Jared Loughner Found Not Competent To Stand Trial In Assassination Attempt on Rep. Giffords

Jared Lee Loughner, who attempted to murder Rep. Gabrielle Giffords at a Tucson, Arizona political rally, but succeeded in murdering a federal judge and five others while injuring several others, was found to be not competent to stand trial:

Mental health experts have concluded that Jared Loughner - the man accused of fatally shooting six people in January and gravely wounding Rep. Gabrielle Giffords - is not competent to stand trial, CBS News reported Wednesday.

Loughner, 22, faces a competency hearing Wednesday before U.S. District Court Judge Larry Burns in Tucson. Burns must rule on whether Loughner is capable of understanding the charges against him and assisting in his defense.

CBS said it spoke with Justice Department sources who said Loughner "will almost certainly be declared mentally unfit for trial." The issue of Loughner's competence to stand trial is separate, as a legal matter, from any effort he and his defense attorneys may make to argue that he was insane at the time of the Jan. 8 shooting in a Safeway supermarket parking lot.

In court filings last week, prosecutors and defense attorneys said they did not plan to dispute the findings of a Bureau of Prisons psychologist and an independent psychiatrist who examined Loughner, who has been in custody since the shooting. The court papers suggested that the mental health experts agreed with each other about Loughner's mental state, but the documents did not specify their conclusion.

A Justice Department spokeswoman declined Thursday to comment on Loughner's competence.

As the report notes, the competence to stand trial is separate from any defense team arguments that he was insane at the time of the January 8 shooting. It has to do with whether Loughner is capable of understanding the charges against him and assisting in his defense.

Loughner faces 49 felony counts in connection with the January shooting spree, which wounded Giffords (D-AZ), and killed U.S. District Court Judge John Roll, Giffords aide Gabriel Zimmerman and four others.

The Downward Spiral Continues

This is a woman in need of serious medical attention. Britney Spears is a mess, physically, emotionally, and medically. In the latest incident, she was taken to a hospital by ambulance for yet another medical evaluation hold. That's her second one in about two weeks.

A Los Angeles police officer, who spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to speak on the matter, said the 26-year-old pop star was being taken to "get help" but did not give the ambulance's destination. The Los Angeles Times, citing unidentified authorities, said Spears was taken to UCLA Medical Center to be placed on a "mental evaluation hold." Center spokesman Mark Wheeler declined to comment to The Associated Press, citing privacy laws.

Spears' police escort included motorcycles, two cruisers, and two helicopters.

On Jan. 3, police were called to her home when she refused to return her two young sons, Sean Preston, 2, and Jayden James, 1, to ex-husband Kevin Federline, who has custody.

Officers had paramedics haul Spears to a hospital for undisclosed reasons. She was released after a day and a half in Cedars-Sinai Medical Center.

Police also went to the home Monday night after someone reported a swarm of paparazzi trespassing in the singer's gated community. When officers arrived, they didn't see anyone trespassing, police said, but citations were issued for several illegally parked cars.

Her bizarre antics have cost her custody of her two children. Kevin Federline, himself no paragon of virtue, comes off looking like a saint in comparison to Spears. What is in the best interests of the children? To be with someone who isn't a threat to the children or themselves, and right now, it appears that Spears isn't that person. Perhaps if she receives serious and ongoing medical treatment, she may one day regain custody of her children, but until that time, I don't see it happening.

It's tragic; most of all for her two children.

Padded Room Time For Britney?

The sad spectacle that is the life of Britney Spears took yet another turn yesterday, as police were called to the family compound after Spears refused to let ex-husband Kevin Federline have custody of their two children as per their custody deal.

On top of that, she was taken from the scene on a stretcher after the three hour ordeal. TMZ reported that she was taken to the hospital for a medical hold - to evaluate her mental condition.

MSNBC has more, including the following:

Spears is on an involuntary psychiatric hold, also known as a section 5150 hold.

According to the Los Angeles County Department of Mental Health, a 5150 is defined as, “a means by which someone who is in serious need of mental health treatment can be transported to a designated psychiatric inpatient facility for evaluation and treatment for up to 72 hours against their will. If the facility feels that further treatment is indicated, the person can be held involuntarily for additional lengths of time providing he or she meets the legal criteria and is unwilling or unable to remain voluntarily.”

Spears odd behavior goes back several years now, and it is no laughing matter as she may be a threat to herself and her children.

Sad.

No Links Between Cho and Victims

Investigators have pored through Cho's computers and phone records and have found no links between him and his 32 victims. This means that it is increasingly likely that no one will ever entirely know why Cho went on one of the worst spree killings on a school campus in US history.

Flaherty said investigators also have been unable to answer one of the investigation’s most vexing questions: Why the spree began at the West Ambler Johnston dorm, and why 18-year-old freshman Emily Hilscher was the first victim.
He said police have searched Hilscher’s e-mails and phone records, but come up empty. Hilscher’s mother said she had not been updated on the investigation Friday night and declined to comment.
“We can’t make a link at this point,” Flaherty said. “We haven’t found anything to link Mr. Cho and Ms. Hilscher.”

