Another Plane Into A Building

A plane from the company Telsa crashed and now this has occurred. The news has taken place so soon after the Amy Bishop shootings. It is interwoven, as has been noted often in my work and that of others, such as Dr. David Phillips and Dr. Steven Stack (no relation to today's pilot). See my chapter, "Planes Into Buildings" in The Copycat Effect.

Tampa Tower Crash

It will be recalled that Charles (Bishara) Bishop (February 8, 1986 - January 5, 2002) was an American teenager who died by suicide when he crashed a stolen Cessna 172 into the 28th floor of the Bank of America Tower in Tampa, Florida on January 5, 2002. A note written by Bishop was found in the wreckage and expressed his support for Osama bin Laden and the September 11, 2001 attacks. The young man also noted the "1967 Israeli-Syrian War" (also called the Six-Day War of June 5-10, 1967) in his note.

Bishop's father was identified as Charles Bishara, an alleged small-time criminal with the Arabic surname Bishara. Bishop's mother had changed the boy's name from Bishara to Bishop during the first Gulf War. (The name may be familiar to you as it is the middle name of Sirhan Bishara Sirhan, the alleged single assassin of Robert F. Kennedy, who was shot on the first anniversary of the Six Day War and died the next day.)

Tesla Plane Crash

On February 17, 2010, in Palo Alto, California, a twin-engine Cessna 310 crashed in a residential neighborhood, killing three employees of electric-car maker Tesla Motors who were aboard the plane. (The sounds from the Tesla Motors crash have been published online. Warning: Graphic, with screams.) The accident caused a major power outage in Palo Alto, including at the office of Facebook, but no one was injured on the ground.

The pilot was Doug Bourn, 56, a senior electrical engineer who had worked for the electric carmaker for five years and who mentored others. The other two passengers have been identified as Andrew Ingram, 31, of Palo Alto, an electrical engineer; and Brian M. Finn, 42, of East Palo Alto; a senior manager of interactive electronics. Finn reportedly lived with his one-year-old daughter just two blocks from where the plane went down in East Palo Alto. Chief Executive Elon Musk noted: “Tesla is a small, tightly-knit company, and this is a tragic day for us.”

Nikola Tesla and the Death Ray

The company appears to have been named in tribute to Nikola Tesla (July 10, 1856 – January 7, 1943), who was an inventor and a mechanical and electrical engineer. He was one of the most important contributors to the birth of commercial electricity, and is best known for his many revolutionary developments in the field of electromagnetism in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. Aside from his work on electromagnetism and electromechanical engineering, Tesla contributed in varying degrees to the establishment of robotics, remote control, radar, and computer science, and to the expansion of ballistics, nuclear physics, and theoretical physics. In the late 1880s, Tesla and Thomas Edison became adversaries. From 1900, Tesla worked, until his death, on his teleforce weapon, which the media called his "peace ray" or "death ray." This directed-energy superweapon was said to concern the use of charged particle beams. In 1943, the Supreme Court of the United States credited Tesla as being the inventor of the radio. (David Bowie portrayed Tesla in the 2006 movie The Prestige. Tesla's time in Colorado Springs, Colorado, was the focus of several scenes in the film, which featured speculations on the explosive power of Tesla's electrical experiments.)

Stack Hits IRS Building

On February 18, 2010, Joseph Andrew Stack, flying a Piper Cherokee PA-28 (registration N2889D) plane, crashed into Building I of the Echelon office complex in Austin, Texas, United States. An Internal Revenue Service (IRS) field office is located in the seven-story office building along with other state and federal government agencies. Stack had posted a manifesto dated February 18, 2010, to his business website.

The plane departed a nearby airport at 9:40 AM Central Standard Time, and, about twenty minutes later, crashed into a building containing offices for the IRS, setting it ablaze. It went in at full speed and did not appear to be accidental or due to mechanical failure according to eyewitnesses.

The pilot was killed in the incident along with Vernon Hunter, a 67-year-old Revenue Office Manager for the IRS. Thirteen people were reported as injured, two of them critically. Debris from the crash reportedly struck a Lexus sedan being driven on the southbound access road of U.S. Route 183 in front of the building and shattering the windshield. Another driver on the southbound access road of U.S. Route 183 had his windows and sunroof shattered during the impact and had debris fall inside his car yet escaped uninjured.

(Late in the week, Vernon Hunter's son, Ken spoke out. "There was just too much going on about what the guy did and what he believed in, and enough's enough," he said. "They don't need to talk about him. Talk about my dad. You know, some people are trying to make this guy out to be a hero, a patriot. My dad served two terms in Vietnam. This guy never served at all. My dad wasn't responsible for his tax problems.")

The plane was piloted by Joseph Andrew Stack, of the Scofield Farms neighborhood in North Austin, who worked as an embedded software consultant. Prior to the crash, he set his house on fire in the 1800 block of Dapplegrey Lane. Early reports wondered aloud if the house burned with his wife and daughter presumably inside. Their deaths have not been confirmed.

Stack had posted an anti-government, anti-bailout, anti-corporation, anti-union, and anti-religion manifesto on his website, embeddedart.com. It was also a suicide note.

In the manifesto, Stack states that he was not impressed with political representatives, whom he describes as "thieves, liars, and self-serving scumbags," also criticizing the conglomerate companies of General Motors, Enron and Arthur Andersen. He also referred to the drug and insurance companies as "murdering tens of thousands of people a year and stealing from the corpses and victims they cripple, and this country’s leaders don’t see this as important as bailing out a few of their vile, rich cronies." Stack also criticized "The recent presidential puppet GW Bush and his cronies in their eight years," the "corrupt Catholic Church," and "the monsters of organized religion."

The manifesto ended with:

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, lets try something different; take my pound of flesh and sleep well.
The communist creed: From each according to his ability, to each according to his need.
The capitalist creed: From each according to his gullibility, to each according to his greed.

Stack was a graduate of the Milton Hershey School and attended Harrisburg Area Community College from 1975-77.

In response to the crash, the Department of Homeland Security became involved in the investigation of the crash, stating that it did not appear to be linked to terrorism. White House spokesman Robert Gibbs reaffirmed what Homeland Security said, and that President Barack Obama was being briefed of the incident. The North American Aerospace Defense Command (NORAD) launched two F-16 fighter aircraft from Ellington Field in Houston, Texas, to conduct an air patrol in response to the crash, which was reported as standard operating procedure in this situation.

The company hosting embeddedart.com, T35 hosting, took Stack's website offline, "due to the sensitive nature of the events that transpired in Texas this morning and in compliance with a request from the FBI."

The Bishop Shootings

A female shooter was in custody and three are dead. A campus shooting incident occurred about 4:15 pm on February 12, 2010, in Alabama.

Three people were killed and several more injured in the shooting Friday in a science building at the University of Alabama's Huntsville campus, university officials said. (Also known as the University of Alabama in Huntsville.)

Trent Willis, chief of staff for Huntsville Mayor Tommy Battle, said several other people had been shot in addition to the four reported, but he did not have an exact number or their conditions.

Huntsville Hospital spokesman Burr Ingram said the hospital was treating three victims. Two were in critical condition and one was in stable condition. It was not clear if the three included the one injured person university officials announced.

Sophomore Erin Johnson told The Huntsville Times a biology faculty meeting was under way when she heard screams coming from the room.

The shooting happened in the university's Shelby Center, a science building. University police secured the building and students were cleared from it.

The Huntsville campus has about 7,500 students in northern Alabama, not far from the Tennessee line.

The university posted a message on its Web site Friday afternoon telling students the campus was closed Friday night and all students were encouraged to go home. Counselors were available to speak with students.

The shooter has been identified as Dr. Amy Bishop, a Harvard-educated neurobiologist who joined the faculty of UAH in 2003.

