The nerd's jihad against IRS

[Clarke]

AUSTIN, Texas – A software engineer furious with the Internal Revenue Service :hysterical: launched a suicide attack on the agency Thursday by crashing his small plane into an office building containing nearly 200 IRS employees, setting off a raging fire that sent workers fleeing for their lives. At least one person in the building was missing. A federal law official identified the pilot as Joseph Stack and said investigators were looking at a long anti-government screed and farewell note that he apparently posted on the Web earlier in the day as an explanation for what he was about to do. In it, the author cited run-ins with the IRS and ranted about the tax agency, government bailouts and corporate America's "thugs and plunderers." "I have had all I can stand," he wrote in the note, dated Thursday, adding: "I choose not to keep looking over my shoulder at `big brother' while he strips my carcass." Stack, 53, also apparently set fire to his house about six miles from the crash site before embarking on the suicide flight, said two law enforcement officials, who like other authorities spoke on condition of anonymity because the investigation was still going on. The pilot took off in a single-engine Piper Cherokee from an airport in Georgetown, about 30 miles from Austin, without filing a flight plan. He flew low over the Austin skyline before plowing into the side the hulking, seven-story, black-glass building just before 10 a.m. with a thunderous explosion that instantly stirred memories of Sept. 11. Flames shot from the building, windows exploded, a huge pillar of black smoke rose over the city and terrified workers scrambled to safety. The Pentagon scrambled two F-16 fighter jets from Houston to patrol the skies over the burning building before it became clear that it was the act of a lone pilot, and President Barack Obama was briefed on the crash. "It felt like a bomb blew off," said Peggy Walker, an IRS revenue officer who was sitting at her desk. "The ceiling caved in and windows blew in. We got up and ran." Stack was presumed dead. At least one person who worked in the building was unaccounted for and two people were hospitalized, fire officials said. About 190 IRS employees work in the building. Gerry Cullen was eating breakfast at a restaurant across the street when the plane struck the building and "vanished in a fireball." Matt Farney, who was in the parking lot of a nearby Home Depot, said he saw a low-flying plane near some apartments and the office building just before it crashed. "I figured he was going to buzz the apartments or he was showing off," Farney said. "It was insane. It didn't look like he was out of control or anything." Sitting at her desk in another building a half-mile from the crash, Michelle Santibanez said she felt vibrations from the crash. She and her co-workers ran to the windows, where they witnessed a scene that reminded them of 9/11, she said. "It was the same kind of scenario, with window panels falling out and desks falling out and paperwork flying," said Santibanez, an accountant. The building, situated in a heavily congested section of Austin, was still smoldering six hours after the crash, with much of the damage on the second and third floors. The entire outside of the second floor was gone on the side of the building where the plane hit. Support beams were bent inward. Venetian blinds dangled from blown-out windows, and large sections of the exterior were blackened with soot. Andrew Jacobson, an IRS revenue officer who was on the second floor when the plane hit with a "big whoomp" and then a second explosion, said about six people couldn't use the stairwell because of smoke and debris. He found a metal bar to break a window so the group could crawl out onto a concrete ledge, where they were rescued by firefighters. His bloody hands were bandaged. The FBI was investigating. The National Transportation Safety Board sent an investigator as well. In the long, rambling, self-described "rant" that Stack apparently posted on the Internet, he began: "If you're reading this, you're no doubt asking yourself, `Why did this have to happen?'" He detailed his financial reverses, his difficulty finding work in Austin, and at least two clashes with the IRS, one of them after he filed no return because, he said, he had no income, the other after he failed to report his wife Sheryl's income. He railed against politicians, the Catholic Church, the "unthinkable atrocities" committed by big business, and the government bailouts that followed. He said he slowly came to the conclusion that "violence not only is the answer, it is the only answer." "I saw it written once that the definition of insanity is repeating the same process over and over and expecting the outcome to suddenly be different. I am finally ready to stop this insanity. Well, Mr. Big Brother IRS man, let's try something different; take my pound of flesh and sleep well," he wrote. According to California state records, Stack had a troubled business history, twice starting software companies in California that ultimately were suspended by the state's tax board, one of them in the late 1980s, the other in 2001. The blaze at Stack's home, a red-brick house on a tree-lined street in a middle-class neighborhood, caved in the roof and blew out the windows. Elbert Hutchins, who lives one house away, said the house caught fire about 9:15 a.m. He said a woman and her teenage daughter drove up to the house before firefighters arrived. "They both were very, very distraught," said Hutchins, a retiree who said he didn't know the family well. "'That's our house!' they cried. `That's our house!'" Red Cross spokeswoman Marty McKellips said the agency was treating two people who live in the house. ---------------------- He's written a note (a big one) which can be accessed below, might just read it at home. http://i2.cdn.turner.com/cnn/2010/images/02/18/stack.letter.pdf

[kabira]

papers were flying so does that mean, one of you guys will not get refund.

