They Do It Differently in Texas (for Jim & the boyz north of the Rio Grand)

[don]

Smoke billowed from a seven-story building after a small private plane crashed into a building that houses an office of the federal tax agency in Austin, Tex., on Thursday.

A man crashed a small plane Thursday morning into a seven-story office building in Austin, Tex., that houses offices of the Internal Revenue Service, the authorities said. The pilot was killed. Two people were hospitalized, and one person was still unaccounted for Thursday afternoon.

President Obama was briefed on the situation by his counterterrorism adviser, John O. Brennan, at 12:35 p.m., according to Robert Gibbs, the White House press secretary. But while the Department of Homeland Security was investigating the crash, federal officials emphasized that they did not consider the case to be a terrorist attack.

Officials said the crash was being investigated as a crime.

The authorities identified the pilot as Joseph A. Stack III. There were indications that Mr. Stack, 53, was a software engineer who had had conflicts with the I.R.S.

The seven-story building, at 9430 Research Boulevard in northwest Austin, about seven miles northwest of the State Capitol, was consumed by flames after the crash.

The plane, a single-engine, fixed-wing Piper PA-28-236 Dakota, was registered in California, according to aviation records. It took off from the Georgetown Municipal Airport, about 25 miles north of Austin, at 9:40 a.m., the Federal Aviation Administration said.

Four hours after the crash, firefighters were still fighting the blaze, and the authorities were able to complete searches only of the lowest three floors.
"We can confirm that the building that the plane hit this morning includes I.R.S. offices,” said Terry L. Lemons, a spokesman for the agency. “We have about 190 employees that work at those offices. We’re still in the process of accounting for everyone."

Employees and offices of the tax agency have faced threats and even attacks in the past. In December 1995, a bomb in a 30-gallon drum was found in a parking lot outside the I.R.S. office in Reno, Nev., but it failed to explode.

In April 1990, a firebomb packed with a tea bag — a reference to the Boston Tea Party — and addressed to the I.R.S. was placed in the mail in Royal Oak, Mich. It exploded, injuring a postal worker.

A number of people, including a husband and wife who contend that Americans are not generally required to pay income taxes unless they have declared their income taxable, have been prosecuted. The I.R.S. has called such theories bogus tax-evasion schemes.

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/02/19/us/19crash.html?hp

[skidder]

Re: They Do It Differently in Texas (for Jim & the boyz north of the Rio Grand)

I just posted Joe Stack's manifesto on the thread labeled in part "huge blow to tea party movement". I recommend everyone read it.

[Mega]

Re: They Do It Differently in Texas (for Jim & the boyz north of the Rio Grand)

Yes, didn't he have enough fuel for Jekkle island?
Mike

[GRG55]

Re: They Do It Differently in Texas (for Jim & the boyz north of the Rio Grand)

Smoke billowed from a seven-story building after a small private plane crashed into a building that houses an office of the federal tax agency in Austin, Tex., on Thursday.

A man crashed a small plane Thursday morning into a seven-story office building in Austin, Tex...

One of the predictable responses to this sad incident is that the authorities are going to use it as an excuse to extend their police state security grip over the US aviation system.

By the time they are finished every grass airstrip in America will have a chain-link security fence and razor-wire, and you'll need an FBI clearance to own a Piper Cub...

[GRG55]

Re: They Do It Differently in Texas (for Jim & the boyz north of the Rio Grand)

One of the predictable responses to this sad incident is that the authorities are going to use it as an excuse to extend their police state security grip over the US aviation system.

By the time they are finished every grass airstrip in America will have a chain-link security fence and razor-wire, and you'll need an FBI clearance to own a Piper Cub...

Here we go...

Austin plane crash exposes gap in US air security

GEORGETOWN, Texas – After 9/11, cockpit doors were sealed, air marshals were added and airport searches became more aggressive, all to make sure an airliner could never again be used as a weapon. Yet little has been done to guard against attacks with smaller planes...

..."It's a big gap," said R. William Johnstone, an aviation security consultant and former staff member of the commission that investigated the Sept. 11 attacks. "It wouldn't take much, even a minor incident involving two simultaneously attacking planes, to inflict enough damage to set off alarm bells and do some serious harm to the economy and national psyche."

The suburban Georgetown Municipal Airport that pilot Joe Stack entered hours before his airborne attack in nearby Austin had the casual atmosphere of a sleepy parking garage.

Pilots were not subject to baggage checks, metal detector scans or pat-downs. And they are usually not required to file flight plans...

The easy access and lack of security are the result of years of debate — and stalemate — over how much of a threat small aircraft pose as terror weapons and how they could be regulated without stifling commerce and pilot freedom.

While the airlines quickly accepted tougher security after Sept. 11, the general aviation industry, which includes everything from privately owned propeller-driven planes to large corporate jets, have aggressively fought new measures.

