Austin, Texas Plane Crash

[Enoch]

Joseph Andrew Stack, 53, who is believed to have crashed his plane into a building.


www.cnn.com/2010/US/02/18/texas.plane.crash.profile/index.html?hpt=T1

(CNN) -- A portrait is beginning to emerge of Joseph Andrew Stack, the man officials believe set his house on fire and then intentionally crashed his small aircraft into an office building in Austin, Texas.

Stack, 53, owns a Piper Cherokee PA-28, according to aviation records, and federal officials believe that is the plane that crashed into the building.

A message on a software company Web site registered to Stack appears to be a suicide note.

"If you're reading this, you're no doubt asking yourself, 'Why did this have to happen?' " the message says. "The simple truth is that it is complicated and has been coming for a long time."

At the FBI's request, the letter was later removed from the site.

As recently as February 7, the Web site was for Embedded Art, which appears to be a software company founded by Stack.

"Embedded Art is a small independent software house, specializing in process control and automation," a cached version of the Web site said. "In its current form it represents the culmination of 20 years of experience in the software development consulting business. Founded by Joe Stack in 1983 (under the name of Prowess Engineering) in Southern California, the company thrived for 15 years until shifting focus to the Sacramento area to take advantage of growth in the Silicon Valley."

The Web site changed over on February 16, indicating Stack had possibly been planning to post the note for at least two days. The document had been revised 27 times since the 16th, according to the site's page information, and was finalized at 1:42 a.m. ET -- about eight hours before he is believed to have taken his plane from the airport.

In the long message, the writer rails against the government and, particularly, the Internal Revenue Service.


Read the apparent suicide note here: i2.cdn.turner.com/cnn/2010/images/02/18/stack.letter.pdf

The building into which the airplane crashed is a federal IRS center with 199 employees. (Insert: originally reported to be 'Echelon' building?)

"I saw it written once that the definition of insanity is repeating the same process over and over and expecting the outcome to suddenly be different," the online message says. "I am finally ready to stop this insanity. Well, Mr. Big Brother IRS man, let's try something different; take my pound of flesh and sleep well."

In the letter, the writer, who signs as Joe Stack, says he feels some frustration in writing, "given my gross inability to gracefully articulate my thoughts in light of the storm raging in my head."

Details in the letter coincide with details of Stack's life, such as his move from California to Texas in 2004. Once in Austin, he bought a $230,000 home in a leafy subdivision, the same home that he allegedly set on fire before piloting the plane into the building.

Photos from the scene of the fire showed a fire truck parked in front of a large brick house, flames and plumes of thick smoke rising into the sky. CNN affiliate KXAN reported that Stack's wife and daughter were rescued from their home during the fire. Sheryl Stack, his wife, is listed as a teaching assistant at the University of Texas-Austin.

The examples of Stack's apparent frustration in the note coincide with financial troubles his companies had.

The California Franchise Tax Board said Stack's Software Systems Service Corporation license was suspended June 1, 2004, for not paying taxes in 1996 and 2002, CNN affiliate KCRA reported. And another of Stack's companies in California -- known as Prowess Engineering, which became Embedded Art -- had its license suspended November 1, 2000, for a failure to file a 1994 tax return, KCRA reported.

Thursday's incident left those who knew Stack scratching their heads.

"I can't believe it's the same person," said Ric Furley, an Austin musician who played in a band with Stack for a period more than two years ago.

Stack played bass, the accordion and sang for the band, according to the band's Web site.

Stack was very musical, and conversations with his bandmates typically revolved around music, not grievances he may have had.

"He was very easygoing," Furley said, adding that he guessed it was insanity that led Stack to his alleged suicide mission. "What else could it be?"

In the online message, the writer notes how during past times of crisis, like during the Great Depression, some of the wealthy who lost everything were known to have killed themselves.

"Now, when the wealthy f--- up, the poor get to die for the mistakes ... isn't that a clever, tidy solution," the letter states.

The letter also hints at darker thoughts.

"Nothing changes unless there is a body count," the letter says. "I choose to not keep looking over my shoulder at 'Big Brother' while he strips my carcass, I choose not to ignore what is going on all around me, I choose not to pretend that business as usual won't continue; I have just had enough."

He plainly states his conclusion: "Sadly, though I spent my entire life trying to believe it wasn't so, but violence not only is the answer, it is the only answer."

[Enoch]

Apparent suicide note:

If you’re reading this, you’re no doubt asking yourself, “Why did this have to happen?” The simple truth is that it is complicated and has been coming for a long time. The writing process, started many months ago, was intended to be therapy in the face of the looming realization that there isn’t enough therapy in the world that can fix what is really broken. Needless to say, this rant could fill volumes with example after example if I would let it. I find the process of writing it frustrating, tedious, and probably pointless… especially given my gross inability to gracefully articulate my thoughts in light of the storm raging in my head. Exactly what is therapeutic about that I’m not sure, but desperate times call for desperate measures.

We are all taught as children that without laws there would be no society, only anarchy. Sadly, starting at early ages we in this country have been brainwashed to believe that, in return for our dedication and service, our government stands for justice for all. We are further brainwashed to believe that there is freedom in this place, and that we should be ready to lay our lives down for the noble principals represented by its founding fathers. Remember? One of these was “no taxation without representation”. I have spent the total years of my adulthood unlearning that crap from only a few years of my childhood. These days anyone who really stands up for that principal is promptly labeled a “crackpot”, traitor and worse.

While very few working people would say they haven’t had their fair share of taxes (as can I), in my lifetime I can say with a great degree of certainty that there has never been a politician cast a vote on any matter with the likes of me or my interests in mind. Nor, for that matter, are they the least bit interested in me or anything I have to say.

