A story of heroism amid the tragedy

I heard this mentioned on the Dennis Prager show and found the article at LGF: professor and holocaust survivor died shielding students from the gunman. (IsraelNN.com) As Israel observed Holocaust Day, thousands of miles away, A Rumanian-born Holocaust survivor gave his life in another senseless murder - and apparently in an act of heroism. Among the 32 people killed by a lone gunman at Virginia Tech Monday is 77-year-old engineering professor, Liviu Librescu, a citizen of Israel. According to eyewitness accounts, Librescu ran to the door of his classroom and blocked it with his body – preventing the gunman from entering but getting shot to death himself as a result. Alec Calhoun, a 20-year-old student who had been in Librescu's class in room 204, told a reporter that at 9:05 a.m. the heard screams and a loud banging sound from the next-door classroom. When the students realized it was gunfire, he said, some hid behind tables, and others leapt from the classroom's windows. Calhoun himself was among the last to jump. "Before I jumped from the window, I turned around and looked at the professor, who stayed behind, maybe to block the door. He had been killed." He is survived by his wife of 42 years and two sons.

BREAKING - At least 20 killed at Virginia Tech in campus shooting incident

***Scroll down for updates*** Another tragedy on a US campus. Police said there had been "at least 20 fatalities" in two locations at Virginia Tech university this morning. Earlier, the university released a statement saying that one person had been shot and a suspect had been arrested but released the higher total to astonishment several hours later. "Today the university was struck with a tragedy that we consider of monumental proportions," said university president Charles Steger. "The university is shocked and indeed horrified." The shootings are reported to have occurred two hours apart at an engineering building and a dormitory, on opposite sides of the campus. Amateur footage showed armed officers running over the campus with the sounds of gunshots in the background. At the news conference where the initial death toll was announced, Wendell Flinchum, the university's police chief, said that one man was believed to be responsible for the shootings and that he had been killed. Most of the victims are believed to have been students. "We have a ballpark figure on fatalities. It’s at least 20 fatalities," he said to gasps. "We don't know whether the shooter was a student." There's a lot of information that still hasn't been released yet, and rumors abound... was the shooter a student? One rumor states it was a young man who was looking for his ex-girlfriend (this is still rumor at this point of course). Was his fatal wound self-inflicted or was he shot by authorities responding to the incident? I'll post updates as I find them. UPDATE @ 10:22am: The VT website confirms 22 dead. Families wishing to reunite are suggested to do so at The Inn at Virginia Tech. UPDATE @ 10:47am: ABC reports 29 dead now. UPDATE @ 11:25am: Fox reports 32 dead and 21 injured. UPDATE @ 2:31pm: The LATimes put the number wounded at 56, but not all of those were shot by the gunman. Medical personnel are seeing lots of injuries from people trying to escape; cuts from broken glass, broken bones, and sprains as people fled the shooter. UPDATE @ 3:02pm: Seems like this might be a good point for a timeline of events (as reported in this SFGate article). The first shooting was at about 7:15am at West Ambler Johnston, one of VT's dorms. 2 were killed in the dormitory. The second set of shootings occurred at least 2 hours later about a mile and a half across the campus at Norris Hall, an engineering building. 30 were killed at Norris Hall; the shooter killed himself here as well. Much of the confusion with the inceident stems from the 2 hour gap as the gunman moved from the dorms to the engineering building which is why initial reports released had only one killed. University president Charles Steger says a school closure wasn't put into effect after the initial shooting in the dorms because authorities believed the dorm shooting was a "domestic dispute" and the gunman had fled the campus. UPDATE @ 3:11pm: Fox News says the gunman was described as an asian male. He was wearing a vest covered in clips which I assume were for the two 9mm handguns that police recovered at the scene. UPDATE 4/17 @ 9:12am: The information on the gunman yesterday has been released April 17, 2007 — Cho Seung-hui, 23, the Virginia Tech student who police believe is responsible for killing 33 people yesterday, was "a loner, and we're having difficulty finding information about him," said university spokesman Larry Hincker. Police identified Cho, a native of South Korea and resident alien who lived in Centreville, Va., as the shooter by linking the fingerprints at the scene to his immigration documents. Police say the senior English major, who lived in Harper Hall dormitory on the university campus, was likely responsible for both shootings at the university, the first of which took place at around 7:15 a.m. Monday morning when two people were killed at West Ambler Johnston Hall dormitory. Later that morning, the remaining victims were killed in Norris Hall, the engineering studies building. ABC News has learned that Cho left behind a note after the killings at West Ambler Johnston Hall. He then returned to his own room, rearmed and entered Norris Hall, roughly a half a mile away, to continue his shooting rampage. The Sydney Morning Herald confirms what I posted yesterday as simple rumor: the gunman's rampage began with the death of his ex-girlfriend, Emily Jane Hilscher, whom he shot in a jealous rage allegedly because she cheated on him. The second victim was the RA, Ryan Clark, who came by most likely responding to the gunfire. Thus far, those who are confirmed to have died in yesterday's tragedy are Maxine Turner, senior, chemical engineering; Henry Lee, freshman, computer engineering; Matt La Porte, freshman; Jamie Bishop, instructor, foreign languages and literature (German); Professor G.V. Loganathan, civil and environmental engineering; Juan Ortiz, graduate student, civil engineering; Jarrett Lane, senior, civil engineering; Ryan Clark, senior, biology, English, psychology; Leslie Sherman, sophomore, history and international studies; Caitlin Hammaren, sophomore, international studies and French; Professor Liviu Librescu, engineering, science and mechanics; Professor Kevin Granata, engineering, science and mechanics; Reema Samaha, freshman; and the killer's former girlfriend, Emily Hilscher, freshman, animal and poultry sciences, and equine science.