So, was Hilscher simply a target of opportunity and in the wrong place at the wrong time? Possibly, though it doesn't make sense why Cho would first kill two people in Johnston Hall and then not only amble back to his dorm room to send off the package to NBC News and then return to campus to renew his murderous rampage in Norris Hall.

And the issue of whether Cho could have been stopped at any point or that campus officials could have done more will be raised in any lawsuits from victims' families, which are apparently inevitable.

UPDATE:
Cho apparently had sufficient ammo to continue his murderous rampage but committed suicide nonetheless before law enforcement could possibly take him alive. Meanwhile, Confederate Yankee points out that there are some folks who want to put Cho on the same level as those he murdered. One such person is a Virginia Tech psychology student who thinks that someone who murdered 32 people in cold blood should be remembered in the same breath as the murderer himself.

A senior Virginia Tech psychology major has identified herself in a letter to the editor in the Collegiate Times as the person who's been placing a stone at the memorial for Seung-Hui Cho.

The writer, Katelynn L. Johnson, wrote in the lengthy letter that she placed the stone at the memorial at 4 a.m. last Thursday morning in the dark to avoid drawing attention.

"I refuse to do what is popular and agree with everyone around me that only 32 people died on Monday. 33 died."She said in the letter that she intends to continue adding a stone whenever it is removed, as was the case earlier this week.

33 people died. However, 32 were murdered and the 1 other person, Cho, was responsible for that slaughter before killing himself. Conflating the numbers doesn't do any justice to those who Cho killed. The important thing to keep in mind is that these people didn't simply die - Cho brutally and methodically murdered them. Johnson just doesn't get it.

Into the Mind of a Killer

What was Cho Seung-Hui Cho thinking in the days and weeks leading up to the massacre at Virginia Tech? That's the big question that investigators are trying to figure out.

Was he taking a page out of the demented playbook of other mass killers like the Columbine school massacre duo?

He was definitely training for something major in the days and weeks before the massacre as he went to a rifle range to train.

Cho honed his deadly skills during at least two visits to an outdoor public firing range in the Jefferson National Forest, a short drive from the university campus, and a separate session in Roanoke, Va., in mid-March.

"When I saw him up here, he was kind of mediocre," said Randy Elmore, 54, of Pembroke, Va., who regularly visits the range.

"He wasn't that great of a gunman."

Once he wore camouflage, Elmore recalled. He would occupy shooting stalls at the edges, in either the first or 10th of the 10 booths. He never brought a target and mostly shot aimlessly at an open range, Elmore said.

Karan Grewal, 21, a Cho suitemate, told The Post the troubled gunman started working out in February - making daily visits to the university gym to pump iron.

"Even when I didn't go, I saw him getting ready to go to the gym," Grewal said.

But the loner never used free weights, since he had no one to "spot" him. "I didn't see him bench-press, ever," Grewal said.

At around the same time his workout regimen began, Cho began stockpiling guns and ammo.

On Feb. 2, he ordered a Walther P22 pistol from a Green Bay, Wis.-based Web site, thegunsource.com, paying $267 with a credit card. The gun arrived six days later at JND Pawnbrokers, across the street from the university. Cho picked up the weapon on Feb. 9.

Around March 12, Cho bought a Glock 9mm from Roanoke Firearms.

Investigators also believe Cho used eBay to buy ammunition for his slaughter.

The eBay account for Blazers5505, which has been linked to Cho, bought two 10-round magazines for the Walther P22 - one of the weapons used in the massacre. The clips were bought from a gun shop in Idaho.

Once again, we see that there is no mention of extended ammo magazines. The question still remains how Cho's mental health status was not entered into the FBI database that would have flagged him as being ineligible to purchase firearms.

More details have also come out about his family life, and the continue to reinforce the impression that he was a loner and very quiet in most aspects of his life.

In Seoul, there was never much money, never enough time. The Cho family occupied a shabby two-room basement apartment, living frugally on the slender proceeds of a used-book shop. According to relatives, the father, Seung-Tae Cho, had worked in oil fields and on construction sites in Saudi Arabia. In an arranged marriage, he wed Kim Hwang-Im, the daughter of a farming family that had fled North Korea during the Korean War.

Their son was well behaved, all right, but his pronounced bashfulness deeply worried his parents. Relatives thought he might be a mute. Or mentally ill. “The kid didn’t say much and didn’t mix with other children,” his uncle said. “ ‘Yes sir’ was about all you could get from him.”

In 1984, relatives who had moved to the United States invited the family to join them. It took eight years to get a visa. In 1992, they arrived in Detroit and then moved on to Centreville, Va., home to a bustling Korean community on the fringe of Washington. They found jobs in the dry-cleaning business and worked the longest of hours. Dry cleaning is a favored profession among Koreans — some 1,800 of the 2,000 dry cleaners in the greater Washington area are run by Koreans — because it means Sundays off for church and sparse need for proficient English, exchanges with customers being brief and redundant.

The goal, of course, was to own one’s own business. But it did not happen for Seung-Tae Cho. He began as a presser — an 8 a.m.-to-10 p.m. job — and that is what he is today. His wife worked in the same capacity until a few years ago, when she accepted a job in a high school cafeteria so the family could have medical insurance.

