Some have asked about the security at the building and just how Naveed Afzal Haq got in to try his hand at small scale genocide.
The man suspected in a fatal shooting rampage hid behind a potted plant in a Jewish charity’s foyer and forced his way through a security door by holding a gun to a 13-year-old girl’s head, the police chief said Saturday.
Once inside, police say, Naveed Afzal Haq opened fire with two semiautomatic pistols. One woman, Pam Waechter, 58, of Seattle was killed at the scene. Five more women were wounded.
Haq, 30, was ordered held on $50 million bail Saturday pending formal charges of murder and attempted murder.
(snip)
“He pointedly blamed the Jewish people for all of these problems,” Seattle Police Chief Gil Kerlikowske said at a news conference Saturday.
According to a statement of probable cause, Haq told a 911 dispatcher: “These are Jews and I’m tired of getting pushed around and our people getting pushed around by the situation in the Middle East.”
It is reported in unlinkable local news stories that Haq legally purchased two pistols in the Tri-Cities area of SE Washington, one in .40cal and the other in 45ACP, but it doesn’t say when. And with the extra mags he brought with him, the prosecutors have evidence of premeditation.Â
Someone in the comments asked if Haq will be charged with a hate crime. I seriously doubt it, and not just because it hasn’t been mentioned in the charging papers. Though Rita Zawaideh, from the Arab American Community Coalition has said that she believes “This was just definitely a real hate crime”.
The AACC and the American Arab Anti-Discrimiantion Committee have released a statement.
The Seattle Left-Wing blogging contingent have generally been either silent: Goldy at Seattle uber-leftist blog, HorsesAss is out of town and his fill-in has only linked to a couple pieces in a link-burst, but given no opinion or commentary; and the number 2 in the NW, the whale of a left-wing hate-monger, David Neiwert, hasn’t said a thing since Thursday. Maybe he’ll get around to it today?
Or they have fallen into the standard “Blame America/Bush” mode: like this guy has. Twice.
Right-wing blog bigshots, Sound Politics, have all had something to say, but this post by Matt Rosenberg is the best one yet.
Me, I’m just hoping that everyone recovers fully and is able to live beyond this, except for Haq, of course. He needs to die by having his body buried with just his head sticking out of the ground and his victims allowed to take a swing at his hate-filled noggin with the object of their choosing.
I am also hoping that this will not turn into another anti-gun tale of woe, like how the media and state anti-gun groups forgot about the drugs when the zombie-raver shot his fellow partiers.
And exactly how have I been “blaming America first”? Unlike so many other commentators who quote Haq’s avowed anger at Israel (like you have) yet fail to, indeed will not, connect the dots between a war in Lebanon and this man’s reaction to it, I have made that connection.
It does not excuse Haq’s actions which I condemn. It does not condone his actions, which are horrendous. It does not take away from thinking about the victims of his rampage – I feel for them and wish them a full recovery, and send my condolences to the family of the woman who died.
Believing that this nation is uniquely positioned to bring an end to the bloodshed in Lebanon, and work toward a lasting peace is not a “blame America first” position.
Not to change the subject but I want to let you know that I have changed my blog format a little. The direction I’m going towards may not suit your taste. The change is nothing too drastic, just a much higher ratio of adult related content. If you wish to delete me from your blogroll I respect your decision. At the same time if you would like me to remove your link from my blogroll please let me know by leaving a comment or by emailing me. I’m looking foward to remaining in your blogroll and keeping your link in mine.
Bullseye
While we may feel this is terrorism, in LEO circles, “terrorist” has a specific definition. It applies to someone who receives support from a network, and “terrorism” is an act to advance that group’s aims in some way.
Therefore, when a nutjob goes off on his own, he technically might not be a terrorist, if he’s not part of a network (or at least one we haven’t uncovered yet). Also, how you define the crime affects the way the investigation proceeds. So in some respects I understand why the police are hesitant to brand this turd a terrorist (at least for now).
Suggestion: If he claims he did it in the cause of Islam, can we instead declare him an “enemy combatant” and just execute him?
“That is why an immediate cessation of hostilities must be brokered, and the USA needs to urge both sides to come to the table again. To be honest I think it has been left far too late now. The damage has already been done and the clock has been turned back 40 years. So many lives in Lebanon, Israel, and now in Seattle, have been lost as a result.”
“The United States is uniquely positioned, as the world’s most powerful nation, to put pressure on all sides to find the compromises necessary for an immediate cease-fire, and then for a lasting peaceful solution.”
The first quote is from the first post linked, the second quote from the second.
If it the America’s job to broker a peace here, then why not everywhere else in the world? Yet it is the left, in the media and even on their own hate-filled radio channel, that screams for the UN in every instance where America gets involved.
The only reason they want America exclusively involved in this example is because we currently are not.
Just as in Iraq, the American left demanded vast and diverse coalition, yet in N.Korea happenings, it seems that, just as you suggested in your two posts, only America can fix the problem.
It is precisely because you can suggest an alternative that you do. Anything America does under the Bush Administration is wrong in your eyes, and the exact opposite is what we should have done, no matter how inane you sound when you demand that America stop what it is doing and do what you say it should.
If don’t involve the neighbors of Israel and Lebanon and get them to lend their support to a lasting peace treaty, as in the cases of Jordan and Egypt, especially in cutting the nuts off of Hezbollah, then no peace deal that the US alone could come up with would last or be even worth the paper it is written on.
You sir are wrong in your demands and horribly short sighted. But then again, it is what I have come to expect from people with BDS.
Have a good day.