Case Western, ex-Indian Army shooter was a loner, misfit

Times of India ^ | SUNDAY, MAY 11, 2003 09:01:41 PM | CHIDANAND RAJGHATTA

[DeaconBenjamin]

WASHINGTON: The Indian Army ex-serviceman who went on a shooting rampage in Cleveland’s Case Western Reserve University on Friday killing a student and wounding two others was a lonely bachelor involved in myriad social and political causes who lost it after a prankster hacked his beloved website.

The computer and the worldwide Web was Biswanath Halder’s life. He worked eight hours a day at the University’s business school computer lab to promote personal, social and political causes ranging from ambitious business plans to opposing the US war on Iraq. He listed and forwarded hundreds of petitions.

Halder earned a management degree from the business school in 1999 when he was well into middle age and continued to take sporadic classes so he could maintain the computer privileges at the school. Despite the boastful resume he posted about his myriad skills, he was largely jobless and received social security checks.

Three years ago, someone hacked into his computer and erased all the files. The hacker also left a message that read: "Bizzy Halder is a moron. This guy makes a living out of creeping people out. From his fake hair, to his fake teeth, his whitey tighty shorts and pants...this guy is LOON,"

According to an account in the Cleveland Plain Dealer, Halder suspected Shawn Miller, a lab assistant who had told him earlier that his computer access had been suspended. He first complained to CWRU's administration, then to the University Circle police.

"In a few seconds, the evil man wiped out everything that it took my lifetime to create," Halder wrote in an e-mail sent to the entire Weatherhead School of Management in August 2000. "Now, the evil man is on his evil path to destroy Weatherhead."

When the university didn't respond, he went to the Cleveland police, the FBI, and even began writing letters to the Senate and House judiciary committees. His complaints were ignored.

Halder then sued Miller. "The end result of all of these outright evil actions will be that society will end up paying a severe price," he wrote in an impassioned letter to the judge. Unimpressed, the judge dismissed the case. Two weeks ago, an appeals court declined to review the decision.

From that point on, Halder seems to have decided on the gun to settle scores.

From his various resumes scattered on the Net, it appears Halder earned a degree in electrical engineering from Calcutta and joined the Indian Army’s EME division, before emigrating to the US in 1969 and becoming a citizen in 1980.

His last steady job was as a contractor with IBM in 1980s. From then on, his life seems to have been an unending quest for work, social justice, and fulfilling some grandiose business plans.

According to one account, during the 1970s, he filed numerous unsuccessful discrimination and civil rights cases against big companies like NCR and Sperry Rand, who he said refused to hire him. He lived in New York, Boston and Maryland before moving to Cleveland about 1996.

Neighbours and acquaintances near his house told the local media that he was a lonely figure who could sometimes be seen walking in the middle of the road pushing a grocery cart filled with books.

[DeaconBenjamin]

More on the Cleveland area shooter.

[xm177e2]

He was definitely a wacko. He was an anti-war protester. He wrote letters to the editor and signed petitions). Ironically enough one of those links is to a gun-banning website. But before anyone takes this as proof he's an anti-gun stooge carrying out a shooting "just in time" for the "Assault Weapons Ban," it's obvious this guy was just a whacked-out loner freak who had a lot of other problems.

According to the documents Bizzy filed in court, here is the full text of what was put onto his website:

Bizzy Halder is a moron. This guy makes a living out of creeping people out. From his fake hair, to his fake teeth, his whitey tighty shorts and pants, to his shit stained sweaters this guy is a LOON. He's been kicked out of every lab on campus and everyone makes fun of him. So let's not even talk about credibility. Don't listen to a word this guy says.

(all links are from the Volokh Conspiracy, which includes many more links, including IndyMedia posts from Biswanath)

[Sonny M]

Quick question, is this guy a muslim?

[FreePaul]

...he was largely jobless and received social security checks.

How old is this guy?

[Cachelot]

Quick question, is this guy a muslim?

He seemed somewhat more balanced in 2001. Today, who knows? That website thing that tipped him over has all the hallmarks of all-out paranoia.

The Daily Illini Online
published Tuesday, October 2, 2001

Deal with Pakistan now

America's manifest destiny is to exist as the land of the free. The Islamic Republic of Pakistan (i.e. land of the pure) also has a manifest destiny etched into its constitution: to exist as the land of pure Islam, with no room for infidels (non-Muslims). Pakistan's reason for existence goes against everything America stands for.

Sadly, there is an American entity caught on the wrong side of this confrontation: the Central Intelligence Agency. The CIA has always run a parallel and uncontrolled American foreign policy.

Once the Soviet Union invaded Afghanistan in 1979, the CIA taught Pakistan's Inter-Services Intelligence Agency (ISI) the art of running low-intensity proxy wars with small cells of terrorists and graced this ungodly operation with $3.5 billion in cash and arms. The Pakistanis used these resources to shape its Islamic students (talib) into a fanatical army (Taliban), trained them, and set them loose in Afghanistan and Kashmir.

When the Soviet Union withdrew from Afghanistan 10 years later, the United States could have disarmed the Taliban by buying back their arms. Instead, the CIA walked away from a hell hole of their own creation and let Islamic terrorism ferment to the point where it struck back at its own creator: the United States.

Currently, Pakistan is $30 billion in debt to the United States. Now, in exchange for handing over Osama bin Laden to the United States, Pakistan is asking for loan forgiveness. If the United States makes a gift of another $30 billion to Pakistan, America will be funding the rise of a super-Taliban, one whose capabilities would be too dreadful to even contemplate.