They lived in a nondescript row house in a modest section of town, friendly but not overly sociable. Jeff Ahn, president of the League of Korean-Americans of Virginia, said the family was uncommonly private among the throbbing Korean-American community of about 200,000 in and around Washington. They shunned the more prominent Korean-language Christian churches, and prayed at a small church outside of town.

High school did not help Seung-Hui Cho surmount his miseries. He went to Westfield High School, one of the largest schools in Fairfax County. He was scrawny and looked younger than his age. He was unresponsive in class, and unwilling to speak.

And that haunted face.

Classmates recall some teasing and bullying over his taciturn nature. The few times he was required to speak for a class assignment, students mocked his poor English and deep-throated voice.

Virginia Tech Massacre: Burying the Dead Amid Questions

The families of those murdered by Cho Seung-Hui are in the process of burying the dead. Professor Liviu Librescu was buried earlier today in his adopted homeland of Israel. He gave his life to give his students extra time to escape a classroom in Norris Hall through the windows.

Engineering Professor Liviu Librescu's body was wrapped in a prayer shawl according to Jewish tradition, and his two sons intoned the Kaddish, the Hebrew prayer for the dead.

A representative of the Romanian government posthumously awarded the Romanian-born Librescu the country's highest medal for his scientific accomplishments and heroism. Romanian officials laid a wreath at the grave.

"I walked through the streets today with my head held high because I have such a father," his elder son, Joe, said.

Librescu, a 76-year-old aeronautics engineer and lecturer at the school for 20 years, died trying to barricade the door of his Virginia Tech classroom to keep the gunman, Cho Seung-Hui, away from his students.

"It's so painful for me to think of your last moments, in which you suffered. I'll never know what went through your mind, but I hope very much that wherever you are, you will watch over your family," Librescu's weeping wife, Marlena, said.

Librescu's family said his last moments were recounted in numerous e-mails from students after the attack.

"My father blocked the doorway with his body and asked the students to flee," Joe Librescu told The Associated Press after the massacre. "Students started opening windows and jumping out."

As the students jumped, Librescu was shot dead, one of the 32 victims in the worst shooting rampage in modern U.S. history.

A child in Nazi-allied Romania during World War II, Librescu was deported along with his family to a labor camp in Transnistria and then to a central ghetto in the city of Focsani, his son said. According to a report compiled by the Romanian government in 2004, between 280,000 and 380,000 Jews were killed by the Romanian regime during the war.

My earlier comments on Professor Librescu are here.

Virginia's Governor has called for a moment of silence to honor and memorialize the dead.

I've seen several reports today claiming that Cho suffered from autism, but his problems appeared to go much deeper than that.

VIRGINIA Tech gunman Cho Seung-hui was diagnosed with autism after the family emigrated to the United States, a relative in South Korea said.
"From the beginning, he wouldn't answer me," Kim Yang-soon, Cho's great aunt, said in an interview yesterday with Associated Press Television News. He "didn't talk. Normally sons and mothers talk. There was none of that for them. He was very cold."

"When they went to the United States, they told them it was autism," said Kim, 85, adding that the family had constant worries about Cho.

The uncle gave a similar account, but said there were no early indications that the South Korean student who killed 32 people and himself at Virginia Tech University in the US had serious problems. The uncle asked to be identified only by his last name, Kim.

Cho "didn't talk much when he was young. He was very quiet, but he didn't display any peculiarities to suggest he may have problems," Kim said by telephone.

Autism support groups are speaking out over the possibility that Cho suffered from autism. Even more bizarre is the reaction from some of Cho's relatives.

This was a deeply disturbed guy and his mental illness didn't make things any easier - especially as far as treatment was concerned. Yet, he was sufficiently capable of being admitted to a prestigeous university like Virginia Tech. If he was indeed autistic, it could have been a mild form such as Aspergers. Without having access to the medical records of those who treated him, it's impossible to say what was going on. Consider the symptoms of Aspergers:

• Narrow interests or preoccupation with a subject to the exclusion of other activities
• Repetitive behaviors or rituals
• Peculiarities in speech and language
• Extensive logical/technical patterns of thought
• Socially and emotionally inappropriate behavior and interpersonal interaction
• Problems with nonverbal communication
• Clumsy and uncoordinated motor movements

Does this mean that autism or Aspergers played a role? That's for the clinicians and forensic pathologists and forensic psychologists to figure out. I doubt we'll ever know precisely what was going on in Cho's head before he went on his rampage.

The Washington Post attempts to clarify the timeline of events.

Virginia Tech classes are set to resume Monday. It will be a good long time before people on the campus are able to get back to something approaching normalcy.

WDBJ7 has profiles of all the victims.

Meanwhile, did Cho actually use high capacity clips? Confederate Yankee has been sparring with ABC News over that point, and while some news reports claim that Cho only used the standard magazines available to the two handguns, one report claims that a high capacity magazine was also recovered. ABC News went with the notion that high capacity clips were involved even before the dust had settled and before evidence was even gathered from the crime scene. Now, we have conflicting reports on the matter. It remains to be seen whether the high capacity clips were involved. Either way this resolves, the reporting of this aspect has been quite poor.

