John Patrick Bedell: Did right-wing extremism lead to shooting?

[onehandle]

John Patrick Bedell, whom authorities identified as the gunman in the Pentagon shooting on Thursday, appears to have been a right-wing extremist with virulent antigovernment feelings.

If so, that would make the Pentagon shooting the second violent extremist attack on a federal building within the past month. On Feb. 18, Joseph Stack flew a small aircraft into an IRS building in Austin, Texas. Mr. Stack left behind a disjointed screed in which, among other things, he expressed his hatred of the government.

Details of Mr. Bedell’s case are still emerging. But writings by someone with his same name and birth date, posted on the Internet, express ill will toward the government and the armed forces and question whether Washington itself might have been behind the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks.

http://www.csmonitor.com/USA/2010/0305/John-Patrick-Bedell-Did-right-wing-extremism-lead-to-shooting

[Rebubula]

1. OK...

....anger against the military - sounds more left
....US Behind 9-11 attacks - VERY LEFT
...ill will towards Government - Libertarian.

From what I have been reading, there is little room to make this a right wing sort of attack.

[onehandle]

3. Militias are being formed all over the U.S. to 'fight Obama's military.'

Many Libertarians believe 9/11 was a conspiracy.

And Libertarians are just a crazier form of extreme Republicans.

[Rebubula]

4. Citation, please

"Militias are being formed all over the U.S. to 'fight Obama's military"

I am not saying that you are completely wrong, but until the facts are in...it serves no purpose to trot out the right-wing terrorist boogieman. This sounds like (as with the IRS guy) one dickhead with a grievance against the powers that be - be they Democrat or Republican.

[onehandle]

5. New SPLC Report: "Patriot" Groups, Militias Surge in Number in Past Year

Patriot groups have been fueled by anger over the changing demographics of the country, the soaring public debt, the troubled economy and an array of initiatives by President Obama that have been branded "socialist" or even "fascist" by his political opponents.

"This extraordinary growth is a cause for grave concern," said Intelligence Report editor Mark Potok. "The people associated with the Patriot movement during its 1990s heyday produced an enormous amount of violence, most dramatically the Oklahoma City bombing that left 168 people dead."

The Patriot movement has made significant inroads into the conservative political scene, according to the new report. "The ‘tea parties' and similar groups that have sprung up in recent months cannot fairly be considered extremist groups, but they are shot through with rich veins of radical ideas, conspiracy theories and racism," the report says.

Unlike the 1990s, the Patriot movement's central ideas are being promoted by people with large audiences, such as FOX News' Glenn Beck and U.S. Rep. Michele Bachmann of Minnesota. Beck, for instance, reinvigorated a key Patriot conspiracy theory - the charge that the Federal Emergency Management Agency is secretly running concentration camps - before finally "debunking" it.

http://www.splcenter.org/get-informed/news/splc-report-number-of-patriot-groups-militias-surges-by-244-in-past-year

[Rebubula]

7. Thank you for the link...

...very informative.

I still, until we see more, disagreeing with you that this is a RW Terror attack. I cling to the (possibly misguided hope) idea that this is just a one-off idiot being mad and wanting his 'John Hinkley' moment.

[True_Blue]

10. Actually he sounds like a far right Libertarian

Nothing in his recording sounds left -

snip - "Communist and socialist governments that abolished or disregarded private property," said Bedell in the recording, "created poverty, repression and murder on a truly enormous scale." But, he continued, "Even in the United States, however, there has been a continual erosion of protection of private property justified by the belief that government is an efficient instrument for the positive direction of society."

Bedell added: "Governments lack the profit and loss incentives that individuals and private organizations must use..."

And he warned: "When governments are able to confiscate the resources of their citizens to fund schemes that need only be justified by lies and deception enormous disasters can result."

Bedell also denounced the monetary system, a frequent bete noir of anti-government extremists. "When the government can control how private property is used," he said, "and especially when the government controls the monetary system that is use to exchange private property, the government has the mechanisms and the motivation to control individuals to the smallest detail."
http://tpmmuckraker.talkingpointsmemo.com/2010/03/pentagon_shooter_praised_private_property_rights_d.php

[cherokeeprogressive]

2. Dunno. I thought right wing tendency was to DENY any and all government involvement in 9/11?

He thought a Marine Colonel named James Sabow whose death was ruled a suicide in 91 might be the object of some kind of coverup. Also, he railed against government enforcement of marijuana laws.

Those don't sound like the things a right winger gets involved with to me.

[Subdivisions]

6. Right-wingers, by far, support the official story of what happened on 9/11. n/t

[bullwinkle428]

8. Debra Medina, the Tea Party candidate for TX governor, was another

one that questioned the government's involvement in the 9/11 attacks. Glenn Beck all but called her a crackpot in an interview with her that ended abruptly once she brought the subject up!

[gmoney]

9. I imagine all the "fight back agin the gummint" talk from Beck, Hannity, Savage, etc.

will be giving a nudge to a lot of folks who are already pretty close to the edge, regardless of political stripe.

A lot of these "conservative" and "libertarian" hatemongers are really skirting the edge of calling for armed rebe11ion.