Why is it that a handful of thugs and plunderers can commit unthinkable atrocities (and in the case of the GM executives, for scores of years) and when it’s time for their gravy train to crash under the weight of their gluttony and overwhelming stupidity, the force of the full federal government has no difficulty coming to their aid within days if not hours? Yet at the same time, the joke we call the American medical system, including the drug and insurance companies, are murdering tens of thousands of people a year and stealing from the corpses and victims they cripple, and this country’s leaders don’t see this as important as bailing out a few of their vile, rich cronies. Yet, the political “representatives” (thieves, liars, and self-serving scumbags is far more accurate) have endless time to sit around for year after year and debate the state of the “terrible health care problem”. It’s clear they see no crisis as long as the dead people don’t get in the way of their corporate profits rolling in.

And justice? You’ve got to be kidding!

How can any rational individual explain that white elephant conundrum in the middle of our tax system and, indeed, our entire legal system? Here we have a system that is, by far, too complicated for the brightest of the master scholars to understand. Yet, it mercilessly “holds accountable” its victims, claiming that they’re responsible for fully complying with laws not even the experts understand. The law “requires” a signature on the bottom of a tax filing; yet no one can say truthfully that they understand what they are signing; if that’s not “duress” than what is. If this is not the measure of a totalitarian regime, nothing is.

How did I get here?

My introduction to the real American nightmare starts back in the early ‘80s. Unfortunately after more than 16 years of school, somewhere along the line I picked up the absurd, pompous notion that I could read and understand plain English. Some friends introduced me to a group of people who were having ‘tax code’ readings and discussions. In particular, zeroed in on a section relating to the wonderful “exemptions” that make institutions like the vulgar, corrupt Catholic Church so incredibly wealthy. We carefully studied the law (with the help of some of the “best”, high-paid, experienced tax lawyers in the business), and then began to do exactly what the “big boys” were doing (except that we weren’t steeling from our congregation or lying to the government about our massive profits in the name of God). We took a great deal of care to make it all visible, following all of the rules, exactly the way the law said it was to be done.

The intent of this exercise and our efforts was to bring about a much-needed re-evaluation of the laws that allow the monsters of organized religion to make such a mockery of people who earn an honest living. However, this is where I learned that there are two “interpretations” for every law; one for the very rich, and one for the rest of us… Oh, and the monsters are the very ones making and enforcing the laws; the inquisition is still alive and well today in this country.

That little lesson in patriotism cost me $40,000+, 10 years of my life, and set my retirement plans back to 0. It made me realize for the first time that I live in a country with an ideology that is based on a total and complete lie. It also made me realize, not only how naive I had been, but also the incredible stupidity of the American public; that they buy, hook, line, and sinker, the crap about their “freedom”… and that they continue to do so with eyes closed in the face of overwhelming evidence and all that keeps happening in front of them.

Before even having to make a shaky recovery from the sting of the first lesson on what justice really means in this country (around 1984 after making my way through engineering school and still another five years of “paying my dues”), I felt I finally had to take a chance of launching my dream of becoming an independent engineer.

On the subjects of engineers and dreams of independence, I should digress somewhat to say that I’m sure that I inherited the fascination for creative problem solving from my father. I realized this at a very young age.

The significance of independence, however, came much later during my early years of college; at the age of 18 or 19 when I was living on my own as student in an apartment in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania. My neighbor was an elderly retired woman (80+ seemed ancient to me at that age) who was the widowed wife of a retired steel worker. Her husband had worked all his life in the steel mills of central Pennsylvania with promises from big business and the union that, for his 30 years of service, he would have a pension and medical care to look forward to in his retirement. Instead he was one of the thousands who got nothing because the incompetent mill management and corrupt union (not to mention the government) raided their pension funds and stole their retirement. All she had was social security to live on.

In retrospect, the situation was laughable because here I was living on peanut butter and bread (or Ritz crackers when I could afford to splurge) for months at a time. When I got to know this poor figure and heard her story I felt worse for her plight than for my own (I, after all, I thought I had everything to in front of me). I was genuinely appalled at one point, as we exchanged stories and commiserated with each other over our situations, when she in her grandmotherly fashion tried to convince me that I would be “healthier” eating cat food (like her) rather than trying to get all my substance from peanut butter and bread. I couldn’t quite go there, but the impression was made. I decided that I didn’t trust big business to take care of me, and that I would take responsibility for my own future and myself.

Return to the early ‘80s, and here I was off to a terrifying start as a ‘wet-behind-the-ears’ contract software engineer... and two years later, thanks to the fine backroom, midnight effort by the sleazy executives of Arthur Andersen (the very same folks who later brought us Enron and other such calamities) and an equally sleazy New York Senator (Patrick Moynihan), we saw the passage of 1986 tax reform act with its section 1706.

For you who are unfamiliar, here is the core text of the IRS Section 1706, defining the treatment of workers (such as contract engineers) for tax purposes. Visit this link for a conference committee report ( regarding the intended interpretation of Section 1706 and the relevant parts of Section 530, as amended. For information on how these laws affect technical services workers and their clients, read our discussion here (

SEC. 1706. TREATMENT OF CERTAIN TECHNICAL PERSONNEL.

(a) IN GENERAL - Section 530 of the Revenue Act of 1978 is amended by adding at the end thereof the following new subsection:

(d) EXCEPTION. - This section shall not apply in the case of an individual who pursuant to an arrangement between the taxpayer and another person, provides services for such other person as an engineer, designer, drafter, computer programmer, systems analyst, or other similarly skilled worker engaged in a similar line of work.

(b) EFFECTIVE DATE. - The amendment made by this section shall apply to remuneration paid and services rendered after December 31, 1986.

Note:

· "another person" is the client in the traditional job-shop relationship.

· "taxpayer" is the recruiter, broker, agency, or job shop.

· "individual", "employee", or "worker" is you.



Admittedly, you need to read the treatment to understand what it is saying but it’s not very complicated. The bottom line is that they may as well have put my name right in the text of section (d). Moreover, they could only have been more blunt if they would have came out and directly declared me a criminal and non-citizen slave. Twenty years later, I still can’t believe my eyes.