In one stroke, America can address the safety of its citizens and the stability of Pakistan. America must undertake a long-term proactive strategy: Replace Pakistan's nuclear weapons with a U.S. security umbrella.

We should encourage moderate forces in Pakistan to rid itself of fundamentalist army officers (the thought of nuclear weapons in the hands of these extreme elements in the Pakistani army is a real danger). We must wake up before it is too late.

Biswanath Halder
Cleveland, Ohio

Printer-friendly version© 2001 Illini Media Company, all rights reserved.

[DeaconBenjamin]

Indian goes on shooting spree on US campus
S. Rajagopalan
Washington, May 11 Hindustan Times

An Indian with military training went on a shooting spree in a Cleveland business school, killing a student, wounding two others and eluding the police for seven tense hours during which he fired several hundred rounds.

The man, who finally surrendered after being shot on the shoulder, has been identified as Biswanath Halder, 62. His resume posted on the Internet says he had served in the Indian Army’s Corps of Electrical and Mechanical Engineers as an Officer Cadet.

It is unclear when Halder came to the US, but he has been engaged in a variety of pursuits in this country before moving to Cleveland and earning in 1999 a
management degree from the reputed Case Western Reserve University -- the scene of action till the early hours of Saturday.

The apparent provocation for Halder’s fury was a running feud with a computer lab employee, who had allegedly tampered with many of his computer files. After the authorities failed to intervene, he filed a lawsuit against the employee, Shawn Miller.

About a month ago, Haldar lost the case and an appeal. Thereafter, in one of the letters posted on the Internet, he wrote: "No crime has ever gone unpunished. Society created the police department to apprehend criminals so that the criminals pay for their crimes."

And on Friday evening, Halder, wearing a bullet-proof vest, a wig and a World War-II type helmet, stormed the school building. Armed with two semi-automatic
pistols and 11 ammunition clips, he went on an indiscriminate shooting spree.

Miller, Halder’s suspected target, was in the building at the time, but he managed to escape. But a 30-year-old graduate student, Norman Wallace, was
killed. Another student and a professor were wounded, while about 100 others remained trapped in the building for seven hours until the police overpowered
Halder.

University president Edward Hundert said Halder did not have a grudge against the school. "It was really between him and an employee of the university," he
said.

The university has a number of Indian students and faculty members. Among the students who had a narrow escape was Sachin Goel, who was outside the cafeteria when the gunman approached and shot one of his friends. Goel and another friend ducked under a table.

The resume on Halder’s website does not say when he joined the Indian Army and when he left it. All it says is: “Served in the Indian Army (Corps of
Electrical & Mechanical Engineers) as an Officer Cadet. Attended the Officers’ Training School in Madras and the Indian Military Academy in Dehra Dun.”

It mentions his wide range of activities: a computer programmer with specialisation on diagnostic tests for peripheral devices, a real estate salesman with a licence in Massachusetts, a licensed stock broker at New York Stock Exchange and a life insurance salesman.

Miller, it would seem, was not his only enemy. His website focuses on one “V. Ramakrishnan---An Evil Man”. The two were apparently daggers drawn over
running the “Asian Indian Network” and the INET, a network linking Indians worldwide.

[cabbieguy]

I was wondering why the media dropped this story like a hot potato, He's a LEFT WING NUT.

[Sonny M]

I'm not saying your wrong, but this guy was indian, my question, was, is he hindu or muslim?

[Sonny M]

Sorry, I didn't mean to post that to you.

[John H K]

It's pretty clear from his writings and his website that he's certainly not a Muslim and almost certainly Hindu(as deeply disappointing as that is to a lot of people on FR.)

[Armedanddangerous]

On MSNBC this morning, a police spokesman said it was a Tec-9.

[3AngelaD]

How did he get Social Security checks? He came here in 1969 and hasn't worked a real job since the 1980s and is "largely jobless." Surely he isn't old enough to have retired. Another failed outcome of our immigration policy. Thanks, Senator Kennedy, for your 1965 immigration bill that let people like him in. He comes here, takes advantage of everything, doesn't work for 15 years or so, opposes our country at every turn. Then he kills someone.

[fourdeuce82d]

Hey bud- did you know that anybody clicking on that link gets slammed w/popups, and attempts to download unwanted applications?

Not a good thing bro.- how 'bout letting the admin know?

[fourdeuce82d]

Actually...just wondered whether or not I've got spy ware on my box, which would hi-jack my clicks- anyone else have unwatned popups upon clicking the link?

(potential egg on my face for accusing xm177etc.)

[TankerKC]

No prblems here. RunningStopzilla.

[xm177e2]

Quick question, is this guy a muslim?

Probably not.

[xm177e2]

Hey bud- did you know that anybody clicking on that link gets slammed w/popups, and attempts to download unwanted applications?

Sorry about that, I should have noted it in my post. The link goes to Biwanath's own webpage, and he's got a crap hosting service. He must not have been mentally capable, if he was a computer person and yet he went with a hosting service that would put pop-up ads and spyware/spamware on his personal web site. He obviously had a lot of problems and didn't give a rip about other people.

[Betty Jo]

He is/was not Muslim .Read what he wrote about Pakistan.

[Sonny M]

Its definatley disappoints me to hear that. He doesn't seem to fit into hindu mold, but he does have the nationalist views. Then again, the father of India's nuke program is a muslim and a Indian nationalist, so its always hard to say. By the way, that same "father" is back in the indian regime again, and threating Pakistan, I guess in his eyes, country comes over religion, or he's just nuts, who knows.