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Wai Kru gym in Boston.
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Wai Kru gym in Boston.
I love it when OT threads go on topic, but not this way, not this way at all...:(
Quote:
Marathon Bombing Suspect’s MMA Instructor: Not The Guy I Used To Know
April 19, 2013 11:12 AM
Heard On WBZ NewsRadio 1030, Local, News, Seen On WBZ-TV, Syndicated Local,
BRIGHTON (CBS) – Tamerlan Tsarnaev was a very talented boxer, according to friends.
He is believed to have trained at Wai Kru Mixed Martial Arts Gym in the Brighton neighborhood in Boston.
WBZ-TV’s Jim Armstrong caught up with Tsarnaev’s former trainer Mark Massey on Friday, who describes the man he remembered as a nice guy.
“He’s not the guy I used to know,” Massey said.” (I’m) shocked just like everybody else.”
Tsarnaev once described himself as not having a single American friend and aspired to be a U.S. Olympic boxer.
http://www.reuters.com/article/2013/...93Q07420130427
A former martial arts instructor has been charged on suspicion of sending the ricin-laced letter to president Obama and possibly having tried to frame the previous person of interest in the case. He denies involvement.
What style did he teach? Anyone know more about the martial arts side of the story?
We live in a world where "Taekwondo instructor arrested in ricin case after Elvis impersonator released" is a real thing.
Thanks. Yeah, you couldn't make this stuff up.Quote:
Originally Posted by TaichiMantis
It appears the suspect’s strip-mall martial arts school closed after allegations that he fondled young female students. Again, he contests the charges.
http://www.usatoday.com/story/news/n...sippi/2117451/
Martial arts instructor charged over deadly ricin letters sent to Obama after Elvis impersonator claims he was 'framed' by him
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/arti...ramed-him.html
Real Elvis impersonators practice Kenpo.
I posted a link to this story on the Boston Marathon Bombings thread last week because it was mentioned previously there. I thought about posting it here but I generally don't do double posts as there's plenty of that already. Nevertheless, I'm glad you mentioned it here too, rett, as it certainly has its place here.Quote:
Originally Posted by rett
Weird story.
Quote:
No bond for martial arts instructor charged with sending ricin letters
James Everett Dutschke of Tupelo, Miss., has been arrested, accused of sending letters containing deadly ricin addressed to President Obama and a senator. He has feuded with Paul Kevin Curtis, who was charged with the crime and later released. NBC's Pete Williams reports.
By Erin McClam, Staff Writer, NBC News
A judge declined to set bond Monday for a Mississippi martial arts instructor charged with sending poisoned letters to President Barack Obama and other government officials.
Prosecutors said they believed James Everett Dutschke was dangerous and a flight risk, according to NBC affiliate WTVA.
Dutschke was arrested Saturday morning at his home in Tupelo and charged with attempted use of a biological weapon — the poison ricin, which authorities say turned up in letters to the president, a senator and a Mississippi judge.
The arrest was the latest bizarre twist in the case. Authorities first arrested another man, an Elvis impersonator named Paul Kevin Curtis, who frequently writes to Congress and who has a longstanding feud with Dutschke. Charges against Curtis were dropped.
Curtis says he was framed. He has said Dutschke snubbed him after showing interest in publishing his book on a black market for body parts. Curtis also acknowledged posting a fake Mensa certificate online as part of a trap he set for Dutschke.
Law enforcement officials said they found traces of ricin after searching Dutschke’s home, business and cars. Dutschke has said that he is a patriotic American, holds no grudges and didn’t do it.
“I wouldn’t recognize ricin if I saw it,” he told reporters last week. “Would you?”
Dutschke, 41, who earlier this month pledged not guilty to two child molestation charges, faces life in prison if he is convicted on the ricin charge.
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Paul Kevin Curtis speaks to reporters last week in Oxford, Miss.
Besides Obama, the ricin letters were sent to Sen. Roger Wicker, R-Miss., and to Judge Sadie Holland of Lee County, Miss. The letters to Obama and Wicker were intercepted at screening facilities. Holland’s letter reached her, but she was unharmed.
“Boy, I must be important,” she joked to The Clarion-Ledger newspaper of Jackson. “I’m right up there with the president and Senator Wicker, huh?”
Ricin is made from castor beans and can kill, but an FBI agent testified in court that the ricin in the letters was crude and not very potent, and looked like castor beans ground in a blender.
It really sucks when stuff like this comes up in the martial arts news feeds. :(
Quote:
FBI finds ricin in martial arts studio run by letter-writing suspect
By Cheryl K. Chumley
The Washington Times
Wednesday, May 1, 2013
Federal authorities say they’ve found evidence of ricin in the Tupelo, Miss., martial arts studio that is run by the suspect who’s accused of sending poison letters to the president.