[Texy]

mofo backed up traffic for HOURS!!! I was coming down the 183 the nearest hwy to the building and I could see smoke coming out...the building looked intact though...his 6 page manifesto definitely grabbed attention apparently he burnt his own house too Austin, tx finally made it to the front page of CNN..thanks to Mr. Stack

[lonestarranger]

papers were flying so does that mean' date=' one of you guys will not get refund.[/quote'] Or get excess in refunds money

[Ram]

Out b4 Fox news digs out a fictitious Islamic connection to blame Obama for being soft on the War on Terror. ('Joeseph Stack regularly at the McDonalds opposite local Islamic association at Austin'..)

[achilles]

This is shocking.

[DomainK]

[Brainfade]

Out b4 Fox news digs out a fictitious Islamic connection to blame Obama for being soft on the War on Terror. ('Joeseph Stack regularly at the McDonalds opposite local Islamic association at Austin'..)

8 times out of 10, they'd be right about the Islamic connection.

[punjabi_khota]

9.9/10 is more like it.

[Ram]

8 times out of 10' date=' they'd be right about the Islamic connection.[/quote']

9.9/10 is more like it.

Lets see, during the 2008 campaign, they said Obama was a raised a Muslim in his childhood, which turned out to be false. Then they said he attended a Madrasaa in Indonesia, which also turned out to be false. And more recently, they tried their best to portray the shooting spree of Major Nidal Hasan Malik as 'act of terror', when it was a clear case of a disgruntled individual acting on his own. Thats just 3 instances I can recall off the top of my head, where they fabricated an Islamic connection, when there was none.

[punjabi_khota]

Lets see' date=' during the 2008 campaign, they said Obama was a raised a Muslim in his childhood, which turned out to be false. Then they said he attended a Madrasaa in Indonesia, which also turned out to be false.[b'] And more recently, they tried their best to portray the shooting spree of Major Nidal Hasan Malik as 'act of terror', when it was a clear case of a disgruntled individual acting on his own. Thats just 3 instances I can recall off the top of my head, where they fabricated an Islamic connection, when there was none.

are you saying there is no islamic connection in that shooting ? :hysterical::hysterical: This was a islamic nutjob, who was clearly distrubed because his "brothers" in middle east were being butchered by american military. He was super religious, was in constant contact with the mullah(awlaki) at virginia mosque who is now hiding in Yemen (and who has radical anti-american videos uploaded on the net), and spoke against the military a lot of times. He did exactly what the terrorists did, just because he was acting alone doesn't mean there is no islamic connection.

[Texy]

Lets see' date=' during the 2008 campaign, they said Obama was a raised a Muslim in his childhood, which turned out to be false. Then they said he attended a Madrasaa in Indonesia, which also turned out to be false. [b']And more recently, they tried their best to portray the shooting spree of Major Nidal Hasan Malik as 'act of terror', when it was a clear case of a disgruntled individual acting on his own. Thats just 3 instances I can recall off the top of my head, where they fabricated an Islamic connection, when there was none.

so according to you Kasab is disgruntled individual too then...with no connection to Islam what so ever.

[Ram]

are you saying there is no islamic connection in that shooting ? :hysterical::hysterical: This was a islamic nutjob, who was clearly distrubed because his "brothers" in middle east were being butchered by american military. He was super religious, was in constant contact with the mullah(awlaki) at virginia mosque who is now hiding in Yemen (and who has radical anti-american videos uploaded on the net), and spoke against the military a lot of times. He did exactly what the terrorists did, just because he was acting alone doesn't mean there is no islamic connection.

so according to you Kasab is disgruntled individual too then...with no connection to Islam what so ever.

I think I should have explained myself better. When the Malik Hasan shooting happened, Fox News did not lose a second in calling it a 'An act of terror' and lambasted the other news organizations for not using the same label. They chose to do that, even though they very well knew the massive historical baggage the term 'act of terror' carries with itself. It made it sound as though it was another pre-planned attack by Islamic loonies on the American homeland, which clearly wasnt the case. Disillusionment against America's policies may have been one big causes of Hasan's actions, but it was just an individual acting alone, not a group of people plotting together. If you think there's nothing to distinguish b/w the two, then you're quite clearly missing the point. I'd wait to see if Fox news calls the recent plane wreck incident in Austin as 'an act of terror' too. After all, this was an individual too, motivated by a different ideology, trying to cause havoc.

[punjabi_khota]

^ I know what you mean, but there is NO denying this was another act of islamic violence against US. Everything points to that fact, and it is SHEER PC-NESS to NOT bring up the islamic connection.

[Brainfade]

Lets see, during the 2008 campaign, they said Obama was a raised a Muslim in his childhood, which turned out to be false. Then they said he attended a Madrasaa in Indonesia, which also turned out to be false. And more recently, they tried their best to portray the shooting spree of Major Nidal Hasan Malik as 'act of terror', when it was a clear case of a disgruntled individual acting on his own. Thats just 3 instances I can recall off the top of my head, where they fabricated an Islamic connection, when there was none.

Difference in perspective: Mine: 8 out of 10 times that a pilot rams a plane deliberately into a building, there's an Islamic connection. Yours: 3 times out of 3 that Fox invoked an Islamic connection, they have been wrong.