From: Zooko Journeyman <zooko@xs4all.nl>
Date: Fri, 12 Sep 1997 00:27:05 +0800
To: cypherpunks@toad.com
Subject: in defense of Lon Horiuchi
Message-ID: <199709111616.SAA13376@xs2.xs4all.nl>
MIME-Version: 1.0
Content-Type: text/plain




 Anonymous <anon@anon.efga.org> mumbled:
>
> It's amazing that Freeh would admit that shooting an unarmed
> woman holding an infant is what "he was trained to do" and was "within
> the scope of his authority" and that he "reasonably believed [it] was
> proper" to do so.  What are they teaching at FBI school nowadays?
> 
> Horiuchi's defense is really no different than Timothy
> McVeigh's: "yes, it was a mistake but he felt it was justified and
> reasonably believed at the time that what he was doing was proper..."
> Too bad McVeigh didn't have a badge saying FBI on it.


Lest any naive readers who aren't familiar with the details of
the event buy this kind of spin-doctoring, please be aware that
the woman in question was probably not visible to the sniper, 
and it is almost certain that he was aiming at her armed 
husband who was shooting back.  The bullet travelled through a
door or some such obstruction I think (I forget the details) 
before hitting the victim.


You could more reasonably blame the husband for having the 
stupidity or carelessness to get in a firefight with his wife 
and child in the building.


More generally, don't buy any of the spin that anonymous 
cypherpunks (and plenty of named ones) like to put on such 
stories without reading the more balanced accounts yourself.
Anonymous, above, would _like_ you to think of the FBI sniper 
Lon Horiuchi as a murderous baby-killer who chuckled gleefully
when he saw his opportunity to take out a toddler.  Anonymous 
is no different from hatemongering pamphleteers and propaganda 
ministers in any penny-ante revolution or Orwellian minitru.  
Perhaps he's on the side of the good guys, but his tactics 
have the same stink that I recognize from reading the 
propaganda blurbs of the bad guys.



Regards,

Zooko, Journeyman Engineer