The Null Device blog: Fourth of July

The Fourth of July has passed, and the feared terrorist blitz has not occurred; no Al Qaeda dirty bombs Chernobylising entire cities, no massive truck bombs levelling US bases, no Iraqi PlayStation-powered anthrax-spreading cruise missiles raining from the skies over the Midwest. However, an Egyptian limousine driver did shoot up an El Al counter in Los Angeles, before being shot by the ever-vigilant El Al security personnel. Which suggests one of three possibilities:

Al Qaeda are scraping the bottom of the barrel as far as terroristic talent goes
Al Qaeda want us to think they're running out of competent terrorists, to lull us into a false sense of security
We are seeing the first of a wave of Al Qaeda-inspired spontaneous mass shootings; the post-9/11 equivalent of postal worker/high-school goth rampages.

There are 9 comments on "Fourth of July":

Posted by: Lev http:// Sat Jul 6 02:20:51 2002

Probably just an unhappy customer who couldn't get a seat. Of course Sherman Skolnick has an interesting take on it:

POLITICAL ASSASSINATIONS AT L.A. AIRPORT, Part One

http://www.skolnicksreport.com/palax.html

Posted by: mitch http:// Sat Jul 6 04:18:27 2002

It's possible that bigger attacks were detected or just called off.

One theory is that he was an Al Qaeda sleeper who flipped out, maybe because nothing else happened: http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/news/711339/posts?page=2#2

Debka.com links him to the pilot of an Egyptian plane that crashed mysteriously in 1999: http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/news/711445/posts

And: there was that stepson of Saddam Hussein's who was discovered in Florida, wanting to recertify his licence to fly 747s at a school attended by a September 11 hijacker. It turns out that he was last in the USA just four days before September 11. http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/news/711133/posts

Posted by: Jimbob http://the-fix.org Sat Jul 6 05:42:06 2002

Saddam Hussein's stepson was ordered by the airline he works for (in NZ) to go to the flight school to touch up his knowledge. But, of course, the USGOV don't see it that way.

Posted by: Billy Randall http:// Sat Jul 6 07:10:15 2002

Fuck America. I hope all those bastards get dirty bombed!

Posted by: baphomet http:// Sat Jul 6 19:43:14 2002

I assume you know that 2 ppl were killed, others wounded?

"shot up a counter" makes me wonder if we use the same language.

Posted by: Graham http://grudnuk.com/ Sun Jul 7 01:10:27 2002

2 seems a fairly low score for shootings in the US.

Posted by: acb http://dev.null.org Sun Jul 7 06:05:10 2002

Besides which, technically in the US, it's a "hate crime" and not a "terrorist" attack unless he was acting for or on behalf of a terrorist group or intending to start one. Currently no connections have come up between him and any terrorist groups. (Btw, that's the FBI's definition of terrorism.)

Posted by: alex Sun Jul 7 08:22:25 2002

I reckon that collision over .de was set up. The russian plane was full of children of rich oil company executives. It's the Gnomes of Zurich I say. Damn midgets. Them and the Oompah-Loompahs. They're in cahoots.

Posted by: Ben http:// Sun Jul 7 08:41:10 2002

I still blame the French.