FBI Gives Mailbox Bomber Profile

AP via Newsday ^ | May 4, 2002 | Carol Ann Riha

[satire]

The letter sounds a bit like the philosophy of Ernest Becker in his book "The Denial of Death."

[Texasforever]

It sure as heck does. That is a very interesting website.

[countrydummy]

The "profile" provided to me sounds like and Earth Liberation Front (ELF) kind of person! They even have on their website how to build pipebombs! Plus these are happening in rural areas,many of these types of folks were present at and tried to cause a riot and had made threats of using pipe bombs at the April 20th, 20002 Patriots for America Rally held by the DC Chapter of Free Republic! I know, I was "forced" to meet these "types" while I was there!

[self_evident]

That the bombs were planted overnight indicates they likely were not targeted at rural residents but rather at the mail carriers, Van Zandt said.

Or maybe (just maybe) the perp didn't want to get caught putting bombs into mailboxes.

Someone paid this guy?

[John Jamieson]

Basically, I agree/support you!

[Rustynailww]

"FBI Gives Mailbox Bomber Profile".......white male age 40 to 55 conservative.

[CDHart]

And they wonder why e-mail is getting so popular!

Carolyn

[csvset]

As I remember the brother of the Unabomber turned him (in)

Correct.

[Howie]

First mistake I ever made!

[csvset]

Lol, Actually, I was confirming that you were correct. I'm not the grammer police. I happened to see a program about the Unibomber just the other day, if it weren't for his brother's tipping off the FBI, Ted probably would still be active.

[DeaconRed]

"We need stronger pipe bomb laws."

Yes,
Maybe even a total BAN

[varon]

This is my own version of the mailbox bomber profile,.....

Sounds like a Freeper to me ;-)

[gracex7]

"It's his believe we wouldn't go to the mailbox until the mailman got there," he said. "You know if he comes at noon every day, so there's no use in going out at 8 a.m. His target is either the post office itself or mail carriers as representatives of the government."

People who have rural route boxes also use them for out-going mail. If I'm on my way to work or school and have something to mail out, I stop at the box, put it in and raise the flag so the carrier knows that there's mail to pick up even if he/she doesn't have any to deliver to me. As a postal employee, I don't get the feeling this is targeted at the P.O. at all, just a very easy way to get national attention and scare alot of people. Thank the LORD that no one has been critically wounded thus far.

[mommadooo3]

Where else have I heard this name? ..........................One of the Van Zandt brothers, extremely disowned by those of Lynnyrd Skynnrd. (sp)

[ASA Vet]

As a postal employee, I don't get the feeling this is targeted at the P.O. at all,
just a very easy way to get national attention and scare alot of people

I agree, and also being a USPS employee I suspect our employer
will react the same as they did after 9-11, and the antrax thing.
Supervisors we've known for over 20 years will ask us by name if we have our ID card,
and insist on our wearing of it.
Magical things those ID cards, they'll stop bullets, antrax, aircraft, etc, if we'd just always wear them.
We've also made sure that the "UnArmed victim area" signs have been placed in our lobbies.
I certainly feel safer knowing that any terrorists planning on shooting up the PO,
will, because of those signs, have to leave their weapons at home.

[VA Advogado]

"Attention people ..." the note says. "If the government controls what you want to do, they control what you can do."

Sounds like a line from one of the libertarians here. :)

[Rifleman]

Van Zandt is an professional apoligist for the FBI. I remember a puff piece that he wrote for the (I think) Washington Compost lauding the agency to the skys and bragging about id'ing the Unabomber (who was turned in by his brother) and catching Tim McVeigh (who was caught by a OK State Trooper). Everything that he emits is agit-prop and is only vaguely related to the truth.

[Howie]

When I was a kid, the FBI had a reputation right up there with the Lone Ranger and Tonto, Royal Canadian Mounties, Texas Rangers,all those crook-catchers....

[jz638]

I think the writing style is indicative of a college age kid more than an adult. Other than the age, I agree with wimpycat's profile, adding that the philosophical disagreements would extend into the classroom and with professors, on a level that is at best awkward and more likely disturbing.

I'm guessing that the bomb plans were taken off of the internet, possibly from the Anarchist's cookbook or some similar generic terrorism site, not that it would help in the investigation.

I think the freepers on this site are on to something with their google investigations. The message doesn't strike me as the first attempt for this fellow to get the public's attention, and somewhere in this great gas of ones and zeros that we call the internet is probably another submission by the bomber.

I hope this nutcase is as easy to catch as I think he will be.

[Fabozz]

"Looking at the timing of the bombings, he said, 'we're drawn to April 15th. [as opposed to the much more recent Communist holiday May Day] This is someone who may well have some tax protest issues. [and chose to protest taxes by railing against "1% controlling 99% of the wealth"] '... 'I would suggest it's... people who have known each other for a long time or shared distrust of the government, tax issues, health issues, land use, grazing rights...'"

So I have a question about goverment efficiency: Does the FBI have a rubber stamp saying "right-wing extremist," or do we pay someone to write it out by hand over and over again?