The proposed rules would require that operators of medium and large general-aviation aircraft demonstrate that flight crews have undergone a criminal background check. They would also be required to verify passengers are not on the no-fly lists already used by large airlines.

Private pilots fly approximately 200,000 small and medium-size planes in the U.S., using 19,000 airports, most of them small. The planes' owners insist the aircraft have nothing in common with airliners but the sky...

[don]

Re: They Do It Differently in Texas (for Jim & the boyz north of the Rio Grand)

Wake Up, America!

Grumpy, White Terrorists in Cars and Planes

By DAVE LINDORFF
The deliberate suicide crash bombing by a domestic terrorist pilot of a small plane into an IRS building in Austin, Texas has exposed a grave failure of the Homeland Security Department to protect us Americans from the threat posed by the virtually unregulated use in this country of small aircraft.

Just about anyone can own and fly a small plane, and these, as we have now seen, are readily adaptable into kamikaze missiles capable of destroying large buildings.

If Homeland Security won’t act, then it is up to Congress to move quickly to tighten up security and control over small planes. We need to insist that anyone seeking a pilot’s license first submit to a full screening by the FBI. No one with a criminal record of any kind should be permited to fly or ride in a small plane. The same should be true with regard to all foreigners. Since it’s not possible to do a full check of the background of persons from other countries, only US citizens should be able to obtain and fly small aircraft within US airspace.

All civil air pilots and their passengers should be required to pass through metal detectors before entering an airfield. We don’t want them carrying hand grenades or other weapons onto their planes. Planes should also be subject to full searches by specially trained government inspectors before takeoff to be sure they have not been packed with explosives.

But that’s not enough. We should ban all small aircraft from flying within a mile of any urban areas, and the military should be given authority to take down any plane that violates that rule. The Air force should be ordered to have fighters, armed with loaded machine guns, in the air at all times, ready to be called into action if a small plane appears to be on a threatening flight path.

America cannot lower its guard.

Of course, while we’re at it, we need to consider the much bigger problem of the widespread access to cars and trucks, which are equally capable of being made into four-wheeled bombs. If a deranged man can use a plane to take out an IRS building, how long will it be before another equally deranged man or woman who fails a driver’s test decides to take out a motor vehicle office?

There is only one solution. We need to crack down heavily on who can obtain a driver’s license. Probably the best solution would be to require anyone seeking a drivers licence to first undergo psychological screening. Nobody found to have anger management difficulties, or any history of violent or aggressive behavior, should be allowed to own or drive a vehicle. (One good screening technique would be to slow down service at motor vehicle offices even more, and then to bar anyone who shows signs of impatience or anger from obtaining a license.)


We do need to crack down on the ability of terrorists, foreign or domestic, to get ahold of moving vehicles--airborne or ground-based--which in the wrong hands could be used to threaten Americans with mayhem.

http://www.counterpunch.org/lindorff02192010.html

[GRG55]

Re: They Do It Differently in Texas (for Jim & the boyz north of the Rio Grand)

...All civil air pilots and their passengers should be required to pass through metal detectors before entering an airfield. We don’t want them carrying hand grenades or other weapons onto their planes. Planes should also be subject to full searches by specially trained government inspectors before takeoff to be sure they have not been packed with explosives...

...America cannot lower its guard...

Ya'll got a permit t' operate that thang, boy?



[Hopefully Slim the shade tree mechanic that fixes the John Deere can keep the metal detector and explosives scanners working...]

[phirang]

Re: They Do It Differently in Texas (for Jim & the boyz north of the Rio Grand)

Ya'll got a permit t' operate that thang, boy?



[Hopefully Slim the shade tree mechanic that fixes the John Deere can keep the metal detector and explosives scanners working...]

I heard Slim gets a bit too excited about the pat-downs, though...

[tsetsefly]

Re: They Do It Differently in Texas (for Jim & the boyz north of the Rio Grand)

I cant say I feel sorry for the IRS.

However these acts are just dumb, really. They don't produce the intended results. The only thing that will come of this is an excuse to grow the ever expanding police state.

You will see more regulation for small plane owners and airports. But the truth is in the half a century of small plane ownership how many times has this happened?
Very rarely, yet this is all Homeland Security needs to protect us even "more" against "home grown" terrorist.

"Those who sacrifice liberty for security deserve neither" I have seen this attributed to Jefferson and Franklin, regardless of who said it is very true.

[GRG55]

Re: They Do It Differently in Texas (for Jim & the boyz north of the Rio Grand)

I cant say I feel sorry for the IRS.

However these acts are just dumb, really. They don't produce the intended results. The only thing that will come of this is an excuse to grow the ever expanding police state.

You will see more regulation for small plane owners and airports. But the truth is in the half a century of small plane ownership how many times has this happened?
Very rarely, yet this is all Homeland Security needs to protect us even "more" against "home grown" terrorist.

"Those who sacrifice liberty for security deserve neither" I have seen this attributed to Jefferson and Franklin, regardless of who said it is very true.

