MIAMI - From the moment it was shown on television, people from all over South Florida instantly recognized the white van owned by mail bombing suspect Cesar Sayoc.
Local 10 aired live video Friday morning of Sayoc's van as it was seized by authorities from an auto parts store parking lot in Plantation.
Immediately, viewers and social media followers inundated the station with pictures from when they had seen the van on South Florida streets.
It's prob the stuff that gets stuck to the adhesive, before (or during) applying the stamps or envelope sticky parts.....like one hair, or skin dander.
It's prob the stuff that gets stuck to the adhesive, before (or during) applying the stamps or envelope sticky parts.....like one hair, or skin dander.
Actually it just occurred to me. the DNA was found on IED parts... not on the envelope. According to the FBI director in the vid I posted previously.
External Quote:
"Based on their initial analysis, they uncovered a latent fingerprint from one of the envelopes containing an IED that had been sent to congresswoman Maxine Waters. We have confirmed that fingerprint is that of Cesar Sayoc.
3:00 There is also a possible DNA connection between samples collected from pieces of two different IEDs mailed in separate envelopes. And a sample previously collected from Sayoc in connection with an earlier arrest down in Florida."
absolutly seems like; his attorney thinks the same:
External Quote:
Lowy said he represented Sayoc on a number of matters over the years, which he called "unsophisticated, stupid stuff." He believed Sayoc was mentally ill and lived out of his vehicle for over a decade. "He lives in a fantasy. I have no doubt he's mentally ill," Lowy said.
Or an ignition source that requires less energy like a blasting cap. So either amateurish like I though (even worse since they were not only missing the most dangerous parts of a pipe bomb but missing half of the bomb part too), or possibly that they weren't actually meant to go off as others have.
Worth mentioning that as far as the law is concerned, it doesn't matter - a good bomb, bad bomb, or fake is all still terrorism.
I think maybe the [guy] was smart enough to not put any powder; either explosive or energetic in this thing. So he can't be tried for transportation of explosives across a state line or the other charges they're talking about. Lock him up for a long long time, but don't call that thing a Bomb.
I think maybe the [guy] was smart enough to not put any powder; either explosive or energetic in this thing. So he can't be tried for transportation of explosives across a state line or the other charges they're talking about. Lock him up for a long long time, but don't call that thing a Bomb.
Regardless of whether or not he put explosives in the bombs, he'll still (most likely) get nailed for the threat of a bomb or for the creation of or intent to create an "infernal machine."
----------------------------------------------------
There are a few other items that lead a LOT of people to assume that this is a stunt being pulled by the Democrats to make the Republicans look bad, or that anyone that agrees with/supports the Republicans are crackpots, conspiracy theorists/evil.. whatever.
I know part of this was covered earlier in the thread but I thought it worth mentioning again. Part of what's feeding the conspiratorial mindset is the fact that the stamps arent post marked. The reason behind marking the stamps is to prevent them from being used again in the future without payment. If a package doesnt meet the standards by which a post office requires to ship, the package is not shipped. Its often returned to the person by the clerk handling the package. If placed in a drop box, its sent to the sender's address generally with a note saying there's insufficient postage, that the item needs to be repackaged etc (this is anecdotal from my own experience and should not be construed as 100% across the board).
Postal employees are trained to look for suspicious packages, and according to a retired postal worker, addressees that have Secret Service coverage have packages sent through the Secret Service, checked specifically for issues like this and then delivered to the addressee via internal delivery methods. (Excerpt from the SNOPES article below)
External Quote:
While it's true that some initialreports stated that these packages had been found at or delivered to the homes, the vast majority of news articles correctly stipulated that the packages had been sent toresidential addresses but had been intercepted by the Secret Service before arrival.
So it's worth noting that the misinformation the meme sought to point out was largely absent from news reports, which were overwhelmingly careful to point out, even in headlines, that the suspicious packages had never made it to the homes of the Obamas or Clintons.
The Secret Service does appear to have a policy of not allowing the USPS or other companies to directly deliver mail to anyone who is under the agency's protection, such as the Obama and Clinton families, though we were unable to confirm this definitively.
The Secret Service's press release on the packages referred to "routine mail screening procedures" and mentioned that neither the Obamas nor Clintons were "at risk of receiving them." This information strongly suggested that postal workers do not, as a matter of policy, directly deliver mail addressed to Secret Service protectees.
We asked the agency to confirm this point, but a spokesperson told us: "For operational security reasons, the Secret Service does not discuss specifically nor in general terms the means and methods we utilize to carry out our protective responsibilities."
The point is, there are TONS of checks and balances set in place because of people like Ted Kaczynski. In the conspiratorial mind this has all the ear markings of a Manchurian Candidate scenario. A man with a lengthy arrest record, having worked for several political parties, including the Democrats and the Green Party, and appears to be mentally unstable being the perfect patsy to garner sympathy for the Democrats.***
To the average, NON Conspiracy mind, seeing all this... the fact that there's a caravan headed to the Mexican Border, reports (true or false) that there are criminals in the group using it as cover to smuggle drugs into the US, coupled with this bomb drama and then a shooting to boot JUST as the early voting begins... is enough to raise some eyebrows and pull them in. I'll admit, given my (mostly) rational brain when Im not cracking jokes here or reading/researching like a man possessed, it caught my attention. Im seeing TONS of people on my social media feeds going for it too.. People that are normally rational and generally fall into a Centrist category, not Left or Right are seriously questioning whether or not Trump's rhetoric about the Democrats is true.. that they DO feel threatened by Trump and the Left and will do anything to stay in power. The more the media bashes on Trump, the more they try to trump things up (seriously, no pun intended) the more it legitimately feels as though whats being said is true.
