Media Downplay Seattle Terror Attack (Joel Mowbray)

Human Events ^ | August 10, 2006 | Joel Mowbray

[Stoat]

Media Downplay Seattle Terror Attack

by Joel Mowbray

Posted Aug 10, 2006

 

Hiding behind potted plants, Naveed Haq laid in wait for a 14-year-old girl he could use as a hostage. With a gun in her back, he pushed his way past security and through the door. He coldly, deliberately shot six women. When a wounded Pamela Waechter tried to flee up some stairs, he followed her, leaned over a railing and killed her.

Are these the actions of a crazy person?

A crazy person might cause harm to himself, maybe even someone close to him. Haq, though, did not know anyone at the Seattle Jewish Federation. He traveled some distance late last month from central Washington, getting there after determining his target following an Internet search for “something Jewish.”

That wasn’t all of his planning. Because of Washington law, Haq waited to purchase his two semiautomatic handguns, picking them up one day earlier.

Premeditation is the antithesis of crazy. So why is it that the mainstream media has either ignored or played down this story? The New York Times has written only one article. Ditto for the Washington Post. Both papers buried what little coverage they did offer, on page 22 and page 13, respectively.

Most of those outlets that publicized the shootings have focused on Haq’s history of mental illness, the most serious of which was bipolar disorder. Great attention has been paid to his apparently having acted alone. And some have reported that sometime last year, the accused murderer was a practicing Christian.

In other words, media outlets have spent fantastic energy exploring every possibility -- except the obvious one. Moments after spraying bullets across the offices of the Jewish Federation, he announced, “I’m a Muslim-American; I’m angry at Israel.” So while Haq’s short-lived apparent conversion to Christianity might be interesting, it neither inspired the murderous rampage nor serves as evidence that something in his Islamic environment did not.

Where is the investigation into what messages Haq heard in his hometown mosque, which was founded by his father? Or how about a look at the culture and attitudes of his hometown Muslim community?

No doubt that sensitivities and hang-ups in part prevent such inquiries, but isn’t it possible that those issues are ignored out of fear? Having one case of homegrown terror wouldn’t just be about the single incident. With over 1,200 mosques in the U.S. -- and that’s not counting the thousands of makeshift ones in homes and storefronts -- the enormity of the potential threat becomes terrifying. How many would need to be bad seeds for another 19 to line up for the “glory” of killing another 3,000?

None of this is to suggest that any mosque is presumptively suspect. That’s just one possibility. Incendiary Islamic teachings can be downloaded in the click of a mouse. In the case of Naveed Haq, isn’t there just cause to wonder where his mind was poisoned?

What Haq almost certainly would not have heard in a mosque is any call to wage violent jihad or chants of “Death to America.” Almost no imam would do so after 9/11. But what if he had been told that U.S. soldiers were regularly committing atrocities against innocent fellow Muslims in Iraq? Or what if his imam told him that Israel was ethnically cleansing his Muslim brethren?

From the records of terror suspects arrested since 9/11, a clear pattern emerges: operatives are inspired most by the belief that Islam or Muslims are under attack. It is indisputable that Haq was acting in response to perceived wrongs committed against his fellow Muslims in Iraq and Lebanon -- and he blamed Jews.

The leader of the now-arrested Canadian terror cell, Imam Qayyum Abdul Jamal, reportedly did not preach violent jihad to his congregation, but he did tell them, among other things, that Canadian soldiers were going to Afghanistan “to rape women.” Not only does this dehumanize non-Muslim Canadians, but it leaves the clear implication that killing them is not just moral, but obligatory.

Someone who digests and accepts such propaganda -- about “ethnic cleansing” in Lebanon, for instance -- can have one of three possible reactions: 1) becoming tolerant or even supportive of Islamic terror, 2) deciding to join al Qaeda or its ilk in order to defend his Muslim brothers and sisters, or 3) snapping after being overcome with rage at what is happening, and then taking matters into his own hands.