During 1987, I spent close to $5000 of my ‘pocket change’, and at least 1000 hours of my time writing, printing, and mailing to any senator, congressman, governor, or slug that might listen; none did, and they universally treated me as if I was wasting their time. I spent countless hours on the L.A. freeways driving to meetings and any and all of the disorganized professional groups who were attempting to mount a campaign against this atrocity. This, only to discover that our efforts were being easily derailed by a few moles from the brokers who were just beginning to enjoy the windfall from the new declaration of their “freedom”. Oh, and don’t forget, for all of the time I was spending on this, I was loosing income that I couldn’t bill clients.

After months of struggling it had clearly gotten to be a futile exercise. The best we could get for all of our trouble is a pronouncement from an IRS mouthpiece that they weren’t going to enforce that provision (read harass engineers and scientists). This immediately proved to be a lie, and the mere existence of the regulation began to have its impact on my bottom line; this, of course, was the intended effect.

Again, rewind my retirement plans back to 0 and shift them into idle. If I had any sense, I clearly should have left abandoned engineering and never looked back.

Instead I got busy working 100-hour workweeks. Then came the L.A. depression of the early 1990s. Our leaders decided that they didn’t need the all of those extra Air Force bases they had in Southern California, so they were closed; just like that. The result was economic devastation in the region that rivaled the widely publicized Texas S&L fiasco. However, because the government caused it, no one gave a shit about all of the young families who lost their homes or street after street of boarded up houses abandoned to the wealthy loan companies who received government funds to “shore up” their windfall. Again, I lost my retirement.

Years later, after weathering a divorce and the constant struggle trying to build some momentum with my business, I find myself once again beginning to finally pick up some speed. Then came the .COM bust and the 911 nightmare. Our leaders decided that all aircraft were grounded for what seemed like an eternity; and long after that, ‘special’ facilities like San Francisco were on security alert for months. This made access to my customers prohibitively expensive. Ironically, after what they had done the Government came to the aid of the airlines with billions of our tax dollars … as usual they left me to rot and die while they bailed out their rich, incompetent cronies WITH MY MONEY! After these events, there went my business but not quite yet all of my retirement and savings.

By this time, I’m thinking that it might be good for a change. Bye to California, I’ll try Austin for a while. So I moved, only to find out that this is a place with a highly inflated sense of self-importance and where damn little real engineering work is done. I’ve never experienced such a hard time finding work. The rates are 1/3 of what I was earning before the crash, because pay rates here are fixed by the three or four large companies in the area who are in collusion to drive down prices and wages… and this happens because the justice department is all on the take and doesn’t give a fuck about serving anyone or anything but themselves and their rich buddies.

To survive, I was forced to cannibalize my savings and retirement, the last of which was a small IRA. This came in a year with mammoth expenses and not a single dollar of income. I filed no return that year thinking that because I didn’t have any income there was no need. The sleazy government decided that they disagreed. But they didn’t notify me in time for me to launch a legal objection so when I attempted to get a protest filed with the court I was told I was no longer entitled to due process because the time to file ran out. Bend over for another $10,000 helping of justice.

So now we come to the present. After my experience with the CPA world, following the business crash I swore that I’d never enter another accountant’s office again. But here I am with a new marriage and a boatload of undocumented income, not to mention an expensive new business asset, a piano, which I had no idea how to handle. After considerable thought I decided that it would be irresponsible NOT to get professional help; a very big mistake.

When we received the forms back I was very optimistic that they were in order. I had taken all of the years information to Bill Ross, and he came back with results very similar to what I was expecting. Except that he had neglected to include the contents of Sheryl’s unreported income; $12,700 worth of it. To make matters worse, Ross knew all along this was missing and I didn’t have a clue until he pointed it out in the middle of the audit. By that time it had become brutally evident that he was representing himself and not me.

This left me stuck in the middle of this disaster trying to defend transactions that have no relationship to anything tax-related (at least the tax-related transactions were poorly documented). Things I never knew anything about and things my wife had no clue would ever matter to anyone. The end result is… well, just look around.

I remember reading about the stock market crash before the “great” depression and how there were wealthy bankers and businessmen jumping out of windows when they realized they screwed up and lost everything. Isn’t it ironic how far we’ve come in 60 years in this country that they now know how to fix that little economic problem; they just steal from the middle class (who doesn’t have any say in it, elections are a joke) to cover their asses and it’s “business-as-usual”. Now when the wealthy fuck up, the poor get to die for the mistakes… isn’t that a clever, tidy solution.

As government agencies go, the FAA is often justifiably referred to as a tombstone agency, though they are hardly alone. The recent presidential puppet GW Bush and his cronies in their eight years certainly reinforced for all of us that this criticism rings equally true for all of the government. Nothing changes unless there is a body count (unless it is in the interest of the wealthy sows at the government trough). In a government full of hypocrites from top to bottom, life is as cheap as their lies and their self-serving laws.

I know I’m hardly the first one to decide I have had all I can stand. It has always been a myth that people have stopped dying for their freedom in this country, and it isn’t limited to the blacks, and poor immigrants. I know there have been countless before me and there are sure to be as many after. But I also know that by not adding my body to the count, I insure nothing will change. I choose to not keep looking over my shoulder at “big brother” while he strips my carcass, I choose not to ignore what is going on all around me, I choose not to pretend that business as usual won’t continue; I have just had enough.

I can only hope that the numbers quickly get too big to be white washed and ignored that the American zombies wake up and revolt; it will take nothing less. I would only hope that by striking a nerve that stimulates the inevitable double standard, knee-jerk government reaction that results in more stupid draconian restrictions people wake up and begin to see the pompous political thugs and their mindless minions for what they are. Sadly, though I spent my entire life trying to believe it wasn’t so, but violence not only is the answer, it is the only answer. The cruel joke is that the really big chunks of shit at the top have known this all along and have been laughing, at and using this awareness against, fools like me all along.

I saw it written once that the definition of insanity is repeating the same process over and over and expecting the outcome to suddenly be different. I am finally ready to stop this insanity. Well, Mr. Big Brother IRS man, let’s try something different; take my pound of flesh and sleep well.