Her development with her husband, Jim Anderson, of a "portable cell incubator" placed third in a state-wide competition, and won the couple $25,000 of seed money in a business competition.

Mr. Anderson, also reportedly in custody, is said to be the chief science officer of Cherokee Labsystems in Huntsville.

Dr. Bishop's profile has been pulled from UAH's site, but Google's cache reveals her areas of research focussed on the role of gasses on the central nervous system, especially nitrous oxide.

Her lab was working on the development of a "neural computer," the "Neuristor," which would use living neurons—taken either from stem cells or fish.

She also developed the InQ, a "precision instrument designed to increase the precision and consistency of cell growth in laboratory experimentation."

Dr. Bishop has numerous articles in journals to her credit, including studies in the International Journal of General Medicine and Toxicology.

Bus Rampage: China

A bus dispatcher in northern China killed nine people and injured 11 others when he hijacked a company vehicle after a feud with his boss.

The man, surnamed Zhang, got into a fight with his boss and injured him with a dagger before stealing the bus and driving away into the streets of the city of Tianjin, the official Xinhua news agency said.

The 40-year-old motored through the streets, ramming into people and killing nine bystanders, the report said.

Police dispatched dozens of police cars to the scene, and Zhang ran into three of them, injuring four policemen, before finally being caught.

Authorities were investigating the case, the report said.

Source: Monday, February 1, 2010, Geelong Advertiser, Australia.

The Peter Pan/Hook Deaths

Who are killing the children?

Another young child has died under mysterious circumstances in which the initial speculation is that the child died by self-hanging. Without going into the exacting details at this time, let me summarize that for years there has been a series of relatively unexplained child deaths and near deaths. These have been lexilinked by twilight names (Montana, Aquan, Imhotep; Chatham-Chatham), bizarre pedophilia hints (under investigation), and the common factor that the children were found hanged, often on a coat hook, often in bathrooms.

In addition to January 21, 2010's alleged new suicide (see below), here's a summary of older incidents:

1. Unnamed youth ~ Kanpur, India; February 20, 2009; hanged from the hook of the toilet in a train; dead.
2. Unnamed girl ~ South Side Chicago, Illinois; February 20, 2009; hanged on a clothes hook in home closet; dead.
3. Unnamed boy ~ Chatham, Illinois; February 4, 2009; hanged by hook; dead.
4. Aquan Lewis ~ Evanston, Illinois; February 3, 2009; hanged on a school bathroom hook; dead.
5. Tevin Park-Flowers (a twin) ~ Austin, Texas; January 30, 2008; hanged by a hook in a gymnasium bathroom; pants were down at his ankles; dead.
6. Unnamed boy ~ New Bedford, Massachusetts; January 30, 2008; found alive, hanging on a hook in a children's room of the New Bedford Public Library; man arrested, charged with child molestation and rape.
7. Unnamed child ~ Philadelphia, Pennsylvania; April 27, 2005; near death, found hanging on a hook in a school coatroom closet.
8. Imhotep Lubin ~ Brooklyn, New York; 2004; found alive hanging by his belt from a hook in a school closet; teacher arrested.
9. Unnamed child ~ Chatham, Ontario; 1998; hanged from a hook in school bathroom; dead.

In the most recent assumed suicide, 9-year-old Montana Lance allegedly hanged himself in a bathroom at Stewart's Creek Elementary School, The Colony, Texas, shortly before 1 p.m. on Thursday, January 21, 2010.

Lt. Darren Brockway said that the boy "had reportedly hung himself in a bathroom" and was pronounced dead at a nearby hospital. Autopsy results are pending. Police are investigating the circumstances but don't expect any criminal charges.

Because there seems to be no cooperation between police departments on these far-flung incidents, could there perhaps be some similar patterns that have developed and are being overlooked?

Are there other mystery deaths of children on coat hooks that you have read about, in isolation from the above accounts?

What could any of this have to do with J. M. Barrie's Peter Pan? Stay tuned.

VA: 8 Dead

The number of shooting incidents has increased dramatically in the USA since the Fort Hood incident. Whether the reasons are the copycat effect, behavior contagion, media reporting increase, or coincidence doesn't matter. It is happening and we are in the midst of a major cluster. Another shooting has occurred.

On Tuesday, January 19, 2010, a gunman went on a "rampage" (as the media is terming it) in the Virginia, killing eight people and shooting a police helicopter taking part in a hunt for him, officials said. A 39-year-old man was believed to be surrounded early Wednesday after the shootings in a rural district near Appomattox (where the surrender of Confederate General Robert E. Lee took place, ending the Civil War) in southern Virginia. Police confirmed that there were eight dead.

The suspect, named as Christopher Speight, shot a helicopter that was called to the scene at least four times, forcing it to make an emergency landing, officials said.

[Some of the first settlers in America with this family name, Speight, or its variants, were Frances Speight who settled in Virginia in 1642; William and Mary Speights plus their daughter Elizabeth in Barbados in 1678; and Christopher Speight in New England in 1760. The family motto is "by strength and valor." One of the more well-known holders of the name was Englishman Mark Warwick Fordham Speight (August 6, 1965 – April 7, 2008), who was an English television presenter, who once played the "Abominable No Man" in Timmy Mallett's Timmy Towers. On the afternoon of January 3, 2008, Speight called emergency services after waking up to discover fiancée Natasha Collins's body in the bath of their St John's Wood flat, in northwest London. He was originally arrested and charged with her murder. An inquest later determined Collins had died of a drug overdose and severe burns from hot water. Then on April 7, 2008, Speight was reported missing and soon found that he had died by suicide by hanging near Paddington Station. He left suicide notes saying he could not live without Collins.]

"More than 100 deputies, officers and state troopers will continue working through the night to locate and apprehend the armed subject" Virginia State Police said in a statement.

The incident unfolded around noon on Tuesday when a deputy from the Appomattox sheriff's office responded to an emergency call about an injured man lying on a country road.

"When the deputy arrived on scene, the deputy heard several gun shots," Sergeant Thomas Molnar, a spokesman for the Virginia State Police told AFP.

As the victim was being airlifted to a nearby hospital, where he later died, officers found four bodies outside a nearby home and "three bodies inside the residence."

The victims were male and female, according to police.

The shootings were said to be the act of a lone gunman, who was pinned down by police in nearby woods late Tuesday, officials said.

A nearby residence was evacuated as the manhunt grew ever tenser.

"The perimeter has been established and we believe the suspect is within the quarantined area," Molnar said.

A motive for the attacks was not immediately clear.

Sherlock Holmes (2009): The Ripper Killings

I found the new Sherlock Holmes (2009) movie intriguingly multi-layered, with an incredible number of synchromystical symbols throughout, often tied to the Masons ("Temple of the Four Orders") and the Ripper case (see below). These are woven nicely within the plot and characters.

Lord Blackwood (who wears a black trenchcoat most of the time ~ as have the spate of recent mass killers), the secret society members, the plotting police, the usual bald giants, the ginger little people, the overly attractive prostitutes, and even the ever present ravens have a good deal to "say" to those watching this cinema closely. Needless to say, the Masonic elements have been mentioned by many reviewers and critics in the blogosphere, so no need to dwell on the straight and narrow there.

Another "character" in the movie is the Tower Bridge, which is shown under construction. Actually, since it is known that the building of the Tower Bridge started in 1886 and took eight years, it nicely dates this version of Sherlock Holmes. The official plot summary of the movie notes this film occurs in "1891 London."

The movie has many facets, overlooked by the casual moviegoer.

