Friday, October 07, 2005

American Suicide Bomber

I sometimes cannot figure out what it is that makes some things newsworthy while other items, which in my view are extremely important, go largely unmentioned.

We have another example of this over the past few days.

It appears that last week we may have had our first Islamic suicide bomber in the United States. As with most terrorists, Joel Henry Hinrichs III, a student at the University of Oklahoma in Norman, wasn't exceedingly bright, and this is a very lucky thing. Instead of perhaps bringing down a stadium facade killing hundreds of people(a stadium that he tried to enter but fled instead when security wanted to check his backpack) he blew himself up alone on a park bench, the shrapnel in his backpack ripping his body apart in much the same way his mind had already been altered.

At first it was stated by the University, parents and friends that Hinrichs was committing suicide but had no intention to hurt anyone else. However, several things have come to light since those first, weak character defenses.

First, Hinrichs was identified as the person who attempted to buy an explosive making fertilizer component just the week prior. When pressed by the store's owner about his purpose for the fertilizer Hinrichs could not answer. The store denied the purchase because something didn't feel right. Second, a simple suicide victim doesn't typically commit suicide in public with a shrapnel laden backpack bomb strapped to him. Third, and here it gets really interesting, Hinrichs had been attending a local mosque, had an Islamic roommate, and had jihad literature in his room.

While none of these things will prove that Hinrichs was engaging in jihad, I would think that these items would at least begin to create some concern for the MSM, enough at least that they would use it somewhere in the broadcast.

So my real question is this. If the main stream media is aware of this suicide bombing in Oklahoma, what would be the motivation for burying the story?

I have a simple theory. I think the MSM is so full of Bush hatred and tired of the global war on terror (most even denying that such a war exists,)that they do not want to fan the emotional flames of an electorate that seems to have begrudgingly fallen into step with them. I think the MSM feels that we are but one domestic explosion away from a renewed support for the GWOT and they don't want this to happen.

Hinrichs should have been that explosion, but his story was buried even before the pieces of his body could be.

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