The communist creed: From each according to his ability, to each according to his need.

The capitalist creed: From each according to his gullibility, to each according to his greed.



Joe Stack (1956-2010)

02/18/2010

[Enoch]

Fire truck/HAZMAT coincidentally across the street when incident occurred, responded promptly. (2:55)

[Enoch]

www.wfaa.com/home/Plane-crashes-into-Northwest-Austin-building--84705312.html

AUSTIN, Texas (AP) — A software engineer furious with the Internal Revenue Service launched a suicide attack on the agency Thursday by crashing his small plane into an office building containing nearly 200 IRS employees, setting off a raging fire that sent workers fleeing for their lives.

At least one person in the building was missing.

The FBI tentatively identified the pilot as Joseph Stack. A federal law official said investigators were looking at a long anti-government screed and farewell note that he apparently posted on the Web earlier in the day as an explanation for what he was about to do.

In it, the author cited run-ins he had with the IRS and ranted about the tax agency, government bailouts and corporate America's "thugs and plunderers."

"I have had all I can stand," he wrote in the note, dated Thursday, adding: "I choose not to keep looking over my shoulder at `big brother' while he strips my carcass."

Stack, 53, also apparently set fire to his house about six miles from the crash site before embarking on the suicide flight, said two law enforcement officials, who like other authorities spoke on condition of anonymity because the investigation was still going on.

The pilot took off in a single-engine Piper Cherokee from an airport in Georgetown, about 30 miles from Austin, without filing a flight plan. He flew low over the Austin skyline before plowing into the side of the hulking, seven-story, black-glass building just before 10 a.m. with a thunderous explosion that instantly stirred memories of Sept. 11.

Flames shot from the building, windows exploded, a huge pillar of black smoke rose over the city, and terrified workers rushed to get out.

The Pentagon scrambled two F-16 fighter jets from Houston to patrol the skies over the burning building before it became clear that it was the act of a lone pilot, and President Barack Obama was briefed on the crash.

"It felt like a bomb blew off," said Peggy Walker, an IRS revenue officer who was sitting at her desk. "The ceiling caved in and windows blew in. We got up and ran."

Stack was presumed dead, and police said they had not recovered his body. Thirteen people were treated after the crash and two remained in critical condition Thursday evening, authorities said. About 190 IRS employees work in the building.

Gerry Cullen was eating breakfast at a restaurant across the street when the plane struck the building and "vanished in a fireball."

Matt Farney, who was in the parking lot of a nearby Home Depot, said he saw a low-flying plane near some apartments and the office building just before it crashed.

"I figured he was going to buzz the apartments or he was showing off," Farney said. "It was insane. It didn't look like he was out of control or anything."

Sitting at her desk in another building a half-mile from the crash, Michelle Santibanez said she felt vibrations from the crash. She and her co-workers ran to the windows, where they witnessed a scene that reminded them of 9/11, she said.

"It was the same kind of scenario, with window panels falling out and desks falling out and paperwork flying," said Santibanez, an accountant.

The building, situated in a heavily congested section of Austin, was still smoldering six hours after the crash, with much of the damage on the second and third floors.

The entire outside of the second floor was gone on the side of the building where the plane hit. Support beams were bent inward. Venetian blinds dangled from blown-out windows, and large sections of the exterior were blackened with soot.

Andrew Jacobson, an IRS revenue officer who was on the second floor when the plane hit with a "big whoomp" and then a second explosion, said about six people couldn't use the stairwell because of smoke and debris. He found a metal bar to break a window so the group could crawl out onto a concrete ledge, where they were rescued by firefighters. His bloody hands were bandaged.

The FBI was investigating. The National Transportation Safety Board sent an investigator as well.

In the long, rambling, self-described "rant" that Stack apparently posted on the Internet, he began: "If you're reading this, you're no doubt asking yourself, `Why did this have to happen?"'

He recounted his financial reverses, his difficulty finding work in Austin, and at least two clashes with the IRS, one of them after he filed no return because, he said, he had no income, the other after he failed to report his wife Sheryl's income.

He railed against politicians, the Catholic Church, the "unthinkable atrocities" committed by big business, and the government bailouts that followed. He said he slowly came to the conclusion that "violence not only is the answer, it is the only answer."

"I saw it written once that the definition of insanity is repeating the same process over and over and expecting the outcome to suddenly be different. I am finally ready to stop this insanity. Well, Mr. Big Brother IRS man, let's try something different; take my pound of flesh and sleep well," he wrote.

According to California state records, Stack had a troubled business history, twice starting software companies in California that ultimately were suspended by the state's tax board, one in 2000, the other in 2004. Also, his first wife filed for bankruptcy in 1999, listing a debt to the IRS of nearly $126,000.

The blaze at Stack's home, a red-brick house on a tree-lined street in a middle-class neighborhood, caved in the roof and blew out the windows. Elbert Hutchins, who lives one house away, said the house caught fire about 9:15 a.m. He said a woman and her teenage daughter drove up to the house before firefighters arrived.

"They both were very, very distraught," said Hutchins, a retiree who said he didn't know the family well. "'That's our house!' they cried. `That's our house!"'

Red Cross spokeswoman Marty McKellips said the agency was treating two people who live in the house.

[Enoch]

www.msnbc.msn.com/id/35460268/ns/us_news-life/




AUSTIN, Texas - A software engineer upset with the Internal Revenue Service set fire to his home Thursday and then deliberately crashed his plane into a multistory office building that houses federal tax employees, authorities said.

The pilot was presumed to have died in the crash, federal law enforcement officials said, though his body had not been recovered. At least two people were seriously injured and a third person — a federal employee who worked in the building — was unaccounted for, fire officials said.

The crash caused a raging fire that sent black smoke billowing from the seven-story Echelon Building. The fire was extinguished hours later.

At an afternoon news conference, Austin Police Chief Art Acevedo said the crash "appears to be an intentional act."

"It would appear to be by a sole individual, and it appears this individual was targeting federal offices inside that building," Acevedo said.