For example:

A number of the movie's details were taken directly from "The Adventure of the Mazarin Stone." The first is the name of the villain, Lord Blackwood. Fans may remember him as Count Negretto Sylvius (Negretto is Italian for black and Sylvius is Latin for woods). Interestingly enough, Blackwoods was a competitor of the Strand (the publisher of Doyle's work). Blackwoods also rejected some of Doyle's early work, though the Mazarin story was written 40 years after the fact and Doyle was very successful by then. In any event, Blackwood was NOT some magician with an egg tooth (a tooth most baby snakes are born with to cut through their eggs).

Another common detail is the Crown Diamond, which is the Yellow Mazarin Stone (named for Cardinal Jules Mazarin [1602-1661], minister to Louis XIV). The large yellow stone hung around Irene Adler's neck in the movie. "The Adventure of the Mazarin Stone" is also the first and only story to mention that the 221B Baker Street apartment had multiple exits and a waiting room. The extra exit was through the bedroom which Sherlock employed to follow Irene early in the movie.

I actually think few people "get" what is behind the allusion to the five prostitutes who are killed ritualistically with daggers, before the timeline of the movie begins. These definitely appear to me to be an obvious but subtle reference to the five traditionally acknowledged Ripper killings. Because the phrase "Jack the Ripper" is never used in the movie, I have yet to see it in any deciphering of this present film. Those murders took place around Whitechapel, London, in late 1888, of course, and some, like Stephen Knight, theorize they were Masonic in nature. The present movie has more links to the Sherlock Holmes in A Study in Scarlet and Christopher Plummer in Murder by Decree, than people are noting.

Release Date: December 25th, 2009 (wide)
Distributors: Warner Bros. Pictures Distribution
Produced in: United States

Actors:
Robert Downey Jr. ... Sherlock Holmes
Jude Law ... Dr. John Watson
Rachel McAdams ... Irene Adler
Mark Strong ... Blackwood
Eddie Marsan ... Inspector Lestrade
Kelly Reilly ... Mary

Directed by: Guy Ritchie
++++

Doyle: A Mason?

Sir Arthur Conan Doyle (1859-1930) was the author of fifty-six short stories and three novels with Sherlock Holmes and John H. Watson M.D., as the principal characters.

Conan Doyle was not a particularly active freemason. One widely quoted report in the October 1901 Masonic Illustrated claims: "While at the seat of war, he attended the never-to-be-forgotten scratch lodge at Bloemfontein in company with Bro. Rudyard Kipling." In fact, Kipling was in Bloemfontein only between March 17 and April 3, 1900, a period when Rising Star Lodge No. 1022 E.C., the only lodge meeting in that part of South Africa, did not meet. At an April 5, 1900 meeting letters were received by the lodge from both Lord Kitchener and Conan Doyle, expressing their regrets at being unable to attend. A "loyal resolution" to be sent to the Prince of Wales was proposed by Kitchener at an April 23, 1900 meeting; a document signed by both Lord Roberts, who had not been present at the meeting, and Conan Doyle. The minutes of the lodge’s November 7, 1901 meeting refute the newspaper report and deny that Bros. Doyle and Kipling had ever visited their lodge. Also in 1900 Conan Doyle was made an honorary member of The Lodge of Edinburgh (Mary’s Chapel) No. 1 in recognition of his acceptance of an invitation to speak at a Burns' Night Dinner.

There is no mention of Freemasonry in his autobiography, Memories and Adventures and it is said that "Dr. Doyle looked in on Freemasonry and soon looked out again." There are, however seven distinct and several other oblique references to Freemasonry in his fiction. [AQC 104 & 105]

A prolific writer and an early proponent of a tunnel connecting England and France, he was also responsible for introducing downhill skiing into Switzerland, metal helmets for combat soldiers and the inflatable life-preserver for sailors. He makes a number of Masonic references in his writings, none of them key to his story development.

However, this record exists of his membership:
Initiated: January 26, 1887
Passed: February 23, 1887
Raised: March 23, 1887
Demitted: 1889
Rejoined: 1902
Demitted: 1911
Phoenix Lodge 257, Southsea Hampshire.

See also, other links to strange "Sherlock Holmes" coincidences in 2009, including the "Dr. Watson" killing, and the sudden death of Natasha Richardson, who had made her UK television debut in 1985, in The Adventures Of Sherlock Holmes, appearing as Violet Hunter in the episode, "The Copper Beeches."

Vegas Shooting ~ Wicks Id'ed

Authorities say a gunman shot dead in a gunbattle after killing a courthouse security guard and wounding a federal marshal in Las Vegas had a "lengthy" criminal history in Tennessee and California.

FBI Special Agent in Charge Kevin Favreau said on January 5th that 66-year-old Johnny Lee Wicks faced murder charges in Memphis, Tenn., in the mid-1970s, and sex assault charges in Sacramento, Calif., in the late 1980s.

Records show Wicks lost a federal lawsuit last year challenging a cut in his Social Security benefits after moving from California to Las Vegas.

The FBI and local police say Wicks torched his apartment and walked three miles to the courthouse before opening fire Monday morning, killing 72-year-old security officer Stanley Cooper.

Officials say the wounded marshal has been released from the hospital.


EARLIER///
An as-yet unidentified gunman, wearing a black trenchcoat, opened fire in the lobby of a federal building in downtown Las Vegas on Monday, January 4, 2010, killing one court officer and wounding a second before he was shot to death. (Earlier reports that two FBI agents were shot are being denied.)

The gunfire erupted moments after 8 a.m. at the start of the work week and lasted for several minutes. Shots echoed around tall buildings in the area, more than a mile north of the Las Vegas Strip. An Associated Press reporter on the eighth floor of a high-rise building within sight of the building heard more than 20 shots during the sustained barrage of gunfire.

The U.S. Marshals Service says the victims included a deputy U.S. marshal and a court security officer. The 48-year-old deputy marshal was hospitalized, and the 65-year-old security officer died.

FBI Special Agent Joseph Dickey said the gunman died across the street shortly after the shootout. The man's identity and motive were not immediately known.

Authorities believe the shooter acted alone, Chief Deputy U.S. Marshal Roxanna Lea Irwin said.

The building was evacuated, police and news helicopters circled overhead, and Las Vegas police cordoned off the area for several blocks. A 16-story state and local courthouse two blocks away was locked down as a precaution.

After police arrived, paramedics wheeled at least two people out and down a ramp to ambulances.

Dickey called the building evacuation "standard procedure" in such an incident, and said it was "for the safety of everybody in the place."

Las Vegas police spokeswoman Barbara Morgan said the shooter had been shot in the head.

"It looks like he went in there and just started unloading," Morgan said.

The Lloyd D. George U.S. Courthouse and Federal Building is named for a longtime senior federal judge who still hears cases. It has federal courts and offices for federal officials including U.S. Sens. Harry Reid and John Ensign. Neither were in the building at the time, authorities said.

Irwin said she saw shotgun casings on the floor of the federal building lobby.

Top Fortean Books of 2009

Top Fortean Books of 2009
by Loren Coleman, Author, Mysterious America, The Copycat Effect, and other books.



In terms of the best broadbased, general, fortean, twilight language, synchromystic books published or reprinted last year, this list encompasses my top picks for 2009:

1. Outbreak! The Encyclopedia of Extraordinary Social Behavior by Hilary Evans And Robert E. Bartholomew.



The #1 Fortean book for 2009, hands down, has to be Outbreak! The Encyclopedia of Extraordinary Social Behavior. It is a massive, well-researched tome, being a large format paperbound book (8" by 11"), with a total of 765 pages of about 340 entries. The authors are the scholars Hilary Evans, a social historian, and Robert Bartholomew, a sociologist and specialist in collective behavior.