James Everett Dutschke is also charged with sending ricin-laced letters to a politician and a judge.
The FBI said Tuesday that agents discovered ricin in the studio as well as on items that police observed him taking from his studio and depositing in the trash, The Associated Press reported. Among the items: a dust mask, AP reported.
Moreover, the FBI said the suspect purchased castor beans — which are used to make ricin — online, AP reported.
The studio was sealed after FBI collected “trace levels of ricin,” FBI spokeswoman Deborah Madden said.
I really want to pronounce his name like douche.Quote:
Martial arts guru pleads guilty in Obama ricin plot
(AFP) – 1 hour ago
Washington — A 41-year-old martial arts instructor on Friday pleaded guilty to sending ricin-laced letters to President Barack Obama and other officials, the United States Justice Department said.
James Everett Dutschke triggered widespread alarm last April after the emergence of the potentially lethal letters, as the United States reeled in shock from the Boston Marathon bomb attack.
The incident carried an eerie echo of the anthrax letters sent to public officials shortly after the September 11, 2001 attacks.
Appearing in a federal court in Oxford, Mississippi on Friday, Dutschke pleaded guilty to charges of developing and possessing ricin, and mailing ricin-impregnated letters, including one that threatened Obama.
According to the terms of his guilty plea, Dutschke has agreed to a 25-year jail term. His sentence will be formally confirmed by federal judge Sharion Ay**** in two months time.
The Justice Department said Dutschke had used the Internet to research how to produce and use ricin, a biological agent and toxin which can be lethal in only the tiniest amounts.
Dutschke purchased castor beans or seeds -- from which ricin is made -- via the Internet before buying tools to process and develop the poison, such as latex gloves, grinders and masks from vendors in the area.
He then sent three ricin-laced letters to Obama, a US Senator, and a Mississippi Justice Court Judge.
Authorities had initially arrested another man in the aftermath of the letters' emergence: Elvis impersonator Paul Kevin Curtis.
However Curtis's attorney insisted his client had been framed, and suggested Dutschke was responsible.
Dutschke was also known to have had a long-standing dispute with the Mississippi justice who received one of the letters.
Dutschke was arrested on April 27 last year before being indicted in June.
Previous on Dutschke
So George Lucas is his lawyer? :rolleyes:
And how do you pronounce his last name exactly?
For more, revisit last year's comments on this very thread.
Quote:
Miss. ricin letters suspect pleads not guilty
By Robbie ByrdPublished: Wednesday, June 5, 2013, 10:55 am
JACKSON, Miss. (AP) — A Mississippi man has pleaded not guilty to sending ricin-laced letters to President Barack Obama, a U.S. senator and a local judge.
The plea was made in a court filing Tuesday on behalf of James Everett Dutschke of Tupelo.
Dutschke is charged with sending the poison-tainted letters on April 8 to Obama, U.S. Sen. Roger Wicker of Mississippi and Lee County Justice Court Judge Sadie Holland.
Dutschke had been scheduled for arraignment Thursday in U.S. District Court in Oxford.
His lawyer, George Lucas, waived Dutschke’s right to appear and entered not guilty pleas to all five charges.
Lucas had no comment when contacted Wednesday.
Dutschke, a former martial arts instructor, was arrested April 27. He is being held without bond in the Lafayette County jail.
So tempted to make a Jailhouse Rock pun here...
Quote:
May 20, 2014
Mississippi martial arts instructor gets 25 years in ricin case
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Man gets 25 years in ricin letters case
MICHAEL MUSKAL,
Matt Pearce
May 19, 2014, 2:25 p.m.
A man was sentenced to 25 years in federal prison on Monday for mailing ricin to President Obama and other officials in the latest turn through the legal maze involving a martial arts instructor, an Elvis impersonator and a plea deal that was again on after the defendant initially pleaded guilty and then changed his mind.
U.S. District Judge Sharion Ay**** in Aberdeen, Miss., sentenced James Everett Dutschke, 41, to 25 years in prison to be followed by five years of supervised release after the taekwondo instructor decided not to withdraw his guilty plea after all.
At his hearing last week, Dutschke withdrew that plea and launched into a 30-minute rant, lashing out at Paul Kevin Curtis, the Elvis impersonator who said he was framed by Dutschke in the ricin case.
Dutschke, when asked by the judge whether he would like to make another statement before sentencing, replied: "I think it would be best if I don't," and then laughed, according to the Daily Journal in Tupelo, Miss.
In April 2013, letters containing ricin were sent to Obama, Sen. Roger Wicker (R-Miss.) and Judge Sadie Holland of Lee County Justice Court in Tupelo. Ricin is a deadly toxin refined from the castor oil plant and its seeds, known as castor beans.
