Posted on 01/06/2002 12:23:36 PM PST by newsperson999
It was found in the wreckage of the plane in the building.
By that definition, Bishop could have been just a terrorist wannabe, but that depends on how you interpret his "sympathy" for bin Laden and the 9-11 hijackers. Bishop could just as easily have been expressing his sympathy toward bin Laden and the 9-11 hijackers by expressing his support of their "cause" through a suicide plane bombing. Err...suicide planing. We HAVE to come up with a TERM for that which doesn't sound flip or stupid and I'm not the one to do it.
Anyway, I interpret the evidence of his letter, his association with a flight school that hired a lawyer rather than come clean with the public, combined with his actions on Saturday to mean that he identified with bin Laden and buddies, and he committed an act of terrorism to show his sympathy for their cause. How screwed up he might have been isn't an issue. MOST of the people recruited by al Qaeda seem equally screwed up.
...On the other hand, it IS an issue. If we could identify screwed up kids as possibly at risk for being brainwashed by terrorist groups, we might be able to help them before they do something stupid...but that would be profiling.
I do, too. Unfortunately, whether to prevent public panic, or in order not to be accused of being too gung ho because he was a "troubled boy", this will be played down as a lonely, fatherless kid who committed a spectacular suicide. I just wonder how many OTHER lonely, fatherless kids will get the idea to "commit suicide" in the same spectacular way. If other fatalities are involved, how will it be handled? The same? That sounds too much like selective blindness. One man's terrorist is another man's screwed up kid? Scary thought.
Logging off. Brain cells are at the point of critical mass again.
Looks like a duck? Arab descent; family name was previously Bishara.
Quacks like a duck? Left note sympathizing with Osama bin Laden and praising September 11 terrorist attack.
Flies like a duck? Straight into Bank of America skyscraper in downtown Tampa, after apparently being diverted from air force base from which the war is being conducted.
You can't tell me the intent to kill others and do "as much damage as possible" was not there. Only difference is, he had much less access to the more powerful weapons that would do greater harm.
I originally didn't consider this a "terrorist" event, until more of the background facts began to emerge. At this point, I've pretty much reclassified it as being essentially a terrorist attack - albeit an immature, ineffective one.
As such, I think I can at least partly add it to the recent Israeli thwarting of a major Islamist attack in Israel for the sake of my (ahem) first prediction for the new year from the predictions thread:
* At least one Islamist terrorist attack will occur or be thwarted between December 31st and January 7th.
The CIA already vectors foreign air force pilots to shoot down drug planes - remember the Peruvian shoot-down of that missionary plane?
OTOH, remember Mattias Rust ?
Even the Soviets, with no general aviation to speak of, a (permeable) SAM belt and radar coverage couldn't detect or shoot down Rust. (Now a lot of them were drunk at the console, I know, but still.) I don't think small aircraft shoot-downs are going to become an issue because the damage they can do is limited (and not only from a physical standpoint.)
How you like this "theory"?
A teenager writes a note sympathetic to Bin Laden and intentionally flies a plane into a building. Theory: he is a terrorist. Just a theory, mind you.
The kid steals a plane, (self-esteem) and slams it into a building, (still his "s-e").
See the point?
It could easily happen.
no...since there were apparently no flames... just a dead duck.
He didn't get his gotterdammerrung? No Viking funeral? Just a vain attempt to go out in a blaze of glory? Bummer.
Tell me about. Heck, he didn't even get 'roast duck...'
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