Was the Austin Plane Crash Domestic Terrorism?(praetorianprefect.com)
praetorianprefect.com
Was the Austin Plane Crash Domestic Terrorism?
http://praetorianprefect.com/archives/2010/02/was-the-austin-plane-crash-domestic-terrorism/?sms_ss=hackernews
3 comments
It is not terrorism it was a guy named Joe Stack from Austin. The founder of a software business. Apparently he was ticked off at the IRS for interfering with his business.
He founded his company in California but moved to Austin to take advantage of the growing high tech industry in Texas.
Here is a copy of his online posting just before he did this:
http://www.thesmokinggun.com/archive/years/2010/0218102stack...
Austin is so nice and crime free something like this is crazy.
He founded his company in California but moved to Austin to take advantage of the growing high tech industry in Texas.
Here is a copy of his online posting just before he did this:
http://www.thesmokinggun.com/archive/years/2010/0218102stack...
Austin is so nice and crime free something like this is crazy.
According to the FBI terrorism is:
"Domestic terrorism refers to activities that involve acts dangerous to human life that are a violation of the criminal laws of the United States or of any state; appear to be intended to intimidate or coerce a civilian population; to influence the policy of a government by mass destruction, assassination, or kidnapping; and occur primarily within the territorial jurisdiction of the United States."
Flying a plane into the IRS building would certainly fall into that definition.
Link: http://www.fbi.gov/publications/terror/terror2000_2001.htm
Flying a plane into the IRS building would certainly fall into that definition.
Link: http://www.fbi.gov/publications/terror/terror2000_2001.htm
Does it matter what his name was, or where he's from? This sure seems like an act of terrorism to me.
if the guy's name was Mohammed instead of Joe... think people would say, 'awww, that's just a patriotic guy standing up for his right to not pay taxes'?
I flagged this article. Doesn't seem relevant to Hacker News.
The point of terrorism is to cause terror, sometimes to further a political goal and sometimes out of sheer hatred. The people terrorists kill are not the targets; they are collateral damage. And blowing up planes, trains, markets or buses is not the goal; those are just tactics. The real targets of terrorism are the rest of us: the billions of us who are not killed but are terrorized because of the killing. The real point of terrorism is not the act itself, but our reaction to the act.
this guy wasn't a terrorist. he wasn't trying to inflict terror on anyone, he was pissed off at a specific target (the IRS) and took out his anger on that specific target.