The title overstates the case, but this story of the red-tape cutting, round-the clock efforts to field a bunker busting bomb during the Gulf War is fascinating stuff.
(Today has been a bear for a variety of uninteresting reasons, so no LinkSwarm today. Hopefully tomorrow…)
So ends his reign of terror: The Austin bomber blew himself up real good:
The 24-year-old suspect accused of setting off a string of violent devices in the Austin-area is dead after detonating a device and killing himself, Austin police has confirmed. Austin police are warning the public that there may be other devices out there and to remain vigilant.
The Austin Police Chief Brian Manley said the suspect, identified as a 24-year-old white man, was identified by police in the past 24 hours as a person of interest. The man then became a suspect.
Authorities said they used surveillance video from the FedEx store on Brodie Lane in South Austin to lead them to the suspect, according to KVUE’s Tony Plohetski. Authorities also got information from Google and from the suspect’s computer history that confirmed the suspect was looking at information on where to go to ship devices, according to Plohetski’s sources.
WFAA’s Jason Whitely said law enforcement had identified the suspect at approximately 9 p.m. Tuesday and were closing in on him based on packages he sent from FedEx. Whitely added that police wanted to surprise the man.
Authorities located the vehicle the suspect was known to be driving, and found it at a hotel in Round Rock, Manley said.
Multiple officers from the Austin Police Department and federal agencies took positions around the hotel as they awaited the arrival of tactical teams, Manley said.
The vehicle started to drive away, and authorities followed the suspect. Manley said the suspect’s vehicle stopped in a ditch on the side of the road. As a SWAT team approached the vehicle, the suspect detonated a device, Manley said. The explosion knocked an officer back, causing the officer to suffer minor injuries. Another officer who Manley said has been with the department for 11 years then fired at the vehicle. That officer has been placed on administrative duty, per standard procedure.
The suspect was then confirmed dead. Manley said they are not naming the suspect until next of kin has been notified. KVUE’s Plohetski reports that the suspect is from Central Texas.
Police do not have a motive yet and do not know if the suspect was planning on delivering another bomb at the time of his death.
Manley said at a press conference shortly after the suspect’s death that “it’s been a long almost three weeks,” and this is the culmination of the hard work of multiple agencies.
Chief Manley said they “don’t know where the suspect has been the past 24 hours,” and that there may be other devices out there. The public must remain vigilant and call 911 if they see anything suspicious.
(Hat tip: Ted Cruz’s Facebook feed.)
More details as they occur and when I have time, including some details from the events of yesterday.)
Update: Police have identified the no-deceased Austin bomber as Mark Conditt, 23, of Pflugerville. Not seeing any mention of any radical political or religious affiliation.
Developing…
Update 2: Was he posting to Reddit?
Mark Anthony Conditt was posting on Reddit under #AustinBombing
Screenshots believe. When I read these on Reddit, my antennas were raised big time. pic.twitter.com/qykZlJnvwH
— đź’™ Koko đź’™ (@Kokomothegreat) March 21, 2018
Sounds like an asshole who just wanted to blow things up…
I should have posted about the Austin Mad Bomber story earlier, but I have no more of a clue who’s behind it than anyone else.
A fourth bomb has exploded, injuring two men. As opposed to previous bombings, this one was in southwest Austin, rather than east Austin, and the two victims were white and Hispanic rather than black (the profile of the previous victims).
Wikipedia has an article and a map of the bombings:
If you have any tips on catching the bomber, the reward is now up to $115,000:
Call the Austin Police Department TIPS line at 512-472-TIPS (8477) Call the Texas Crime Stoppers hotline at 1-800-252-TIPS (8477) Text the letters “DPS”- followed by your tip – to 274637 (CRIMES)
Here’s a story that seems to have largely flown below the media’s radar: eight parcel bombs intercepted in Greece:
ATHENS — Greek counterterrorism officers have uncovered eight parcel bombs resembling those sent last week to the German finance minister in Berlin and to the Paris offices of the International Monetary Fund, a police official said on Tuesday.
The devices were discovered on Monday during a search of the Hellenic Post’s main sorting office, north of Athens, according to a police spokesman, Theodoros Chronopoulos. “The packages were destined for European countries,” he said, calling them “similar” to the ones sent to the German finance minister, Wolfgang Schäuble, and to the I.M.F.’s offices.
According to reports in the Greek news media, which Mr. Chronopoulos did not confirm, the packages intercepted at the Athens sorting office were addressed to European Union officials and to multinational companies. The targets reportedly included the leader of the eurozone group of finance ministers, Jeroen Dijsselbloem, who coordinates meetings on Greek bailout talks, and an unidentified official of the European Central Bank, one of Greece’s three main international creditors.
The Paris bomb injured a worker, but none of the bombs have caused fatalities.
As tempting as it is to pin any bombing jihadists, the targets suggest this was a bombing campaign carried out by the radical Greek left in advance of the Greek debt farce playing out again this summer. “A fresh crisis over Greek debt could be triggered as soon as in July when Greece is due to repay some 7bn euros to its creditors – money the country cannot pay without a fresh injection of bailout cash.”
I would say “stay tuned,” but I think we all know exactly how the current round of the farce will play out this summer…
It seems that the entire Los Angeles School District is closed today due to a bomb threat.
If it’s that easy to close down the country’s second largest school district, what’s to prevent Islamic State sympathizers from getting the district shut down every day?
Remember Plano pipeline bomber Anson Chi? Having already plead guilty (twice) for the attempted bombing, Chi, acting as his own attorney during the penalty phase of the trial, now claims his confession was tortured out of him.
Given the overwhelming amount of circumstantial evidence against him (like the fact he managed to do more damage to himself than the pipeline), I think that idea is exceptionally unlikely. I suspect that the gulf between Chi’s self assessment of his legal skills and his actual skills are as vast as those between his conception of himself as an eco-avenging terrorist and his actual skills therefore…
I assume you’ve heard about the atrocity de jour. A few random points
And here’s footage of the bombing itself, just so this seems more like a real post:
“Louisiana State University’s main campus is being evacuated following a bomb threat.”
Last week was UT, North Dakota State, and Hiram college.
Islamists? Copycats? Pranksters? Who knows?
Until they actually set off a bomb, or pull this sort of thing during the Alabama game on November 3, these bomb threats are all turban and no boom.
The University of Texas has evacuated campus due to a possibly Jihad-related bomb threat.
At 8:35 a.m. the university received a call from a male with a middle eastern accent claiming to have placed bombs all over campus. He said he was with Al Qaeda and these bombs would go off in 90 minutes.
Well, it’s two hours later and no boom. There’s a 99% chance this is an empty threat, since it’s always easier to pick up a phone than to actually make a bomb, as severald dead members of the weather underground can attest.
A similar threat was made at North Dakota State at Fargo.
Updated to add: bomb threat also made at Valparaiso University. UT still still under evacuation warning.
Updated to add 2: UT classes cancelled today and all events cancelled until 5 PM. Buildings can be re-entered as of noon.
Updated to add 3: Add Hiram College in Ohio to list of schools receiving bomb threats. Pretty obscure for Jihadests. Maybe just copycats.
According to this DSM story. The other material in that story should be familiar If you’ve been reading this blog.
On reason I’ve kept on this story is that once I uncovered the Ron Paul connection, it was obvious the MSM would run with Chi as a “Right Wing Extremist.” Which is already happening in the comments for various stories. But, as I showed, it’s not that simple. Chi is also on record as supporting organic food and opposing religion, corporations and genetically modified food, all of which are hardly typical Ron Paul positions. I wanted to get the facts out there before the MSM clouded the issue.