Dead US diplomat in Cyprus 'stabbed himself'

Breitbart ^ | July 2, 2007 | Not Stated

[b4its2late]

Sounds like a classic case of Arkancide......

[expatpat]

In the Middle Ages, when suicide was illegal in Britain, a guy tried to cut his throat, and made a mess of it. He was strung up for the offence, but they had to take him down and wrap bandaging over the large slit in his windpipe before he could be put to death.....

[Calpernia]

ping

[Abathar]

"but stabbing yourself in the neck? Seems a weird way to do it."

I agree, but *IF* it was a suicide then that means the guy was mentally messed up, and probably had planned it for a while. Just to play devil's advocate, but perhaps he chose such a different and questionable method of killing himself for that exact reason?

The fact that thousands of people will become interested in his death and debate whether he did it or not might be a motive to some people in itself. If he did do it he would certainly have time to throw the knife away, and his hands would be covered with his own blood.

There would be know way of knowing he did it other than somebody looking at the angle of the cut and saying "Yeah, he could have done that." It will be interesting to see if the Embassy releases the coroners report.

[dead]

I never saw Hari Kari

Looks like this:

[Jeff Head]

So, our defence attache killed himself by stabbing himself in the neck and bleeding out?

I do not buy it.

Such an individual would be fairly intelligent and have access to weapons. A bullet to the head is much quicker, less painful, and more sure.

Sounds more like he was taken up there and executed to me...but that's just a guess or hunch, nothing more.

[gondramB]

Wouldn’t a defense attache have a gun?

[rockabyebaby]

This is priceless.

[Brilliant]

He was probably trying to make it look like George W. Bush did it. He was, afterall, from the State Department.

[Aggie Mama]

Let’s see...He’s in a Muslim country, and the Muslim’s execution style of choice is...

[DJ MacWoW]

*snicker*

So are you buying it?

[rightwingintelligentsia]

He’s in a Muslim country

Cyprus is 85% Greek, most likely Greek Orthodox. About 12% Turkish.

[montag813]

It is exceedingly uncommon, especially outside Japan, for someone to commit suicide by cutting their own carotid artery. If fact, in a majority of such cases, the attempts fail as the person instead cut the recurrent laryngeal nerve, the nerve that goes up to the voicebox and larynx, and lose their voices instead.

[HEY4QDEMS]

after apparently stabbing himself in the neck

aaAAAlllllLLL rrrrrrrrighty then.

[DJ MacWoW]

Cyprus is 85% Greek, most likely Greek Orthodox. About 12% Turkish.

CIS Factbook-Cyprus

Greek Orthodox 78%, Muslim 18%, other (includes Maronite and Armenian Apostolic) 4%

A former British colony, Cyprus became independent in 1960 following years of resistance to British rule. Tensions between the Greek Cypriot majority and Turkish Cypriot minority came to a head in December 1963, when violence broke out in the capital of Nicosia. Despite the deployment of UN peacekeepers in 1964, sporadic intercommunal violence continued forcing most Turkish Cypriots into enclaves throughout the island. In 1974, a Greek Government-sponsored attempt to seize control of Cyprus was met by military intervention from Turkey, which soon controlled more than a third of the island. In 1983, the Turkish-held area declared itself the "Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus" (TRNC), but it is recognized only by Turkey. The latest two-year round of UN-brokered talks - between the leaders of the Greek Cypriot and Turkish Cypriot communities to reach an agreement to reunite the divided island - ended when the Greek Cypriots rejected the UN settlement plan in an April 2004 referendum. The entire island entered the EU on 1 May 2004, although the EU acquis - the body of common rights and obligations - applies only to the areas under direct government control, and is suspended in the areas administered by Turkish Cypriots. However, individual Turkish Cypriots able to document their eligibility for Republic of Cyprus citizenship legally enjoy the same rights accorded to other citizens of European Union states. Nicosia continues to oppose EU efforts to establish direct trade and economic links to north Cyprus as a way of encouraging the Turkish Cypriot community to continue to support reunification.

[Fedora]

Thanks for sharing that. My reaction is similar. I think in all the homicides I’ve researched, I’ve read of one suicide by cutting the neck—cutting, not stabbing—in a case where the individual was violently psychotic. I won’t say it never happens, but it seems at least rare.

---

“Come now, you’ve never read an actuarial table in your life, have you? Why they’ve got ten volumes on suicide alone. Suicide by race, by color, by occupation, by sex, by seasons of the year, by time of day. Suicide, how committed: by poison, by firearms, by drowning, by leaps. Suicide by poison, subdivided by TYPES of poison, such as corrosive, irritant, systemic, gaseous, narcotic, alkaloid, protein, and so forth. Suicide by leaps, subdivided by leaps from high places, under the wheels of trains, under the wheels of trucks, under the feet of horses, from STEAMBOATS. But, Mr. Norton: Of all the cases on record, there’s not one single case of suicide by leap from the rear end of a moving train. And you know how fast that train was going at the point where the body was found? Fifteen miles an hour. Now how can anybody jump off a slow-moving train like that with any kind of expectation that he would kill himself? No, no soap, Mr. Norton. We’re sunk, and we’ll have to pay through the nose, and you know it. “

—Edward G. Robinson, “Double Indemnity”

[do the dhue]

large wound to the neck

Apparently, the terrorist didn't have the time to cut the man's head off.

[Verginius Rufus]

Suicide is illegal in Cyprus, or is it illegal to describe a death as a suicide?

The news reports seem to be vague about where the death happened but it may have been in the Turkish-controlled part of the island...in which case the laws of Cyprus may not apply. In any case a diplomat would be under the laws of his own country.

If it was a suicide, it's sad. If it was a murder, it's not only sad, but alarming.

[1COUNTER-MORTER-68]

BS.

[calex59]

And his family accepted this explanation?

Nope, they didn't. However, this was in the 1960s, they lived in CA and he was killed in Washington. They raised he** and hired a lawyer to help them but nothing ever came of it. The official explanation for the absence of a firearm was that someone must have happened on the scene and stolen it after the fact. Yeah, right.