Rep. Lloyd Doggett, D-Texas, said in a statement that the crash was "a cowardly act of domestic terrorism." The police chief, however, said he preferred to describe it as "a criminal act by a lone individual."

The FBI was taking over the investigation.

About 190 IRS employees work in the building, and IRS spokesman Richard C. Sanford the agency was trying to account for all of its workers.

The pilot, listed in FAA and property records as Andrew Joseph Stack III of Austin and identified by law enforcement sources as Joseph Stack, apparently had a long-running dispute with the IRS.

Stack, 53, is listed as the owner of a Piper PA-28 Cherokee registered at a previous address in Lincoln, Calif. Officials believe that is the plane that he crashed Thursday.

A bomb squad examined a car Stack parked at the Georgetown Municipal Airport, the airport of origin of his flight, but no explosives were found.

A long message posted on a Web site registered to Stack outlined a litany of problems with the IRS and said violence "is the only answer."

"If you’re reading this, you’re no doubt asking yourself, 'Why did this have to happen?' The simple truth is that it is complicated and has been coming for a long time," the note begins.

The Web site was taken offline Thursday afternoon by the hosting company at the request of the FBI.

A senior law enforcement official told NBC the saga began Thursday morning, when police received a domestic disturbance call at Stack's house, about six miles from the crash site. When they responded, they discovered that the man had lit a fire in his house and fled. They said he went to the Georgetown Municipal Airport, got into his small plane and took off.

A short time later, the plane crashed into the office building about 30 miles away. Federal authorities said they did not know whether the man crashed the plane intentionally, though they said it was a distinct possibility, the official told NBC.

Elbert Hutchins, who lives one house away from Stack's home in a quiet, tree-lined middle-class neighborhood, said the house caught fire about 9:15 a.m. He said a woman and her teenage daughter drove up before firefighters arrived.

"They both were very, very distraught," said Hutchins, a retiree who said he didn't know the family well. "'That's our house!' they cried 'That's our house!' "

A plane belonging to Stack took off a short time later from the airport in Georgetown, and the pilot didn't file a flight plan, Federal Aviation Administration spokesman Lynn Lunsford said.

The Echelon Building is next to a major highway in north Austin, and the crash started fires on several floors of the hulking black building. Dozens of windows were blown out and vehicles traveling on a nearby highway paused to look.

Thirteen people were treated at the scene and two people were taken to a hospital with serious injuries, Austin fire officials said. Their condition wasn't immediately known.

A third person, a federal employee, was unaccounted for. "The prospects are not very positive for that person," Acevedo said.

The pilot's body has not been found, he said.



Pilot's background

According to California Secretary of State records, Stack had a troubled business history, twice starting software companies that ultimately were suspended by the state's Franchise Tax Board.

He started Software Systems Service Corp. in Lincoln, Calif., but that business license was suspended in 2004 for nonpayment of back taxes totaling $1,153, KCRA-TV in Sacramento reported. Another company, Prowless Engineering Inc. was suspended in 2000 for failure to file a 1994 tax return, according to KCRA.

Stack listed himself as chief executive officer of both companies.

According to records, Stack apparently moved to the Austin area around 2003 and ran Embedded Art, a small, independent software firm specializing in "process control and automation" and "complex software engineering development tasks."



In a rambling 3,200-word statement apparently posted on the company's Web site early Thursday morning and later taken down, Stack appeared to blame the IRS for the loss of tens of thousands in savings and retirement money over the years.

Administrative records show the Web site was registered to Joe Stack of San Marcos, Texas, in 2006.

Stack said his "nightmare" with the federal government dated to the early 1980s.

In one passage, Stack writes: “That little lesson in patriotism cost me $40,000+, 10 years of my life, and set my retirement plans back to 0. It made me realize for the first time that I live in a country with an ideology that is based on a total and complete lie. It also made me realize, not only how naive I had been, but also the incredible stupidity of the American public; that they buy, hook, line, and sinker, the crap about their 'freedom' … and that they continue to do so with eyes closed in the face of overwhelming evidence and all that keeps happening in front of them.”

He also wrote: "Why is it that a handful of thugs and plunderers can commit unthinkable atrocities (and in the case of the GM executives, for scores of years) and when it's time for their gravy train to crash under the weight of their gluttony and overwhelming stupidity, the force of the full federal government has no difficulty coming to their aid within days if not hours?

Toward the end, he wrote, “I saw it written once that the definition of insanity is repeating the same process over and over and expecting the outcome to suddenly be different. I am finally ready to stop this insanity. Well, Mr. Big Brother IRS man, let's try something different; take my pound of flesh and sleep well.”

The IRS, CIA and FBI all have offices in the complex where the building that was struck is located, though it was not clear if they are all in the building that was hit.

The IRS Web site said an office of its EP Team Audit Program is located in the building where the plane crashed. The group, known as EPTA, examines employee benefit plans with 2,500 or more participants, according to the Web site.

The FBI said its office was not in the building.

In Washington, White House spokesman Robert Gibbs said President Barack Obama was briefed on the crash. The Homeland Security Department was investigating all angles but the case does not appear to be terrorism, Gibbs said.



'Huge fireball'
Peggy Walker, an IRS revenue officer who works in the building, said she was sitting at her desk when the plane crashed.

"It felt like a bomb blew off. The ceiling caved in and windows blew in. We got up and ran," she said.

Matt Farney, 39, who was in the parking lot of a nearby Home Depot, said he saw a low-flying private plane near some apartments and the office building just before it crashed.

"I figured he was going to buzz the apartments or he was showing off," Farney said, adding that the plane dipped down. "It was a ball of flames that was high or higher than the apartments. It was surreal. It was insane. ... It didn't look like he was out of control or anything."

A witness who described himself as a small-aircraft pilot told KXAN-TV that he witnessed the accident from the parking lot of a nearby restaurant.

“It was really low,” he said. “He brushed along a parking lot light … (and) shot right across the road. It was going really fast. … It sounded like the engine was on full blast. Then it whacked in-between the first and second floor.”

