Bomb threats against Oregon recruiters

There is apparently a campaign of intimidation going on against US Army recruiting offices in Oregon.

A fake bomb found in downtown Astoria Saturday caused the Regatta Grand Land Parade to be diverted.

The device was discovered shortly after 8 a.m. in the doorway of 818 Commercial St., an office building which houses the Army Career Center - recruiting offices for the U.S. Army and the Marine Corps - and several other businesses.

...

"It was not a real bomb, but it was made to look like one," said Astoria Assistant Chief of Police Alan Oja, who was incident commander at the site.

Army Maj. Bob Gambrell, who oversees the Astoria Career Center and six other recruiting offices in Oregon, said that a fake bomb, "very similar in nature," was found roughly two months ago at the Portland Army recruiting office.

Astoria Police Officer Matt Clausen said the device had German writing on it that translated to "no war."

...

The fake bomb found at the Portland office had the words "white rose" written on it, also in German.

The White Rose was a small student resistance movement at the University of Munich. They distributed leaflets abhoring the Nazi assault on the Jews before being identified, captured, and beheaded for their crimes against the Reich. They're highlighted in the resistance section of the permanent exhibition at the US Holocaust Memorial Museum, where I used to work.

It comes as no surprise that people who would manufacture and place fake bombs at Oregon recruiting stations would fancy themselves heirs to the White Rose. In their own minds, they must be convinced that threatening the Astoria recruiting office is somehow striking a blow for 'peace.' In truth, the act is the felonious equivalent of a "BUSH=HITLER" sign at a Berkeley 'peace' demonstration.

Whoever, when the United States is at war, willfully makes or conveys false reports or false statements with intent to interfere with the operation or success of the military or naval forces of the United States or to promote the success of its enemies; or

Whoever, when the United States is at war, willfully causes or attempts to cause insubordination, disloyalty, mutiny, or refusal of duty, in the military or naval forces of the United States, or willfully obstructs the recruiting or enlistment service of the United States, to the injury of the service or the United States, or attempts to do so—

Shall be fined under this title or imprisoned not more than twenty years, or both.

--18 USC §2388(a)

Now I'm sure the lawyers would have a delightful and lucrative time debating whether we are, legally, at war. I suspect the answer is no. But even without prosecution for 'Activities affecting armed forces during war,' I'm sure the two bomb threats would be enough for a heavy jail term. May they be hunted, captured, and prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law.

Nevertheless, it is profane to equate near-treasonous conduct against the United States with the sacrifice of the members of the White Rose. It is profane to equate anything the United Staes has ever done with the Holocaust and the Nazi assault on Europe. The anti-war left is utterly unhinged.

But then, we already knew that.

UPDATE:

Little new information in this Daily Astorian follow-up article, except to stress that whomever made the fake bomb took the trouble to make it look realistic. The FBI Domestic Terrorism Squad is investigating the Portland incident, and I assume they'll add Astoria to the investigation if they find the two incidents related. I'm glad we have the right guys on the job, and wish them happy hunting. But seriously, what is it with Oregon and domestic terrorism?

Comments

[gingersnapp]

And the unhinged right who take down buildings in OKC and bomb abortion clinics are any better?

[Jon Gabriel]

Gingersnapp,

Those of us on the right don't justify bombers on blog comments sections. I guess that's another difference between our two sides.

[Radish]

No one's taken down a federal building or an abortion clinic in at least ten years. Attacks on recruiting offices are occurring rather frequently in 2007.

[Kenneth Pike]

Asserting that one "side" or the other in the United States' traditional and grossly reductionist two-party system is more prone to acts of terror is counterproductive. It turns out that murderous crazies are present across the spectrum. Stupidity knows no political, religious, or ideological affiliation. If I were to make a blind and baseless guess about the anecdotal evidence available to me, I would suggest that violent (or, as in this case, threatening) political expression is most likely to come from whichever "side" (hint: there are more than two) feels the least in-control at any given moment.

