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Attempted Breach of NSA HQ Checkpoint; One Shot Dead
seven of five writes One man is dead and another severely injured after a shootout at one of the main gates of the National Security Agency located at Fort Meade, Maryland. Two men dressed as women attempted to 'penetrate' the entry point with their vehicle when a shootout occurred, officials said. The FBI said they do not believe the incident is related to terrorism.
Being dressed as women has nothing to do with putting 'penetration' in quotes, unless there is some sort of joke I'm missing. Why is it in quotes?
So in some abstract sense I can see why the NSA could be considered a valid target in some contexts.
But, honestly, trying to gate crash an Army base and then getting into a shooting match with the guards ... well, that's a special kind of stupid.
Lost at C:>. Found at C.
Because nerds hate the NSA for spying on them.
Funnily enough the "bad guys" in this situation become a very fuzzy argument.
Pretty sure this is just "The Americans" fan fiction...
It's the dead level of dead, obviously.
It lies between "pretty dead" and "extra dead".
Why is this here?
Because the NSA, with all its massive data collection, retention, and analysis, did not see this coming.
It is quoting what the officials said.
FTA
" An NSA police officer shot one of the people dead dead and seriously injured the second."
Apparently the culprit was shot double-dead /.
Nerds love zombie stories, hence it is on
Wherever You Go, There You Are
Until Dr. Charles Luther h@xx0rs your self-driving car and makes it crash through the gates at a military base.
the preceding comment is my own and in no way reflects the opinion of the Joint Chiefs of Staff
You'd think they would have seen this coming.
So the scale goes:
Mostly dead- Slightly alive.
Pretty dead- Don't expect them at poker night next friday.
Dead dead- Attempted to invade the NSA.
All dead- Go through their pockets and look for loose change.
Extra dead- Now that's just excessive. I mean really, what possessed you to just keep going like that?
Un dead- Well congratulations. You killed it so hard it went far past Dead on the Life-Death scale and looped around to the other side.
I don't suffer from insanity, I enjoy every minute of it!
Has Barbara Hudson posted today?
John McAfee 'It was like that time I hired that Bangkok prostitute; to do my taxes, while I fucked my accountant'
No. Terrorism is a word to referencing 1st graders eating their poptart in the shape of a gun.
Now i'm not saying that it is, perhaps it was just a drunken rage or some other non politically motivated random act, the base had over 29,000 people on the inside of the wall. It could have been simply a case of adultery involving a person inside the perimeter. Naturally because of the target we all go to political motivation as the driving factor but until we learn more we can assume any infinite number of factors inspired the event.
Well, there's "almost dead", which Miracle Max can still cure, as opposed to "all dead" when all that's left is search their pockets for loose change.
Then there is "mostly dead" which you can have all day and still foil the plan of your adversaries.
It seems to me that the poor saps who tried to invade the NSA went from "mostly dead" to "almost dead" to "all dead" in very short succession. Thus they are a special class of "dead dead".
Double-plus dead, now another visit from Minitrue for you.
"Lost time is not found again."
Because they hadn't been grooming the suspects and didn't help them obtain driver's licenses; which means these people were at least competent enough to acquire a car and fuel on their own.... so its unlikely to be terrorism in the sense we have become accustomed to in the past decade or so.
"I opened my eyes, and everything went dark again"
It doesn't take a foreign government funding a team of trolls to fill a small page with angry comments about the NSA
They tried to breach one of the most secure locations in the world by crashing an SUV into the gates. If they even had a "plan" going in, I'd imagine it was made with crayons and construction paper. Maybe a couple toilet paper tubes and some elmer's glue if they decided to get extra fancy.
They are saying its not terrorism because if this was terrorism, they should have know in advance of this given that's what they exist for.
Can't let people know they never succeed at their primary objective. Or do anything but support illegal parallel construction.
You know, I'm a pretty heavy user of tinfoil with an inherent distrust of government.
But even I don't need to look at this as an abuse of power by the government.
The rights of US military personnel to shoot your stupid self for trying to ram through a gated checkpoint with big giant signs saying "we can and will stop you, by force if necessary" has been established for an incredibly long time.
Most of the last century, I should think. Probably MUCH longer.
Sorry, but this falls entirely in the domain of "if you didn't see this one coming you're an idiot".
Lost at C:>. Found at C.
Or it just means that they're white.
Most acts of terrorism perpetrated in the US are by white, native born US citizens. It's just not politically expedient to call abortion clinic bombers, church/mosque/synagogue burners, or treehuggers that sabotage logging operations 'terrorists'
Terrorist is, in the public eye, means foreign brown person that practices some pagan religion (Yes, I'm aware the irony of that in light of what religions are an arent considered Abrahamic.)
No kidding ... attempting to force your way into something guarded by armed military personnel and then discovering they're not afraid of you isn't terrorism.
It's a frickin' Darwin award.
I consider that only one of them is dead to be either extraordinary luck, or surprising restraint on behalf of the soldiers.
Lost at C:>. Found at C.
I just figured EVERYTHING was ALWAYS called "terrorism" now
No one at Lufthansa or the German government have called the Lufthansa mass murder `terrorism.' The '09 Ft. Hood shootings are still officially classified as `workplace violence' despite all evidence to the contrary, and Nidal Hasan was not charged or convicted has a terrorist. Obama has never gone further than the generalization that "anytime bombs are used ... it's terror" regarding the Boston marathon bombings, and Tsarnaev isn't charged under any terror statutes.