Tucker Thurman was driving to work when he said he saw a small plane flying very low over the highway. He said he saw it then bank heavily to the right before heading into the building.

"There was a huge fireball. It's right into the building," Thurman told the Austin Statesman.

Another witness told KXAN that the plane buzzed a nearby apartment building before hitting the office building.

“It looked like he had full control, but as soon as he cleared the apartments, he just dropped down. … It was within feet of the top of the apartment complex,” he said.

[Enoch]

Recap:


Essentially, what happened was a man's house caught on fire this morning.

His wife and daughter pulled up shortly after it happened, before help arrived, in exclamation.

A "suicide note" with plenty of anti-government and anti-capitalist rhetoric was posted on a website owned by the suspect shortly before a plane owned by the suspect was flown into what was originally reported to be "The Echelon Building" (now generally referred to as an IRS building that houses the IRS, FBI, and CIA).

The man's body has yet to be found and already grass roots movements such as the Tea Party are being blamed, and plenty of shills have been glorifying this monster in an attempt to stir division and hatred between the American people.


This event will be used in order to discredit Americans who are fed up with the situation their country is in.

Stay TUNED!

[Enoch]

Update

www.cnn.com/2010/US/02/18/texas.plane.crash/index.html

Remains of 2 found after Austin plane crash

(CNN) -- The remains of two people have been found in an Austin, Texas, building where a man crashed a small plane, authorities said.

The identities of the two dead people have not been confirmed, the Austin Fire Department said in a statement. Two other people who were injured in the incident were taken to a hospital, and 11 others were treated for minor injuries, Austin Police Chief Art Acevedo said.

Authorities said Andrew Joseph Stack III, 53, an Austin resident with an apparent grudge against the Internal Revenue Service, set his house on fire Thursday and then crashed a Piper Cherokee PA-28 into the building, which houses an IRS office with nearly 200 employees, federal officials said.

"This appears to be an intentional act by a sole individual," Acevedo said at a news conference.

A fire created by the crash had been put out, save for some small areas, officials said. Fire crews were expected to continue to work through the night.

Pilot: 'I have just had enough'

Clues about what led to Thursday incident were few, but attention was directed at a message on a Web site registered to Stack appears to be a suicide note.

"If you're reading this, you're no doubt asking yourself, 'Why did this have to happen?' " the message says. "The simple truth is that it is complicated and has been coming for a long time."

In the lengthy, rambling message, the writer rails against the government and, particularly, the IRS.

See note here: i2.cdn.turner.com/cnn/2010/images/02/18/stack.letter.pdf

The building into which the airplane crashed is a federal IRS center with 199 employees.

"I saw it written once that the definition of insanity is repeating the same process over and over and expecting the outcome to suddenly be different," the online message says. "I am finally ready to stop this insanity. Well, Mr. Big Brother IRS man, let's try something different; take my pound of flesh and sleep well."

An IRS spokesman said the agency is prohibited by federal law from releasing or talking about any interactions or transactions they have had with Stack.

Two people, both males, were taken to University Medical Center Brackenridge, according to Matilda Sanchez, a spokeswoman for Seton Family of Hospitals, which runs the medical center.

One patient was treated and released later Thursday, Sanchez said. The other was transferred to Brooke Army Medical Center in San Antonio, Texas. The transferred patient suffered burns on 20 to 25 percent of his body, mostly on his back, she said. He is in serious and stable condition.

Austin Mayor Lee Leffingwell tried to calm any concerns residents could have about the crash and the huge fire, which he said was mostly contained.

"It is an isolated incident," the mayor said. "The people of Austin, the people of the nation, are in no danger whatsoever."

"There is evidence that the gas tank was just about full. ... That amount of gasoline ... can do a lot of damage," he said.

Witnesses said nearby buildings shook. Fire and smoke could be seen billowing into the sky.

See iReport photos and videos from the scene

"I just saw smoke and flames," said CNN iReporter Mike Ernest. "I could not believe what I was seeing. It was just smoke and flames everywhere."

The crash occurred around 10 a.m.

Firefighters used two ladder trucks and other equipment to hose down the blaze at the Echelon office building, which police said is in the 9400 block of Research Boulevard.

The flames seemed mostly extinguished about 75 minutes later.

The FAA said preliminary information indicated the plane departed Georgetown Municipal Airport north of Austin about 9:40 a.m.

Initial indications are that the flight originated there but there were conflicting reports, said Jack Lillis, an attendant at Georgetown airport.

The pilot evidently did not file a flight plan, the FAAsaid. No flight plan was required because flights Thursday morning were under visual flight rules, or VFR, because of clear weather.

Two F-16 fighter jets were sent from Houston as a precaution, but federal authorities said preliminary information did not indicate any terrorist connection.

"We do not yet know the cause of the plane crash," the Department of Homeland Security said in a release. "At this time, we have no reason to believe there is a nexus to terrorist activity. We continue to gather more information, and are aware there is additional information about the pilot's history."

[Enoch]

www.myfoxhouston.com/dpp/news/texas/100218-austin-plane-crash-house-fire-connected

Pilot Torched House Before Plane Crash

HOUSTON - In an interview with KLBJ radio, a woman says she believes the pilot who crashed into an Austin office building with IRS employees on Thursday is that of an in-law who burned his house down the night before.

"My little niece is his step daughter," said the woman in an interview with KLBJ radio. "He burned their house down last night. My sister had gone over there last night to get them out of the house. They spent the night in a motel."

The woman, whose name was not immediately clear, went on to say the man's plane was missing as of Thursday morning. She said the incident started as a domestic dispute.

"They checked before ten o'clock. His plane is gone. His car is at the hangar in Round Rock."

The woman says the description of the plane that crashed in Austin matches the description of the woman's family member. Round Rock is located about 25 miles north of the crash site.

U.S. law enforcement officials said they were investigating whether the crash was an intentional act by the pilot. They spoke on condition of anonymity because the investigation is continuing.