Now for full disclosure, I felt the same way during the Obama Admin. The more the Right Wing Media bashed Obama, the more I felt what the Left Media was saying was true... so maybe thats a bias I didnt realize I had. I dont have a dog in this fight, I dont vote specifically because of the circus elections turn into in this country, and because I dont vote down any party line. I used to vote based on my conscience, but my conscience tells me that not voting is the better deal. Just my two cents and my observations as an outsider to politics and political ideologies.
***I cant find the article or the image at the moment.. I remember seeing it just a couple days ago though, I'll keep looking for it so I can post it unless you guys find it first.
*EDIT- Edited for spelling, punctuation, grammar, to fix a couple of mistakes and for clarity.
It's not that I don't have any sympathy for the desperation that this "LOT" has to change an ugly narrative,
but parcels go through without cancellation all the time. It's grasping at straws... https://www.snopes.com/fact-check/uncancelled-stamps-mail-bombs/
It's not that I don't have any sympathy for the desperation that this "LOT" has to change an ugly narrative,
but parcels go through without cancellation all the time. It's grasping at straws... https://www.snopes.com/fact-check/uncancelled-stamps-mail-bombs/
Right, that's why I said it was anecdotal and shouldnt be taken as 100% across the board. Having gone back and re-read, I suppose I should have said this is all anecdotal and removed the brackets. That's bad writing on my part and I apologise for that.. it didn't sound this way in my head when I wrote it and the brackets we're supposed to be a drop in tone not tied solely to that last sentence. Totally my bad.
With that said... While people's experience can't be used as evidence necessarily, it CAN be used to understand the world they live in and form their opinions of. Doesn't mean that it's correct, but if your experience is that every letter or package you can ever remember getting is post marked, then that experience is going to color your response to the claim in a "yeah, hey that's RIGHT" kinda way. This is where understanding where other people are coming from makes all the difference. I had to go look it up myself because I had the same inclination. I even checked my mail to see if it was right. Had I not looked it up I wouldn't have known. Most people, though, aren't going to think to look it up which feeds the flames.
Again, sorry for the confusion and the bad writing. That's been happening alot lately.
"Hoax Devices" are FAR more common than real ones.
By the way, do you remember that time a "white supremacist, Trump supporter" called in bomb threats to 150 Jewish Community Centers and then it turned out to be a left-wing activistwho used to work for The Intercept?
A former journalist pleaded guilty on Tuesday to (...) making fake bomb threats, admitting he threatened Jewish organizations to disrupt his ex-girlfriend's life and cause her "great distress." (...) From January to March, more than 150 bomb threats were reported against Jewish community centers and day schools in 37 states and two Canadian provinces, according to the Anti-Defamation League, a Jewish group that battles anti-Semitism.
Remember the time a "racist white Trump supporter" burned down a black church and then it was proven to be false?
The authorities charged a man on Wednesday with setting fire last month to a predominantly African-American church in Greenville, Miss., where "Vote Trump" was found spray-painted on the side of the building. (...) Mr. McClinton, who is black, was a member of the church (...)"
There have been many more similar cases in the past 1-2 years.
I had a bit of back and forth with Tom Sauer on Twitter and pointed out his errors. Whether or not it looks 'silly', its taken seriously until proven otherwise. His criticism of the quality of the timer was also a non-sequitur and I reminded him of the number of people killed and maimed in Iraq and Afghanistan constructed from the lowest quality of components. The bombcase being pvc may also have been to keep the weight down. He blathered on with the 'hmmm seems fishy to me' shtick.
Having had others interject with whataboutism, it was the standard line of moving on to the next theory without acknowledging the flaws with the first. For example one guy said that he seemed too stupid to build a bomb, to which i replied that illiterate children have made some perfectly functional bombs which have killed a lot of US and British soldiers. Then its straight to the stamps, to which I responded that the IRA always had the right postage on it as a decoy and even fabricated their own stamps.
The interpretation of the word 'hoax' also got a lot of attention. A Hoax device in the EOD world is one that has been maliciously constructed with the intent to deceive, either to monitor a response, to create fear, or move people to another area for further attack, or as red herrings for other devices. No matter how many times I explained this, they took my use of the word hoax as a freudian slip of sorts.
'Viable device' was used by some media, which again can lead to confusion. A viable device is one that contains energised material, a power source and an ignition source. These devices may have had no possibility of functioning as he may have hoped, (if that is what he was hoping for), but in the precise language of Explosive Ordnance, they remain 'viable'.
Finally was the personal incredulity argument or 'a cartoon villain with that van? Must be a false flag set up by (insert favourite evil genius)...' But, as least Fox have not been pursuing these arguments much....