LAX shooting: FBI investigating suspect's
ties to NWO conspiracy theory
Paul Ciancia's phone to be searched for
materials reflecting 'views on the legitimacy or activities of the US government'
Associated Press in Los Angeles
theguardian.com, Tuesday 5 November 2013
13.58 EST
Federal agents are investigating the
possible ties of a suspect in the fatal shooting at Los
Angeles International
Airport to a widely circulated
conspiracy theory that the US
government is preparing to establish a totalitarian state.
The FBI got a warrant Monday to search the
cellphone of alleged gunman Paul Ciancia for materials reflecting his
"views on the legitimacy or activities of the United States government,
including the existence of a plot to impose a New World Order," according
to court documents.
Ciancia, a 23-year-old unemployed
motorcycle mechanic, got a ride to LAX on Friday morning with a roommate,
walked into the airport and began targeting Transportation Security
Administration officers, authorities said.
By the time LAX police officers subdued
him with several gunshots, one TSA officer had been killed and two others
injured.
Ciancia's family has offered sympathy to
the family of slain TSA screener Gerardo I Hernandez. In a brief statement read
by a family attorney in Ciancia's hometown of in Pennsville, NJ,
family members also expressed shock at the rampage and hope for the recovery of
the surviving victims.
One of those officers, Tony Grigsby, spoke
for the first time publicly, saying he was trying to help an elderly man get to
safety when the gunman shot him in the right foot. He hobbled with a cane
outside his South Los Angeles home, where he
fought back tears recalling Hernandez as a wonderful person who will be missed.
"Only now it has hit me that I will
never see him again," Grigsby said.
Co-workers, friends and others gathered
Monday night for a tribute to Hernandez at a beach near the airport.
"He was loved," Jose Araujo, one
of hundreds of people who gathered at Dockweiler State
Beach, told KNBC-TV.
"He's going to be missed and he's never going to be forgotten."
The other wounded TSA officer has been
released from the hospital, the agency said, and the condition of high school
teacher Brian Ludmer, who was shot in the calf, was upgraded from fair to good.
Why airport security officers apparently
came to personify oppression remained unclear.
The assault rifle used in the attack and a
handwritten note found in a bag had TSA inspection stickers on them, according
to a law enforcement official briefed on the investigation who wasn't
authorized to speak publicly and requested anonymity.
The rant spoke of how TSA searches were a
violation of constitutional rights and a vulgar term was used to refer to Janet
Napolitano, the former secretary of the Department of Homeland Security, which
oversees TSA.
The screed also mentioned the
"NWO," an apparent reference to the new world order belief that holds
an international cabal of elites is planning to take away the guns and personal
freedoms of Americans. Perceived masterminds behind the conspiracy have shifted
over several generations, among them bankers, communists and the government
itself.
The TSA does not regularly feature as a
target of the theory's ire, according to Mark Potok, who has studied extremist
groups for the Southern Poverty Law Center. More typically, believers focus on
another homeland security agency, the Federal Emergency Management Agency,
which according to the theory plans to build camps to detain resisters to the
new order, Potok said.
Potok said he has seen no evidence that
Ciancia was personally involved in hate groups.
Ciancia remained in critical condition and
any court appearance on charges of first-degree murder of a federal officer and
committing violence at an international airport will depend on when his doctors
say he's ready, FBI spokeswoman Laura Eimiller said.
See Previous Research for LAX
Shooting
The Wake Of LAX Shooting Update:
Gunman In Critical Condition
Saturday, November 2, 2013
Desmond Tutu, Bono Attend
Memorial for Dutch Prince Friso (This research connects to the LAX shooting)
Monday, November 4, 2013
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