I would intuit that this is because when you are in control, the military and/or the police carry out your "side's" share of the violence, and it's no longer a political statement, it's legitimate government action.

At any rate, gingersnapp, I think Dan's larger point is that these pseudo-bombers see themselves as freedom fighters on the order of the White Rose. I don't think Holocaust comparisons are inevitably a bad idea, as a country does not go from peace-loving to genocidal overnight; small steps in the wrong direction can have devastating consequences, and we must be ever vigilant. But the White Rose distributed leaflets, not threats, and in that sense there really is something profane in associating them with the fake bombs. It's like starting a terrorist cell called "Ghandi's Boyz" or "Mother Theresa's Crue."

That said, I would stop short of lumping anti-war terrorists together with anti-war politicians. Why criticize one tenuous (and ultimately inapt) connection between fundamentally different groups only to employ another?

[MarkJ]

"One day after 21 people were arrested during a demonstration that vandalized a U.S. Army recruiting office on Milwaukee's east side, Wisconsin peace activist groups on Tuesday said some protesters might increasingly turn to destruction as their frustrations mount."

I think I'd rather be in Iraq than at what at now passes for "peace demonstrations." Less chance of getting hurt, y'know.

[richard everett]

Although I don't usually waste my time commenting on things like this, I find it ironic, if not funny that the ones who shout "Peace" the loudest usually think nothing of resorting to violence to enforce their "Peace" search. Anyone here old enough to remember the Weather Underground bombings in NYC? Just saying.

[Kenneth Pike]

Richard--it is ironic, but "si vis pacem, para bellum" is among the oldest imponderables of government. These pseudo-bombers are not the only ones perpetrating fear and violence, and rest assured that they feel at least as justified in their choices as the President feels in his. Obviously the authority differs, but if you read my earlier post carefully, I think the difference can be accounted for.

Everyone wants peace, in principle. Whether you can truly achieve peace through violence appears to be an open question. It is a question worth asking, no matter where that violence is coming from or how much or how little authority there is behind it.

[Ben White]

The point shouldn't be about which side does what. The point needs to be that the hate-filled teachings must be condemned by all civilized people.

The people making the Bush = Hitler noise and the loudest of the America hating protesters need to share equal regard with the Phelps nuts who picket soldier funerals.

Folks rightly lay some of the blame for Islamist terrorism at the feet of the imams who endorse it. It's time to start applying this standard to the worst of the netroots haters as well.

(That also goes for some haters considered to be "on the right", but this story isn't about that.)

[NevadaDailySteve]

The problem is that some people have a diminished capacity to judge the value or intensity of others. When I say I hate people who talk loudly into a cell phone in a restaurant I really mean it's annoying and I dislike when it happens. I expect people to understand I don't harbor the desire to hurt the chatty fellow diner.

Unfortunately there are way too many people on all sides, as has been stated above, who lack perspective. It's like the skit where one person is practicing what they will say to someone else. "Well, I'll say this. They will probably say the other thing. Then I'll say the next thing, etc., etc., etc." By the end of the skit the person has convinced themselves that the other person will say or do something offensive and when that other person actually walks in the first person punches them for what he imagined in his own head.

It would be funny if it weren't so sad.

[Cory]

Stupid people do stupid things all the time. If these people were truly inclined to be anything other than self-congratulating posers, the bombs would have been real. They will be found, arrested, and sent to jail. They will rail against The Man's "silencing" of them, and in the end, the only people who will care are their melodrama buddies.

This "attack" won't pull personnel away from investigating actual terrorism, won't scare anyone into not signing up, and at most generates a mild headache for the recruiting team, who now has to fit that day's work in across the next 5 days somewhere, and probably sit through AT/AWARE Level 1 training for the tenth time this year.

The only really tragic thing is that whoever did this could have been a functioning, non-lawbreaking member of society if he hadn't surrounded himself with overdramatic nutjobs for friends.