Is someone finally figuring out that if everything is terrorism, then nothing is terrorism?
They've figured it out just fine, as the specific cases I cite prove. The authorities are clearly being conservative with the use of the term `terror' and erroring on the side of `not terror' in their prosecution of violent acts. The problem isn't our authorities labeling `everything' terrorism. The problem is the fictional world filled with hysterical terror-mongers you've nurtured inside your head. It's not real. There is something wrong in there.
Maw! Fire up the karma burner!
Because exercising freedom of speech makes one an Enemy Of The State, right?
Have gnu, will travel.
Crashing through a gate where there's a guy armed with a machine gun is a really good way to get shot, a lot. It annoys the guy with the machine gun, and he has a tendency to shoot things that annoy him. And he's not using the cheap Wal*Mart bullets, either. The last thing to go through your head, I mean, before bullets, would probably be "Wow, those are really some high quality bullets that guy is shooting me with!" I seem to recall that this sort of thing was fairly common back in the 70's and 80's with the hippies trying to disrupt the SAC air force bases. We seem to be having a spike in the crazy/stupid lately, where people seem to think that if you go crashing through a gate with a guy with a machine gun, they'll be nice to you or something. Nope. Not the case at all.
I'm trying to teach myself to set people on fire with my mind... Is it hot in here?
But why didn't the FBI's country-wide license plate trackers not catch them?
Hint: not everything you see on NCIS or CSI:Wherever actually works like it dos on TV.
Or is that only to trace their movements after they do something bad?
It can definitely help to be able follow the trail after someone does something especially awful - sometimes bad guys actually have accomplices.
But more to the point in this case: reports are that the vehicle they used was stolen, along with its license plates.
Don't disappoint your bird dog. Go to the range.
By "agent", perhaps you're thinking of the CIA. The NSA doesn't have agents, only analysts and various other white-collar workers. Their charter is to gather and analyze information for other branches of government (such as the CIA), not to act on it themselves.
That said, as I understand the news, the death was actually of one of the attackers. In any event, this gives me an opportunity to climb on my soapbox about something that's been bothering me a lot lately.
[begin soapbox]
Why do we celebrate the deaths of "innocents" so frequently lately? An NSA employee could be a manager, an analyst, a security guard, a janitor, or many other types of employee. Do each and every one of those human beings deserve to die because of actions you disagree with that were taken by the organization as a whole?
Coincidentally, I read today about some grisly testimony from the Boston Marathon bombing of innocents who lost their lives or were seriously wounded. This mentality of "any person who belongs to a group I don't like deserves to die" may seem appealing at first, but it becomes less so when you realize that you probably also fit into some group that someone else disagree with.
Or, to paraphrase John Kennedy, "Ich bin ein infidel".
[end soapbox]
According to a CNN article, they were leaving the secure area, not entering. A quote from an official said they failed to follow proper safe EXITING procedures. Another major news site said that a gun and cocaine were found in the vehicle. It's a large complex and a lot of people live in it. Sounds like drugs were being ferried in or out, and it didn't have anything to do with the NSA or secrets.
Better known as 318230.
Foreign governments?
Surely you must have noticed all the bad press the NSA has gotten lately with the Snowden leaks.
Even the most patriotic American might be disturbed upon learning that a trusted government agency has been illegally spying on American citizens for years.
Frankly I'm surprised that you seem to be standing up for the NSA. That takes some guts.
But why didn't the FBI's country-wide license plate trackers not catch them? Or is that only to trace their movements after they do something bad?
The historical database of license plate sightings is a terrific source of circumstantial evidence against people suspected of wrongdoing.
eg: your wife turns up dead. You renewed her life insurance policy a month ago. Three weeks ago, your car made several visits to "the bad part of town," possibly while you were at a murder-for-hire meeting. Nevermind that your insurance policy renews every February, and that a water main break diverted your commute.
Many things look suspicious once suspicion is upon you: the concern with a vast trove of location and communication history is that it is more likely to be twisted to make an honest man look corrupt than it is to find a criminal before he acts.
Because everyone is the good guy in their own eyes. Even the worst oppressive dictators don't view themselves as oppressive dictators - they are just trying to do the best for their people,
If you think that Saddam or Bennito or Idi or Fidel thought they were doing the best for their people, you are sadly mistaken. They knew what they were doing, and they knew who the intended beneficiaries were.
> NSA doesn't spy on nerds, they care about the real world, not Minecraft.
So you mean World of Warcraft?
I'll see your senator, and I'll raise you two judges.
Saddam was a good guy, look at what the Iraqi savages are doing without his iron fist to moderate them; Civil wars, Sunni and Shia murdering each other all the time while both agree to equally murder Christian minority. You may say that Saddam was a blood-lusting dictator, but he was the leader this region needed. Iraq under Saddam was peaceful and tolerant of other believes. Justice was cruel, but somewhat just if you understand the context.
Conversely it might exhonerate you entirely because once its established you were driving you have an alibi for your movements the entire way.
One has to do something pretty messed up to piss those people off.
And another thing, with all the target practice; NSA missed? Or was the other cross dresser that stunning?
If you think that Saddam or Bennito or Idi or Fidel thought they were doing the best for their people, you are sadly mistaken.
They just had a narrower definition of "their people" than you seem to be using.
I think we can all agree that Bush and Rumsfeld were the worst thing that happened to Iraqis.
Don't you know it is now both immoral and criminal to think beyond the next quarterly report?