Atlas Shrugs

Ismail Ax and the Prophet Moe

Release the damn transcripts. Enough with the cover up. Don't the dead and America, a country at war, deserve to know was is really happening? As I wrote here previously, we know Ismail Ax was written in red (color of blood) on  his arm, we know he signed his suicide note Ismail Ax and  sent an overnight package to NBC from A Ishmail, he made sure he had no other ID on his person after he martyred himself so  you can be sure he wanted to be remembered as Ismail Ax. This is in and of itself very telling. Shaving his head and from what I can see in his pictures and martyr video- his body (that's what they do - remember the 9/11 hijackers?) , must have added to law enforcement's suspicions, which is why it so damning that they would say so early on that horrible day that "it was not tied to terrorism."

Joan Sharon wrote an eye opening piece at The New Media Journal:  Cho was a terrorist and Frank Salvato in the same publication has a must read:  Virginia Tech Slaughter Raises Many Questions. (Salvato's piece must be read before you continue.)

Now comes this from the Christian World View  Network here; hat tip Dave

I also spoke this morning, right after this meeting with a peace officer here in Virginia who had access too and has read some of the transcripts of the other ten videos that are not being shown on the news. The shooter (Cho) was quoting verses from the Koran and had Ishmael written on his arm and as his return address on the package sent to NBC.
[...]

This may never come out in the media and some may tend to disregard this but my source is a solid believer and a trustworthy officer who has personally read some of the transcripts.

The tie-in is carefully explained at Prophet of Doom here. It's lengthy - read it. I've excerpted here. "Every aspect of Cho’s rage, every nuance of his twisted and inverted morality, was lifted from the pages of Islam."

There have been many reports that Cho Seung-Hui, the Virginia Tech psychopath and mass murderer, signed his suicide note: "Ismail Ax," and that this slogan was scribbled on his arm in red ink prior to him snuffing out the lives of thirty-two innocent souls. The manifesto Cho mailed to NBC listed "Ismail Ax" as the madman’s alter ego. That package contained a picture of Cho wielding a hammer as if it were an axe. If any of these things is true, and they all appear to be, the killer was a modern-day incarnation of Muhammad, perpetrating mass murder in the name of Satan and Islam.

Ismail, more commonly transliterated, Ishmael, is considered the forefather of Islam. His name means "Muslim - one who submits."

Read it all.

The only way for anyone to fully appreciate the similarity between Muhammad’s and Cho’s manifesto is to read Prophet of Doom - Islam’s Terrorist Dogma in Muhammad’s Own Words. If you do, in Cho you will come to see Muhammad’s modern incarnation. And for the first time, you will understand the nature and spirit of Islam’s prophet. In Muhammad you will come to see why modern Muslims are terrorists. And for the first time, you will understand the deadly and destructive nature of the Islamic religion.

Since most people won’t invest fifty hours to save themselves and their family from Islam, I thought I’d tease you with a couple of interesting quotes in this regard. In Chapter 17 of Prophet of Doom, "Good Muslims Kill," you will find that Muhammad, like Cho, fancied himself to be like Jesus: Bukhari:V4B55N651-2 "I heard Allah’s Apostle saying, 'I am the nearest of all the people to Jesus. There has been no prophet between me and Jesus. All the prophets are paternal brothers; their mothers are different, but their religion is one.'" In actuality, just like Cho, Muhammad was the antithesis of the Messiah Yahshua (Jesus Christ). But in an ignorant and deceived world, this reality is not well known.

Of the Islamic "Jesus," we find: Bukhari:V4B55N657 "Allah’s Messenger said, 'Isa (Jesus), the son of Mariam, will shortly descend amongst you Muslims and will judge mankind by the law of the Qur'an. He will break the cross and kill the swine [Jews] and there will be no Jizyah tax taken from non-Muslims. Money will be so abundant no one will accept it. So you may recite this Holy Verse: "Isa (Jesus) was just a human being before his death. On the Day of Resurrection he (Jesus) will be a witness against the Christians."'

In Chapter 23 of Prophet of Doom, "Jihad," you will find that Muhammad, like Cho, fancied himself as a martyr: Bukhari:V4B52N54 "The Prophet said, 'Were it not for the believers who do not want to be without me, I would always go forth in army-units setting out for Jihad. I would love to be martyred in Allah’s Cause and then get resurrected and get martyred again only to be resurrected so that I could get martyred again.'"

Read it all.

UPDATE: Confederate Yankee has more on Ismail's final moments here. 

Ismail Cho was a Liberal

Rush is right on the money again. Apparently Ismail/Cho was leftarded. So it is hardly surprising that those animals at MSU were spewing invectives when there was an attempt to remember the victims of the Virginia tech shooting (check out the video here.) Check this out over at ABC News. The liberal hypocrites  (libhyps?) over at ABC are appalled by this, I applaud it;

On the April 19 broadcast of The Rush Limbaugh Show , the famous conservative talk radio host opined about the political views of Seung-hui Cho, the Virginia tech massacre madman.

