What makes Arizona's killer just a loner, not a terrorist?

[NNN0LHI]

http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2011/jan/13/jared-lee-loughner-loner-muslim-terrorists

If the shooting had been carried out by a Muslim, we'd be deep in Islamist conspiracies now. So why the double standards?

Mehdi Hasan The Guardian, Thursday 13 January 2011

Did you know that Jared Lee Loughner, the suspect in the Arizona shooting spree that left six dead and 14 wounded, including the US congresswoman Gabrielle Giffords, had speculated beforehand on YouTube whether he would be labelled a "terrorist"? He needn't have worried. Loughner has yet to be described in such terms by the authorities or the media. "Loner"? Yes. "Extremist"? Yes. Terrorist? No.

Perhaps, you might say, it's because we have difficulty agreeing on a definition of terrorism, despite the Terrorist Tourette syndrome that so many of our politicians and commentators have suffered from in recent years. "Most of the time, if something looks like a terrorist and makes a noise like a terrorist, it's a terrorist," remarked the then British ambassador to the UN, Sir Jeremy Greenstock, in the wake of the September 11 attacks. If only it were that simple. Terrorism has long been a contested and loaded term. A 2003 study for the US army quoted a source that counted 109 definitions of terrorism that covered 22 different definitional elements.

Nonetheless, most would agree that the use of violence against civilians for political purposes is a form of terrorism. And section 802 of the USA Patriot Act, passed by a Republican Congress the month after the attacks on the World Trade Centre, explicitly expanded the term "terrorism" to include domestic actions that are "dangerous to human life" and are intended to "intimidate or coerce a civilian population", "influence the policy of a government by intimidation or coercion", or "affect the conduct of a government by mass destruction, assassination, or kidnapping".

Isn't the firing of a bullet into the head of an elected politician in a public place covered by any, or all, of those three criteria? Or does the suspect have to have an Arabic name to be classed as a terrorist these days? Imagine, for a moment, that the shooter outside the Tucson Safeway last Saturday had been a Muslim. Does anyone doubt that accusations of homegrown terrorism, links to al-Qaida and vast Islamist conspiracies wouldn't have come thick and fast?

[slackmaster]

1. Unrec for unsupported speculation about a hypothetical situation

He's a deranged loner because he's a deranged loner.

He's not linked to any identifiable ideology. He doesn't even have a Manifesto.

[JustFiveMoreMinutes]

2. ... and white.

[GoddessOfGuinness]

4. bingo

[gratuitous]

3. Well, Mohammud Mohammed was a deranged loner

But the popular culture has had no compunction whatsoever about calling him a terrorist, even though he didn't kill anyone; he just had a lot of help from the FBI. Loughner gets a pass on being called a terrorist, in spite of trail of blood and bodies in his wake because . . . ?

Well, it's all speculation and hypotheticals! Never mind.

[affrayer]

5. I Hope You Do Realize That....

The British considered the original TeaBaggers to be terrorists...

[The Magistrate]

7. And the Description Was Accurate, Sir

'Terrorism' is a very odd word, in that when it is used, the meaning conveyed concerns the person who uses the word, rather than attaches to the person or action that is its object. When the word 'terrorism' is employed, the only meaning conveyed is that the speaker or author does not approve of the violence the word is directed at, deploring either its character or its aim, or both.

[mmonk]

14. But today's tea baggers are tories.

[EFerrari]

6. Napolitano's report called them domestic terrorists.

EILEEN SULLIVAN | 02/21/10

Janet Napolitano: Domestic Terrorism Is Top Concern

WASHINGTON — Americans who turn to terrorism and plot against the U.S. are now as big a concern as international terrorists, Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano said Sunday.

The government is just starting to confront this reality and does not have a good handle on how to prevent someone from becoming a violent extremist, she said.

In the last year, Napolitano said, she's witnessed a movement from international extremism to domestic extremism – cases in which Americans radicalized and decided to plot attacks against the country.

"What really is it that draws a young person being raised in the United States to want to go and be at a camp in Yemen and then come back to the United States with the idea of committing harm within the United States?" Napolitano asked without citing specific cases. "Where in that person's formulation is there an opportunity to break that cycle?"

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2010/02/21/janet-napolitano-domestic-terrorism_n_470915.html

[Recursion]

8. Lack of an ideological goal for the killing (nt)

[Imajika]

9. Laughner is called a loner...

....because it appears he acted completely alone. There is no mysterious double standard.

Jared doesn't appear to have acted in the interest of any political cause or on behalf of any group. As a likely paranoid schizophrenic, his motivations are almost certainly bizarre, twisted and without connection to any political ideology that exists outside of his own head. I am certain law enforcement is investigating any links Laughner may have had that we might not be aware of yet. If it turns out he was connected to an extremist group then he may well be branded a terrorist. At this time though, it appears he was nothing more than a mentally diseased loner with some grudge we may never understand against Giffords..

If the shooting had been carried out by a Muslim we would look, during the investigation, to see if he committed the acts as part of violent jihad. Then we would look to see if he was connected to others as, for example, Nidal Hasan was to Anwar al-Awlaki. If there are connections to Islamic extremists and the motivation for the attack was violent jihad, then said Muslim would likely be tagged a terrorist. If not, then no terrorist label would likely apply.

[angstlessk]

10. Totally agree..individual terrorism kill more people than organized terrorism

check out what creates individual terrorists..cause they cause more harm than organized terrorists...

[Name removed]

11. Deleted message

Message removed by moderator. Click here to review the message board rules.

[kctim]

12. Lack of facts proving otherwise

[BR_Parkway]

13. Skin color