2. Obelisk: A History by Brian A. Curran, Anthony Grafton, Pamela O. Long, and Benjamin Weiss.



3. Swamp Gas Times: My Two Decades on the UFO Beat by Patrick Huyghe.



4. An Illustrated Guide to The Lost Symbol, edited by John Weber.



5. Occult America: The Secret History of How Mysticism Shaped Our Nation by Mitch Horowitz.



6. The Illustrated Encyclopedia of Native American Mounds & Earthworks by Gregory L. Little, Kimberly Prachniak, and Dee Turman.

7. Centre for Fortean Zoology Yearbook 2009 by Jonathan Downes and Corinna Newton Downes (eds).

8. Darklore Volume 3 / Darklore Volume 4 by Greg Taylor (Editor)

9. Encyclopedia of Haunted Places by Jeff Belanger.

10. Darkness Walks: The Shadow People Among Us by Jason Offutt.

11. Beyond Shadow World by Brad Steiger.

12. The Secret Temple: Masons, Mysteries, and the Founding of America by Peter Levenda.

Woman In Red Attacks Pope

As Pope Benedict XVI was making his way down the long aisle in St. Peter's Basilica to give the Christmas Eve Mass (24 Dec 2009), a woman in red leaped over the barrier to get closer to him. But in doing so she lunged at him and pulled him down to the marble floor. The Pope was shaken but not injured.

Cardinal Roger Etchegaray, 87, however was hurt. He was wheeled off to hospital with a broken hip after falling during the incident. He'll be operated on in the coming days.

A statement released by the Vatican identified the woman as Susanna Maiolo, a 25-year-old Italian Swiss national. The statement said she was not armed but shows signs of mental instability, and has since been admitted to a health facility for compulsory treatment.

Maiolo is the same woman who tried to reach Pope Benedict XVI at Midnight Mass last year. Vatican officials speaking on condition of anonymity said Maiolo was involved in a similar incident last year in which she jumped the barricade as the pope processed. In that case, however, Maiolo never managed to reach the pope and was quietly tackled to the ground by security.

In both cases she wore a red sweatshirt.

Meanwhile, on Christmas Day, (25 Dec 2009), the FBI is questioning a suspect believed to have tried to ignite a powdery substance on Detroit-bound airliner. Delta Flight 253 [2 (2+3) 3], an Airbus 330 carrying 278 passengers, was arriving in Detroit from Amsterdam on Friday afternoon when the explosives went off. Minor injuries occurred. The passenger was immediately subdued and was not named (yet). It has been declared an act of terrorist.

It will be recalled that John A. Keel, who died this year, wrote of entities (being channeled through individuals he knew) telling of prophecies and predictions. The information to Keel told of the threat of an assassination of a pope.

An assassination attempt of a pope was to be followed by "days of darkness," and would trigger Armageddon. So wrote Keel in The Mothman Prophecies. Often it is forgotten that in Operation Trojon Horse and Haunted Planet, Keel also penned some passages on the "messages" he was receiving and on St. Malachy's Prophecy, which states that the final pope before Peter will be assassinated.

For those who speculate, there is general agreement that Pope Benedict XVI is Gloria Olivae, the last pope in St. Malachy's Prophecy before the final pope, Petrus Romanus. Peter of Rome (or Peter II?) will see the times when the "city of seven hills will be destroyed" (the Vatican? Rome?).

Will 2010 be a year of wondering what it all means?

Fort Hood-Linked Iman Killed

In the wake of recent police ambush incidents and other shootings, which appear to have occurred as copycats of the Fort Hood killings, there is more breaking news today.

A bulletin from Reuters reports that "radical Muslim preacher" Anwar al-Awlaki (linked by U.S. intelligence to the Fort Hood shootings) has died in a Yemen airstrike on al Qaeda militants, a security official from Sanaa said on Thursday, Christmas Eve Day, December 24, 2009. In the Fort Hood massacre, allegedly one gunman killed 13 people at the U.S. Army base.

The SITE Intelligence Group handout photo (at top) was obtained November 10, 2009, of Anwar al-Awlaki, a former US resident living in Yemen and accused al-Qaeda supporter, who commented on his website on November 9, 2009, that the attack at Fort Hood perpetrated by the alleged gunman, Major Nidal Hasan, was a "heroic act." As officials advance the investigation into the Army Major who allegedly perpetrated the massacre at Fort Hood, attention had turned to Anwar al-Awlaki, a top al Qaeda recruiter who was in contact with Major Nidal Hasan before the Army shootings.


Major Nidal Hasan.

According to the Washington Post, Imam Al-Awlaki of Dar Al-Hijrah Islamic Center in Falls Church, Virginia at one time was the Muslim Chaplain at George Washington University. He held a B.S. in Civil Engineering from Colorado State University, a M.A. in Education Leadership from San Diego State University and worked on a Doctorate degree in Human Resource Development at George Washington University.

Doesn't the following image make you wonder, why would someone want to have their photo on Anwar al-Awlaki's Facebook page?



Information from AP, AFP, Newscom, KOMO, Reuters, Washington Post, SMiles Foster, and other media.

Sin City Star Dies: Brittany Murphy At 32

Brittany Murphy has died.

The 32-year-old actress went into full cardiac arrest early Sunday morning, December 20, 2009, following a 911 call from her husband, Simon Monjack, Variety reports. Around 8 a.m. local time, her mother found her unconscious in the shower in her home in the hills of West Hollywood. The star was pronounced dead upon arrival at 10:04 am on Sunday, at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center in Los Angeles.

The Los Angeles County Department of Coroner confirms to E! News, "We do have a preliminary death report of a Brittany Murphy" coming from Cedars-Sinai.

Popular Movie Celebrity

Murphy starred in such films as 8 Mile, Uptown Girls, Sin City, Clueless and Don't Say a Word.

She also starred in the ironically named Drop Dead Gorgeous. Murphy's Drop Dead Gorgeous co-star Denise Richards lamented: "Brittany Murphy was in Drop Dead Gorgeous with me and was the sweetest and most adorable. Tragic, sad and devastating. Her poor family."

Murphy was born in Atlanta, Georgia, on November 10, 1977. Her parents divorced when she was two and she was raised by her mother, Sharon Murphy (Irish and Eastern European descent), in Edison, New Jersey, and later Los Angeles. Her father, Angelo Bertolotti (Italian American), is, allegedly, a convicted mobster, found guilty of racketeering.

Other Notable Deaths

In West Hollywood, other tragic deaths have included those of John Belushi and River Phoenix.

In 1982, John Belushi died of a drug overdose at the elegant Chateau Marmont hotel. On the night of his death, he was visited separately by friends Robin Williams (at the height of his own drug exploits) and Robert De Niro, each of whom left the premises, leaving Belushi in the company of assorted others, including Cathy Smith. This is just one of many notable sordid events at the location. A 1930s movie executive reportedly said, "If you must get into trouble, do it at the Chateau Marmont."

Actor River Phoenix died of a drug overdose on Halloween morning in 1993 at the Viper Room, a club that was opened that year and was partly owned by actor Johnny Depp until 2004.

Howard Hughes

West Hollywood, then called Sherman, formerly was an important retreat for Howard Hughes. In 1930, Howard Hughes purchased the building at 7000 Romaine Street, which was then used for an experimental film process company for a short time. Hughes eventually used the location as the communication nerve center for his empire. Employees called this location The Fortress.

The area around Fountain Avenue, Harper Avenue and Havenhurst Drive contains a high concentration of landmark 1920s Spanish Revival and Art Deco apartment buildings by such noted architects as Leland Bryant. This historic district has been home to many celebrities and at one time the Sunset Tower at 8358 Sunset Boulevard was home to Frank Sinatra, Errol Flynn, the Gabor Sisters, John Wayne and Howard Hughes.