Recent college graduate Mohammed Reza Taheri-azar slammed a rented SUV this March into a crowd of students at the University of North Carolina, hitting nine. The Iranian-born 22-year-old told the 911 dispatcher that he was attempting to “punish the government of the United States for [its] actions around the world.” In court days later, he said he was “thankful for the opportunity to spread the will of Allah.”

While Naveed Haq’s mental problems might have lowered his inhibitions or impaired his judgment, there is little else that distinguishes his actions from those of Taheri-azar -- except that he was successful. He clearly had become consumed with the malicious belief that Jews were committing atrocities against his fellow Muslims, and he saw it as his duty as a Muslim to do something.

Calling Haq “crazy” is comforting, but hardly congruous with known facts. Avoiding necessary questions is not the answer. Ignoring the simmering threats won’t keep them from boiling over.

 

Mr. Mowbray is an award-winning investigative journalist and nationally-syndicated columnist. He is the author of "Dangerous Diplomacy: How the State Department Threatens America's Security."

[Stoat]

Townhall.comColumnistsJoel Mowbray

Joel Mowbray, who got his start with Townhall.com, is an award-winning investigative journalist and nationally-syndicated columnist. With tenacious reporting and insightful commentary, Joel has become a leading expert on the original Axis of Evil: Iran, Iraq, and North Korea; its unindicted co-conspirator, Saudi Arabia; and the Middle East’s original democracy, Israel. He is best-known for his exposés of the State Department which led to the end of Visa Express in Saudi Arabia and the firing of the Assistant Secretary of State for Consular Affairs, Mary Ryan. More recently, he uncovered the fact that the Bureau of Prisons was allowing Islamic terrorists in federal prison to communicate with the outside world—and the agency did not have a single full-time Arabic translator to monitor the phone calls and letters of over 100 terrorists. In 2003, Joel was named “Journalist of the Year” at the Conservative Political Action Conference and won the Eugene Katz award for excellence in immigration coverage.  He was also a finalist for a National Magazine Award—that industry’s Pulitzer Prize—for outstanding investigative journalism. In addition, he is the author of “Dangerous Diplomacy: How the State Department Threatens America’s Security.” His work has been published in a wide variety of top publications, including the Wall Street Journal, L.A. Times, National Review, New York Post, San Francisco Chronicle, Atlanta Journal-Constitution, San Diego Union-Tribune, Investors Business Daily, Philadelphia Inquirer, Arizona Republic, Manchester Union Leader, FrontPage magazine, Jewish World Review, and Washington Times. Since 2002, Joel has made over 200 appearances on TV news programs, ranging from ABC’s “Good Morning America” and “World News Tonight” to Fox News’ “Hannity & Colmes” and “Fox & Friends.” He is also a regular on several nationally-syndicated talk radio programs, such as the “G. Gordon Liddy Show” and the “Jim Bohanon Show.” A graduate of the University of Illinois (with a degree in economics) and Georgetown Law School, Joel worked on Capitol Hill for former Rep. Mark Sanford (R-SC), where he primarily handled Social Security privatization. Earlier he spent two years working for Pioneer Strategies under now-ABC News reporter Heather Nauert.

[Diogenesis]

2002/1/6 USA Tampa, FL 1 0 Fifteen year-old flies plane into an office building in Tampa. Suicide note reveals his admiration for Osama Bin Laden and desire to commit a terrorist attack.
2002/10/11 USA Fredericksburg, VA 1 0 Muslim sniper kills 53-year-old man.
2002/10/14 USA Falls Church, VA 1 0 Muslim sniper kills 47-year-old woman.
2002/10/2 USA Wheaton, MD 1 0 Muslim sniper kills 55-year-old man.
2002/10/22 USA Silver Spring, MD 1 0 Muslim sniper kills 35-year-old bus driver.
2002/10/3 USA Maryland 5 0 Muslim sniper kills three men and two women in five separate attacks.
2002/10/9 USA Manassas, VA 1 0 Muslim sniper kills 53-year-old man.
2002/7/4 USA Los Angeles 2 0 Muslim gunman kills two people waiting at the El Al counter in the LAX airport.
2002/9/21 USA Montgomery, AL 1 1 Muslim sniper kills one woman and injures another.
2002/9/23 USA Baton Rouge 1 0 Muslim sniper shoots Korean mother in the back.
2003/8/6 USA Houston, TX 1 0 After undergoing a religious revival, a Saudi college student slashes the throat of a Jewish student with a 4" butterfly knife, nearly decapitating the young man.
2004/4/13 USA Raleigh 1 4 Mental health problems behind member of tight-knit Muslim community deliberately running down five strangers with a vehicle? One died.
2004/4/15 USA Scottsville, NY 1 2 Muslim kills his wife and attacks his two daughters with a knife and hammer because he feared that they had been sexually molested and wanted to restore their "honor."
2004/6/10 USA Atlanta, GA 0 4 A man riding on an Atlanta commuter train mutters Qur'anic verses then attacks an army officer for no other apparent reason. An elderly woman and two arresting officers are hurt as well.

