FBI: Air Force mechanic threatened to blow up Utah air force base, kill hostages

[Purveyor]

Source: Associated Press

SALT LAKE CITY (AP) — An aircraft mechanic sent e-mails claiming he would detonate explosives at a Utah air force base and kill six hostages if the U.S. did not remove all troops from Iraq and Afghanistan, authorities said Wednesday.

Five buildings at Hill Air Force Base were evacuated Tuesday after the e-mails began surfacing, but the threat turned out to be false and no hostages were taken, FBI agent Tim Fuhrman said.

William Stiffler, 39, was unarmed when he was arrested Tuesday in Malad, Idaho, as he prepared to board an employee shuttle to the base, Fuhrman said.

Stiffler has worked on C-130 planes at Hill since 2001. He was charged with threatening to kill and injure people and appeared Wednesday in federal court in Salt Lake City. He was returned to jail to await a detention hearing Friday.




Read more: http://www.delmarvanow.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20070725/NEWS01/70725083/1002

[TroglodyteScholar]

1. Whoa n/t

[movonne]

2. Now there is someone who really wants these wars overwith..a

little extreme..

[dollie300]

3. This stuff will be happening to us the rest of our lives.

Al-qaeda or anybody else really has to do nothing else. All they have to do is pretend and we will do it to ourselves. Afterall, isn't that what Saddam did after Clinton administration cleaned him out of his WMDs in the early 90's? He lost his life, thousands of Iraqis lost their lives, homes, country. This nation will never be the same and will eventually implode because of faulty thinking and poor leadership after 9/11 and we will be paying the piper long after this generation passes...if we last that long.

[TreasonousBastard]

4. To think he could have just challenged Pelosi.

[Purveyor]

5. The Reich-wing media will be disappointed, "William Stiffler" doesn't sound like a islamo-fascist

jihadist at all...

What will they do, what will they do? (of course, not report this incident at all...)

[mourningdove92]

6. Lovely....my son is stationed at Hill.

So are two of my nieces.

[TwilightGardener]

9. We were stationed there as well (hubby and I)--

a nice place to live. How awful it might have been if this guy had succeeded at something crazy--one of the things I like best about living on base is the sense of security, especially when my husband's gone. Scary.

[RaleighNCDUer]

7. Terror!!!! Terror!!!! Terror!!!!!

Some guy who doesn't have any explosives is going to BLOW UP AN AIR FORCE BASE!!!!!!!!!!

How the fuck do you blow up an air base?

But he was against the war. That makes him an anti-war protester. That means that ANY anti-war protester may be thinking about blowing up a base.

Are those Haliburton camps open yet?

[Dont_Bogart_the_Pretzel]

14. He must be White

because if he was an dark brown foreigner with a rag onto his head, it would be all over CNN.

[TroglodyteScholar]

15. How do you blow up an air force base?

There certainly aren't any munitions in storage on air force bases.

Were you fully conscious when you typed that?

[RaleighNCDUer]

16. That is silly.

'Blow up a base'.

All several hundred square miles of it. You might be able to blow up a few things ON a base, even, as you said, a munitions bunker (which is, of course, set apart from other structures and designed to blow UP if it should blow, limiting the damage to a couple hundred square yards), but you can't blow up a base.

Sheesh.

[TroglodyteScholar]

18. Sorry-didn't realize the standard for terrorist acts is to wipe a location entirely off the map. n/t

[RaleighNCDUer]

19. Crap. The article clearly talks about his lunatic ramblings about

detonating explosives on the base.

But the headline, that which 80% of the public never delves beyond, says "blow up a base".

It's clearly a disturbed individual, not a 'terrorist', but the headlines are designed to raise FEAR!!!!

Just like the 'terrorists' who had no weapons, no explosives, but who were going to ATTACK FORT DIX!!!!! As if seven men, even the most experienced and well armed seven, could inflict any real damage on one of the biggest bases on the East Coast.

All it is,is BOOGA BOOGA BOOGA!!!!!

They want us to be primed for war with Iran.

EDIT: On the other hand, this would be a perfect cover story if this guy was 'dangerous' in some other way - maybe, he was witness to something on one of those planes he worked on. The only evidence is emails that nobody saw but the FBI - he didn't have any explosives, took no hostages, and nobody expected any of this. A great way to 'disappear' someone.

[Ian David]

8. I do like Stiffler's mom, though

[Parche]

10. You BEAT me to it

:bounce: :bounce: :hi:

[guitar man]

12. dammit

beat me to it :(

[cobalt1999]

11. That boy is missing a few marbles.

He threatens to kill six children, and he sends emails from work and home location. Being arrested may be the best thing for him, maybe he'll get some mental health assistance.

[lovuian]

13. This is what Bush regime is producing and there will be more

its really going to get ugly out there

when people see the government is not working

they get crazy

[truthisfreedom]

17. Maybe they should have someone take a look at the planes he's been servicing.

Sounds like he's got some serious mental health issues.

[goforit]

20. What an idiot!!! Put it into emails????

[saigon68]

21. A serious case of Paranoid schizophrenia