Close Encounters of Fourth Kind Author Dies

The death of author C. D. B. Bryan, 73, who wrote his last book about an academic symposium that examined claims of alien visitations, Close Encounters of the Fourth Kind: Alien Abductions, UFOs and the Conference at Massachusetts Institute of Technology (NY: Alfred A. Knopf,1995), has been detailed in an obituary by Bruce Weber at The New York Times.

C. D. B. Bryan, a novelist and journalist whose 1976 book, "Friendly Fire," about the accidental death of a soldier in Vietnam, the consequent anguish of his family and their rage at the Army and the federal government, became one of the enduring works of reportage on the Vietnam War, died Tuesday [December 15, 2009] at home in Guilford, Conn....The cause was cancer, said his son, St. George Bryan.

Bryan's own military career involved serving in the U.S. Army in South Korea (1958–1960), but not happily, according to source material. He was mobilized again (1961–1962) for the Berlin Crisis of 1961. He was an intelligence officer, according to his profile at Wikipedia.

Bruce Weber notes later in the Times obituary:

Courtlandt Dixon Barnes Bryan, known as Courty, was born in Manhattan on April 22, 1936, and grew up in various locations, but mostly in Doylestown, Pa. His father, Joseph Bryan III, was a magazine writer and editor who had a fascination with unidentified flying objects, a subject C. D. B. Bryan would explore himself in his final book....

His father was a major actor in the study of UFOs, actually, especially regarding his role in the relatively mainstream workings of the Washington D. C.-based organization, the National Investigations Committee On Aerial Phenomena.

[Donald Keyhoe, Maj USMC (Ret.)]became NICAP’s director. He established a monthly newsletter, The U.F.O. Investigator. Another prominent figure joined NICAP’s board of governors: Keyhoe's Naval Academy classmate VADM Roscoe H. Hillenkoetter, USN (Ret.) He had been Director of Central Intelligence and first head of the Central Intelligence Agency. Another important name on the letterhead was that of Gen. Albert Coady Wedemeyer USA (Ret.)....

By 1969, Keyhoe turned his focus away from the military and focused on the CIA as the source of the UFO cover up. By December 1969, NICAP's board, headed by Colonel Joseph Bryan III, forced Keyhoe to retire as NICAP chief. Bryan was actually a former covert CIA agent who had served as founder and head of the CIA's psychological warfare division. Under Bryan's leadership, NICAP disbanded its local and state affiliate groups. Source

The New York Times concludes with the following personal information:

His parents divorced when he was in his late teens, and his mother, Katharine Lansing Barnes, married the novelist John O'Hara, who was especially influential in turning the young man toward writing fiction.

Young Courty Bryan was educated at several private schools and was thrown out of two of them, one for cheating, an incident central to an early short story, "So Much Unfairness of Things," which appeared in The New Yorker and grew into his first novel, "P.S. Wilkinson." It won the Harper Prize, given by the publisher Harper & Row to the finest manuscript turned in by an unknown writer, in 1965.

In spite of his spotty academic career, he was admitted to Yale. After graduation he served in the Army in South Korea in the late 1950s, an unhappy episode that also found its way into the novel.

* * *

Mr. Bryan was a smoker, a drinker and an avid and gifted conversationalist who effortlessly commanded the attention of people around a dinner table, his son said. He will be cremated in advance of a memorial service early next year, St. George Bryan added; until then, his remains are to be stored in martini shakers.Source.

The Fourth Kind



It is to be noted that the movie The Fourth Kind opened on Friday, November 6, 2009. It is a science fiction/thriller/horror film directed by Olatunde Osunsanmi, and starring Milla Jovovich. The film is purported to be a documentary reenactment set in Nome, Alaska, and deals with alien abductions. The film's promotional material says the title is derived from J. Allen Hynek's classification of close encounters with aliens, in which the fourth kind denotes an alien abduction.

As researcher S. Miles Lewis points out in personal correspondence, this is technically incorrect.

A close encounter of the fourth kind is said to be when a "human is abducted by a UFO or its occupants." But this type was not included in Hynek's original close encounters scale.

Jacques Vallee, Hynek's associate, argued in "Physical Analysis in Ten Cases of Unexplaind Aerial Objects with Material Samples." (Journal of Scientific Exploration, Vol. 12, No. 3., pp. 359-375, 1998) that a CE4 should be described as "cases when witnesses experienced a transformation of their sense of reality," so as to also include non-abduction cases where absurd, hallucinatory or dreamlike events are associated with UFO encounters.

Lonnie Zamora, famed historical UFO eyewitness who was a member of law enforcement when he had his experience, also recently died, on November 2, 2009. Zamora had encounters of the first, second, and third kind, but not the fourth kind.

C. D. B. Bryan's book, Close Encounters of the Fourth Kind, actually does involve the academic analyses of those level of claims of alien visitations. The five-day conference that Bryan covered was chaired by M.I.T. Professor of Physics David Pritchard and Harvard Professor of Psychiatry John Mack. John Mack, M.D. (who was killed when hit by a car in London, on September 27, 2004) was a historically significant figure in abduction studies, who gave much credibility to the field, especially after Bryan's book appeared.

NVCC Shooting

A 20-year-old student opened fire in a Woodbridge, Virginia community college classroom, but did not hit anyone and was arrested in a hallway, police said on December 8, 2009 (on the anniversary of John Lennon's death).

No injuries were reported following the afternoon shooting at Northern Virginia Community College's campus in Woodbridge, about 25 miles south of Washington, D.C.

Jason Michael Hamilton, 20, of Manassas was later charged with attempted murder and discharging a firearm in a school zone and was being held without bond. Whether Hamilton had hired an attorney was not immediately clear.

Prince William County Police spokeswoman Kim Chinn said the student, armed with a high-powered rifle, fired several shots and left the classroom. Officers found him in a hallway where he was cooperative and was taken into custody, Chinn said.

The spokeswoman said the unidentified teacher ducked when the student opened fire.

"When she saw the gun, she hit the floor," Chinn said.

Hamilton did not have the gun when he was arrested, but told police where it was, the spokeswoman said.

Chinn said she didn't know exactly where Hamilton's rifle was found, but it wasn't in the classroom.

Police spokeswoman Sharon Richardson said officers responded about 2:40 p.m. to an "active shooter" situation following reports of a gunman in the main administration building.

The college enacted its emergency lockdown procedures and later issued a statement saying all Woodbridge classes were canceled Tuesday because of the shooting. Some students, faculty and staff were sent to a nearby high school.

All classrooms are in one building and the students were in lockdown until about 5:30 p.m. Swat teams went into each classroom during the lockdown, said Chinn, who didn't know how many students were inside or how many shots were fired.

Biology professor Miriam St. Clair, of McLean, Va., said "we heard a loud noise, it sounded like a desk fell over and we heard another loud pop, we knew it was a gunshot."

St. Clair, 58, said she looked out the window and saw students running. The professor said she told her students to get inside the classroom and they closed the door, which did not have a lock, and barricaded themselves inside by piling about 20 desks against the door, crouching behind other desks in the room.

One of the students called 911 and the operator told them to stay where they were. About 2 1/2 hours later, a SWAT team came into the classroom and told them it was safe.

"We were very frightened," St. Clair said.

Two police cars were outside the suspect's home in an affluent new subdivision, but officers wouldn't let reporters close.

Neighbor Daren Edwards, 38, said Hamilton's parents moved to the subdivision about three years ago and Hamilton lived in the basement. Edwards said he sometimes saw him jogging alone, or with his mother.

"He's always by himself, he's always isolated," Edwards said

JFK Doctor Dies

Malcolm Oliver Perry II, 80, the doctor who attended JFK in Dallas has died, reports the Dallas Daily News.

As noted in the Paraview Press book, Trauma Room One: The JFK Medical Coverup Exposed by Charles A. Crenshaw, et al., Perry was one of the doctors who believed the fatal head shot that killed Kennedy had come from the front (not the back, as was the conventional Warren Commission finding).