On April 17 last year, Curtis, the Elvis impersonator, was detained on suspicion of sending the letters. But officials cleared him after no ricin was found during a search of his home. Curtis, through his lawyer, maintained that he probably had been framed by Dutschke, with whom the impersonator was locked in an online feud.
Ten days later, Dutschke was arrested in connection with the ricin mailings and in January of this year pleaded guilty to one count of developing and possessing ricin, and three subsequent counts of mailing threatening letters laced with the substance.
Last Tuesday, the day he was scheduled to be sentenced, Dutschke said he wanted to withdraw his guilty plea and launched into his tirade, again accusing Curtis, whom he compared to Barney, the purple dinosaur and beloved children’s character. Dutschke offered to eat the contents of the letters to show that they weren't poisonous and blamed the government for conspiring against him.
The sentencing was delayed to allow Dutschke time to file the appropriate papers, but he never did. Withdrawing the guilty plea could have opened Dutschke to a possible life sentence as well as a longer sentence in a state court proceeding where he had pleaded guilty to fondling charges. The two cases had been linked in the January plea agreement.
Federal prosecutor Chad Lamar said the judge found the agreement appropriate.
"She found our agreement to be a fair sentence and one that represented the severity of the crime committed," Lamar said after the hearing.
This makes me sick. Reminds me of Tamerlan TsarnaevQuote:
Tunisia beach killer trained with museum gunmen
Authorities find links between the two assaults as all three attackers were together at a jihadi camp in LibyaBY BOUAZZA BEN BOUAZZA AND ANDREA ROSA July 1, 2015, 2:37 am 1
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The Islamic State releases a picture online it says is of the Tunisian gunman who mowed down at least 37 people, most of them tourists, on June 26, 2015 at a beach resort in Sousse, Tunisia. He was named as Seifeddine Yacoubi, 23, from Kairouan, also known as Abu Yahya Qayrawani by IS. Authorities later named him as Seifedinne RezguiNEWSROOM
TUNIS, Tunisia (AP) — The student who massacred tourists in a Tunisian seaside resort trained in a jihadi camp in Libya at the same time as the two men who attacked a leading museum in March, a top security official said Tuesday, enforcing the notion of a link between the two assaults and raising fears of more attacks from an underground world clawing at this North African nation’s budding democracy.
Investigators were searching nationwide for accomplices in the attack that killed 38 tourists and questioning a handful recently detained.
“It has been confirmed that the attacker trained in Libya with weapons at the same period as the Bardo attackers,” said Rafik Chelli, the secretary of state for the Interior Ministry. “He crossed the borders secretly.”
Chelli said Seifeddine Rezgui, a 24-year-old who obtained a Master degree in electrical engineering, left his studies at Kairouan University and sneaked into the western Libyan town of Sabratha in January — when the two young men who carried out the museum attack in Tunis were there.
Sabratha, the site of Roman ruins, is one of several places in chaotic Libya where radical groups have training camps. The Islamic State, which has a strong Libyan presence, claimed responsibility for the beach resort attack.
There has been no previous indication that Rezgui had left Tunisia.
Rezgui has been portrayed as a good student. He received his one-year Masters degree, at one point liked break dancing and even getting a certificate, and practicing Kung Fu, according to a person with knowledge of the investigation. The person was not authorized to speak publicly and asked not to be identified.
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Seifedinne Rezgui, the gunman who allegedly murdered dozens in Tunisia on June 26, 2015, is shown walking with his weapon on the beach after the massacre in this still from Sky News footage. He was later shot in a side street, Sky reported. (Sky News screenshot)
A fellow student in Kairouan, Saidi Fedi, 25, described him as a model of magnanimity — but a member of the student branch of Ansar al Sharia, an Islamist group,
“Seif participated in the meetings … on a lower level. He was not one of the leaders,” Feidi said in an interview, referring to the university’s Islamic Youth group.
“He was the least radical of the group in which he was active. He was one who took part in the debates, and he accepted different views. He didn’t argue aggressively,” Feidi said. “He didn’t answer with anger” when debating with students who supported the Syrian government. “He didn’t do anything that could give us a clue.”
The head of post-graduate Institute for Applied Sciences and Technology, attended by the attacker expressed equal shock.
“We informed the police so they could be sure of his identity and personal data,” said Karim Ben Elgharat. “We didn’t see anything strange about him. He was a good and assiduous student.”
The invisibility of the attacker, like those who carried out the Bardo attack, is for Tunisia and elsewhere, the biggest challenge in preventing terrorism.