Meanwhile, the NRA is attempting to get out in front of this issue by calling for stricter restrictions on the sale of firearms to those with mental disorders. It also appears that the state of Virginia may have been lax in providing mental health information to the database relied upon by firearms sellers to approve the sales. Newsweek claims that Cho should have failed the background check as a result.

UPDATE:
Howard Kurtz notes the following about the blowback against the media by the public:

In all the years I've been chronicling the media, I have rarely seen the tidal wave of resentment that has washed over television organizations that showed the now-infamous Cho video. In the minds of many Americans, this was a horribly offensive act, and no amount of explanation about the obligations of journalism is going to change that view.

There's a lot of reason that the public has had enough with the media's mendacity and claims of journalistic integrity that ring hollow with every new scandal that shows that the emperor has no clothes.

It turns out that the package sent to NBC news added little to law enforcement's understanding of Cho's intentions and that all it did was increase the likelyhood of copycats. Indeed, there was a spate of copycat threats called in all across the country. Schools in several parts of the country closed today as a result of the threats, which happen to coincide with the anniversary of the Columbine massacre.

NBC News, which fired Imus for saying reprehensible statements on air, made the decision to release and highly publicize inflammatory and reprehensible imagery created by Cho in the leadup to his going on a rampage on the Virginia Tech campus. Is NBC News going to hold itself accountable for the emotional damage done to the families of those who lost loved ones? If Imus was forced out of his well paying job, why not those who decided to make the Cho multimedia package available and the highest profile items on the NBC websites and broadcasts?

Is this not a double standard? All claims to newsworthiness aside, the emotional harm done to the victims is just as real. Where are the apologies? Where are the mea culpas from NBC News?

UPDATE:
Here's another report from the graveside of Professor Librescu that is especially poignant:

He was honored not only by Israel and the U.S., but his native land as well. At the funeral, a representative of Romanian President Traian Basescu presented his family with the Order of the Star of Romania both for his bravery and his contributions to science.

Over the course of the week, Librescu’s son Joe spoke of the two homes he loved in Israel and in Virginia. “He saw himself as something of an ambassador for Israel in a place where there were very few Israelis, and in his field of study.”

Librescu loved his university, his research and his students, and his father’s decision to give his life to protect his students, “he behaved exactly as I would expect him to,” Joe said, and was proud that, as far as he knew, none of the students in his father’s class were killed.

His son Joe said that remarkably, though he hadn’t seen his father in six months, or spoken to his father for several weeks before the tragedy, he had been able to reach him just a day before his father had been looking forward to a family reunion planned in Romania in June. Sadly, that reunion turned out to be in Israel, around Librescu’s grave, surrounded by the international press.

Virginia Tech Massacre: Media Overload?

Yesterday we learned that Cho sent a multimedia package to NBC News with the intent to have the world view him and his rambling and raving statements.

NBC News chose to air portions of the videos and posted the images that were included in the package, along with portions of the manifesto.

People have both criticized NBC News for publishing those details and some have even demanded that all the information be released without any editorial input.

Among those who are criticizing NBC and its decision to publish the items are a number of families, who cancelled their appearances on NBC to protest the decision.

There are folks, like Jane Hamsher who noted that the media and law enforcement took steps to prevent the Columbine killers from having their writings and other items released to the public. Why was that sensible step not taken?

It's a very good question and there is no right answer. The media outlets have determined that this stuff is newsworthy, so they pump it out there every 30 seconds. The news broadcasts were virtually unwatchable because it was wall to wall coverage of Cho's visage and rambling statements. Still, I do understand that there is some newsworthiness of these items and that people have a morbid fascination as to the inner workings of someone who went out and slaughtered so many people.

And in the course of releasing the images, it would appear that folks have managed to link some of the images to a movie that he may have watched.

Detectives say Cho Seung-Hui repeatedly watched the South Korean movie Oldboy in the days leading up to the massacre in which 32 people were killed.

The film's themes of obsession and revenge also occur in Cho's own writings.

In a chilling video sent by the student to the American TV network NBC he appears to re-enact scenes from the movie in a series of photographs.

In one he holds a gun to his own head and in another wields a hammer, images that appear in the film.

The video also confirms that Cho had been planning the killings for some time.

As a counterpoint to the production of these images, we've repeatedly been told that many of the more disturbing images from the 9/11 attacks would not be aired out of sensitivity to the victims and survivors to the attacks because of the severe emotional content of watching such images. How exactly is this situation any different? People were emotionally wrecked hearing about the loss of their loved ones and/or watching their loved ones being carried out of the VA Tech buildings. They're again devastated watching the news pimp Cho's videos and images. Where is the decency or at least restraint in what should be produced.

I know this puts me in the uncomfortable position of hoping that the media doing the right thing by the families and victims and that their judgment would be one of compassion and restraint, but one has to believe that people will ultimately do the right thing. Problem is, that too many in the media have not done the right thing - here included.