"If this Virginia Tech shooter had an ideology, what do you think it was? " Limbaugh asked. "This guy had to be a liberal. You start railing against the rich and all this other -- this guy's a liberal. He was turned into a liberal somewhere along the line. So it's a liberal that committed this act. Now, the drive-bys will read on a website that I'm attacking liberalism by comparing this guy to them. That's exactly what they do every day, ladies and gentlemen. I'm just pointing out a fact. I am making no extrapolation; I'm just pointing it out. "

Limbaugh went on to say that "back in the early '90s, when there was any kind of an incident, crime or what-have-you that attracted national attention, in the early days of this program, the drive-by media went out and they tried to connect the perpetrator to this program. They did everything they could. In fact, it went so far as Bill Clinton blaming me for influencing Timothy McVeigh to blow up the bureau building . These are the people sponsoring lies and distortion for the purposes of dividing this country and creating hatred. These are the people that invented this kind of tactic, if you will ."

he reference to Clinton harkens back to CONTROVERSIAL COMMENTS the former president made after the Oklahoma City bombing in which he slammed "loud and angry voices in America today whose sole goal seems to be to try to keep some people as paranoid as possible and the rest of us all torn up and upset with each other. They spread hate. They leave the impression that, by their very words, that violence is acceptable."

Clinton did not mention Limbaugh's name. In fact, he didn't even say "talk radio," but many folks inferred that's who he was talking about.

Who or What Taught Ismail Ax to Kill?

I know everyone is dismissing the glaring Ismail Ax angle of the massacre and calling the depraved murderer Cho, but it seems to me that if this savage wrote (or tattooed, still unclear) Ismail Ax on his arm, signed his suicide note Ismail Ax , sent an overnight package from A Ishmail, made sure he had no other ID on his person after he martyred himself ,  you can be damn sure he wanted to be remembered as Ismail Ax. Shaving his head and from what I can see in his pictures and martyr video- his body,  must have added to law enforcement's suspicions which is why it so curious that they would say so early on that horrible day that "it was not tied to terrorism."

It also seems pretty obvious that law enforcement delayed releasing his name because they did not want to release "Ismail" even though that was all they had for the better part of the day and that was their very first clue . But they wouldn't release it. They waited a full day, an entire day,  to release his name.

Everyone is quick to jump on the connection to James Fenimore Cooper's novel "The Prairie "  where Ishmael Bush is known as an outcast and outlawed warrior. It's the drug of choice and most everyone is comfortable with that link. Moby Dick has been bantered about  as well. But mentioning the third rail,  the Quran or Islam, and they'll cut your throat (metaphorically.)  If you saw the level of vitriol and hate directed at me when I merely asked what Ismail Ax meant, it would stun you - hence the  comment moderation.

It reminds me of CAIR's lawsuit against the Jane and John Does in the Flying Imam debacle. It's not the lawsuit. The objective is to shut people up. CAIR has been noticeably quiet in the Ismail Ax affair.

There is much we don't know and won't know. I would love to hear what Ismail Cho was about to say when he declared "brothers and sisters!" before NBC edited that tape ................ and while I don't think he had serious affiliations, there is clearly a sort of punk jihad thing happening. The title of his file were telling;

Their titles are varied and hard to match with their content: “all of You”, “am al qaeda”, “anti terror”, “as time appr”, “blood of inno”, “congrad”, “could b victim”. The rambling comments are those of an angry young man who felt persecuted, who felt that the world is against him, who felt he was a victim of personal terrorism. More here.

The Islamists are already claiming him as one of their own.

James Lewis has an excellent source of Ismail angst over at The American Thinker: "Was Cho taught to hate?"

And Charles had this;

VT Killer: A Neo-Nazi Connection

One of the pictures received by NBC News from the Virginia Tech mass murderer suggests a neo-Nazi connection; with the heading, “The number of the Anti-Terrorist,” Cho drew the number “88”—a well-known neo-Nazi reference to the phrase “Heil Hitler.” (H is the eighth letter of the alphabet.)

Cho’s manifesto, page 11.

Cho also used the number 88 as the return address for the package he sent to NBC News.

Very little attention has been paid to how terribly close we come to a jihadis wet dream;

Prosecutors add charges in alleged terror plot (Houston Chronicle)

Federal prosecutors have added charges against a Houston-raised college student charged in connection with an alleged terrorist plot to aid the Taliban.  Syed Maaz Shah, 19, was indicted last year on two counts of being an alien in possession of a firearm.

UPDATE: Gateway Pundit reveals an extraordinary detail here;

I was also sent an email today that Cho's father worked in Saudi Arabia but it looks like that was back in the 1980's when Cho was a very young boy.

The article says they came to America in '92 .......... that makes Ismail Cho 7 years old when he came here. What was it the bible said about the first seven years?