California state employees' pensions are funding terrorists

Beyond the fact that their pensions will eventually bankrupt the state, the California Public Employees' Retirement System (CalPERS) system invests in companies that do business with terrorists. Double trouble... The California Public Employees' Retirement System, the largest U.S. pension fund, and the state teachers' fund would have to unload shares in companies including BNP Paribas of France, Siemens AG of Germany and Eni SpA of Italy. ``Who's funding terrorism? It sure as hell shouldn't be our public employees,'' said Joel Anderson, a Republican assemblyman from El Cajon who introduced the measure. ``When you're looking at the war on terrorists, this is one of the best weapons we have -- just defunding them.'' Anderson estimated his legislation would affect $24 billion worth of investments. [...] Calpers and the California State Teachers' Retirement System control $388 billion in investments. The legislation would affect overseas-based companies, since U.S. businesses are already mostly barred from trading with the countries on the State Department list: Iran, Sudan, Cuba, North Korea and Syria. Some might say these companies can't be that bad, can they? BNP Paribas has current investments in Iran valued over $2 billion including directly lending cash to the Iranian government (and they still can't seem to pay back the Russians for their nuclear technology). And on top of that BNP was probed by British intelligence for its involvement in the Iraq Oil for Food scandal. Siemens AG is a leading telecommunications company that has done billions on dollars of work in Iran on their cell phone and fixed line networks. They also did business with Saddam's regime in Iraq selling him devices called lithotripters. These devices were designed for medical purposes but their electric switches can be used as nuclear detonators (think that will come up in the Plame hearings?). Eni SpA, an energy company, currently has $4 billion in investments in Iran with stakes in Iran's oil fields of up to 60%. They continue to help Iran develop their extnesive oil reserves. There are some 400 companies that do business with nations that sponsor terrorism. The Center for Security Policy has a list of the 12 worst offenders. Siemens AG is #1 on that list; BNP Paribas is #4 and Eni SpA is # 6. Other companies you may have heard of that are on their Dirty Dozen list are Alcatel SA, Statoil ASA, Stolt Nielsen, Technip Coflexip, Hyundai, Total SA, Lundin Petroleum, Oil & Natural Gas Corp. Ltd., and PetroChina. Considering all this CalPERS and CalSTRS representatives currently have no position other than to say that they don't invest directly in Iran. That's brilliant. I'm still in shock that Saddam was sold technology that could easily be used as triggers for a nuclear weapon...

Al Qaeda leader in Iraq takes credit for Rumsfeld's resignation

Why is it so hard for Americans to believe that the Iraqis are closely watching what we do here at home, including our elections? BAGHDAD, Iraq (CNN) -- A purported audio recording by the leader of al Qaeda in Iraq vows to step up the group's fight against the United States, saying, "We haven't had enough of your blood yet." The recording was posted Friday on an Islamist Web site and the speaker is identified as Abu Hamza al-Muhajer, successor to Abu Musab al-Zarqawi. Al-Muhajer is also known as Abu Ayyub al-Masri. "Come down to the battlefield, you coward," the speaker says on the recording, which CNN cannot independently confirm as the voice of al-Muhajer. Calling President Bush a "lame duck" the speaker tells Bush not to "run away as your lame defense secretary ran away," referring to Donald Rumsfeld, who resigned Wednesday. [...] The speaker on the tape vows that al Qaeda in Iraq will not stop its jihad "until we sit under the olive trees in Rumiya after we blow up the wicked house known as the White House." He says the first phase of the jihad is now over, and that the next phase -- building an Islamic nation -- has begun. "The victory day has come faster than we expected," he says. "Here is the Islamic nation in Iraq victorious against the tyrant. The enemy is incapable of fighting on and has no choice but to run away." And being that we're in a "lame duck session" on top of Rumsfeld's resignation, America needs to take note that our actions at home are being monitored by the terrorists, and they're taking their cues from us. Rumsfeld's resignation is seen as a retreat. The Republican's loss in the midterm election is seen as weakness. America take note. We are under surveillance...

