Arab Man lights him self on Fire out Side white House

I've heard several news reports & clicked on all the above links and I've yet to hear anything about the man being an Arab.

I suppose you could assume he was a muslim because he was shouting "Allah, Allah...", but even then a non-muslim could shout the same thing.

Anyhow the guy's a nutcase indeed, I hope he got his fix from all the attention.

Here's some new info: turns out the guy was a terror informant for the FBI , and he expressed "despondency over how the FBI had managed his case" and not being able to visit his family in Yemen. He was trying to deliver a note to President Bush.

www.washingtonpost.com...

Thanks for the link, Nightowl. It answers a lot of questions.

At first, my feeling was, the guy was just plain stupid, because he did it to himself and had no-one else to blame.

Now I feel really bad. What a loss. Do you have any idea how difficult it is to recruit and train native Yemeni informants?

Originally posted by skippytjc
Im sure you have never had any thoughts that werent politically incorrect.

Oh I'm certainly not someone that the PC Fascists would be fond of; but there is a huge difference between not being PC and lamenting that you can't publically call for millions to die

Im sure Nygdan that must be the case. It would be real easy for me to sit here and take the high ground with you, but again im not afraid to say those were my thoughts.
quote]Originally posted by moxyone
Would I like to see all terrorists in the world commit suicide without harming innocents?
Again, you reveal what level you are thinking on. There is nothing that indicates that this self-immolator was a terrorist. You heard 'arab' and you thought 'terrist'. If you just meant that you wish all the terrorists would die then all well and good and I think everyone here agrees with you. Unfortunately you mucked it all up by jumping to the conclusion that any arab is a terrorist. And lets face it in this current atmosphere with hundreds of people calling for the extermination of muslims and arabs it can only be expected that such comments be taken in that way.

esdad
I still cannot beleive that NO ONE else had the balls to say anything against this

The author didn't commit some horribly unamerican mistake by pointing out that the original poster was calling for an equally disgusting horrible and immoral atrocity. And you are not defending the country in saying any of this, the original poster made a horrible country destroying comment that was, at its best, reactionary, ignorant, unthinking and wrathful, which is the last thing the US needs right now. I'm not saying the US can't get mean, as the saying goes, but bordering on genocide simply isn't acceptable.

zerodeep
how many times has this occured in U.S. history?

What, people killing themselves because they disagree with any particular administration? Who cares, let them kill themselves. Why is it the fault or issue of the administration, why ask why the disconnect is with the administration? The disconnect is with these people killing themselves, they are the ones that should be scrutinized. Bush fought a war, and it was unpopular. And for that, people will blow their heads off and set themselves on fire? Well, who needs those people anyway, they haven't been able to accomplish anything, they've literally wasted their lives. Now, I'll agree, this is somewhat unusual, and its definitely a black mark on the admin's record, but, well, so what? They're unpopular, half the voters voted against them, what can be done about that? They've laid it plain what they want to do and how they plan to do it, and the public approves. A couple of idiots commiting suicide isn't going to change it. Heck, it barely gets noticed really.

elaine
Yep, the government is disconnected from at least HALF of us

Well, but thats how every democratic government works. In a best case scenario, with the entire country voting, the winner just needs one more person than half the population in order to win. So effectively half the country didn't get what they wanted. Heck, its worse than that because of minor parties, and usually the guy elected doesn't get a majority of the overall popular vote, just a plurality of it. Nothing much that can be done about that, or should be done about it really. Why should Bush 'work with' everyone, he disagrees with them. What possible compromise does anyone think can be reached on the issue? Bush is pro-actively for pre-emptive war and he's for ammending the constitution itself to include his group's own moral standards. Heck even the opposition in the last election was for the war. They just argued that it could be fought slightly differently. If the opposition had won then these guys would be the ones saying that they are being left out. Its a rare president that can 'cross partisan lines' as the saying goes. Bush obviously isn't one of them, but there is no crime or great betrayal in that. He's partisan, he's a hard-liner, but that in itself doesn't make him a monster.

nightowl
He was trying to deliver a note to President Bush.

Ah, so it wasn't an anti-war protest or really an anti-administration protest really. They guy's a loon. The other articles noted that he tried to give an envelope or letter to the guards, and then set himself on fire. I also recall that lots of iranians were immolating themselves recently over in iran. Might be a cultural thing. Not the attempt at suicide, the choice of fire.

This isn't the first time, as some said, that someone setting themself on fire has been used as a form of protest. Besides the traditional act of the buddaist monks:

THE HISTORY OF november 2nd, compiled for the Kiosk by Kathie Rasmussen. Today in 1965: Thirty-two-year-old Quaker Norman R. Morrison douses himself with kerosene and sets himself on fire in front of the Pentagon. Morrison's friends at the Stony Run Friends Meeting in Baltimore, Maryland, say his suicide was preceded by months of grieving over the escalating U.S. war in Southeast Asia

Nove 9, 1965 - Vietnam War: In New York City, 22-year old Catholic Worker member Roger Allen LaPorte sets himself on fire in front of the United Nations building in protest of the war in Vietnam (this was the second such incident in a week; on November 2 32-year-old Quaker member Norman Morrison did the same thing in front of The Pentagon).

Here's another update on this story from Rueters...

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - A man who set himself on fire outside the White House on Monday was a Yemeni federal informant on terrorism upset over how the FBI had managed his case, The Washington Post reported on Tuesday.
Mohamed Alanssi, who had recently discussed his work as an informant in interviews with The Washington Post, told the newspaper by faxed letter and telephone on Monday he intended to "burn my body at unexpected place," the newspaper reported

Full Story, see below...

www.reuters.com.../GetContent§ion=news