The only other thing I can see coming from this is the entertainment value in a year or two, when questions are raised as to who in the government "planned the operation", the discovery of trace amounts of some obscure explosives at the site, and questions are raised as to why there's absolutely no evidence of any airplane wreckage or materials at the "crash" site...:rolleyes:

[ThePythonicCow]

Re: They Do It Differently in Texas (for Jim & the boyz north of the Rio Grand)

The only other thing I can see coming from this is the entertainment value in a year or two, when questions are raised as to who in the government "planned the operation", the discovery of trace amounts of some obscure explosives at the site, and questions are raised as to why there's absolutely no evidence of any airplane wreckage or materials at the "crash" site...:rolleyes:

It won't take that long. From ofgoatsandmen.blogspot.com/2010/02/joseph-andrew-stack-had-911-nsa-cia-and.html:

Joseph Andrew Stack Had 9/11, NSA, and Homeland Security Related Defense Contractor Clients

P.S. -- And from http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20100220/ap_on_re_us/us_plane_crash_texas:

Stack's daughter from his first marriage, Samantha Dawn Bell, said the Web manifesto didn't sound like the father she knew.
"It's not him. The letter itself sounds like it's coming from a different person," she said in an interview from her home in Norway.

P.P.S -- And from www.fourwinds10.com/siterun_data/government/fraud/us_government/news.php?q=1266683781:

Was Joe Stack's Plane Crash a 'False Flag'

[ThePythonicCow]

Re: They Do It Differently in Texas (for Jim & the boyz north of the Rio Grand)

Yet more conspiracy allegations.

From www.infowars.com/eyewitness-hazmat-teams-in-place-before-plane-crash/

Eyewitness: Hazmat Teams In Place Before Plane Crash

From www.infowars.com/source-fbi-knew-austin-attack-was-coming-2/

Source: FBI Knew Austin Attack Was Coming

[don]

Re: They Do It Differently in Texas (for Jim & the boyz north of the Rio Grand)

The Last Flight of Joe Stack

By PAUL CRAIG ROBERTS
Joseph Stack, frustrated American, flew his airplane into an Austin, Texas, office building. He was one of the 79 per cent of Americans who have given up on “their” government.

The latest Rasmussen Poll indicates that the vast majority of Americans are convinced that “their” government is totally unresponsive to them, their concerns, and their needs. Rasmussen found that only 21 per cent of the American population agree that the U.S. government has the consent of the governed, and that 21 per cent is comprised of the political class itself and liberals. Rasmussen concludes that the gap between the American population and the politicians who rule them “may be as big today as the gap between the colonies and England during the 18th century.”

Indications are that Joseph Stack was sane. Like Palestinians faced with Israeli jet fighters, helicopter gunships, tanks, missiles and poison gas, Stack realized that he was powerless. A suicide attack was the only weapon left to him.

Stack targeted the IRS, the federal agency that had gratuitously ruined him. He flew his airplane into an office building occupied by 200 members of the IRS. This deliberate plan and the written explanation he left behind segregate him from deranged people who randomly shoot up a Post Office or university campus.

But Stack experienced the same frustrations and emotions as Muslims who can’t take it any longer and strap on a suicide vest.

“Violence,” Stack wrote, “not only is the answer, it is the only answer.” Stack concluded that nothing short of violence will get the attention of a government that has turned its back on the American people.

Anger is building up. People are beginning to do unusual things. Terry Hoskins bulldozed his house rather than allow a bank to foreclose on it. The local TV station conducted an online survey and found that 79 per cent of respondents agreed with Hoskins’ action.

Perhaps the turning point was the federal government’s bailout of the investment banks whose reckless misbehavior diminished Americans’ retirement savings for the second time in eight years. Now a former head of the most culpable bank is campaigning to cut Social Security, Medicare, and Medicaid benefits in order to pay for the bailout. President Obama has obliged him by creating a “deficit commission.”

The “deficit commission” will be used to gut Social Security, just as the private insurance health plan is paid for by cutting $500 billion out of Medicare.

It could not be more clear that government represents the interest groups that finance the election campaigns.


Joseph Stack, Terry Hoskins, and 79 per cent of the American population came to the realization that government does not represent them. Government represents monied interests for whom it bends the rules designed to protect the public, thus creating a legally privileged class.

This is what we call “freedom and democracy.”

Paul Craig Roberts was an editor of the Wall Street Journal and an Assistant Secretary of the U.S. Treasury.
http://www.counterpunch.org/roberts02232010.html

[D-Mack]

Re: They Do It Differently in Texas (for Jim & the boyz north of the Rio Grand)



Tiny Tim the tax cheat visits the crash site.

[don]

Re: They Do It Differently in Texas (for Jim & the boyz north of the Rio Grand)

Tiny Tim the tax cheat visits the crash site.

Proving once again the US is not only financially bankrupt.