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Illustrative: Tunisian security forces secure the area after gunmen attacked Tunis’ famed Bardo Museum on March 18, 2015. (photo credit: AFP/ FETHI BELAID)
The spokesman for the Interior Ministry, Mohamed Ali Aroui, said it was not immediately clear whether Rezgui trained in the same group as the Bardo attackers or whether they were linked to the Islamic State organization.
But the presence of radical groups in Libya increases the threat level to its Tunisian neighbor, as does the approaching end of the Muslim holy month of Ramadan and its “night of destiny,” which falls in mid-July this year.
It is a night that holds risks, said the person with knowledge of the investigation.
The “night of destiny” is considered a propitious time for good actions, which for jihadis means killings, said Mathieu Guidere, an Islamic scholar at the University of Toulouse.
Tunisia has struggled since its 2011 revolution to maintain the fragile democracy it has managed to put in place — the only one to emerge from the Arab Spring uprisings. At the same time, it is has seen the highest number of its citizens, some 3,000, head to Syria and Iraq to fight with radical jihadi groups, including the Islamic State group. They usually travel via Libya, getting training on the way. Increasingly, they have trained there before returning to carry out attacks in Tunisia. Tunisia’s most well-known Islamic radical Seifallah Ben Hassine, fled to Libya in 2013 taking many supporters with him into exile.
Guidere, who tracks Islamist groups, cited the Soldiers of the Caliphate of Tunisia, a recent group linked to the Islamic State group, as the most likely suspect behind the Sousse attack. It claimed responsibility for the Bardo Museum attack. The small group, he said, is made up of some of the 400 to 500 returnees from Syria and Iraq.
There has been criticism of the government’s handling of security, especially since tourists had clearly become a target after the museum attackers killed 22 people in March.
President Beji Caid Essebsi revealed Tuesday morning that heightened security measures had been scheduled to be put in place just days after the beach attack.
“It is not a perfect system — it is true we were surprised by this affair,” he told France’s Europe 1 radio. “They took measures for the month of Ramadan but they never thought the attack would be on the beaches against tourists and the system of protection was set to start July 1.”
Armed tourist police are to be stationed at hotels and army reservists called up in a bid to staunch damage to the vital tourism industry — a lifeline for the Sousse region.
At least 25 of the victims were British in the approximately half-hour rampage from the beach through the hotel, according to the latest figures from Tunisia’s Ministry of Health. The ministry said 33 of the 38 victims have now been identified, also including 3 Irish, 2 Germans, a Belgian, a Portuguese and a Russian.
The fury of the attack was evident days later. A trail of blood from escaping tourists ran along the sidewalk to the gate of a hotel down the road. The caked pool of blood where the attacker was gunned down near a bend in the road was intact and the white walls lining the street were pocked with bullets.
Friday’s attack was not the first in a hotel in Sousse. Two years ago, a gunman with a suicide belt strapped around him assaulted a beach hotel in the downtown area, but killed only himself.
Another terrorist. :(
Time to start a Martial Arts Terrorists thread. :o
continued next postQuote:
The karate killer: Video emerges of Bastille Day terrorist injuring an opponent during martial arts bout
Mohamed Lahouaiej Bouhlel was filmed taking part in a contest in 2010
His opponent, who does not wish to named, recalled the match
He said he struck with his head and elbows which are banned by the rules
Comes after selfie photos emerged of Bouhlel before his Nice attack
With friend in a Paris St Germain top he took pictures hours before attack
He posed for pictures both inside and outside the 19-tonne white lorry
He turned truck into deadly weapon that he used to plough into crowds
By SARAH DEAN and FLORA DRURY IN NICE FOR MAILONLINE
PUBLISHED: 10:02 EST, 21 July 2016 | UPDATED: 12:06 EST, 21 July 2016
Video has emerged of Bastille Day killer Mohamed Lahouaiej Bouhlel injuring an opponent by using banned moves during a martial arts contest.
The clip, filmed in a sports hall in 2010, shows the truck terrorist wearing a red belt as he struggles with another fighter on a mat.
The pair can be seen kicking out at each other as well as tussling as they both brawl on the floor.
After the fourth whistle is blown, Bouhlel appears to punch his opponent in the stomach. The man falls to his knees in agony and the game is temporarily suspended.
The footage was filmed six years before the French-Tunisian decided to drive a 19-tonne lorry through crowds on a promenade in Nice on Bastille Day, killing 84 people.
Nice attacker 'injures' opponent during martial arts contest
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Bastille Day killer Mohamed Lahouaiej Bouhlel is filmed holding his opponent's head up after hitting him in the stomach
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Bouhlel (left) is seen kicking his opponent while competing in a martial arts competition in 2010
His opponent, who asked not to be named, said he remembers Bouhlel as a novice who repeatedly made mistakes during the fight, saying he would strike with his head and elbows which are banned by the rules.