UPDATE: Check out a leftard grand mal seizure.

UPDATE: The left in America: beyond morally ill.  The ultimate decay of  their indiscriminateness. They have no souls.

Arab Reaction to Virginia Tech Massacre

Brazilian NeoCon sends  this link to LGF, with this remark,"To me, the most telling thing came from the Al Jazeera website. It gave a pretty good account of what happened, but ommitted any mention of Liviu Librescu, the Israeli Holocaust survivor who gave his life saving his students. I thought that was terrible. They made sure everyone knew the killer was Korean. They even covered Bush's remarks, but ignored his words about Librescu."

Blogger Basharee Murtadd went looking for reactions on Arab web sites to the mass murders committed at Virginia Tech, and while it's pretty clear that Seung Hui Cho was simply insane (and not on a personal jihad ), the jihadis are eager to claim him as one of their own:The Difference between Jews and Muslims.

And now, turning to our peace-loving Muslims at an Arabic Islamic forum, I translate some of their ‘condolences’:

Al-Jazeera reported 20 dead and 29 injured. Praise be to Allah.

Praise be to Allah for these calamities hitting America. By the will of Allah, more of this [will happen], following their defeat in Iraq and Afghanistan.

O Allah, keep America busy with itself, and enamor its people against it.

And on this site, the massacre is being referred to as “The Great Ghazwa of Virginia”:

(Ghazwa means ‘raid’ in Arabic, referring to the battles Muhammad and his followers fought against the non-Muslims)

Translation: “The first picture of the South Korean Shaikh, Abu Mus’Ab Al-Virgini [the Virginian]” (an attempt to make him seem like Abu Mus’Ab Al-Zarqawi)

Read the whole blog post here.

Virginia Tech: "Muslims cannot pray for the non-Muslim dead"

This is most discouraging.  Tell me that part about "most Merciful" again? /hat tip Jan P

Liberal Arab Website Reports: Debate on Virginia Tech Muslim Students' Association Mailing List Concerning Permissibility of Praying for Mercy for Non-Muslim Victims

The liberal Arabic-language website Aafaq reports that a Muslim student set off a debate when she sent an email to the mailing list of the Muslim Students' Association at Virginia Tech asking the students to pray that Allah have mercy on those killed and wounded in the shooting attack at the university.

According to Aafaq, the dean of student affairs at American International University, Abu Hamza Hijji, responded, writing that Allah the Most Merciful forbids praying for mercy for the non-Muslim dead, or even for the non-Muslim living, and that it is only permitted to pray that they be rightly guided. He added that what happened was a sad occurrence, but that does not give Muslims the right to transgress the laws of Allah the Most Merciful.

Aafaq reported that a student named Chris, a recent convert, did not agree, and wrote that he usually does not intervene in this kind of discussion, but that this time he had to say "no." He added that his German teacher, who was wounded in the shooting, is a good man, and that he was praying that he would not die. He said that he would pray for him and for his family, whether they are Muslims or not, and would pray for all those who suffered from this calamity. He expressed the view that religion must bring people together, and not drive them apart, and that the brotherhood of humanity takes precedence over brotherhood of religion or of state.

According to Aafaq, Hijji answered Chris, saying that there is no problem with praying that non-Muslims be kept safe and not be killed, if there is hope that they might be guided [to the right path]; but one cannot pray for the non-Muslim dead, since there is no chance of their being guided. He said that the Prophet Muhammad had told the Muslim soldiers at the battle of Badr to not kill some of the nonbelievers, even though they were on the battlefield, as they had treated Muhammad well when he was in Mecca.

Hijji wrote that the students should ask Allah to save Chris' teacher (i.e. the German teacher) from death and turn his heart to the truth. But he said at the same time that the Prophet did not pray for forgiveness for the non-Muslims, and in particular did not ask Allah to have mercy on them, even those whom the Prophet had wanted to be guided when they were alive. Once they died, the Prophet was not permitted to ask for mercy for them. Hijji added that the Prophet behaved this way on Allah's instructions.

Hijji wrote that the relative importance of brotherhood in humanity or religion needs to be evaluated according to Allah's laws, and not according to human reason. He added that he might seem to be a hard-hearted person, but that this is what people throughout the generations said about the prophets and messengers who came with God's message to guide others to the truth.

According to Aafaq, some students expressed their uneasiness with the discussion and asked to be taken off the mailing list, while others tried to justify the seemingly difficult matter.

Aafaq noted that at least one Muslim student, Waleed Shaalan, had been killed in the attacks.

Source: Aafaq.org, April 17, 2007

Ismail Ax: Don't ask, don't tell

All because I asked what it might mean. Sampling from today's mailbag:

Subject:	DEAD SILENCE ON ISMAIL AX
Date:	4/18/2007 12:00:10 P.M. Eastern Daylight Time
From:	salvage@hairyfishnuts.com

He was not Muslim.