FAA spokesman Lynn Lunsford says the pilot didn't file a flight plan. He didn't identify the pilot, and police say they had no information about the pilot.

[Enoch]

[Enoch]

www.cnn.com/2010/CRIME/02/19/texas.plane.crash/index.html?hpt=T1

Source: Texas plane may have been loaded with extra fuel

Feb. 19 2010

Austin, Texas (CNN) -- The man who flew an airplane into a building housing an Internal Revenue Service office may have replaced some of its seats with a drum of fuel to cause maximum damage, a law enforcement official familiar with the investigation said Friday.

The official, who would not speak on the record because it is an ongoing case, said investigators have determined that the Piper Cherokee PA-28 had several seats removed and that a fuel drum was missing from the airport from which Andrew Joseph "Joe" Stack III took off Thursday morning.

"I think there is a good chance he might have put it on his plane," said the official, who cautioned that investigators were still working that lead and sifting through the crash site.

The single-engine plane has a fuel tank capacity of 38 gallons and is equipped with four seats, according to the Web site risingup.com.

The FBI said Friday it has taken the lead role in the investigation of Thursday's crash into the 7-story building in northwest Austin that held offices for nearly 200 IRS workers.

"You're talking about a federal agency that was basically assaulted," Ralph Diaz, special agent in charge of the FBI's San Antonio, Texas, field office, told reporters.

Two people were killed and two others were hospitalized, federal officials said.

Though the remains found in the IRS building have been identified, their identities will not be revealed until after a forensic examination, Diaz said Friday.

"One may be Mr. Stack and our fear is certainly the other would be either someone who was visiting or someone who was employed in the building," he said.

Emergency services chief Ernie Rodriguez said one of the injured was treated and released; the other remained hospitalized.

City of Austin Fire Chief Rhoda Mae Kerr credited the building's fire protection, fast work by the Fire Department and the fact that the employees had practiced exiting the building in case of an emergency for the low loss of life and injuries. "It truly worked," she said.

Rodriguez said units arrived on the scene within five minutes of the first 911 call prepared to manage hundreds of injured people. "We found only two persons," he said.

"When you look at the fire, when you look at the evidence, it's hard to say that we were lucky, but we were," he said. "The big thing to remember is that yesterday, in the midst of this event, God's grace was upon us."

Austin Police Chief Art Acevedo credited fast thinking by some people who were inside the building as the plane approached for the fact that few people were hurt. "Some folks saw it coming and sounded the alarm yesterday, and some folks started running away from that side of the building," he said.

Stack's wife, Sheryl Stack, expressed her "sincere sympathy to the victims and their families" Friday.

"Words cannot adequately express the sorrow or the sympathy I feel for everyone affected by this unimaginable tragedy," she said in a statement read by a family friend, Rayford Walker.

Authorities say Stack also torched his $230,000 home in Austin on Thursday morning before embarking on his fatal flight.

Police said Sheryl Stack spent Wednesday night in an Austin-area hotel but did not say why. Acevedo said police had received no calls of domestic violence from the house. The only calls to police were made a couple of years ago and concerned barking dogs, he said.

A 3,000-word message on a Web site registered to Stack railed against the government, particularly the IRS.

"I saw it written once that the definition of insanity is repeating the same process over and over and expecting the outcome to suddenly be different," the online message says. "I am finally ready to stop this insanity. Well, Mr. Big Brother IRS man, let's try something different; take my pound of flesh and sleep well."

Acevedo reiterated on Friday his assertion first made Thursday that the incident was not an act of terrorism. "Part of our jobs in law enforcement is not to overreact and cause undue panic," he said. "And with the information that we had, there was no need to alarm our colleagues around the country and community members by using the word 'terrorism.' That is why definitely I did not use it yesterday and I'm not using it today."

An IRS criminal investigator visited Stack's accountant after Thursday's events, leaving a business card on the CPA's front door. The online message believed to have been written by Stack mentions accountant Bill Ross, saying it had become "brutally evident that he was representing himself and not me."

IRS investigator James L. Neff said that Ross is not under investigation; officials just wanted to make sure he was OK. "We didn't know if he was alive or dead," Neff said.

Ross, who did not return a call from CNN, was fine, the investigator said.

Friends and former colleagues said Friday they had no inkling of the rage apparently building inside Stack.

"He hid that very well," said Billy Eli, in whose band Stack played bass until a few years ago. "Obviously he was in some serious distress and had some real despair. I never saw that."

Neither did another former bandmate, Ric Furley.

"I never saw him in a bad mood or speaking negatively about anything or anyone," Furley told CNN's "American Morning."

"This has been such a shock because it was totally out of character with the Joe Stack I played with for three years," said Eli.

"We liked him," said Furley. "We liked him."

An IRS spokesman said federal law prohibits the agency from releasing information about any interactions the agency may have had with Stack.

The IRS issued a statement Friday saying tax returns will not be delayed.





ofgoatsandmen.blogspot.com/2010/02/joseph-andrew-stack-had-911-nsa-cia-and.html

Joseph Andrew Stack Had 9/11, NSA, and Homeland Security Related Defense Contractor Clients

The client list from the software programmer believed to have crashed his plane into the Echelon* building in Austin Texas reads like a guidebook to defense contractors with connections to 9/11, NSA and Homeland Security.

The FBI had his webpage removed (the screen message previously said that the FBI had it removed) from the internet, but of course the client list from the webpage has been archived. As first discovered by Cryptogon, the client list has corporations on it such as Interstate Electronics Corporation, which needed Mr. Stack's help on developing a GPS-based Fight Management System of all things. IEC is a wholly owned subsidiary of L-3 which is a defence contractor with obvious Homeland Security and NSA connections. There is also this report from Wayne Madsen on Oped News of an L-3 consultant to the NSA who had watched a live feed of the first 9/11 plane impact as it happened. L-3 is included among corporations which were investigated by the SEC for unusual stock put-options in relation to 9/11.
Cylink Corporation, another on Mr. Stack's client list had as it's Chief Executive Officer, William P. Crowell who "came to Cylink from the National Security Agency, where he held a series of senior positions, including Deputy Director of Operations and the Deputy Director of the Agency. From 1989 to 1990, Crowell served as a vice president at Atlantic Aerospace Electronics Corporation, now a subsidiary of Titan Systems, leading business development in space technology, signal processing and intelligence systems."
Hughes Aircraft, one of Stack's clients, developed the ground mission control segment of the Global Hawk, and L3 supplied its communications system.
Other clients on the list such as DMC Stratex Networks and Sorrento Electronics also are defense contractors and probably a closer examination of these and other corporations on Stack's client list will reveal more interesting details.