The video comes after pictures of Bouhlel posing for a selfie in the truck he used to massacre 84 people emerged.
Taken just hours before he ploughed into crowds on Nice's Promenade des Anglais, the smirking killer looked relaxed as he prepares to commit mass murder.
In the first picture, taken on July 12, two days before the massacre, he sits in the cab of the rented 19-tonne truck next to a friend and sticks his middle finger up.
The second picture showing him grinning next to a friend wearing a Paris St Germain shirt of them stood next to the lorry was taken on July 13, just 24 hours before the horror which killed 10 children.
Gym-loving Bouhlel, a father of three, who used dating sites and had a 73-year-old gay lover, is said to have sent the pictures to friends and family back home in Tunisia before the attack.
It is unknown if the friend he is pictured with is an accomplice and whether the man next to him in the pictures has been questioned by detectives.
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His opponent, who asked not to be named, said he remembers Bouhlel as a novice
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Bouhlel repeatedly made mistakes during the fight, striking with his head and elbows which are banned by the rules
French anti-terror police retrieved the photos from his mobile phone after he was shot dead in the carnage.
‘The photos are part of a body of mobile phone evidence,’ said a source close to the case. ‘His device is loaded with pictures like this.’
Bouhlel was wearing a black-and-white checked shirt, and had a friend sitting next to him, when he took the photo on July 12th – last Tuesday.
His opponent in the blue belt is forced to take a break and regain his composure during the brutal fight
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His opponent in the blue belt is forced to take a break and regain his composure during the brutal fight
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The pair can be seen kicking out at each other as well as tussling as they both brawl on the floor
This has been pinpointed by as the day Bouhlel started staking out the Promenade des Anglais in the hired lorry.
He drove up and down the famous beachside strip where – on July 14th, Bastille Day – he would strike during a holiday fireworks display.
The second picture, taken on the eve of the attack, shows Bouhlel grinning broadly as he and a friend stand by the lorry.
The front of the lorry looks very different to the bullet-holed wreck which was riddled with gunfire and had its panels smashed off during its horror drive along the promenade.
There are more photos but I only posted a few because it was making me sick. There's a video too.Quote:
http://i.dailymail.co.uk/i/pix/2016/...8932695567.jpg
Wearing a black and white checked shirt Mohamed Bouhlel grins and puts his middle finger up to the camera on July 12 as he sits in the cab of the 19-tonne truck he used to murder 84 people on Bastille Day
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The second picture was taken on July 13, the eve of the attack, and shows Bouhlel grinning broadly as he and a friend wearing a white Paris St Germain football top stand by the lorry
http://i.dailymail.co.uk/i/pix/2016/...8935064923.jpg
Boulel loved sending selfie photos to people, and would record all of his relationships with other people, however brief
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French anti-terror police retrieved the photos from ISIS killer Bouhlel's mobile phone after he was shot dead in the carnage
A prosecuting source confirmed that the photos ‘are genuine’ and that the second man in the photo taken outside the truck ‘is now in custody along with five others.’
The photos were leaked to TF1, the French private TV channel that is one of the most watched in Europe, and executives there took the decision to post them online.
It came as French detectives have interviewed the truck killer's male lover amid revelations he was a 'sex maniac' and an 'ultra-violent bisexual sadist'.
As his male and female lovers were interviewed in the wake of the massacre, it emerged he was sex-obsessed before his rapid decision to convert to Islam.
The killer had told a friend he had regularly watched videos of hostages being decapitated by ISIS online, and detectives described finding 'very violent' pictures of corpses on his computer.
Bouhlel's favourite lover was the 73-year-old male pensioner, but others described him as a 'sex maniac' and an 'ultra-violent bisexual sadist' when interviewed.
The 'sexually obsessed' killer had male and female conquests that he found on dating sites.
But the pensioner was described as his 'principal' lover by detectives who have unearthed details of his personal life by examining his mobile phone.
Bouhlel also regularly viewed sites showing violent sex as well as propaganda and graphic scenes of torture and beheadings.
A cousin described him as an 'unlikely jihadi' who drank alcohol, took drugs, ate pork and never went to a mosque.
Officers discovered the phone inside the bullet-riddled white lorry after his mile of carnage on Thursday when he was shot dead.
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His phone was picked up by police officers after they shot him dead last Thursday in a lorry that he had used to kill 85 people on the Promenade des Anglais, in the French city of Nice
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Bouhlel also talked of his delight in obtaining a 7.65 pistol and his hope for getting other weapons. Pictured his family home in Tunisia
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Memorial of hate: A mourner spits on the pile of rubbish and stones at the exact spot on the Nice promenade where Bouhlel was shot dead
It has since emerged his estranged wife was planning on heading to the fireworks display but pulled out at the last minute citing 'personal reasons', according to local media.
