Wednesday, September 18, 2013

What did the Navy Know and When did they know it?

"Navy officers were aware that in 2004 Aaron Alexis was arrested for shooting out the tires of a car in a black-out fueled by anger, and yet they admitted him into the Navy and granted him security clearance in 2007 anyway, a senior Naval officer told CNN." (Aaron Alexis killed 12 people at the Washington Navy Yard on Monday).
"It appears as if investigators were aware of the incident, interviewed him and were satisfied that it did not preclude granting the clearance," the officer said.
Alexis "should have been screened out early on in his enlistment," said one expert on Navy processes, who asked not to be identified. "The Navy and the various entities responsible for his adjudication were either unwilling or worse unable to determine he was unfit for service in the United States Navy."
Meanwhile, CNN, in a rush to make yesterdays shooting fit a narrative, inaccurately reported the make of the weapon the shooter used. It now appears that the shooter, Aaron Alexis, did not in fact use an AR-15, as speculated by Piers Morgan, and others.
UPDATE: 10:11 a.m. (Tuesday) A handful of gun-control proponents have renew their campaign against the AR-15, such as New York Daily News columnist Mike Lupica and CNN’s Piers Morgan, since yesterday’s shooting. But Morgan’s network colleague Pamela Brown reports that the Washington’s FBI office says Alexis did not use an AR-15. 
Given this apparent inconsistency in their reporting, this is how CNN decided to handle it...
It has been called the most popular rifle in America, and it briefly returned to the spotlight after Monday's shooting at the Navy Yard: the AR-15.
A U.S. law enforcement official said Monday that gunman Aaron Alexis unleashed a barrage of bullets using an AR-15, a rifle and a semi-automatic handgun. Authorities believed the AR-15 was used for most of the shooting, the official said.
CNN didn't wait to confirm that initial statement, even though they had interviewed an eye witness who had said she saw the shooter use a shotgun, which later, in the same interview she herself contradicted.
 ... federal law enforcement sources told CNN Tuesday that authorities have recovered three weapons from the scene of the mass shooting, including one -- a shotgun -- that investigators believe Alexis brought in to the compound...
The sources, who have detailed knowledge of the investigation, cautioned that initial information that an AR-15 was used in the shootings may have been incorrect.
You figure, Oh well, they are big boys at CNN, they will retract the initial incorrect report, apologize for the mistake and move on... right? ... Wrong!
Regardless, the massacre pushed the AR-15 back into the gun-control debate. The weapon has been used in several other rampages that shocked the nation:
Sandy Hook, Aurora, Portland and Santa Monica ...
Regardless, that the type of weapon the shooter used yesterday may NOT have been an AR-15, the mistake we made pushed the AR-15 into the debate. The debate we want, you, the public to have.
If anything, more mistakes like this should be made. Yesterday's shooting must fit the narrative, regardless of the facts. (emphasis mine)

It's a fake but accurate, deja-vu, all over again.

CNN ,  Legal Insurrection , The Corner , Washington Times

21 comments:

KCFleming said...

They don't want to talk about the fact that the shooter was crazy, hearing voices, and had already called the cops twice about people following him and microwaves used against him.

The Navy Yard apparently ignored this info from the cops the weeks before.

Why? Because shut up, because AR15.

KCFleming said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
KCFleming said...

When lunatics open fire, it's the gun that's crazy.

Without the gun, they're harmless as a girl scout, weak as a kitten.

Unless they find explosives, sarin, anthrax, small planes, central power supplies, or poison the water supply.

Otherwise IT'S COMPLETELY SAFE goddammit shut up you wingers and your anti-mental illness gun fetishists.

Joe Biden, America's Putin said...

So far everything I hear on the radio "news" about this guy is that Alexis was a great guy.

Funny how the media paint the picture they want.

Yeah - he was a really nice guy.

+ what Pogo said... Shut up and AR15.

Joe Biden, America's Putin said...

Speculation as news?

The unprofessional pro-democrat loyalty narrative "news" organizations have it covered.

Icepick said...

Months after the trial we're still hearing (locally) about how awful the Stand Your Ground law is, because it killed Trayvon Martin. Of course, SYG was not mentioned in the trial, was not used in the trial, had nothing to do with the Zimmerman/Martin situation, but it is still the key part of the narrative.

Eric the Fruit Bat said...

Formulaic, all around.

Like Groundhog Day except nothing's learned and it's not entertaining.

Joe Biden, America's Putin said...

Modern party loyalty news in America:

Facts? Who needs facts?

ndspinelli said...

Richard Pryor did a great bit on shooting out the tires of his wife's car. Maybe it's cultural.

rhhardin said...

I recommend with blowgun darts tipped with the skin of a lizard known as los zapatos de la muerte.

bagoh20 said...

Everything the gun grabbers want was in place there. Guns banned, background checks done, no assault weapons for the shooter.

What resolved the situation? Good guys with guns. That will always be the best we can do against nuts like this. If this guy couldn't get a gun, he still would have snapped and killed people, and possibly a lot more of them. A gun is still a relative slow count way to kill people.

We have to stop setting people up as sitting ducks in gun-free zones. It's as good as zebras putting up a sign on the savannah that says "no lions allowed", and then standing behind it.

bagoh20 said...

We clearly have an epidemic of mentally ill guns. Something in the metal maybe. I think that global warming is affecting the metal in some way our scientists need to explore with federal grants.

bagoh20 said...

I did read that in fact one of the people was killed with an AR-15. That's what brought down the shooter, which just proves how scary they are. They can even kill a mean crazy shotgun.

The Dude said...

Years ago it was SUVs - they used to run over people all the time.

Thanks goodness no humans were in control of them, that would have been even scarier.

edutcher said...

The system worked, the Navy couldn't do anything because the guy was black.

bagoh20 said...

This shooting proves the gun-right's side better than any argument. It shows how laws and the system will not protect you from crazy, because the system is run by stupid lazy people, and crazy don't follow no stinking laws, because THEY'RE CRAZY PEOPLE! We need to be prepared to be the last line of defense ourselves.

William said...

If, as bagoh says, an AR-15 was used to bring down the shooter, it would be fitting and sweet. But count on the media to suppress that fact.....I think it's possible that for reasons of political correctness some parts of Alexander's aberrant behavior--like that of the Islamic Army major before him--were ignored or suppressed. I don't think that this is a narrative that will be explored any time soon......Guns exist and homicidal maniacs exist. The trick is to keep them from getting together. Any preventive action in the Alexander case could have been diagnosed as racism on the part of the person who fired him or revoked his security clearance.

AllenS said...

There's a very good possibility that he was hired because he was black, which overrode his previous problems. Employers are afraid not to hire minorities because they fear lawsuits.

AllenS said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
Eric the Fruit Bat said...

If I were a crazy person I'd prefer to be black so I could totally rock the bug-eyed thing.

ricpic said...

It would've been a career ender for any investigator to recommend either not letting him in the Navy or discharging him because...wait for it...wait for it...ready?.....he's BLACK.