Man Flies Plane into IRS Building in Austin, TX

[CrazyMonkeyDude]

A Texas pilot flew a small plane into an Austin office complex today and authorities are investigating links to a hate-filled note found on the Internet, telling the IRS to "take my pound of flesh and sleep well."

Investigators are trying to determine whether Andrew Joseph Stack, the man identified by authorities as the pilot of the plane, is the same person as "Joe Stack," the name signed to the online rant that warns, "Desperate times call for desperate measures."

The office building complex where the plane crashed houses IRS offices employing about 190 people. The Austin Fire Department has concluded its search of the building and located the remains of two victims who have not yet officially been identified.

Police earlier said Stack died in the crash and two other people were taken to the hospital -- though later it was not clear whether or not those were the two people whose remains were found.

One of the injured was taken to the Brook Army Medical Center's burn unit. Referring to the missing person, Austin Police Chief Art Acevedo said, "The prospects are not very positive for this person at this time."

Full story here.

 

[Thothie]

I can only hope that the numbers quickly get too big to be white washed and ignored that the American zombies wake up and revolt; it will take nothing less,

LOL - not in my lifetime. ^_^

PS. Here's his full manifesto:
http://www.evilgeniustv.com/andrew-jose ... te-letter/

I guess he owed some money to the IRS. Ironically, selling the plane apparently would have covered it.

 

[PBarnum]

Dumb sh!t. What gets accomplished with these types of acts? The realization that the human species is losing hope for the future?

 

[Tradion]

I think he did it to get attention to the letter honestly, in hopes that america would pull their head out of their ass and see what he's saying. Kinda a form of martyrdom

 

[Thothie]

Meh, can't do anything for MSC from here, so midas well blah, blah, blah a moment...

TBH I have mixed feelings on this.

On the one hand, I kinda understand why folks get to feeling there's no legitimate action they can take to institute change, and the gods know that media is so tightly controlled in this country that said feeling is not unjustified.

On the other hand, 9/11 should be fresh enough in everyone's mind to cause any rational person to realize just how fruitless a terrorist action like this is. In 9/11, the targets were at least significant to the message. The WTC served as an artifice to bleed the wealth from the poor of the world and hand it up onto the rich, however oblivious the innocents slain therein were to that fact, as they went about their daily business. The Pentagon being a symbol of the military might that allows such actions to go on so smoothly and with so little real resistance. (Theories as to why 9/11 happened aside, mind you, I'm just speaking of the symbolic value of the targets.) The results of 9/11, however? No awakening, just a scared sh*tles reaction that made the powers that be more ruthless than ever, more open than ever, and under less opposition than ever before.

But an IRS building? We have the kindest tax code of any civilized nation - especially for folks of Mr. Joseph's tax bracket and above. In any nearly any other country, he wouldn't have had that plane to make the statement with. Further, the folks in the IRS building have no decision making power as to what the taxes they collect are used for. Why not attack some building that represents the evil that is destroying this country? A PNAC building, maybe the Heritage Foundation, a Carlyle Group holding, the Brookings institution, Mosanto, or even an oil rig or a pharmaceutical company... But an IRS building? Midas well have landed on a school, for all the blow to evil that was. No, in this case, I fear Andrew's actions were more about his personal grudge than any effort to wake up the nation.

...and why is it always the right wing nut jobs that do this sort of thing. The Unibomber's targets made a better statement, surely, but when ya read his manifesto, it's just a smattering of the paranoia placed into him by the likes of Limbah and Beck... Why is it the left wing nut jobs never have the backbone to go nuts like this? It's just disheartening to see hate filled brain washing taken so easily to its ultimate conclusion, while truth and suffering almost never inspires such action - at least not in this nation.

The Amy Goodman's of the world have a much better approach to this madness - but again, I understand these terrorists - for they know as well as I that no one of consequence listens to the likes of her. It's one of those "if you take away the brush of the artist, his hand is free to wield a gun" situations, that I just see no good way out of.

 

[jon50559]

Well there there always needs to be a good hard kick to institute change. And for some problems, a very large kick is needed.

 

[Thothie]

Meh, kinda like my saying the only hope for peace in the Middle East is Iran getting nukes.

I just hope it doesn't also turn out the only hope for real peace in the Middle East is Iran USING nukes.

 

[Thothie]

A week ago or so, Noam Chomsky had a take on the Joseph Stack plane crash that made me feel like necroposting here:

http://www.democracynow.org/2010/5/31/n ... annot_hold
...Don't watch while driving or operating heavy machinery - may cause drowsiness.

Noam Chomsky doesn't seem to really approve either, of course, but certainly sees the motivation behind it.