1.2 million illegal immigrants arrested at the US-Mexico border in 2005

1.2 million... In one year... All this is in a report released by Texas House Representative Michael McCaul, A Line in the Sand: Confronting the Threat at the Southwest Border (via Counterterrorism Blog). FYI, it's a .pdf file so take note... Some of the basic stats outlined in the 40 page report are as follows... During 2005, Border Patrol apprehended approximately 1.2 million illegal aliens; of those 165,000 were from countries other than Mexico. Of the non-Mexican aliens, approximately 650 were from special interest countries. Special interest countries are those “designated by the intelligence community as countries that could export individuals that could bring harm to our country in the way of terrorism.” A significant portion of illegal activity at the border relates to illegal drug smuggling. Below is a summary of FY 2005 Federal drug seizures, which shows a total of 1,129,275 pounds of cocaine and 6,866,465 million pounds of Marijuana. Law enforcement officials estimate that at best only 20% of illegal drugs are seized and only 30% of illegal immigrants are caught. But as the Aaron Mannes at Counterterrorism blog points out, some of the most disturbing data in the report is in regards to Venezuela's role in helping the 165,000 "other" illegals... A particularly interesting note was the report's discussion of Venezuela's current policy of freely issuing identity documents. Thousands of cedulas (the Venezuelan equivalent of social security cards) have reportedly been issued to non-Venezuelans - including Cubans, Columbians, Middle Easterners, and Pakistanis. Combined with Hugo's belligerent rhetoric and close relationship with Iran this is extremely worrisome. This issue has been discussed in intel circles for some time. FARC's foreign minister was living openly in Caracas and had even voted in Venezuela's election. In fairness, even for Hugo, directly supporting terror attacks against the U.S. may be a bit much (although maybe not). This is more likely crime plus. That is - corruption and criminal activity - permitted by Hugo's regime as a revenue source with the added bonus of causing trouble for the United States. Whatever Hugo's motives, you can't discount his increased belligerence and how chummy he's been lately with the psycho "death to the Great Satan" crowd. With the friends he keeps and the crap he keeps saying, I don't think we can afford to continue to shrug him off as a South American tin hat dictator. If he's going to give legal Venezuelan documents to anybody, of any race, creed, or country - anybody with a pulse for that matter - we need to stand up and take notice. More than take notice, we need to start to take action. And finishing a wall across the entire length of the southern border would be a great start.

Has the world gone friggin insane?

This could have been another school shooting disaster, except this time we got lucky. JOPLIN, Mo. — Fascinated by the Columbine bloodbath, a 13-year-old boy in a black trenchcoat and mask carried an assault rifle into his school Monday, pointed it at students and fired a shot into a ceiling before the weapon jammed, authorities said. No one was hurt. "Please don't make me do this," he was quoted as telling administrators before police arrested him and thwarted what they called a "well thought-out plan" to terrorize his school. This is a 7th grader for crying out loud! He also claimed to have a bomb on him... Thank God his gun jammed. With this rash of violence in schools, I'm sure safety and security will be a popular topic among candidates for this upcoming election. But what can be done that isn't already being done? Do we install more metal detectors? Have more police on campuses? What's the best course of action to keep this from happening. Metal detectors and police (real police, not rent-a-cops) would be great, but what's that do to education budgets? Our government already spends more education than any other nation in the world, and look what we're getting for our money. I'm more a fan of letting teachers discipline their students. Are we really so damned concerned with the emotional health of kids that teachers can't use red ink to correct papers anymore? Does the student learn more when the administrators care more about students' self esteem rather than doing what's best for the kids? After 9/11 in addition to adding air marshalls, the government allowed pilots to arm themselves to prevent future hijackings as long as they took proper training courses. Why not give teachers the same option? If teachers might be armed, couldn't that disuade a few of these school shooting psychos? Of course, licensing and training sessions would be mandated, as well as an extensive screening process. This could help improve things because, really, can it get any worse?