[operation clinton cleanup]

Hiding behind potted plants, Naveed Haq laid in wait for a 14-year-old girl he could use as a hostage. With a gun in her back, he pushed his way past security and through the door.

That is one part of the story I somehow missed.

[Stoat]

Hiding behind potted plants, Naveed Haq laid in wait for a 14-year-old girl he could use as a hostage. With a gun in her back, he pushed his way past security and through the door.

That is one part of the story I somehow missed.

Yes, I don't think that it got much play.  Actually, the version that I had previously heard was that he had held the gun to her head.

Hiding behind potted plants, Naveed Haq laid in wait for a 14-year-old girl he could use as a hostage. With a gun in her back, he pushed his way past security and through the door.

That is one part of the story I somehow missed.

[yldstrk]

Another Islamofascist who likes t ohurt the innocent.

[Fido969]

It is only the evil white patriarchy that must be exposed.

[AFPhys]

Good rundown of Muslim snipers.

[sionnsar]

Thanks to Stoat for the ping.

Say WA? Evergreen State ping

FReepmail sionnsar if you want on or off this ping list.

Ping sionnsar if you see a Washington state related thread.

[4woodenboats]

Tacoma News Tribune was in spin mode with this editorial & news article running at the same time. Note their editorial adds the "American" to "Muslim American"

Editorial from 8-1:

A truly senseless act of violence in Seattle

THE NEWS TRIBUNE

Published: August 1st, 2006 01:00 AM

Last Friday, as fighting continued to rage in Lebanon, it looked very much like violence spawned in the Middle East had visited our corner of the world.

A gunman forced his way into the Jewish Federation of Greater Seattle’s office, uttering “I’m a Muslim American; I’m angry at Israel;” he randomly shot six women, killing one. He told 911 operators he was tired of “our people getting pushed around by the situation in the Middle East.”

Coming on the heels of Islamic extremists’ calls to take their fight to U.S. ground, the attack looked to the world like the work of a homegrown terrorist.

That image began to disappear as soon as details emerged about the suspect, Naveed Haq. Now, four days later, the shooting looks much less like the work of a true believer and more like a tragedy centering on a man in the grip of mental illness.

Haq, 30, reportedly has struggled with bipolar disorder since high school and had been taking several powerful medications to manage his condition. Acquaintances say he has had trouble holding down a job and making friends. There also had been previous run-ins with the law; Haq was due to appear in a Benton County court last Thursday on a lewd conduct charge. The case stemmed from allegations that he had stood on a fountain in a Kennewick mall, taunting nearby women and exposing himself.

The Thursday hearing was postponed because Haq’s attorney was tied up on another case, so Haq left his parents’ Pasco home Thursday night bound for Seattle. His mother reportedly noticed he was agitated about the court case and pleaded with him not to go, worried about his ability to cope.

How Haq’s agitation might have become focused on the Jewish community is unclear. Acquaintances say he had made a few derogatory comments about Jews in the recent past, but his animosity didn’t seem deep-seated. Haq had distanced himself from Islam, having only sporadically attended a mosque in the last decade. He even was baptized in an evangelical Christian church last December.

It doesn’t make sense that the same man would announce himself a Muslim American and then apparently kill in his faith’s name, unless something else like mental illness was at work.