I know you ache for him to be Muslim because you want everyone to share your hate and bigotry, that your fondest dream it to one day open up your own little concentration camp with ovens for Muslims. That you view tragedies like this as an opportunity to whip up a mob for support (I can imagine you screeching “WE MUST KILL THEM BEFORE THEY KILL US!!!”) but it’s not going to happen. Only the most retarded of racists, like yourself are going to get on the bandwagon with you and guess what? They already are so it’s a bit pointless.

Your proof that one does not need to be a German or indeed hate Jews to be a Nazi.

So shut your festering Atlashole about it, no one cares what he had written on his arm because at this point it isn’t important. Anyone with a sliver of soul or conscious or even brain could see that.

Oh right… sort of leaves you out doesn’t it?

VIDEO: Seung-Hui/Ismail Ax's NBC Parcel

***UPDATED ***SCROLL FOR UPDATES**Am Al Qaeada File**

This gets weirder and weirder. In between murders, the killer mailed a package to NBC News.  Nothing on his nom de guerre in the accompanying articles.

Gunman sent package to NBC News Chicago Tribune

Between his first and second bursts of gunfire, Virginia Tech gunman Cho Seung-Hui mailed a package to NBC News containing what authorities said were video, photos of himself brandishng weapons, and a rambling diatribe about getting even with rich people.

"This may be a very new, critical component of this investigation. We're in the process right now of attempting to analyze and evaluate its worth," said Col. Steve Flaherty, superintendent of Virginia State Police. He gave no details on the material.

NBC said that a time stamp on the package indicated the material was mailed in the two-hour window between the first burst of gunfire in a high-rise dormitory and the second fusillade, at a classroom building.

The package included digital images of him holding weapons and a manifesto that "rants against rich people and warns that he wants to get even," according to a law enforcement official who spoke on the condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to speak about the case.

NBC said that a time stamp on the package indicated the material was mailed in the two-hour window between the first burst of gunfire in a high-rise dormitory and the second fusillade, at a classroom building.

NBC said it immediately turned the package over to authorities on Wednesday. NBC would not disclose the contents beyond characterizing the material as "disturbing." The package was sent to NBC News head Steve Capus.

There's much more here at MSNBC.

UPDATE: Check out the sender's name on the package here: Ismail Hat tip Helen

UPDATE: In the videos he is railing against Christianity, Western values, calling on his "brothers and siters"......... Helen adds

Chris Matthews asked the NBC News Prez about sender's name, Ismail, "is that a reference to Moby Dick?" He responded "I honestly don't know."

Moby Dickheads.

UPDATE: Here's the bastard

Anybody have a clue as to what the killer said after "brothers and sisters" where they abruptly cut him off?

UPDATE: The mainstream media breaks it silence. Hannity on FOX News

UPDATE April 19th: More clues. Very disturbing indeed. The latest from MSNBC here;

What the nondescript package did contain was a printout of a .pdf file titled  “axishmiel”, Cho’s 1,800-word manifesto broken up by the now famous photographs -- 43 total: 29 of them showing Cho with his weapons: the Glock 9mm automatic and the .22 caliber handgun as well as a hunting knife.
[...]
But what was as revealing about the manifesto was the time and date the .pdf file was last modified: 7:24 a.m., April 16, minutes after he had shot and killed his first two victims, and nearly two hours before he went on his second rampage
[...]
Their titles are varied and hard to match with their content: “all of You”, “am al qaeda”, “anti terror”, “as time appr”, “blood of inno”, “congrad”, “could b victim”. The rambling comments are those of an angry young man who felt persecuted, who felt that the world is against him, who felt he was a victim of personal terrorism.

Felt he was a "victim of personal terrorism?" Are they fookin nuts? Who writes this psychobabble? Whoever it is must be sleeping with Geraldo Rivera. You can read it all here

But five of them are called, “end”, “end 1”, “end 2”, “end car”, and “end some life”.  And each of those appears to be among the last recorded, perhaps between the shootings.

UPDATE: FOX will o longer run the video of the freak's ravings. This from WSJ Political Diary;

"If anybody cares about the victims in Blacksburg and if anybody cares about their children, stop showing this video now. Take it off the Internet. Let it be relegated to YouTube. Showing the video is a social catastrophe... I promise you the disaffected will watch him the way they watched 'Natural Born Killers.' I know. I examine these people. I've examined mass shooters who have told me they've watched it 20 times. You cannot saturate the American public with this kind of message" -- forensic psychiatrist and ABC News consultant Michael Welner, discussing the consequences of the media airing the Seung-hui Cho video

More posts  here.

DEAD SILENCE ON ISMAIL AX

I cannot help be struck dumb by the complete media blackout on the ISMAIL AX development in the Virginia Tech mass murder. They are on a 27/7 news loop talking about every anal detail but not one mention of the 800 lb gorilla in the room.

