Last Act of a Desperate Man

The man "suspected" of intentionally crashing an airplane into a Texas office building today appears to have posted a lengthy online diatribe attacking the Internal Revenue Service and declaring that, "I know I'm hardly the first one to decide I have had all I can stand." The six-page manifesto, is dated "2/18/10" and is signed "Joe Stack (1956-2010)." Andrew Joseph Stack, 53, has been identified as the man who flew a small plane into an Austin building housing IRS offices. The statement was uploaded to the front page of a web site that was registered in 2003 by a Joe Stack, who listed an address in San Marcos, Texas, which is about 35 miles south of Austin.

The online posting is titled "Well Mr. Big Brother IRS man... take my pound of flesh and sleep well." Cached versions of Stack's web site, which described his software development consulting business, noted that he founded the firm in southern California in 1983, and eventually relocated to the Austin area to "lend a hand to the growing high technology industry in South-Central Texas." Alex Melen, whose firm hosts Stack's site, told TSG that Stack last changed his web site this morning at 10:12 AM (Eastern).

His Piper Cherokee crashed into the Austin building at around 11:00 AM (Eastern). Until Stack uploaded his suicide note, his site consisted of a handful of pages describing his business, Embedded Art, and its history. His hosting company said that they had been contacted by FBI agents in Austin and New Jersey, where his hosting business is located. At 2:40 PM today, Melen deleted Stack's web site at embeddedart.com. He replaced it with a statement noting that, "This web site has been taken offline due to the sensitive nature of the events that transpired in Texas this morning and in compliance with a request from the FBI."

Stack will be investigated and his political affiliations will be speculated upon and somehow surface. Commentators will make gross assumptions and politicize with their so-called expertise.

Stack targeted the IRS out of problems in his personal life that shaped his ideology, where he attacks taxation among other things. He expresses an anger, anxiety, and general distrust of government and big business that is not unusual in these times.

However, what is unusual and absolutely intolerable is how he addressed these views.

He could have martyred himself through civil protest and probably would have received similar media coverage, but instead this guy decided to plan and execute his own small-scale rendition of 9/11 in order to gain attention and have his views be recognized, possibly killing innocents while doing so.

The lesson that is hopefully learned and agreed upon by everyone from this episode is that terrorism should not be defined in the national consciousness as limited to one belief, nationality, or ethnicity. Terrorism can be perpetrated by loners and groups, individuals both foreign and domestic.

Yes, it's a shame that Stack wasn't listened to nor do hundreds or thousands like him aren't being listened to. Few even bother to grasp issues that many like Stack are facing, and don't dare call the actions he resorted to as anything but domestic terrorism. I am not going to value the life of a man who sees no value in the people he tried to hurt. I will point out, that this will not be the last incident like this until people start listening and acting on the growing discontent. It's growing and getting more desperate.