Nothing diminishes the death and injury that occurred last week. Those losses are real and tragic. Maybe it’s a sad commentary on our times that it seems a relief to learn violence could have stemmed from a man’s personal demons rather than globalized hate.

Suspect led ordinary life until March

No history of bigotry found

ANDREW SIROCCHI AND ANNA KING; The Tri-City Herald

Published: July 30th, 2006 01:00 AM

KEVIN P. CASEY/THE ASSOCIATED PRESS

Naveed Afzal Haq, 30, leaves court Saturday in Seattle. Friends in the Tri-Cities say he was obsessed about Jews lately.

RICHLAND, BENTON COUNTY – It would be easier to understand Friday’s deadly shootings at the Jewish Federation of Greater Seattle if the suspect, Naveed Afzal Haq, had left a legacy of hatred and fanaticism.

It could have been simple to cast him as an angry Muslim who hates Israel, if the 30-year-old had a record of zealotry and bigotry.

But Haq, who grew up the son of a prosperous and socially oriented Muslim family in the Tri-Cities, left behind only a few clues to his mounting anger.

“I would never have imagined a kid like Naveed doing something like this,” said Mohammed Ahmed, former president of the Islamic Center of the Tri-Cities.

Ahmed watched Haq grow up in mosque, saw him learn about Islam with passion but without fervor and said he related well with others his own age. Haq’s parents, Mian and Nahida, were some of the founders of the center in 1981, and Haq grew up surrounded by their work.

Two weeks ago, Haq made his last appearance at the mosque. Ahmed said he’d gained weight, but was otherwise the same kid he’d known in the early 1990s.

“I just said hello,” Ahmed said. “I didn’t see anything abnormal.”

Lewd conduct charge

But in March, Haq – who had an apartment in Kennewick and, until recently, kept an apartment in Everett – allegedly exposed himself at the Columbia Center Mall and was charged with lewd conduct. He was scheduled to stand trial in Benton County District Court on Thursday – the day before the shootings – but the case was postponed.

Caleb Hales, who lives next door to the Haq family’s luxurious home overlooking the Columbia River and north Richland, didn’t think there was anything strange when he saw Haq a week ago, either. Looking back on his two conversations with Haq, though, Hales said there might have been red flags.

Coming back from evening runs, Hales stopped to talk with Haq, who was working in a rose garden with his parents.

Haq discussed at length his feelings that the Jewish community monopolized the media and economic system. They were statements without anger, made in a matter-of-fact tone, like a discussion over coffee.

“It seemed like he was relating everything to the economy,” Hales said. “He was talking about how Jewish people in this country – from an economic standpoint – they have a lot of investments.”

Hales also found it odd that Haq said he was staying up at all hours of the night, studying cultures and religion and trying to decipher the diversity and interconnectedness of people in the United States. Haq told him he was unemployed.

In his 1994 senior yearbook photo at Richland High School, Haq had a huge smile on his face “RHS, Peace Be Unto You,” were his parting words to classmates.

He was bound for a prestigious bio-dentistry program in Philadelphia but washed out after a few years. Haq went on to complete an engineering degree at Washington State University, then landed back in Richland.

A former high school classmate, Josh Blankenship of Kennewick, said he recently saw Haq at a restaurant. Blankenship said Haq bragged about a recent fight at a Tri-Cities nightclub. Haq told the group he was thrown out of the club after he fought over a girl.

Haq’s parents could not be reached for comment Saturday. His father is a Pakistan-born civil structural engineer at the Hanford nuclear complex.

Long interest in religions

The son’s interest in culture and world religions dates back at least to his time at Richland High, but those years also seem to confirm that Haq was no religious zealot.

In 1994, in a letter to the editor of the Tri-Cities Herald, he said he was sorry to see so many people arguing over the reintroduction of creationism into schools. As a high school senior, Haq saw a place for the story of creation in English and literature classes, but not in a science class.

“I wish the creationists would have the consideration not to impose this mythology on others,” he wrote.

[Stoat]

Thanks very much for posting....the TNT rarely fails to disappoint :-)

The Left's insistence on political correctness will be the death of us all, which is most likely their overarching intent anyway.....