This is shocking and disturbing and ought to give the American people great pause. At what cost political correctness? Cassandra weighs in here. The media are removing this vital clue to the story. Who can believe anything they report when they abdicate their role as public servant.

UPDATE: Somebody gets it. Jerry Bowyer over at TCS Daily here

Ismail Ax: The Shooter Was Another 'Son of Sacrifice'  hat tip Diana W

First it was Johnny Muhammad, now it was Cho Sueng Hui aka Ismail Ax. Precisely how many mass shooters have to turn out to have adopted Muslim names before we get it? Islam has become the tribe of choice of those who hate American society. I'm not talking about people who grew up as Muslims, confident and secure in their faith, good fathers, sons and neighbors. I'm talking about the angry, malignant, narcissist loners who want to reject their community utterly, to throw off their 'slave name' and represent the downtrodden of the earth by shooting their friends and neighbors.

This morning I read that the Virginia Tech shooter died with the name Ismail Ax written in red ink on his arm. The mainstream press doesn't seem to have a clue as to what this might mean. To quote Indiana Jones, "Didn't any of you guys go to Sunday School?"

The story starts with a man named Abraham. He is the father of the Jews, the Muslims and the Christians. He was born in Iraq, the son of a wealthy idol manufacturer. He came to believe that there was only one true God and, according to tradition, took up his ax and destroyed his father's idols.

Read it all here. And other posts here.

'Ismail Ax' sparks web frenzy

An indication of how desperately people want to know what is really going on. For Atlas Shrugs, "Ismail Ax" is another Gutenberg moment. The mainstream media abdicates its role as public servant and much like the Danish cartoons, drives an enormous amount of traffic to this and other blogs.

In Islamic lore, Ismail is a reference to the 'son of sacrifice'. More here.

Ismail (note the Arabic spelling) ax -nothing mentioned on the networks or cable news channels but check out the web frenzy:

Sydney Morning Herald 'Ismail Ax' sparks web search frenzy
Sydney Morning Herald, Australia - 1 hour ago
At ChicagoTribune.com, the report about Ismail  Ax and other details set off the busiest hour in the site's history, with 524000 page views during the early ...

'Ismail Ax' sparks web frenzy
Brisbane Times, Australia -
At ChicagoTribune.com, the report about Ismail  Ax and other details set off the busiest hour in the site's history, with 524000 page views during the early ...

Check out my post on Ismail Ax here.

UPDATE: Check out this strange search entry on a now dead blog. Note date April 12th.  hat tip Jeff

Americans Kidnap South Korean Boy 1971   12 Apr 20 07 by war 
... young boy went missing in 1971, the people searched for the boy by word of mouth; the Asian Intelligence Agency (AIA) put a stop on all media and threatened to kill anyone who continued to pursue the issue of the missing boy. ismail Ax.
The North Korean President - http://presidentryan.blogspot.com/index.html 

Very strange that the blog was deleted. Think about it. This entry was on April 12th, 2007. A blog will stays up indefinitely so why was this blog deleted. When and why?

Crime blog investigates this further here.

UPDATE: The media blackout on the "ISMAIL AX" angle of the story is most disconcerrting. David has an excellent post on this here.

But because Cho identified himself with the Religion of Peace, the MSM/DNC cannot even mention the simple fact that these words appeared on Cho's body. Whether it turns out to be an Islamic reference or not, the MSM/DNC's attempt to surpress this fact is, itself, a major story.

There are more posts here.

Gun Control: Democrats Wrong Again

The Democrats never miss an opportunity to advance the wrong agenda. Check this out. The leftards are going to make this about disarming the American people so that we can go like sheep to slaughter. From ABC News;

Culture or Control: Guns Spark Intense Political Debate
Polls Consistently Show Americans Favor Stricter Gun Control but Elections Tell a Different Story 

John Fund weighs in (WSJ  Political Diary: PAID Only);

In reality, Virginia Tech was, as many bloggers put it, a "danger-free zone for armed criminals." The school was one of many to prohibit all guns on campus. Last year, legislation to allow exceptions for licensed and trained gun owners failed to pass the Virginia legislature.

Virginia Tech officials falsely believed their policy meant more security, not less. Its spokesman, Larry Hincker, described the school's anti-gun policy in 2005 by saying: "We believe guns don't belong in the classroom. In an academic environment, we believe you should be free from fear." He proudly noted that students who had tried to bring handguns onto school property had been promptly suspended.

John Lott, a gun-control scholar, says the problems with such laws is that good intentions aren't enough. "What counts is whether the laws ultimately save lives. Unfortunately, too many gun laws primarily disarm law-abiding citizens, not criminals." He notes that some 40 states now have some kind of law allowing responsible citizens to carry concealed firearms. In most of those states, between 2% and 6% of all adults have such permits, thus giving citizens in a community the size of a university the knowledge that someone other than the local police will have access to self-defense.