Both his wife and her mother had been the victims of his domestic abuse, according to French detectives.
Bouhlel visited gyms and salsa bars regularly, and would also visit website 'showing pictures of executions', said BFM TV.
'The busy sex life of a man who had recently discovered a religious faith is shown by the data on the device,' BFM added.
The phone has also revealed chilling details of how the divorced father-of-three prepared his attack - revealing his delight in obtaining a 7.65 pistol and his hope for getting other weapons.
'Bring more weapons. Bringing in 5,' read one text, according to judicial sources.
An earlier text said: 'It's good. I have the equipment.'
The last text was sent at 10.27pm to one of the men now in custody following police raids over the weekend. It ended 'Bringing in five to C'.
Most of those arrested had been in contact with Bouhlel on a number of occasions, added the judicial source.
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Anger: Another mourner kicks the shrine daubed with the word 'assassin' on the ground where Bouhlel was killed by police
Hero motorcyclist launches himself at terror truck in Nice
One theory being looked at was that Bouhlel was 'intent on committing suicide' and had designed his death 'in the style of a terrorist attack'.
This theory is supported by information gleaned from those in custody, according to the source.
These included Ramzie Arifa, 22, who 'spent time talking with Bouhlel before the attack'.
One of the police officers who shot Bouhlel dead has also spoken about the ordeal for the first time.
'He had stopped. The front of the vehicle was completely torn to pieces. The motor was off,' the unnamed officer revealed.
'I was completely sure what was happening. I saw a shadow emerge from the driver's side. He had a weapon.
'I aimed for the head – that's all I could see. He disappeared in the cabin and then reemerged.
'I shot twice more. His head fell back.
'Without knowing whether he was dead, I heard the order "stop shooting".'
Three of the six still in custody have been transferred to Levallois-Peret near Paris for further questioning by the Directorate of Internal Security (RPS).
I clung to the handle. I tried three or four times to open the door. I could see he was looking for something as the truck slowed down.
Alexandre Migues
But France's Minister of the Interior, Bernard Cazeneuve, said today that the links between the killer and 'terrorist networks' had not yet been established.
However, he said: 'The MO is borrowed completely from that of Daesh [ISIS].'
Speaking on RTL he added: 'We cannot exclude that an unbalanced and very violent individual, as his psychology shows he was, in one moment, rapidly radicalised and then committed this absolutely appalling crime.'
But he said it was clear from the first moment it had all the elements of a suicide attack and initial inquiries seem to show premeditation.
'There are people who are in custody, in the entourage or among those who at some point were in contact to supply him with arms.'
Meanwhile a modest hero has come forward to tell how he tried to stop killer Bouhlel's rampage.
Alexandre Migues said he saw the truck as it neared the end of the promenade.
Throwing his bike to one side he ran for 20 metres to catch up with Bouhlel, who had now slowed the truck to between five and 10km.
'I clung to the handle,' he told MBF TV. 'I tried three or four times to open the door. I could see he was looking for something as the truck slowed down.
'He pulled up a weapon. He waved it at me looking me straight in the eyes. I let go of the door handle.
'He was in command of that truck, that wheel. He was the master of the vehicle.'
He continued: 'I'd seen a person get crushed in front of me so my reaction was to follow and run.
'I tried to do my best to slow it down. But when he threatened me with his pistol, I let go of the handle.'
He said that he had also seen the motorcyclist caught on camera trying to stop the vehicle, but didn't know what had happened to him.
The man has never come forward or been found.
He added: 'You can see on video we managed to slow the truck. I wish i could have clung on longer to force him into the central reservation or at least to slow him down enough so that people could flee.
'From where we started to slow down the truck for 150 metres there were no victims. I was so relieved.'
Oh man. Srsly? :rolleyes: :oQuote:
JULY 21 2016 8:43 PM
Cartoonish Olympic Terror Plot Involving Martial Arts Thwarted in Brazil
By Elliot Hannon
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Troops at the Olympic Village in Rio de Janeiro on July 5.
Vanderlei Almeida/AFP/Getty Images
Brazilian officials arrested 10 members of an Islamist organization on Thursday who were plotting a terrorist attack on the Olympic Games being held in Rio de Janeiro next month. The suspects, who are all Brazilian citizens, are part of a group called Defenders of Sharia. The Brazilian justice minister described the group as “absolutely amateur” and poorly organized in its support of ISIS.
The preparations for the Games have been fraught with controversy, and while terrorism is now a common and ever-present worry at global events like the Olympics, the biggest safety concern has been crime. The arrests have refocused attention on the possibility of terrorism in Brazil, which has struggled to put the finishing infrastructural touches on the Olympic Games.
