Secret Service Says They're All Sorry Nuts Who Acted Alone

[Paranoid Pessimist]

Last night I watched a 60 Minutes piece where a couple of Secret Service crazy assassin experts explained that, after interviewing all of them who weren't dead, that they all were bonkers in pretty much the same way, that they all acted alone, that "politics" had nothing really to do with what they did except to maybe, as in Jared Loughner's case, to provide a little content. According to these guys all of them realized that committing their crime did not solve their problems. Even Sirhan Sirhan? I'd always heard he claimed not to know or remember why he did what he did if he did it.

Sirhan Sirhan has also been on a strict, court enforced regimen of anti-psychotic medication from the day he was committed. Anti-psychotics will drive you insane if you are already healthily. At this point, according to one person who tried to interview Mr. Sirhan, there is no chance of getting a coherent narrative of what happened that day.

Who knows what if anything is true, but I have trouble believing government agents when they come forth with stuff like this .

Bits and pieces of Loughner's story keep being released to the media a bit at a time, and we hear about a lot of things that we don't get to see, such as his poetry.

But some of the questions that I haven't heard be asked are:

Where did he get the $500 to buy the gun? Wikipedia says he got "fired from his job at Quiznos" then "underwent a personality transformation." What was his personality like before he transformed? Did he have the money saved up and put aside? What about the money he used to check into a Motel the night before the shooting? Where did that come from?

Are efforts being made to question him and see if somebody might have (perish the thought) put him up to it? Or has his court appointed lawyer advised him against speaking? Have they met and discussed things? I've always thought Lee Harvey Ozwald, whether he "acted alone" (as all of them are said to have done by the Secret Service) or, was an "aimed nut" -- that he didn't come up with the idea all on his own.

Is he still sitting in his cell with that same smirk on his face refusing to talk further?

I'm not saying he was framed or was part of a conspiracy, but I can't help but wonder.

[proud2BlibKansan]

1. He's been described as frugal. And he had a credit card.

Not hard for him to get his hands on $500.

I don't know how to answer your other questions.

[Paranoid Pessimist]

4. Who paid the credit card bill? Who would know how to answer?

[glinda]

2. A person can be political as well as crazy. Palin and Bachman. So I take

exception with the first part.

[Paranoid Pessimist]

3. So did I. n/t

[JVS]

5. Yeah, as though they would say anything else.

[emulatorloo]

6. The last I heard, he was not talking.

[The Second Stone]

7. Squeaky Fromm was a member of the Manson family

conspiracy. While she had been on her own for years, the Manson family was a violent movement that certainly had influence on her.

[Statistical]

8. He actually bought two guns, extra mags, and ammo.

That is about $1200 not including his hotel room, and meals.
$1200 isn't that much for someone who is "dedicated". He was living at home rent free (likely free food, utilities and transportation too). Isn't that hard to save up under circumstances like that. He also had a credit card.

[Generic Other]

10. Also right after the holidays

People sometimes get cash for xmas.

[Paranoid Pessimist]

14. There's a heartwarming thought for you.

[jwirr]

9. Even these loners do not live in a vacuum. They may not understand

what is happening around them but they still have some input from it.

Recently my sil called to ask for help with my brother who has bipolar and has gone into a very deep winter withdrawal. She insisted he did not know she was there. My sister and I got together and told her about the first time he did this. He would turn his back on us, refuse to eat with us, did not say a word for 2 years and generally withdrew from the world. The family left a tv turned on for company and food out to eat when he wanted it. We went on with life around him in our normal way. When he came out of it he did not have to catch up. He had been listening - just not participating. All these outside factors had helped him come through.

Interesting aside: my sister told me the day he came out of it she baked him some very good brownies. Legalize.

[Rex]

11. The SS wishes that was true! Since they were absent during the actual shooting

all they have is hearsay.

[ladjf]

12. Secrecy, obfuscation, and disregard for the publics' best interests. Is that you,

America? I thought I knew you but apparently, I was wrong.

[Zoeisright]

13. They have to be aware of politics.

Otherwise, why did they kill Kennedy and MLK? Why are they going after abortion doctors? And why Gabby Giffords? They are learning about these people in the media, and I am god damned sure they are also hearing about all the virulent talk from the right at the same time.

If they were just "sorry nuts who acted alone" they'd be shooting and killing anybody who walked by.

[Imajika]

15. No, they would look for some other authority figure...

...one that was highly recognized. The key is that these shooters understand politicians are authority figures, almost celebrities in certain ways, that do, through the laws they pass, have a certain measure of control over us. But that doesn't mean the shooter ascribes to any coherent political philosophy themselves. Then in their mentally deranged state they blame said authority figure/celebrity for all sorts of irrational things that very often simply don't have anything to do with left wing or right wing thinking.

Almost all of these threads have one thing in common just below the surface, and that is people are still determined to find ways to make Laughner a right winger even though no serious evidence exists to link him to the right. Sometimes people are just mentally ill and do things like this for reasons that we will never understand. It is absolutely possible for a mentally unstable person to be influenced by violent right wing rhetoric, and it is certainly worth looking into, but in this particular case the evidence from the very beginning does not seem to show that Laughner was any more interested in right wing talk than John Hinckley was interested in left wing talk. This has almost certainly been a mental health issue all along, not some conspiracy that will show itself if only we keep on trying to piece one together.

[Crabby Appleton]

16. NPR's article about the study

http://www.npr.org/2011/01/14/132909487/fame-through-assassination-a-secret-service-study?ft=1&f=1001

[apocalypsehow]

17. Lee Harvey Oswald not only "came up" with the idea for his horrific crime all alone, he committed it

all alone and without a speck of outside help. And there is not a single shred of credible evidence to suggest otherwise. That is all.