This story definitely should be filed under “News of the Weird”. According to a Pakistani Taliban leader, he gave the order that resulted in yesterday’s mass shooting in Binghamton, New York:
Taliban Chief Claims Responsibility for N.Y. Shooting Massacre
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.
Hmm — the long arm of the Pakistani Taliban. Must be good for recruiting new mujahideen to the cause in the Swat Valley.
However, according to the accounts emerging from the American media, the Binghamton killer was a deranged marginalized person who felt humiliated by the way he was treated, a sort of grown-up immigrant version of the bullied Columbine shooters:
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Wong, who used the alias Jiverly Voong, believed people close to him were making fun of him for his poor English language skills, Zikuski said.
Wong was ethnically Chinese but from Vietnam, a friend said Saturday. He was angry about recently losing a job, couldn’t find work and complained that his unemployment checks were only $200 a week, said Hue Huynh, a Binghamton grocery store proprietor whose husband worked with Wong years ago.
Wong had driven a truck in California before recently returning to Binghamton, only to lose a job there, Huynh said.
“He’s upset he don’t have a job here. He come back and want to work,” she said. Her husband tried to cheer him by telling him he was still young and there was plenty of time to find work, but he complained about his “bad luck,” she said.
The media have been handed a two-fer with this one. First of all, the perp was an immigrant victim who was treated badly by racists in his adopted country.
Secondly, his guns were legal:
Wong had a permit for the two handguns he used, Zikuski said. Most of the victims had multiple gunshot wounds, he said.
I don’t need a crystal ball to tell me what this means: more gun control! Watch for stricter permit requirements for handguns — if not an outright ban on handgun ownership — in New York State.
As for the Taliban, they don’t need no stinkin’ permits.
And they don’t actually need to carry out a mass killing in order to reap the ghoulish benefits of it. It’s all bang and no buck for them: claim responsibility for any incident anywhere in the world in which infidels are killed.
They may want to expand their repertoire to include fires, floods, tornados and earthquakes. Can’t hurt, can it?
Hat tip: TB.
Humiliation! Humiliation! I am so sick of hearing that word used as an excuse for murder. I am embarrassed at least three times a week in one form or another. Thats life! Humiliation has come to mean “if I am not a multimillionaire with power over others I am humiliated”.
Same with “Disrespect”. Question anything some “Gangsta urban youth” says or does you have disrespected him and will be met with extreme violence.
Oh but Spackle, every human bein’ DESERVES respect because he/she has opposable thumbs and walks upright — or at least can when not stoned or drunk. We wouldn’t want any priceless person in our advanced civilization to grow up without self-esteem, now, would we?
You seem to be forgetting that there are just innumerable ways to express our inner persons, none better than any other.
Thank the nonexisting god that US doesn’t have the same kind of “mud” (don’t want to use harsh words) that work as policeofficers as we here in Sweden have. I just wrote a “humiliating and racist” blog about it 🙂
http://worldreviewer.wordpress.com/2009/04/05/finnish-police-superior-their-swedish-colleagues/
Forgot clickable link, sorry.
Blog
Humilated by the way he was treated, sounds like some terrorist talk to me. Oh well, we’ll never know the complete truth about this killer–terrorist or deranged, not a whole lot of difference there.
claim responsibility for any incident anywhere in the world in which infidels are killed
This sentence reminds me of a funny essay:
How to talk like a Situationist
(Note: Situationism was a left-wing political movement of the ’50s and ’60s.)
As for the Taliban, they don’t need no stinkin’ permits.
And they don’t actually need to carry out a mass killing in order to reap the ghoulish benefits of it. It’s all bang and no buck for them: claim responsibility for any incident anywhere in the world in which infidels are killed.
I say that we should take Baituallah Mehsud at his word and send a few Hellfire missiles up his backside in repayment for his troubles. Preferrably at his family’s compound or favorite mosque. If ghoulish thugs like Mehsud want to capitalize upon the grief and sorrow of surviving families, give these Islamic gangsters something of their own to grieve about.
All of this falls under the same category as blowing away the terrorists who so enjoy shouting “Death to America” in front of large crowds. Every time they blurt out this tripe or try to take credit for some heinous crime in the West, simply identify them as the principal actor and treat them accordingly.
Muslims may think that death has an upside, but a smoking atomized corpse has little in the way to contribute in terms of furthering terrorist jihad.