USMC Vet--

Boren is backing down on his original claim that this is merely a suicide by an emotionally disturbed college student...

Not a Suicide?

Please tell me why official responses to things like this are always sooo clumsy and so transparently CYA? Maybe we ought to put up a keystone cops logo for these guys.

I recently did a review of Annie Jacobsen's "Terror in the Skies" and it left me depressed about the bureaucratic IQ when it comes to anything related to terrorism. The situation with the Federal Air Marshals is particularly disturbing. As one of them told Jacobsen -- from a phone booth using a phone card -- "it's all for show."

It's All For Show

Speculation:Does anyone know how much money the Saudis have dumped on the Oaklahoma school? Would that explain their willingness to play Useful Idiot?

What I am saying is this:

Simply use caution when approaching this. I am not saying turn a blind eye.

Boren is cryptic at best, and most likely to attempt to ensure that the image of his university does not become that of Jihad Central. Personally, i remain unimpressed by his performance during press conferences immediately following the incident. the fact that he said 'I' or otherwise referred to himself about 5-7 times per minute is telling of his mindset.

That said, consider this:

There is a lot of information flying around right now, and whether it hits on fact or hits on the 'circular file' is yet to be seen. Much of the most 'excitable' information is still attributed to 'anonymous sources'.

My point in this post was to emphasize that, while it certainly appears to me that he intended to kill others and not just himself ('lone death'), it is presumtuous to assume he had guidance from jihadis at this point. Look, if it is so easy for 'al-Pakistani' to attain the materials for TATP and mix them, is it not equally possible that an American engineering student could achieve the same, especially considering Hinrichs' apparent interest in weapons? The ingredients are not a secret, nor the proceedures for mixing them.

I could do the same thing on my own.

As Andrew Cochran aptly said to me, jumping to such conclusions is counter-productive to the cause of counterterrorism.

He's right...furthermore, he does not say ignore it or that it's all a bunch of panting hooey or that it was simply a suicide.

Simply exercise caution in labeling this a foreign jihadi assisted operation.

The nature of terrorism is such that one doesn't have to believe that this was "foreign-assisted" in the usual sense of that term. What needs to be investigated is

(a) the nature of the Muslim Student Association at that school. Front Page had an article on the group several years ago...

(b)the political leanings of the mosque this guy attended. Who is the imam and where does the funding for his salary, the building, etc., come from? Is this one of those Saudi connections that are so widely spread in our country? All the way from prison chaplains to university associations. If you connect the dots, it's not hard to come up with a reasonable speculation that this disturbed young man's demise was aided and abetted by a toxic belief system.

Hooray for the security people who were looking into backpacks at a football game. Hope somebody at least gives them some credit for saving a few thousand lives.

Of course, they don't have to worry about "profiling" or any of the other p.c. albatrosses that the feds have hung around the necks of airport personnel.

The whole thing smells. It's an "isolated incident" but it's one that was fostered, enabled, and activated by a very clever Saudi system, a system now well in place to continue these random, "isolated" incidents. We are fortunate only in that they are forced to depend on marginal, disturbed individuals.

The father of this guy reminds me of the blind parents from Columbine. While I feel some sympathy for the boy's family, it's not hard to figure out that this disaffected young man was flying under everyone's radar.

Remember the shock of the London bombers' families? They were clueless about their children's disaffection and cynicism.

So, tell me, USMC Vet, how many kids from conservative families do you think will be out doing this kind of thing? Not because the c's are morally superior. It's just that their cultural convictions include keeping a sharp eye on the kids.

I'm not saying such families don't have problems with their children. What I am saying is that kids from that side of the cultural divide are less inclined to want to take a whole bunch of others with them when they go. Or to see such an idea as a worthy goal.

We can point to crazy exceptions on the right, but they are the extreme survivalist parnoid right. I'm talking about the "normal" run-of-the-mill academic Left, the one from which this boy came. As did the Columbine kids.

Just thinking out loud...wondering about the existence of kids like this. Thinking about exceptions on both sides, but trying to puzzle my way down to the heart of the matter...which is what we all want to do, if only to be able to make predictions about our own safety and the well being of our country.

It sure doesn't help to have dissembling fools in charge. Or Muslim students wringing their hands about a "backlash" that hasn't happened. Are they maybe hoping to generate one?

Since he didn't kill anyone but himself we will be spared the inevitable candlelight vigil response to acts of terror. I hope.

I am keeping an open mind on the Oklahoma incident and would like to read a lot more on this, but I (and others ) don't necessarily have an open-mind about Annie Jacobsen.

