 hijacked plane attacks.

One of the planes smashed into the US military headquarters, killing 125 people, along with the plane's 59 passengers and crew and the five hijackers.

ABC

I think you are misinterpretting that one Abu. They are merely reinforcing that he acted alone.

Megalodon wrote on Feb 20^th, 2010 at 9:57pm:

abu rancid deals with the issue of mass murdering muzzies like a true muzzie osama lover - divert attention to other issues, "Oh look over there - a unicorn!". Pathetic. Can't wait for Cronulla part 2.

Us too, mate. The Bankstown Boys will piss all over you weak infidel front bottoms. We'll burn your cars, mate.

And you're missing the quite obvious point that if the guy's name was Mahmoud Bin Fulan, they'd be bringing transcripts of things he said against the government in chat rooms a decade ago, showing how he travelled to Pakistan, lent a sim card to a cousin etc. whatever and then calling it terrorism.

It doesn't matter what is done, it's who does it, this much is very clear.

abu_rashid wrote on Mar 6^th, 2010 at 11:44pm:

And you're missing the quite obvious point that if the guy's name was Mahmoud Bin Fulan, they'd be bringing transcripts of things he said against the government in chat rooms a decade ago, showing how he travelled to Pakistan, lent a sim card to a cousin etc. whatever and then calling it terrorism. It doesn't matter what is done, it's who does it, this much is very clear.

Maybe, but what's the bet they wouldn't have to go back ten years if his name was Mahmoud?

abu_rashid wrote on Mar 6^th, 2010 at 11:44pm:

And you're missing the quite obvious point that if the guy's name was Mahmoud Bin Fulan, they'd be bringing transcripts of things he said against the government in chat rooms a decade ago, showing how he travelled to Pakistan, lent a sim card to a cousin etc. whatever and then calling it terrorism. It doesn't matter what is done, it's who does it, this much is very clear.

Exactly. We've been telling you just that for years now. Mohammedans have been doing so many crazy things in the last 20 years in the name of Islam that now whatever they do it is put down to their religion. You have successfully conditioned the world to link Islam with crazy rage boys.  Mecca, you have a problem! Do you read?!

No.

Still living in denial - except when you think you can twist your responsibility for your reputation and use it as something to blame the rest of the world for.

Abu, the London bombers acted 'alone'. That did not stop people calling it terrorism. It is a different point. They will still dig up everything they can find from his past to try to get at a motive.