Dr. Malcolm Oliver Perry II, who attended to President John F. Kennedy at Parkland Memorial Hospital after he was shot in Dallas on Nov. 22, 1963, has died.

The University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center, the teaching hospital for Parkland, said Monday that Perry died Saturday, December 5, 2009, in Tyler, Texas, after a battle with lung cancer.

Perry was an assistant professor of surgery at UT Southwestern and a vascular surgeon on the Parkland staff when he became the first staff surgeon to treat Kennedy.

In an extensive interview by the Warren Commission, which investigated the assassination, Perry recalled taking the case over from the senior resident, checking the president's vital signs and finding none but noting a convulsive effort to breath. He performed a tracheotomy on the president while other staff doctors and surgeons gathered to help.

Perry and another surgeon performed cardiopulmonary resuscitation on Kennedy until no brain activity was detected on the trauma room instruments. At 1 p.m., Kennedy was declared dead by Dr. Kemp Clark, the UT Southwestern neurosurgery chairman, from a catastrophic head wound.

Dr. Robert McClelland was the last surgeon to attend Kennedy in Trauma Room 1. McClelland, a longtime friend and Parkland and UT Southwestern colleague of Perry's, remembers that the shock of realizing whom they were treating faded quickly when they entered the trauma room.

"At Parkland we're accustomed, all of us are, to treating many different cases," McClelland told The Associated Press on Monday. "Of course, it's the president," he said. Was it hard to put that aside? "No, not really. Everything was so rapidly happening that we were called on the peak of the moment."

Perry told the commission that the neck wound Kennedy suffered from the sniper's first rifle shot would likely have not been fatal. However, he testified that neither he nor Clark could tell from their examinations from where the bullets came.

The vascular surgeon also was one of the doctors to operate on presidential assassin Lee Harvey Oswald, who was shot two days after Kennedy's death by Jack Ruby.

After a long career, Perry retired in 2000 as professor emeritus of surgery at UT Southwestern. But McClelland, now 80, said that after the assassination his friend never mentioned their role in the case, and that they never discussed it even among themselves.

"No, we didn't, for reasons he kept to himself. Immediately after, he had a bad experience with interviews that hurt him deeply. Whenever the subject threatened to come up, he'd raise an eyebrow and that would be that," he said.

Perry was born in Allen, Texas, a once-tiny farming-and-railroad town about 20 miles north of Dallas that is now one of the city's fastest-growing suburbs. He was raised by his grandfather and namesake, Dr. Malcolm O. Perry I, a general practitioner in the small town.

Forza Ambush

Forza is an Italian word that means "force" or "strength." It is used in shouting yells at football (soccer) games in Europe, loosely, as "Forward," as in "Forward *name of team*."

Update

Police in Seattle have shot and killed the AfricanAmerican man suspected of executing four Lakewood, Wash., police officers.

ABC News has confirmed that Maurice Clemmons was killed after police followed leads to a city address where he was hiding, after gunfire was exchanged. Seattle police had been watching several homes, with officers assigned to watch each location.

Clemmons, 37, had been the focus of an intense two-day manhunt that included a systematic raid of the homes of his friends and family, who were believed to have been helping him evade capture.

Police said Monday, November 30, that Clemmons was believed to have been armed while on the run, possibly with several guns. Calling him "dangerous," they said, was an understatement.

Police said on Tuesday, December 1, that they believe Clemmons' friends and family had been providing authorities with false leads all along. It was those misleading tips, they said, that led police and SWAT members to surround a Seattle home for 11 hours Sunday night into Monday.

The standoff in Seattle's Leschi neighborhood ended Monday morning when a police robot and SWAT members confirmed that Clemmons had been able to flee the area undetected.

Authorities say Clemmons had no ties to the house he was believed to have been hiding in and that they believe he was dropped off in the neighborhood Sunday evening.

The area was described as hilly and wooded, providing lots of hiding places.

Pierce County Sheriff's Department spokesman Ed Troyer told ABC News Seattle affiliate KOMO-TV that the raids Monday were being carried out "to collect evidence against him and against those helping him evade us."

Clemmons suffered a gunshot wound to the abdomen in a brief shootout with the Lakewood officers he ultimately killed as they sat in a coffee shop Sunday morning, preparing for their next shift.
+++++++
On November 29, 2009, an ambush of police officers occurred at a Forza coffee shop in the USA.

The four police officers were shot and killed Sunday morning in what authorities called a targeted ambush at the shop. The Forza Coffee Company is near McChord Air Force Base in Tacoma, Washington State, specifically in Lakewood, about 60 kilometres south of Seattle.

Pierce County Sheriff's spokesman Ed Troyer says that the officers were in a coffee establishment, near 116th Street and Steele Street, on the east side of the Air Force base at about 8:30 a.m.

(In the wake of the Fort Hood shooting, no media speculation has occurred as to the relationship to this location and the previous multiple shooting. The military backstory to this incident, however, might turn out to be significant.)

Troyer says the officers were preparing for their shift when a suspect or suspects "walked in with a handgun, opened fire multiple times and then fled the scene," said Troyer. Police are searching for a male suspect (maybe two?) and interviewing witnesses.

Troyer called it an "ambush."

"We hopefully will have answers, but there is nothing more we can tell you," Troyer said. "That's as cold-hearted as it is."
Troyer would not say what agency the officers were from until families could be notified.

The suspects are an AfricanAmerican male and a Caucasian male. Troyer said one of the suspects are 5-foot-7 and 5-foot-10, 20s to 30s, scruffy appearance, with one seen wearing a black coat and blue jeans.

He said they are looking to see if there is any surveillance cameras that may have caught the suspect or suspects on video.

Morgan & Sturgis?

So you are unaware of the name Bob Morgan in conjunction with that of Frank Sturgis, Watergate burglar, CIA operative, and Bay of Pigs player?

People who study Bigfoot understand the history of Robert W. Morgan and his involvement in the search for the elusive creatures. Few realize that Morgan has a rich legacy, as well, cryptopolitically. This will all change in January 2010 after Morgan's new book Citizen Spy is published.


Robert Morgan

Canton reporter Diana Rossetti recently interviewed Morgan, and wrote an interesting overview of the man's life:

At 74 years old, Robert W. Morgan still muses, only half joking, about what he wants to do when he grows up.

Until he narrows the possibilities, here is what the 1954 Lincoln High School [Canton, Ohio] graduate already has under his belt:

Morgan led the first expeditions in search of what he now calls “forest giant people” and others variously dubbed Bigfoot, Sasquatch, Yeti and the Abominable Snowman.

He still believes the hairy, strong-smelling giants exist, and plans a private expedition to Washington in June [2010].

He was commissioned by developers of a multimillion-dollar condominium project on Maui to search for the world’s most beautiful fountain.

One of life’s proudest moments, aside from the birth of his only child, a daughter, was being adopted by the then-100-year-old Nino Cochise, grandson of the original Cochise, nephew of Geronimo and the last Apache born free.

Morgan was on a movie set when a hanging scene featuring screen actor Harold “Oddjob” Sakata, best known for his role in “Goldfinger,” went awry, leaving the 270-pound thespian actually dangling by his neck.

“Bill Shatner ran up and lifted him up by his legs, and another guy and I climbed up and cut the rope,” Morgan recalled. The rope that nearly took Sakata’s life is on Morgan’s desk today.

“When Sakata was dying of stomach cancer in a Honolulu hospital, his nurse was Nancy Thomas. She was from Canton. It turned out, I had dated her sister, Gwen,” he recalled, adding that there is a “special lady” in his life these days.

The late Frank Sturgis, sometimes remembered as one of the Watergate burglars but also as a decorated World War II U.S. Marine, enlisted Morgan in a Miami-based, CIA-funded paramilitary group training to overthrow Cuban dictator Fidel Castro.