Brian Williams tellingly recognizes that NBC News is in a no-win situation.

In an interview last night on MSNBC, Mr. Williams said NBC had been concerned about the sensitivities of broadcasting as much of the material as it did.

“This was a sick business tonight, going on the air with this,” he said.

It could have been a slightly less sick business by withholding the bulk of the photos and multimedia packages.

Meanwhile, Michelle Malkin notes the issues raised by the temporary detention order and how that the law as it is currently written does not prevent someone from purchasing a firearm. The law as it is currently written required an involuntary hospitalization, which was not the case here. It appears that the law may have to be reviewed and amended to deal with situations where an individual may not be allowed to purchase a firearm if they have been deemed to be an imminent threat to themselves or others. This is an issue raised by Mark Levin and Hot Air as well.

Still, there is the nagging question over whether someone would self report that they were indeed involuntarily hospitalized for mental health issues. Also, if the law is changed to adjust for the mental health treatment, what information can or should be included in the databases utilized to conduct the background checks? I tend to lean towards including a search of mental health and other medical facilities for ailments that might affect a person's judgment and health situation that might make them unsuitable to purchase a gun.

UPDATE:
Hot Air has a very lengthy posting on the situation, and notes a report stating that because the judge referred Cho to an outpatient treatment for his mental health situation instead of being committed, he was kept out of the system that would have quite possibly kept Cho from being able to purchase the weapons. A detailed look at mental health laws and confinement follows.

Here's a detailed accounting of what Cho did once he entered Norris Hall and turned it into his own personal killing field.

Also, here's a very touching look at the victims of the massacre.

UPDATE:
Frankly, it seems that Cho was throwing everything and the kitchen sink into his rants and manifestos. You can draw almost any conclusion you want about the motive depending on the page.

What I see is disjointed thinking and someone who felt compelled to kill for the sake of killing - perhaps because he felt persecuted.

There's 9/11 references, biblical references, the timing of the attacks nearly coincides with the Branch Dividian incident, Columbine massacre, and OKC. Now add the neo-Nazi stuff, and you've got just about every major theme considered.

I'm waiting for someone to blame this on Quentin Tarantino. After all, his movies include mass violence, draw on Asian chop-socky films, and even Kill Bill had a supposed reference to the Crazy 88s - which the characters say were so named because it sounded cool.

UPDATE:
Was the source of the Ismail/Ishmail scrawled on Cho's arm not the James Fenimore Cooper Book The Prairie, but another book named Ishmail by Daniel Quinn? AJ Strata thinks there might be something to that angle. There's also a website named Ismail.com that references the book and appears to be managed by Quinn.

UPDATE:
Law enforcement says that there was nothing new to be added to their knowledge of Cho and his motives in the package received (and released) by NBC. Go figure.

Victims Remembered and Questions Swirl Around Response

Condolences continue to pour into Blacksburg from all corners of the country and President Bush attended a special service on the campus to remember and memorialize those who died.

So, we learn that other students began to realize that Cho was a ticking time bomb and that even some professors thought something wasn't quite right and referred Cho to counseling because of several creative writing pieces that included extremely disturbing themes.

He was a chubby-cheeked campus creep who stalked at least three pretty co-eds - terrifying one enough that her parents called the cops on him - before he wound up unleashing Virginia Tech's bloodbath.

"I stopped telling friends to come to my room, especially girls," the shaken roommate of mass murderer Cho Seung-Hui, identified only as John, revealed in a chilling interview yesterday.

One night earlier this year, the twisted Cho "closed the door [of their room] and turned to me and said, 'Hey, you want to know why I went up to that girl's dorm room the other night?' " John said.

The brother of a roommate of Cho said that Cho was an extremely quiet person who didn't say much of anything to him in the eight months they lived together. There were several times when his brother commented that Cho's quiet demeanor creeped him out and that Cho wouldn't even return simple greetings like "hello" when they would pass in the halls. He was a loner and spent quite a bit of time on the Internet.

The New York Times is reporting that the two hour delay was due to chasing down a lead that turned out to be false.

And new information emerged that may help explain a fateful two-hour delay by university officials in warning the campus of a gunman at large. According to search warrants and statements from the police, campus investigators had been busy pursuing what appears to have been a fruitless lead in the first of two shooting episodes Monday.

After two people, Emily Jane Hilscher, a freshman, and Ryan Clark, the resident adviser whose room was nearby in the dormitory, were shot dead, the campus police began searching for Karl D. Thornhill, who was described in Internet memorials as Ms. Hilscher’s boyfriend.

According to a search warrant filed by the police, Ms. Hilscher’s roommate had told the police that Mr. Thornhill, a student at nearby Radford University, had guns at his town house. The roommate told the police that she had recently been at a shooting range with Mr. Thornhill, the affidavit said, leading the police to believe he may have been the gunman.

But as they were questioning Mr. Thornhill, reports of widespread shooting at Norris Hall came in, making it clear that they had not contained the threat on campus. Mr. Thornhill was not arrested, although he continues to be an important witness in the case, the police said.