Despite the terror warning shot, in this case the arrested men seem to be almost comically inept. None of the men knew one another other and each assumed Arabic code names, despite scant connection to the Arab world. The group’s general plan, according to the justice minister, was: "Let's start training in martial arts, let's start learning how to shoot.” They were reportedly trying to buy guns from Paraguay, but it's unclear how far along in the process the group was. “It’s hard to call them terrorists,” the federal judge overseeing the case said. “But even though they don’t have a very solid organization, the arrests are warranted from a legal point of view.”
Does this White Supremacist Samurai Wannabes qualify as a Martial Art Terrorist? A terrorist wannabe for sure - I'm more questioning if this gets pinned to the martial arts. :mad:
Quote:
Sword Killing Was ‘Practice’ for Racial Terrorism, Man Told Police
https://static01.nyt.com/images/2018...y=90&auto=webp
In a video shown in New York Supreme Court on Thursday, James Jackson said he had in mind “an amateurish, slipshod version” of “a terrorist attack.”Credit Jefferson Siegel for The New York Times
By Sean Piccoli
Sept. 20, 2018
A white Army veteran charged with fatally stabbing a 66-year-old black man with a sword in Midtown last year told the police that the slaying was “practice” for a larger racial terror attack he planned to carry out in Times Square.
In a police interview video taken after he surrendered about a day after the March 2017 killing, James Harris Jackson, of Baltimore, said he stabbed Timothy Caughman repeatedly with a “Roman short sword” that he drew from a scabbard tucked into his pants. He said his ultimate goal was to murder several black men — preferably younger black men in the company of white women — because of his hatred of interracial dating.
“That’s the main crux for me,” said Mr. Jackson, now 30, saying that mixed-race couples were “an insurmountable problem” for him, in an interrogation video shown on Thursday afternoon at a pretrial hearing in New York Supreme Court. He would face a maximum sentence of life in prison without parole if he is convicted on murder, terrorism, hate-crime and weapons charges.
Mr. Jackson sat silently between his two lawyers on Thursday, half-watching video of himself from 18 months ago on a flat-screen positioned directly across from the defense table in Judge Laura A. Ward’s courtroom.
In the video recorded early on Wednesday, March 22, 2017, a calm, almost nonchalant-sounding Mr. Jackson spoke freely about what he said he had done about a day before, and why.
With little prompting from the lead interrogator, Detective Joseph Barbara, Mr. Jackson re-enacted the killing, standing up in the cramped interview room and using a two-fisted, downward motion to describe how he stabbed Mr. Caughman, who was sifting curbside litter for recyclables, on West 36th Street near 9th Avenue at about 11:15 p.m. that Monday.
Mr. Caughman screamed and rolled over — “He scared the hell out of me,” Mr. Jackson said — and then cried repeatedly, “What are you doing?”
“So I stabbed him a couple of more times in the chest,” Mr. Jackson said.
He said that in the course of the attack the sword struck the pavement, crumpling the tip of the blade. “I had put a little too much energy into it,” Mr. Jackson said.
He fled with his broken weapon, which he told detectives he then tossed into a garbage can in Washington Square Park. Mr. Caughman, who lived in a nearby shelter, walked a block to a police station on West 35th Street, where officers summoned an ambulance, the police said. He died at Bellevue Hospital.
[By all accounts, Timothy Caughman was a benevolent man content with an unassuming life, living in a former single room occupancy residence that had been his longtime home. For more about his life, read here.]
Twenty-five hours later, Mr. Jackson, who had seen his image from surveillance video in news reports, walked into the police substation in Times Square and told officers to arrest him, the police said. He was taken to the same precinct where Mr. Caughman had sought help.
Mr. Jackson spent about two hours talking to detectives, prosecutors said. They showed about an hour of the interview on Thursday, and planned to show the rest on Friday.
“I was going for something a bit bigger,” Mr. Jackson told his interrogators, explaining that over the course of several days in New York, with a hotel in Times Square as his base, he walked around Manhattan actively stalking between 10 and 15 individuals or groups with the thought of killing them. He said he almost carried out other attacks, using two knives hidden in his pockets, but hesitated.
“It’s more complicated than you think,” he said.
[Mayor Bill de Blasio spoke at the funeral of Timothy Caughman, who was remembered as a individual of quiet dignity and broad interests. Read more here.]
He said he felt “kind of bad” that his victim was an older man — but only because he wanted to kill somebody younger. When Detective Barbara asked him if he felt any remorse, Mr. Jackson said, “No,” adding, “He’s a homeless black guy.”
Mr. Jackson said his next step was to move on to a larger attack in a city that he called the center of the media universe. “I wanted to basically influence the national conversation,” he said.