The kid with the piercing blue eyes who grew up on Prospect Avenue in Canton’s southwest end is a successful screenwriter and filmmaker, having worked around the world, including a stint in the former Soviet Union.

He recently completed a two-year radio blog and remains a popular radio talk show guest in the Pacific Northwest.

Currently, Morgan is burning the midnight oil at his home, where bears wandering his deck are the only visitors. He is steaming toward a publisher’s deadline for his latest book, “Citizen Spy,” due for release in January.

The nonfiction thriller reveals Morgan’s own story of teaming with the FBI and the Drug Enforcement Administration to foil a drug-trafficking ring operated by the Mafia....

See here for the entire article.


Robert Morgan
“Life’s too short to dance with nasty ladies,” jokes Robert W. Morgan, who says his favorite Friday nights are spent at the Grizzly Den in Whitefish, Mont., drinking Obsidian Stout, a brew the bar ships in from Bend, Ore., just for him. Here, he works on a movie set.


Robert Morgan
Nino Cochise (front), grandson of the original Cochise and nephew of Geronimo, poses with his wife and adopted son, Robert W. Morgan. Cochise gave Morgan the name “Not Afraid.”

Thank you!

JFK C2C

On the 46th anniversary of the JFK assassination, thus matching the age of 46 for the young president at the time of his death, a comprehensive conspiracy overview of the event was broadcast on Sunday night's "JFK Special VII" on Coast to Coast AM from 10 pm - 2 am PT (1 AM to 5 am ET).

My good friend conspiracy expert Kenn Thomas, along with award-winning journalist Jim Marrs (whom I have served with on JFK mystery death panels), and TV producer and critic John Barbour joined George Knapp to discuss their theories about the tragic day 46 years ago when the world lost John F. Kennedy.

Update: The C2C summary notes ~

George Knapp presided over the 7th annual JFK Special, featuring three acclaimed Kennedy assassination researchers. He was joined by award-winning journalist Jim Marrs along with TV producer and critic John Barbour in the first half of the program as well as conspiracy expert Kenn Thomas in the latter half of the show.

"It only seems controversial," Marrs said of the Kennedy assassination, because there is a such a glaring difference of opinion between those who believe the government's version of events and "those who have actually studied the case."

Barbour and Marrs cited a myriad of suspicious elements involving the Kennedy assassination, such as the FBI's handling of evidence following the murder and issues with the veracity of the gunpowder tests administered to Lee Harvey Oswald. Barbour noted that the spent shell casings, allegedly from the shooting, were found on the book depository's 6th floor window sill sitting "one inch apart and facing the street."

An amused Marrs observed that such a scenario was would be impossible because, when discharging a spent shell from that type of gun, "it flings it over your right shoulder."

They also discussed the nature of the enduring mystery surrounding the murder of Kennedy. Marrs explained that much of the confusion about the event has been created on purpose. "The cover-up has been based on obfuscation," he observed, noting that all the various suspects and factions blamed for the assassination only serve to make the case harder to truly solve.

"All the facts were there, they were just never investigated," Barbour concurred.

Ultimately, Marrs mused, the true story of what happened on that day in Dallas will never be "officially" known because it is simply too troubling to be revealed by the government.

In the second half of the program, Kenn Thomas focused on the connection between the JFK assassination and infamous esoteric figure Fred Crisman. Thomas explained that he emerged as Jim Garrison's suspect for the infamous Grassy Knoll shooter after the prosecutor received an anonymous letter implicating the enigmatic Crisman.

Additionally, Thomas cited a report, called the Torbitt Document, written by a lawyer in Texas, that also independently advanced the same theory as to Crisman's role in the assassination. Potentially placing him at the scene of the crime, Thomas said, is the "three tramps" photo where the character known as "Frenchie" is a "spitting image of Crisman."

For a further overview of the program, links to the guests' websites, identification of the bumper music, and the guests' JFK assassination recommended reading list, visit the archival site for the show here.

Saipan: 5 Dead

Saipan will forever be remembered as the site of one of World War II's deadliest suicidal melodramas. Now a new incident has unfolded on the island, beginning and ending near those past cliffs of suicide.

Saipan is often recalled as the setting where thousands of Japanese soldiers and local civilians jumped to their deaths from the island's cliffs as the American assault drew to a close in July 1944. As the battle of Saipan reached its final days, Japanese soldiers and panicked civilians made their way north to the cliffs. The civilians and soldiers leapt from the island's Marpi Point and other cliffs, dying on the rocks or drowning in the sea.

Now a shooting spree that began near one of those points has ended in suicide near another of those same cliffs. A gunman went on a rampage on the Pacific resort island of Saipan, Northern Mariana Islands, on Friday, November 20, 2009, killing four people and wounding six others before fatally shooting himself, officials said.

Public Safety spokesman Jason Tarkong said two men, a 4-year-old boy and a 2-year-old girl were killed in a half-hour of violence. The dead were all local residents.

The six wounded included a 4-year-old local girl and five visitors from South Korea.

"The lieutenant governor and I are monitoring the situation closely and working with officials from (Public Safety) and the FBI and we will continue to keep everyone informed," Gov. Benigno R. Fitial said.

Authorities said the suspected shooter is a contract worker in his 30s or 40s from Asia, but did not provide his name or home country.

The shootings occurred in two different areas of the island, starting at 11:21 a.m. local time with a popular tourist spot in Marpi where the gunman fired a barrage of bullets from his white van at the Koreans. A 39-year-old man was critically injured with a gunshot wound to his back.

The suspect then drove to the Kannat Tabla Shooting Range where he killed two men in their early 20s and the two children. He also shot a 4-year-old girl, who suffered a gunshot wound to the chest and was in critical condition.

His white van was discovered at Banzai Cliff, where police recovered three rifles.

Officials said the gunman's body was found along the edge off the cliff line near the vehicle with a .22-caliber rifle strapped around his shoulder.

"I want to assure the people of the commonwealth and all of our visiting tourists that the Department of Public Safety has the situation under control and that the individual responsible for these tragedies took his own life," Fitial said, in a summarized report from Gemma Casas and Kwang-tae Kim of the Associated Press.

Saipan is a popular tourist destination among South Koreans, with more than 111,000 South Koreans visiting the island in 2008, according to the Marianas Visitors Authority. The U.S. Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands is located about 3,800 miles southwest of Hawaii.

During World War II, as the Battle of Saipan raged, despite repeated calls by the U.S. military to surrender, civilians chose death by jumping off cliffs or drowning themselves in the sea. They had been led to believe that surrender would mean murder, rape and torture at the hands of U.S. forces. Captured soldiers and civilians, instead, were treated with respect and confined at Camp Susupe.

According to a report on PBS, "On July 9, [1944] organized resistance on Saipan ceased. The costs were high. Americans suffered more than 14,000 casualties including 3,426 killed or missing. Of the 30,000 Japanese troops that defended Saipan, less than 1,000 remained alive at battle's end. Although exact numbers are not known, it is believed that close to 1,000 civilians perished at Marpi Point."

Wicker Man's Woodward Dies

Edward Woodward, 79, the central leading actor in The Wicker Man, died on Monday, November 16, 2009.



The Wicker Man is a 1973 British horror film, combining thriller, existential horror and musical genres, directed by Robin Hardy and written by Anthony Shaffer. The film stars Edward Woodward, Christopher Lee, Diane Cilento, Ingrid Pitt and Britt Ekland. Paul Giovanni composed the soundtrack. The film is now considered a cult classic.