Of course, folks are getting into the overheated debate over gun control and whether the concealed carry restrictions played a role in this horrible criminal act. Some would like to see the Second Amendment repealed. Good luck with that. No way in hell that would happen. Besides, criminals by their very definition, are going to violate whatever laws are on the books to obtain the weapons. Law abiding citizens are the ones would be most harmed by such restrictions.

Some folks who are commenting on the weapons used have no clue about what weapons were involved, let alone the gun laws that are applicable in the case. Keith Olbermann for example. He decides to blame President Bush and the GOP for letting a certain law expire that would have prohibited the sale of high capacity ammunition clips. Big problem Keith - the weapons actually used in the massacre could not even use the expanded ammunition clips. Confederate Yankee slices and dices Olbermann's feeble argument and takes ABC News to task for peddling that bogus argument about expanded ammunition clips despite no evidence they were even part of the criminal acts at Virginia Tech.

There's a separate question of whether the screening process to purchase handguns was sufficient, and that is an issue that should be examined. I wonder just how much screening would actually be sufficient to avoid selling a weapon to someone who is mentally unstable. Are you going to prevent sales to people who are taking certain medications - such as those used in treating mental illness, sleep disorders, or even acne.

Meanwhile, the training and tactics of the police responding to the developing situation at Virginia Tech is being scrutinized from all corners.

UPDATE:
Confederate Yankee posts another lengthy rejoinder to the misstatements about the state of firearms laws over the past decade and its application to the extended ammo clips.

UPDATE:
The more we learn about Cho, the more people are realizing just how much of a ticking time bomb this guy was. He appears to have had serious issues and worried the heck out of a lot of people.

Flopping Aces note that the police appeared to have acted reasonably based on the information that was developing from the initial crime scene - Johnston Hall where the first two people were found shot to death. The police were going on evidence that pointed to a lovers' quarrel and that a complete shutdown of the campus wasn't warranted.

We also learn that Cho was taken to a mental health facility in December 2005. Apparently they were quite concerned about his condition. It's quite difficult to deal with someone suffering from mental illness, let alone someone who may not be willing to be treated or recognize that something is wrong.

And Hot Air points to a mental health expert who believes that Cho wasn't simply suffering from depression, but schizophrenia.

How he related to his roommate was just too bizarre to be depression. The bizarre content of his plays — mashing a half-eaten “banana bar” in someone’s mouth, the hypersexual, nihilistic (death obsessed) obsessions in the absence of depressive guilt or tearfulness are another clue. The progressive decline of a period of years. Those with schizophrenia, especially in their earliest years, are not readily recognizable as such — their condition is evolving. But here was someone who, as early as 2005, was carrying himself so strangely that he was a spectacle. The depressed withdraw and disappear. Those who are so peculiar in their manner so as to be inappropriate (taking cell phone pictures of his teacher, speaking inaudibly, pulling a cap low over his eyes) exhibit signs and symptoms more indicative of schizophrenia. He was communicating in a rambling manner reflective of what we appreciate as autistic thinking — characteristic of schizophrenia. In a similar vein, Mr. Cho’s stilted communication in his homicide note (deceitful charlatans — not the language of a 23-year-old college kid) is also the manner of a schizophrenic’s communications, as is his pronounced delay in responding to questions.

I'd actually be interested to read what the mental health experts who actually treated Cho in 2005 had to say on the matter - since they actually interacted, or attempted to interact, with Cho.

Ace makes an interesting observation about why people don't come forward when they see someone acting strangely. It's part of our cultural experience. Two of the women who were harassed by Cho declined to press charges. Maybe people don't want the hassle. Maybe people second guess themselves. And more to the point is whether people should report people who simply act weird.

I have no idea if it's a good idea, on balance, to start reporting the chronically strange to the authorities. I'm not sure what the cops could do, precisely, if they do in fact determine someone is deeply weird -- which is itself not an accepted diagnosis in the DSM IV. And cops can't "keep an eye" on certified weirdos forever.

But maybe it is about time people stopped being so damn nice and nonjudgmental and acted a little bit nosier and a little bit more the tattletale. Previously we've seen assassins and mass-murderers described so, so many times as "quiet" but "no one I'd ever imagine was capable of doing something like this." It's been speculated that that last bit was bullshit all along -- that people did suspect they were capable of doing something precisely like that -- and, perhaps because that cliche has been so well parodied, people are now much more willing to admit, "Yeah, I figured he was nuts, and maybe a pedophile, and maybe likely to shoot up the joint one day."

We'd probably have the police chasing after half the population that may act weird from time to time. There is no way to separate out the genuine weird and potentially dangerous from the transitory weird and nonthreatening types.

Besides, as it was pointed out elsewhere yesterday, you could find similar disturbing screenplays and themes written by Hollywood types and that wouldn't make anyone blink an eye, but Cho's writing in the university setting did raise eyebrows.

UPDATE:
Here come the copycats, including an incident at a New Jersey high school. Friday also marks the anniversary of the Columbine massacre, so there may be yet more threats called in forcing the shutdown of schools and facilities around the country. And for one student it cuts real close. Regina Rohde was at both Columbine and Virginia Tech when gunmen went on their shooting sprees.