“I was planning on doing basically as many as I could in Times Square,” he said, and he had prepared to send an email to The New York Times or CNN explaining his motives. He told detectives that his letter could be found on a file called Declaration of War, on a flash drive he possessed when the police arrested him.
He said he had in mind “a terrorist attack” — what he called “an amateurish, slipshod version” of one.
In the portions of video shown in court, Mr. Jackson did not say why he changed his mind or what led him to surrender. But he said that after the attack he had walked aimlessly around Manhattan. He said he also had slept on the floor at Pennsylvania Station for a couple of hours.
“I was just kind of processing what had happened,” he said. He told detectives that he wondered, “If I just stab another person, what difference does that make? The point’s already been made.”
A graduate of a private Quaker high school in Baltimore known for its philosophy of nonviolence, Mr. Jackson said he also thought about his parents and two brothers in Maryland. “This is obviously going to be devastating to my family,” he said.
Two relatives of Mr. Caughman, his cousins Norma and Iris Peek, sat in the courtroom and watched the video impassively. Norma Peek remarked afterward at Mr. Jackson’s lack of remorse. “And after graduating from a Quaker school,” she said incredulously.
More on James Jackson here and here.
THREADSQuote:
White supremacist sentenced to life in prison for killing black man with sword
by Associated Press Wednesday, February 13th 2019
https://static-26.sinclairstoryline....?1550079771264
James Harris Jackson is arraigned in criminal court, Thursday, March 23, 2017, in New York. Jackson, accused of randomly killing Timothy Caughman, a 66-year-old black man on the streets of New York by stabbing him with a sword, was charged Thursday with murder as a hate crime. (Jefferson Siegel/The Daily News via AP, Pool)
NEW YORK (AP) — A white supremacist who killed a black man with a sword wanted to ignite a worldwide race war, a prosecutor told a judge who sentenced the man Wednesday to life in prison without parole.
Manhattan District Attorney Cyrus Vance read excerpts from James Jackson's hate-filled manifesto as he decried the "horror of his actions" when he fatally stabbed 66-year-old Timothy Caughman in March 2017 after stalking a number of black men in New York City.
James Harris Jackson appears in criminal court during his arraignment, Thursday, March 23, 2017, in New York. Jackson, accused of randomly killing Timothy Caughman, a 66-year-old black man on the streets of New York by stabbing him with a sword, was charged Thursday with murder as a hate crime. (Steven Hirsch/New York Post via AP, Pool)
"James Jackson is a white supremacist and a terrorist," Vance said of the Baltimore man and veteran who served in Afghanistan.
Given a chance to speak, Jackson, who is white, said he wanted to apologize for "this horrible and unnecessary tragedy."
"It never should have happened," he added. "And if I could to it all over again, this never would have happened, for sure."
State Supreme Court Justice Laura Ward kept her remarks brief.
"You killed a man solely because he was black," she said. "And there is no excuse for your actions."
Richard Peek, a cousin of the victim who spoke for the family, read aloud an "open letter to a murderer" in court, saying "one cruel man's intolerance turned many people's worlds upside-down."
RELATED: White murder suspect told police 'inferior' blacks should be 'exterminated'
Caughman, who was remembered as a gentleman and a good neighbor, was attacked while collecting bottles for recycling.
Jackson, 30, told police he traveled from Baltimore to carry out the attack because New York is the media capital of the world. He said the slaying was intended to be practice for further assaults on black people.
Vance said Jackson's manifesto was on a digital storage drive recovered after his arrest. The prosecutor said he did not want to make the entire document public to avoid helping to spread its hateful content. But he wanted to put some of it on the record for the first time.
"The racial world war starts today," Vance said, reading from the manifesto.
He said Jackson called for military and biological warfare aimed at the "extermination" of black people and urged authorities in the United Kingdom, China and Russia to get involved.
Vance lamented that American law enforcement has been slow to acknowledge the problem of white supremacism and has sometimes minimized it.
"We have too often treated these crimes as something less than other kinds of terrorism, and in so doing we have risked normalizing this type of behavior," he said.
He asked the judge to "send a message to other would-be terrorists."
Jackson's attorney, Frederick Sosinsky, said his client had marched with family members to protest racial injustice, had served honorably alongside blacks in the military, and had never committed a crime before "the worst day of his life."
"His lost soul and broken spirit permitted him to act as he'd never acted before," Sosinsky said.
Outside court, Vance said Jackson's worldwide plan was "diabolical and cruel."
"He came to New York in the hope of inciting a race war that would pit New Yorkers against New Yorkers and ultimately blacks and whites against each other all over the world," he said.
Samurai Wannabes
Martial Art Terrorist
There appears to be a great many deluded young men out there.
That is certain.