Based on David Pinner's 1967 novel The Ritual, the story is about a Scottish police officer, Sergeant Neil Howie (played by Woodward), visiting the isolated island of Summerisle to search for a missing girl (named, significantly, "Rowan") whom the locals claim never existed. Police Sergeant Neil Howie is sent an anonymous letter recommending that he investigate the disappearance of a young girl, Rowan Morrison, on the remote Hebridean island of Summerisle (a fictional island apparently inspired by the real-life Summer Isles of the Inner Hebrides).

The inhabitants of Summerisle all celebrate a reconstructed form of Celtic paganism, which upsets the devoutly Christian Sergeant. In the original uncut version of the film, he witnesses couples copulating in the church yard, in addition to finding a naked woman sobbing on a grave. He angrily threatens to involve the authorities after discovering the school mistress (Diane Cilento) is teaching young girls about the phallic importance of the maypole.



The character played by Woodward (an intriguing name, in and of itself) finds himself attracted strongly to Willow (Britt Ekland), the sexually liberated daughter of the landlord. In the restored director's cut of the film, Lord Summerisle refers to Willow as Aphrodite when presenting her with a young male adolescent to seduce. The police sergeant cannot help but overhear their passionate lovemaking. To compound matters, Willow tries to seduce him the following night, dancing naked and beating upon his bedroom wall, but he resists the torment with some obvious physical discomfort.

(The uncensored version is difficult to view online, but the pagan passion of "Willow's Song" is clearly evident even in what is to be discovered on YouTube.)

Lord Summerisle (Christopher Lee) clearly is a match for Sergeant Howie. During a May Day festival, Howie attempts to learn more about what is occurring there by dressing at Punch. But that backfires, to say the least and perhaps to state so as a pun.

Lord Summerisle and his followers explain to the good Christian Sergeant that his sacrifice will be effective because Howie came to them of his own free will; as a virgin; with the power of a king (by representing the law); and as a fool ("You are the Fool, Mr. Howie: Punch, one of the great fool-victims in history! For you have accepted the role of King-For-A-Day, and who but a Fool would do that?" asks the school mistress, referring to the way that Howie has conducted his investigations).

Howie in turn admonishes them, claiming that killing him will not restore their fertility and that they all would be guilty of murder. He argues that if the crops fail next year they will have to sacrifice Summerisle. Lord Summerisle asserts that Howie's sacrifice will have the desired results.

The policeman is dragged screaming into the belly of a large hollow wicker statue of a man which is subsequently ignited. In the final scene of the film, the islanders surround the burning wicker man and sing the Middle English folk-song "Sumer Is Icumen In" while the terrified Howie shouts out Psalm 23. The film ends with the Wicker Man engulfed in flames, and collapsing in front of the setting sun.




Woodward, who also starred in Breaker Morant and in the "The Equalizer" on television, died in a hospital in Cornwall after an illness, said Janet Glass of the Eric Glass Ltd. agency in London.

He won an Emmy Award in 1990 for "Remembering World War II" and a Golden Globe in 1987 for "The Equalizer," which ran for 88 episodes from 1985 to 1989 on the U.S. network CBS.

In a career that began in 1946 in a regional production of "A Kiss for Cinderella," Woodward played roles in productions ranging from the popular British soap opera "Eastenders" to productions of Shakespeare, and at least 40 films for theater or television.

His last film appearances were in 2007's Hot Fuzz (an ironic name, considering The Wicker Man role) and Congregation of Ghosts, now in post-production.

"I think I've probably more television than any actor living," Woodward said in a 1987 interview with The Associated Press. "I've done over 2,000, could be 3,000 now, television productions."

"I suppose there is also the feeling that it is the largest medium by far for information, education and above all, entertainment," he added. "And after all, that's what an actor's life is all about. Getting work and entertaining people."

At the time, Woodward was promoting a U.S. television film of Uncle Tom's Cabin, in which played the wicked slave owner, Simon Legree. He found the role strangely refreshing.

"If you are a British actor, you do lots of Shakespeare and lots of classical work. There is always a great actor who has just played your character," he said.

"Lucky for me, Simon Legree has not been done very often," he added.

Woodward is survived by his second wife, actress Michele Dotrice, their daughter, and two sons and a daughter from his first marriage.

Funeral arrangements have not been announced.

In The Wake Of Fort Hood

There has been some foolish news articles in the aftermath of the Fort Hood shooting deaths discussing Islam, ignoring the underlying similar nature of that shooting to "rampage killings" and not understanding that in its wake copycats would naturally occur.

Indeed, people should open their eyes and look, yes, merely look, at the faces of the victims and the shooters to find some overlaps that are striking in those killed and the killers. Lost in all of the talk of the Fort Hood alleged shooter's Muslim background is the fact that he targeted mental health professionals in the group he fired upon. Did the Fort Hood shooter aim at some who most reflected parts of himself that he hated ~ even down to shooting at bald or short-haired men and mental health personnel?


The Fort Hood victims.


The Fort Hood shooter.


The Orlando killer.


The New York Hostage Taker.

Note the similar facial features, and overall appearance of these men. The suicidal "rampage" individual tends to identify with one another in a cycle on many levels, including visually.

We need only let the facts be recorded and the unfolding history of such events speak to the reality of behavior contagion occurring.

On Friday, November 6, the day after the Guy Fawkes Day shooting at Fort Hood, Texas, authorities in Orlando, Florida, said a debt-ridden man Jason Rodriguez, 40, who believed his former employer was interfering with his unemployment benefits was blamed for a workplace shooting. Rodriguez was fired by the engineering firm of Reynolds, Smith and Hills two years ago. Otis Beckford, 26, was the lone fatality in the shooting, and five were wounded.

Then on Tuesday, a standoff began around 7:45 a.m. Eastern Time and was over by about 10 a.m. at an upstate New York middle school. A former student Christopher Craft Sr., 42, got into the Stissing Mountain Middle School just after classes began Tuesday morning carrying a hidden disassembled shotgun. He allegedly put the weapon together in bathroom before holding Principal Bob Hess hostage for more than an hour.

Craft had two sons who had attended the school, but school officials said neither was currently enrolled. Craft has a son in the military and is allegedly upset with the government. Police say Craft and his hostage were contained to one room in the school, located about 90 miles north of New York City.

Later on Tuesday, November 10, police report that two have died in a suburban Portland, Oregon office park shooting. The two people were killed and two others wounded in a shooting at a Tualatin office park. The shooting at a drug-testing facility was reported at 11:48 a.m. Pacific Time Tuesday. Police said the suspect is not at large but there are no additional details.

KATU-TV reported a witness describing one woman wearing something that looked like a lab coat with blood coming from what appeared to be multiple gunshot wounds.

Do you happen to think that the Portland, Oregon shooter will be revealed to be a middle-aged male with close-cropped or no hair?

Update: This one appears to be a domestic murder-suicide brought to work. The shooting took place at Legacy Metro Lab in Tualatin, Oregon. It has been confirmed that two people are deceased, one of which included the adult male shooter who died from what appears to be a self inflicted gun shot wound. The other deceased was an adult female employee of the business. Robert James Beiser, 39, shot and killed his estranged wife Teresa Marie Beiser, 36, and then himself. The wounded are a 20-year-old woman and a 63-year-old man.

Further Update: Vail, Colorado ~ A man was killed and three others were injured in a shooting Saturday night, November 7, 2009, at the Sandbar in West Vail, Police Chief Dwight Henninger said. Witnesses said a man was being removed from the Sandbar by staff when he began firing a gun. Richard “Rossi” Moreau, 63, a Vail resident, was taken into custody as the suspect in the shooting, Henninger said. The man who died was from Carbondale, and the ages of the three other victims, all male, were 25, 29 and 63, police said.


Suspect Richard Moreau appears to fit the physical profile of the shooters during this rampage cycle. What is the twilight language being transmitted in the mere broadcasting of the Ft. Hood killer's image?