Such laws have consequences. Mr. Lott and Bill Landes of the University of Chicago law school examined multiple-victim public shootings in the U.S. from 1977 to 1999 and found that when states passed right-to-carry laws, the rate of multiple victim public shootings fell by 60%. Deaths and injuries from multiple-victim public shootings fell even more -- an average of 78% -- as the remaining incidents tended to involve fewer victims per attack.

As blogger Glenn Reynolds noted at Instapundit.com, the most egregious incidents involving mass slaughter "do seem to take place in locations where it's not legal for people with carry permits to carry guns, though. I certainly wish that someone had been in a position to shoot this guy at the outset."

UPDATE: End school shootings now.

Hero Holocaust Survivor Died Saviing Lives

Jerry Gordon over at Israpundit on the Holocaust survivor that blocked the door to save lives and lost his in the process. Please read it all here.

Hero Israeli professor killed in US attack

Among the victims of yesterday tragic massacre at Virginia Tech was an Israeli engineering professor on sabbatical, Liviu Librescu, a Holocaust survivor originally from Romania. He was a valiant hero who saved the lives of his students.

The Jerusalem Post, April 17, 2007

As Jews worldwide honored on Monday the memory of those who were murdered in the Holocaust, a 75-year-old survivor sacrificed his life to save his students in Monday’s shooting at Virginia Tech college that left 32 dead and over two dozen wounded.Professor Liviu Librescu threw himself in front of the shooter,who had attempted to enter his classroom. The Israeli mechanics and engineering lecturer was shot to death, “but all the students lived - because of him,” Virginia Tech student Asael Arad - also an Israeli - told Army Radio.

Librescu’s wife, Marlena, told the NRG Web site that her husband had loved his job with “all his heart and his soul.”

Please read it all

UPDATE: Taranto reminds us it was on Yom Hashoa,  Holocaust Remembrance Day. What can I say?

Rick Richman over ar Jewish Current Issues has a wonderful post on Professor Liviu Librescu, please go here.

When Romania joined forces with Nazi Germany in World War II, the young Librescu was interned in a labor camp, and then sent along with his family and thousands of other Jews to a central ghetto in the city of Focsani, his son said. Hundreds of thousands of Romanian Jews were killed by the collaborationist regime during the war.

Read it all.

UPDATE: End school shootings now.

 

ISMAIL AX: AMERICA'S BESLAN

THE KILLER'S NOTE WAS SIGNED ISMAIL AX (FOX news). It would certainly explain the delay in releasing his name. In the note he was railing against "debauchery" and "rich kids."

The Father of the Prophets

He said to the statues, joking; then with his ax he destroyed all the statues except one, ... Ibrahim and Ismail kept on calling people to worship Allah

CNN reports the following;

VT shooters guns had serial numbers filed off, the assassination of 32 VT students and facility was pre-planned and carried out with "hired hit-man professionalism." "Even among the less serious injuries, Cacioppo said, "we saw one patient that had a bullet wound to the wrist, one to the elbow and one to the thigh. We had another one with a bullet wound to the abdomen, one to the chest and one to the head." A source familiar with the investigation said the weapons found at Norris were a Walther .22-caliber semi-automatic and a 9 mm Glock -- both with the serial numbers filed off.
Watch how quickly these guns can be fired, reloaded.   

Mentally ill, that's what they are going with here. What an insult to the mentally ill.

Let the American people see the writings they are talking about that were so disturbed. Let the American people decide. Stop deceiving us and lying by omission.

This took great planning and  skilled marksmanship

News reports also said that he may have been taking medication for depression, that he was becoming increasingly violent and erratic, and that he left a note in his dorm in which he railed against "rich kids," "debauchery" and "deceitful charlatans" on campus.

UPDATE: A bomb threat note was found near the killer. And there's more.

Cho also died with the words "Ismail Ax" in red ink on one of his arms.

More on the note here.

The New York Post expounds on the significance of "ISMAIL AX" here;

The reference may be to the Islamic account of the Biblical sacrifice of Abraham, where God commands the patriarch to sacrifice his own son. Abraham begins to comply, but God intervenes at the last moment to save the boy.

In the Jewish and Christian traditions, the son is Isaac, father of the Jewish people; in Islam, it is his brother, Ismail (Ishmael in Hebrew).

Abraham uses a knife in most versions of the story, but some accounts have him wielding an ax.

A more obscure reference may be to a passage in the Koran referring to Abraham's destruction of pagan idols; in some accounts, he uses an ax to do so.

UPDATE: The Smoking Gun has a copy of the killer's play that got him referred for counseling.

Virgina Killer's Violent Writings

UPDATE: Is this Ismail AX? Sure looks like him

Flicker page description:

He's a South Korean. Ismail is not his real name. He use it because his name is very hard to pronounce, especially for Indonesian people. His real name is Cho Seung Hoo ....... or is it Jo Sung Ho?

Blog Hero has an excellent post here.

Boing Boing is questioning it too here.