Fortunately, the Jacobsen book is out and we are all free to draw our own conclusions. She was not the only one on the flight to be concerned.Several others thought they'd never make it to the ground, including the flight attendants.

The link you mention says
after trying hard to get engaged by the book, I can't recommend it to you as worth reading either as a policy document, history, or journalism...

I'm not sure she meant her book to be any of those things -- though it depends on how you care to define "policy", "policy documents", "history", or "journalism."

Jacobsen is urging some policy changes re airport and airline security. The foot-dragging by the airlines is pathetic. All Israeli pilots are armed. Few of ours are and that is mainly because airlines put up obstacles to facilitating that training, requiring that pilots get their training on their own time and their own dime. Same goes for flight attendants with self-defense training. Almost impossible to schedule given the nature of their scheduling and the airlines refuse to reconcile job scheduling with training. Like I said in my own review, would you use Brinks if they hired their guards and drivers and then left them to their own devices as far as security training went?

As Jacobsen points out, Israelis have no problem with profiling. None at all. In fact, like smart people who intend to survive, it's the first thing they do. It's not pro forma either. One in-flight explosion they prevented was a careful work-up on a pregnant American woman who had a Palestinian boyfriend. Turned out he had lovingly packed her bags for her, lining them with explosives. Kill his unborn child? Didn't seem to be an issue.

As far as history goes, Jacobsen's book will be an interesting period piece some day. Especially the parts about the restrictions on and behavior of the Federal Air Marshals. Pathetic. Reeks of rules laid down by J. Edgar. His ghost lives on...

Journalism? It certainly is primary source, no? And she interviewed as many other passengers as were willing to step forward. It was more than simply her and her terrified husband. She also interviewed a number of airline personnel. They are scared, and it seems rightly so.

This book is probably a good example of a personal exposure to a virus. Just like we need to prepare ourselves for the possibility of an avian flu pandemic -- another possible problem that is airily dismissed by 'experts', we need to be prepared for random outbreaks of airline terrorism.

If Jacobsen's book showed nothing else from the point of view of journalism, it proved how inept our farcical Homeland Security arrangement is. And Hurricane Katrina proceeded to expose it even more. The bureaucratic answer? Drop the guy in charge over the side and keep on rowing down the same river. Great decision.

Jacobsen can be dismissed, but no one has come up with a book which refutes her concerns. Because they can't. Does anyone seriously believe government is looking out for you?

It's CYA as SOP.

Having been disconnected for much of the day, there ahve been several developments take place beneath my radar (switched off for a bit). With Hinrich's Pakistani roommate now 'linked' to a one-way ticket to Algeria found in Hinrich's car, the details that were once unattributed are now solidifying. The Counterterrorism Blog has now shifted gears from observant caution to active analysis.

I noted earlier that Daveed Gartenstein-Ross had posted on the Hinrich/Norman bombing shortly after 12 noon (EST).
The Counterterrorism Blog: Suicide Bomber in Oklahoma?

He has since posted again:
The Counterterrorism Blog: Video Updates from Oklahoma

Daveed will be on Fox News with John Gibson around 5:30/5:40 segments. That'll be worth tuning in for.

Just a head's up before I have to leave again.

It amazes me that people who spend so much time bashing the MSM for using unnamed sources or blatant rumors then go around repeating them out of hand when it suits their particular agenda or prejudice. How do we "know" that Joe tried to get into the stadium? Well, a library guard says, on the record, that he was told by a stadium security guard that a person (doesn't even note a male) tried to enter the stadium twice, but ran when the guards wanted to search his backpack.

Is this anything other than rumor? Oh, it was on the local news, it must be true.

And you have sites like Michelle Malkin, LGF and the Jawa Report sounding a lot like DU with such incisive analysis as noting the proximity of the Islamic center to Joe's apartment. Hint: the Islamic Center is right by the campus. It's also close to the College Republicans, and a number of bars, and my favorite Greek diner (assuming it's still there).

Thank you, USMC_Vet, for being a bit more credulous than most. I hope that some sanity will eventually prevail. It may be the case that Joe was an Islamic convert and was attempting to kill people. Everything I have heard and everything I know tells me that is not the case. But it could be true.

But I cannot take any of the "evidence" out there now as in any way conclusive, and it is really appalling to see how many of the blogs are just going and doing exactly what they scoff at the MSM for doing. You don't even have to go elsewhere, just look at dymphna's comments. Assuming as truth that Joe went to the mosque is like assuming as true that there were little girls getting raped in the Superdome. Might be true, but doesn't it sound just a bit odd, all things considered?

Reporters without Borders is now reporting that the Saudi ISA has reopened access to Blogger.

I've commented on this issue at Crossroads Arabia .