The man who shot two police officers at the Pentagon March 4 was apparently a devoted follower of the 9-11 "Truth" movement. Police say John Patrick Bedell, 36, acted alone, but his apparent online postings indicate that he was a dedicated conspiracy theorist. His now-deleted Wikipedia user page said he wished to establish "the truth of events such as the 9-11 demolitions and institutions such as the coup regime of 1963 that maintains itself in power through the global drug trade, financial corruption, and murder, among other crimes."
Another Internet posting by "JPatrickBedell" said that he was "determined to see that justice is served" in the death of Marine Col. James Sabow, who was found dead at the former El Toro Air Station in California in 1991. The death was ruled a suicide, but the posting said the case was "a step toward establishing the truth of events such as the September 11 demolitions." Internet conspiracy sites [2] have long claimed Sabow was killed to cover up some treasonous plot.
At 6:40 PM on March 4, Bedell walked calmly up to two police officers guarding the Pentagon and opened fire, injuring both of them. They returned fire and Bedell was fatally shot in the head. The officers, from the Pentagon Force Protection Agency (PFPA), have been discharged from the hospital. (London Times [3], CSM [4], SF Chronicle [5], March 5)
How long before the conspiranoia crowd starts claiming that Bedell was a "false flag" operative set up by the government to discredit the Truthies? Oh, they already are. One post on Prison Planet Forum [6]cites an AP [7] story to the effect that "Bedell also proposed in 2004 that the Pentagon fund his own research on smart weapons. The 28-page proposal outlined his idea for DNA nanotechnology research that might 'provide significant new capabilities for the Department of Defense and the individual warfighter.'" The poster adds: "That document is the first tangible link to surface connecting Bedell and the Pentagon."
So now any lone crackpot who "proposes" that the government fund his "research" is "linked" to the government? Sure—anything goes in the wacky world of cosnpiranoia. (The poster doesn't mention that the AP headline was "Pentagon shooter had a history of mental illness"!) However, Bedell's paradoxical flirtation with the Pentagon and embrace of anti-government conspiranoia do indicate that, like the recent Austin IRS attacker [8], he was likely motivated by radical right leanings.
See our last posts on the conspiranoids [9] and the real 9-11 case [10].
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