UPDATE 6:37pm: No one is talking about the "Ismail Ax" fact. I mean no one. No TV, little print. I just watched the whole press conference and not one, not one, reporter asked about it. They asked about everything from soup to nuts (down to the class scheduling going forward) but not one query about Ismail AX. Am I nuts? The man had Ismail Ax written in red on his arm. Is that not deserving of some investigation or question?

They keep saying he talked to no one, that he was a loner and hung with no one but but but but  he killed his girlfiend? But he was always alone.............

But back to Ismail? Is it not more than curious? And if it is why no questions?

UPDATE: The red ink on the inside of one of his arms leads to speculation that he may have been a Muslim. In Islamic lore, Ismail is a reference to the 'son of sacrifice'. More here.

UPDATE:  The guy in the flicker profile is not him. Eldarossell wrote a post

I write this to clarify that my friend is not the VT Shooter.

Yes, the murderer name (Cho Seung Hui) had a very similar
name to his name, Cho Seung Hoo.Please note to the HOO and
the HUI in their names.

He's not the guy.

More posts here.

Mass Murder by Lone Gunman at VA Tech

UPDATED: SCROLL: Chicago Tribune reporting the shooter is a Chinese National, here in the United States on a student visa. 

UPDATE: Killer was not a Chinese national. He was Korean, resident alien, NATIVE SOUTH KOREAN CHO SEUNG -HUI

Sketchy details on the 22  32 dead at VA Tech, all shot by a supposed lone gunman. Reports say the gunman is dead but I saw a picture of the "suspect" on the ground being handcuffed. [UPDATE: GUNMAN CONFIRMED DEAD, the guy in the picture may have been taken for questioning and released] The suspect is "Asian." The victims were lined up and shot execution style. Anybody got a name?

VA Tech is basically a U.S. Army Military recruiting school.

There have been two bomb threats at VA Tech in the last two weeks. We do not know if these are related.

By NRVNews    
Friday, April 13, 2007  Virginia Tech is offering a $5,000 reward related to the two recent bomb threats on campus.

The reward will be given for information or leads leading to the arrest and conviction of the person or persons involved in either bomb threat incidents occurring April 1 or April 13.

Information should be directed to Virginia Tech Police at 232-TIPP (8477).

Virginia Tech Police, in collaboration with other law enforcement agencies, continue to investigate both incidents.

UPDATE: What they know so far from ABC NEWS. Anybody got a name?

At least 25 people are dead in what may be the biggest mass killing on a college campus in American history -- and the death toll may rise.

Police at Virginia Tech say that the shootings happened at a dormitory and a classroom on opposite sides of the university campus in Blacksburg, Va.

Virginia Tech Police Chief Wendell Flinchum said that one person was killed in the first shooting, just after 7 a.m. at West Ambler Johnston Hall, a large dormitory. Flinchum said that at least 20 more people were killed in a later shooting at Norris Hall, an academic building.

Flinchum said the gunman was dead, but wouldn't say whether the shooter killed himself. The gunman, whose identity has not been released, is among the dead.

ABC News confirms that there were two separate bomb threats at Virginia Tech that targeted engineering buildings. The first was directed at Torgersen Hall, while the second was directed at multiple engineering buildings. Students and staff were evacuated, and the university had offered a $5000 reward for information into the threats.

Not all of the students involved in the shootings are dead. Two local hospitals are reporting treating 21 people.

University president Charles Steger said that police have not officially tied together the two shootings. Steger described today's events as an incident of "tragic proportions," and said, "the university is shocked and horrified that this would befall us."

The campus is closed today and classed are cancelled today and tomorrow. Families seeking to reunite with their children have been directed by the unversity to the Inn at Virginia Tech.

UPDATE: 32 dead

At Montgomery Regional Hospital  17 patients - 4 patients critical and in surgery
At New River Valley Medical Center 5 patients - 4 stable, 1 critical
At Carilion Roanoke Memorial - 3 patients, all criticalAt Lewis Gale Hospital - 5 patients, including one faculty member.

Total 30 wounded, 8 critical.

UPDATE: Gunman chained the door shut to the building where he killed his victims. Premeditation. Clearly this is a military type shooting. 50 people shot, some of the moving. 32 dead as of now. This guy has military training. The high kill rate is off the charts for one person doing the shooting at moving targets.

There were two shootings.

The first shooting took place is Johnston Hall (28). The second was in shottings took place in Norris (132) ~ 2 hours later. Note how large a distance had to be traversed by the shooter. Check out the map

More terrible proof of why we need the second amendment. Disarm the people and we are sheep to slaughter. If someone had a gun on them they could have taken out this animal. You will never stop killers from getting guns, why disarm the folks that could stop them?  Gun control is for lemmings.

Sounds of gunfire caught on camera cell phone video from the scene of the Virginia Tech campus shooting.

