my social production

axinomancy:

Right-wing terrorist crashes plane into IRS building in Texas

A man crashed a small plane Thursday morning into a seven-story office building in Austin, Tex., that houses offices of the Internal Revenue Service, the authorities said. The pilot was killed. Two people were hospitalized, and one person was still unaccounted for Thursday afternoon.

President Obama was briefed on the situation by his counterterrorism adviser, John O. Brennan, at 12:35 p.m., according to Robert Gibbs, the White House press secretary. But while the Department of Homeland Security was investigating the crash, federal officials emphasized that they did not consider the case to be a terrorist attack.

Stopping briefly for commentary: what about this isn’t a terrorist attack? The guy clearly had political objectives in mind and wanted to kill people to achieve them. So it’s terrorism when a non-American guy fails to light his crotch on fire in an airplane, but when an American crashes his plane into the side of a U.S. government building with the objective to kill, it’s somehow not terrorism?

The seven-story building, at 9430 Research Boulevard in northwest Austin, about seven miles northwest of the State Capitol, was consumed by flames after the crash. It continued to burn for hours, and by early afternoon firefighters had only been able to search the three lowest floors.

Officials said the crash was being investigated as a crime. The authorities identified the pilot as Joseph A. Stack III, 53.

A long, angry note posted on the Internet, on a web site registered to Mr. Stack and signed “Joe Stack,” appeared to have been written by the pilot, though authorities had not confirmed the connection. By midafternoon, the company that hosted the site had taken the note down, saying it was acting at the request of the F.B.I.

The note related a long history of financial difficulties and frustrations with the nation’s tax and health-care systems and with setbacks like the sharp decline of defense-related employment in Southern California in the 1990’s and the disruption of air travel after the Sept. 11 terror attacks. It ended with passages strongly suggesting that its author expected to die on Thursday, including a reference to Feb. 18, 2010, as his date of death.

“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,” the note concluded. “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.”

This was a criminal suicide attack, and he was white, so it’s not terrorism.