UPDATE:
The updated list of victims can be found here. The VT College Paper is also covering various aspects of the crisis and its aftermath, including interviews with people in the English Department who interacted with Cho, along with a suspicious incident that was called in this morning and turned out to be a bogus threat.

UPDATE:
This is definitely going to be the lede on tonight's news broadcasts. What makes this stuff newsworthy? Is anyone in the media balancing the need to know versus the way this information may affect the families who lost loved ones or might spur copycats. Cho sent a package to NBC News - with the intent to become infamous in his last murderous acts. Well, he's succeeded in the murderous intent and his name and visage is definitely known to many.

UPDATE:
Hot Air has more details and analysis. How was Cho able to take the video in the window of time between the shootings, and where exactly was it shot? It would also appear that he used hollow point bullets, which would be particularly lethal ammo.

Others blogging: Sister Toldjah, Dan Riehl, and follow the links at memeorandum.

SUV Rampager Taheriazar Sounds Off In Court

Hot Air has the video, but Mohammed Taheriazar had an outburst in court that kept the court personnel on their toes:

Monday he was in court to discuss letters he wrote to Eyewitness News and other news organizations from prison shortly after the attack. In those letters he admitted to driving his vehicle into "The Pit" at UNC to avenge the deaths of Muslims around the world.

During today's hearing, Taheri-azar yelled "death to America" as he entered the Orange County courtroom. "I hate all Americans," he said. "All Jews. May they all burn in hell. Death to Israel," yelled Taheri-azar.

The judge warned Taheri-azar to be quiet during the proceedings. That's when Taheri-azar turned to his own lawyer and said, "I don't know this moron."

That's when the judge order the already restrained Taheri-azar removed from the courtroom.

James Williams, Taheri-azar's lawyer reacted to his outburst. "He does have a severe mental illness and that mentall illness affects his actions and I believe affected his actions on the day in question and still affects his behavior and was affecting his behavior in court today," Williams said.

Taheri-azar pleaded not guilty in January to 19 counts attempted murder and assault charges. He is currently being held at Central Prison in Raleigh on a $5.5 million bond.

His lawyers are going to claim that it was a mental illness that drove Taheriazar to take his rented SUV and rampage through the UNC Chapel Hill campus hitting nine people outside the campus center.

Today's outburst reflects earlier statements that suggest he was engaging in his form of jihad - not the personal struggle variety.

In the meantime, he's been confined to a Dorothea Dix Hospital for a mental health evaluation. Hmmm, jihad as a mental illness? That would certainly be a curious prognosis.

Fireworks Guaranteed Or Your PhD Back

Let's see what posting a link to this does. Just a tasty morsel to get you going:

A collective "I told you so" will ripple through the world of Bush-bashers once news of Christopher Lohse's study gets out.

Lohse, a social work master's student at Southern Connecticut State University, says he has proven what many progressives have probably suspected for years: a direct link between mental illness and support for President Bush.

Lohse’s study, backed by SCSU Psychology professor Jaak Rakfeldt and statistician Misty Ginacola, found a correlation between the severity of a person’s psychosis and their preferences for president: The more psychotic the voter, the more likely they were to vote for Bush.

I predict much fireworks.

HT: Anonymous Emailer.

UPDATE:
And I also predict that the student will get an A, will get much coverage on talk shows, and has guaranteed a steady source of income well into the future...

Popal and the SF Rampage

SFist has more on the situation including a recap of what investigators have gleaned thus far.

Ohmeed Popal's parents had apparently been very overprotective of him throughout his life, to protect him from America's "evil society." Popal got in a big argument with his parents starting over the weekend about wanting to go back to Afghanistan by himself to see his wife. He stormed out of the house and ran away to LA, but ended up having to call home a few days later and ask them to pick him up because he had no money.

The arguments started up again after he got home, and escalated to the point that on Tuesday, he spent the entire morning arguing with them about it as he drove into San Jose from Fremont to drop his brother off at SJSU, and continuing as he went into Fremont around noon to apply for a temp job. At that point, Popal dropped off his mother and sister at the temp agency, and took off. You know how the rest goes.

Popal had a diagnosis of paranoid schizophrenia -- last spring, he was checked into Kaiser Fremont after repeated dreams of a devil dragging him into a graveyard and killing him. He was prescribed medications and shortly afterwards, agreed to his arranged marriage. In July, he told his family he'd stabbed a man to death in SF. The confession was false, but they checked him into Washington Hospital, where he was subsequently released as not posing a threat to society.

If you recall my comment from the other day, I noted the importance of those strange dreams. Is it possible that he went off his medications at some point, and contributed to this horrible series of hit and run attacks?

Other reports indicate that he had a fight with his mother and that even relatives didn't know of Popal's mental health problems. As the evidence keeps coming forward on Popal's mental illness and unstable grasp on reality, it will undermine the claims that this was a drive by jihadi in the mold of Mohammad Taheriazar and the focus will be placed on his diagnosis and ongoing treatment and medication.

Technorati: terrorism, terrorist, popal, san francisco, suv.

