NY Shooting Not Terrorist Attack (UPDATED)
I reported yesterday about yet another mass murder in America, this time in New York. I automatically assumed the shooter was a lone wacko. However, Fox News reports that this was not the case; it says the Taliban has claimed responsibility for the shooting. This means it was a terrorist attack, and not ‘merely’ another episode of a crazy person going on a shooting spree.
A Pakistani Taliban militant leader has claimed responsibility for the attack on a U.S. immigration center in New York state in which 13 people were killed, Reuters reported.
“I accept responsibility. They were my men. I gave them orders in reaction to U.S. drone attacks,” Baituallah Mehsud told Reuters by telephone from an undisclosed location on Saturday.
I didn’t want to write about this massacre again, but I’m afraid I’m forced to by Mehsud’s claim. If he is indeed responsible for the attack, it is reason for major concern: it would mean the Taliban is still able to strike against American targets, in America, and kill innocent, unsuspecting citizens.
However, it’s probably just a publicity stunt. Some say the shooter was an immigrant from Vietnam, which means it is unlikely he was Taliban. Furthermore, the shooter reportedly killed himself after killing 12 people. A suicide terrorist kills himself because doing so helps him kill others. Shooting yourself after you shoot a dozen people, however, has no ‘added value’ from the perspective of extremists like the Taliban. They would, it seems to me, condemn it as ‘pure suicide.’ No, the more I think about it the less likely it seems to me that this was indeed a terrorist attack. As Dan Riehl puts it: “I suppose next he’ll be claiming to have eaten the State Department’s manual on protocol and to have fussed with Obama’s teleprompter, too.”
UPDATE by Jason Arvak: The Taliban claim of responsibility contains a “red flag” indicating that the claim is almost certainly false — the Taliban spokesman claims “these were my men”, indicating an attack my more than one person, yet by all accounts the shooter was alone. Getting the details wrong about a crime is an easy way to determine that a confession is false, and a “claim of responsibility” is just a confession that the confessor is proud of.
UPDATE by Michael van der Galien: Note to Kathy at Liberty Street. If I thought the claim was very credible, I would’ve said so. Instead, I point out I have to write about the claim and that if true – no matter how unlikely – it’s important news. Having said that, it should be clear from the post itself that I reject it, and even quote Dan Riehl approvingly who dismisses the story entirely. Stop quoting me out of context (by cutting out the most important part of the post – what weakness and utter intellectual dishonesty by the way), and stop spinning what other people write. If you actually had a blog that’s read by people, I’d be angry. Things being as they are, however, I’m merely annoyed.
It is distressing to see that the above blogger who linked to this story chose to completely misrepresent the content of Michael’s original post. Ethics, unfortunately, remain very weak in the blogosphere.
I would not rule out the posibilities of domestic terrorism as well or even the possibility of some sort of collaberation. It seems very interesting to me that mass gun violence should suddenly sky rocket when a new president takes office. I do not believe that he would be involved with it but if an antigun group could creat enough panic then they could talk the powers that be into the destruction of a basic American right. Something which the present administration wants to do anyway. I cannot help but feel this sudden surge in violence is simply to convenient to not have been planned by some one. Remember that no crisis must be wasted. this to me sounds like a convenient excuse to creat a crisis where one did not previously exist. How hard would it be to blame it on an outside force which the average joe on the street could not verify. The same argument is already being applied to Mexican drug lords. I would like to see some one invetigate to see if a commo link can be found to any of the shooters in this recent string of stupidity aimed at violating a basic American right. My suspicion is that there is a link, though I hope that I am wrong and am just chasing a wild conspiricy theory.