UPDATE: The Collegiate Times, an independent student-run newspaper serving the Virginia Tech community, has ongoing updates here

UPDATE 3:43pm: New info from ABC News;

Law enforcement officials tell ABC News they believe there was a single gunman, firing at least two 9mm semi-automatic pistols. They said he may have been wearing a bulletproof vest.
Virginia Tech Police Chief Wendell Flinchum said that one person was killed in the first shooting, which occurred just after 7 a.m. at West Ambler Johnston Hall, a large dormitory. Flinchum said that at least 20 more people were killed at Norris Hall, an academic building. At least 21 injured students were admitted to a local hospital.

Anyone have the name yet of the "young, Asian man?"

UPDATE: Look for plenty of blame but this post over at the Free Republic is most disturbing. hat tip EJO

VA Tech official praised defeat of student self-defense proposal in 2006
Posted by Coleus

One News Now ^ | 04.16.07 | Jeff Johnson
A Virginia Tech official in 2006 praised the defeat of a proposal to allow students with state-issued concealed handgun permits to carry their handguns on college campuses in Virginia. At least 20 unarmed students were killed on the VA Tech campus Monday morning by a single gunman. Virginia House Bill 1572 was proposed in 2005 by Shenandoah County, Va., Republican Del. Todd Gilbert after a VA Tech student with a state-issued concealed handgun permit was arrested and charged only with "unlawfully" carrying a handgun on campus. The bill would have prohibited state universities in Virginia from enacting "rules or regulations...

UPDATE 5:48 pm: 33 dead. The shooter is dead. Why not release his name? The delay is suspect. Are they notifying the family? /sarc tag

The latest meme making the rounds is that shooter was from Radford University and that he went  to VT to shoot his girlfriend.  Then went to engineering bldg. What bullshit.  Next they'll start circulating the " mentally unstable" meme. You don't chain the doors shut if you are merely looking to hurt your girlfriend. CHAINED THE DOORS SO THAT NO ONE CAN GET OUT. That is  premeditation

Flopping Aces has an excellent post here. Many updates. He names a potential shooter as well.

UPDATE: Bill O'Reilly is reporting the shooter is a Chinese National, here in the United States on a student visa with no known terror ties (they sure make that determination fast, don't they?) Still nameless. O'Reilly's source is the Chicago Sun-Times

Police believe three bomb threats on the campus last week may have been attempts by the man to test the campus’ security response, the source said.

The exits to the buildings where the shootings occurred were chained by the shooter, the source said. More here

Excellent editorial over at Seraphic Secret hatip tip Jeramayakovka

There are 32 confirmed dead at Virginia Tech, 28 wounded.

I am not including the killer in this count, and I do not undertstand why some news sources include the murderer with his victims. This is the height of moral equivalence. It makes me sick.

Some news sources are desribing this as a tragedy.

It is an atrocity.

Again, it seems to us that journalists, so many of them schooled in post-modern ethics, have so debased language that they have no idea how to distinguish between a natural tragedy, such as a hurricane or a tsunami, and a massacre, planned and carried out by an evil man; thus an engineered atrocity.

Words matter.....

UPDATE: Killer was not a Chinese national. He was Korean, a resident alien, native  South Korean CHO SEUNG -HUI.

UPDATE: Judith Klingoffer, History News :

AS SHEEP TO THE SLAUGHTER YET AGAIN

I know I am going to get hate mail and I may be rushing to judgment. But it all seems to follow such a familiar pattern. Terrified students lined up against the wall of their classroom and shot, execution-style. Once again, this time in a campus filled with young men and women military age, a lone bully seemed to have been able to go on a rampage without anyone trying to actively stop him. What did the students and faculty do? They either cowered behind furniture or locked their door. He, of course, went on to shoot the students next door. Once again, as Bill Bennett noted, heavily armed men were seen swarming OUTSIDE assessing the situation!

As this murder spree took place on Holocaust memorial day, it is not be surprising that the one man who said "Never again" was a 76 year old professor, a holocaust survivor.

He did the best he could, blocked the door with his body and told his students to flee. Of course, it would have been better if had he told them to attack.

You think I am too harsh? believe it or not, Mahatma Gandhi shared my view. Per chance, I as reading Mohandas yesterday and it included his response to the information that Hindu homes had been looted in Sharanpur in Western UP, an a housewife assaulted without the local Hindus putting up a fight. He emphasized that he was not asking Indians to respond with absolute non violence to villainy, or against "thieves, robbers or . . . nations that may invade India. He added:

 

As a Hindu I am more ashamed of Hindu couardice that I am angry at the Mussulman bullying. . . . Where there are cowards, there will always be bullies."

Of course, standing up to bullies is no longer the expected even of trained fighters. How can one expect young people at a university to behave more courageously than British marines confronting Iranian bullies? We better. For as Gandhi expected, in the current atmosphere bullies are multiplying and the price of continuing to go as sheep to slaughter is getting higher and higher by the day.

MUST READ:  On Sheep, Wolves, and Sheepdogs