Updating SF Hit and Run Rampage

Was the driver apparently distraught over the fact that his new wife via an arranged marriage in Afghanistan was unable to obtain a visa to enter the US? That's apparently the spin being offered by some of those who know the suspect.

Relatives of a Fremont man connected to Tuesday's deadly driving rampage said he may have been distraught after returning recently from Afghanistan without his newlywed wife who iswaiting for a visa.

Omeed Aziz Popal, 29, who sources said was being held by the San Francisco police, was normally a kind and gentle person, said Hamid Nekrawesh, 43, a first cousin in Fremont.

But a recent trip to Afghanistan to participate in an arranged marriage could have caused him a lot of stress, Nekrawesh said.

``He was a very respectful, quiet, nice guy,'' Nekrawesh said. ``I've never seen him do anything violent.''

Zarghona Ramish of San Jose, who also identified herself as Popal's cousin, said he had been having strange dreams since returning a month ago from Afghanistan.

Strange dreams? I'd like to hear more about this.

Vinnie at The Jawa Report can't help but wonder about the trip to Afghanistan and what would make this guy snap.

Don Surber and Glenn Reynolds are having at it over a snarky comment made by Glenn.

Meanwhile, unnamed sources are saying that Popal was unrepentant and wanted to hit those folks. That doesn't exactly sound promising for those who want to clear this guy of driving while jihadi, although this is based on leaks from unnamed sources in the SFPD. The SF Mayor says that the incident is unrelated to international tensions. And he knows this how? Gateway Pundit has a great roundup. So does Pajamas Media.

Popal has apparently lawyered up, and the lawyer is claiming mental illness may have been behind the rampage, which leads me back to questioning those strange dreams - that might take on more significance as the criminal case winds its way through the system.

UPDATE:
Witnesses claim to have heard Popal say that he was a terrorist. LGF has the video and details.

UPDATE:
This incident hasn't been getting heavy play from big media outlets, but the bloggers have been wondering about Popal's motives, and what caused him to decide to mow down pedestrians throughout San Francisco. Others blogging: Wizbang, Say Anything, Rick Moran, and Hot Air.

The Anchoress has a brilliant comment on the situation:

This is becoming an appalling habit in the press and by politicians. An Islamic fundamentalist shoots Jews in a Synagogue, and it’s some sort of random incident. An Islamic fundamentalist uses his SUVto kill people partly in front of a Synagogue, and in what would appear to be a somewhat “Jewish neighborhood” and the press takes a hours to cover the story (probably looking for the appropriate “frame,”) and until someone in authority can be found to sing out, “ROAD RAGE”! Yeah, that’s the ticket! Road rage! Mayor Newsom sees no problem, here…a “relatively young” person, obviously confused! Yes, that’s the ticket!

Omeed Aziz Popal, the poor confused youngster, is 29 years old.

UPDATE:
Wizbang notes that the lawyer retained by Popal's family has declined to take the case, citing the expenses that would come with trying to put no a complicated case including expert witnesses on Popal's mental state. Popal will likely be represented by a public defender unless a high profile defense attorney comes forward to take the case.

Popal apparently had a history of mental illness according to family members.

Technorati: terrorism, terrorist, popal, san francisco, taheriazar, suv.

Moussaoui Verdict Is In....

And we're going to have to wait until 4PM EDT to find out. Anyone want to take wagers?

I will put down $25 that the losers are the American people, who will either have to pay for Moussaoui's upkeep until he's dead by lethal injection, or after serving life without parole - and that's not counting legal fees and costs associated with the trials.

UPDATE:
The New York Times has more on what this verdict actually represents:

The verdict on Moussaoui, the only person to face charges in the U.S. in connection with the Sept. 11 attacks, was being announced at 4 p.m. Monday, according to the court's Web site.

This first phase of the trial only determines Moussaoui's eligibility for the death penalty.

If jurors find he is eligible, it moves into a second phase to determine whether he deserves the death penalty. Victims of Sept. 11, 2001 and their families will testify in this second phase.

If they find that he's ineligible, he's automatically sentenced to life in prison.

And the verdict has come in - he is eligible for the death penalty, which means that 9/11 survivors and families of the victims will be able to testify against Moussaoui.

UPDATE:
[Fixed grammar above.] Michelle Malkin reports that Moussaoui had this to say as the verdict came down:

"God curse you all! You will never get my blood" and "Allah Akbar!"

Others blogging this decision, which triggers a sentencing phase that will ultimately determine whether Moussaoui is sentenced to death or life in prison: Stop the ACLU, Sister Toldjah, and In the Bullpen.

UPDATE:
The prosecutors will have about 40 relatives testify. And we might get to hear from Moussaoui's mother, who would testify on her son's behalf. But that's not all. Moussaoui's lawyers are looking to run with a mental illness defense:

Court-appointed defense lawyers, whom Moussaoui has tried to reject, will summon experts to suggest he is schizophrenic after an impoverished childhood during which he faced racism in France over his Moroccan ancestry.

UPDATE 5/3/2006:
For those who are trying to find whether Moussaoui received life in prison or the death penalty, my latest posting is here. The jury found against imposing the death penalty so he'll be incarcerated for the rest of his life.