*Note: the name echelon itself refers to a "signals intelligence (SIGINT) collection and analysis network."




Joe Stack's customer reference account:

74.125.155.132/search?q=cache:embeddedart.com/customers.htm&ie=UTF-8

[Enoch]

www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/cifamerica/2010/feb/19/austin-texas-paranoid-politics

Austin, Texas: paranoid politics central

Feb. 19, 2010

Yesterday, tragedy hit Austin, Texas, the place where I'd lived for 14 years and only moved away from two months ago. A man tentatively identified as 53-year-old Joseph Stack, flew his small plane into the seven-storey IRS building in North Austin, after setting fire to his own home and leaving a lengthy suicide note on his website. The note was surprisingly lucid for a man committing an act universally seen as crazy, and it spelled out his mostly political grievances, with a call to arms at the end for those who share them. And yet, many commentators and the US government are reluctant to call this a terrorist act, though it fits neatly within the FBI's definition of domestic terrorism. They shouldn't be, because Stack did this in the cultural capital of paranoid politics.

Part of the reluctance to define this as terrorism is the fact that Stack's politics don't map out neatly on the partisan landscape of the US, unlike the politics of other domestic terrorists such as abortion doctor killers and rightwing extremists like Timothy McVeigh. Stack complained about his taxes, but he also complained about the inability of politicians to reform the healthcare system. Without a coherent ideology to pin on him, most people had trouble seeing Stack as a terrorist. But I recognised his type immediately, having lived the majority of my life in the area. Call them the nihilists or the political paranoids, but Austin and the surrounding areas of Texas are the cultural centre for a certain brand of paranoid politics that stretches far beyond partisanship and sees enemies and conspiracies around every corner. They hated Bill Clinton, but they hated George Bush, too. They're mostly very conservative, but they attract left-leaning paranoids, who share their affection for conspiracy theories. Stack indicated in his note a long relationship with the political fringe, going back to participating in anti-tax schemes in California.

Sure, Austin is mostly known as a Democratic stronghold. But if you live there for even a short period of time (as Stack had), you can't miss the paranoid culture. The biggest media empire in the US for disseminating unhinged conspiracy theories is located in Austin. The website for this empire is Infowars, and the radio show that's broadcast to over 60 stations nationwide is called the Alex Jones Show. Jones's politics are ostensibly libertarian-conservative, but really, his ideology is paranoia. His empire sucks in rightwingers with conspiracy theories that feed the militia gun culture, but they also love conspiracy theories that appeal more to the left, such as the belief that 9/11 was an "inside job". And then there are unclassifiable ones, such as the belief that gatherings of elitist power players at the Bohemian Grove are actually Satanic rituals.

Jones is a local celebrity in Austin, treated indulgently if not taken too seriously. You can be reasonably certain that someone with unhinged beliefs like Stack was aware of the strong culture of political paranoia in the area when he committed this terrorist act. Most places in the country, his call to arms would come across as simply ineffectual. But central Texas is where the conspiracy theories that inspired Timothy McVeigh to blow up a federal building in Oklahoma take root and spread like weeds. I predict the conspiracy theory machine is already working overtime to produce some narrative blaming this on the government and painting Stack as a victim, if not a hero. Facebook groups have already started to pop up celebrating Stack as a tax protester. Because of this, we cannot write Stack off as a lone wolf. Just because he likely didn't conspire with others directly doesn't mean he wasn't sending off a signal to the paranoid malcontents of America. And they are listening.

[Enoch]

Texas Plane Attack Prompts Debate Over Terrorism Label

www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,587087,00.html




AUSTIN, Texas — When a man fueled by rage against the U.S. government and its tax code crashes his airplane into a building housing offices of the Internal Revenue Service, is it a criminal act or an act of terrorism?

For police in Austin, it's a question tied to the potential for public alarm: The building set ablaze by Joseph Stack's suicide flight was still burning Thursday afternoon when officials confidently stood before reporters and said the crash wasn't terrorism.

But others, including those in the Muslim community, look at Stack's actions and fail to understand how he differs from foreign perpetrators of political violence who are routinely labeled terrorists.

"The position of many individuals and institutions seems to be that no act of violence can be labeled 'terrorism' unless it is carried out by a Muslim," said Nihad Awad, director of the Washington-based Council on Islamic-American Relations.

Within hours of Thursday's crash, which several witnesses said stirred memories of the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks, both federal and local law enforcement officials, along with the White House, said it did not appear to be an act of terror. A widely quoted statement issued by the Department of Homeland Security also said officials had "no reason to believe there is a nexus to terrorist activity."

SLIDESHOW: Small Plane Crashes Into Austin Office Building

Yet at the same time, Stack's motives for flying his single-engine plane into a seven-story office building after apparently setting his house on fire were becoming clear as detectives, reporters and others found a rambling manifesto on the Web in which he described a long-smoldering dispute with the IRS and a hatred of the government.

In the note, Stack said he longs for a big "body count" and expresses the hope that "American zombies wake up and revolt."

"To keep the government from getting money, he burned his house. To keep them from getting money he crashed his airplane," said Ken Hunter, whose father Vernon, a longtime IRS employee, was the only person killed by Stack's attack. "That's not the act of a patriot. That's the act of a terrorist, and that's what he is."

Stratfor, an Austin-based global intelligence firm specializing in international risk management, said the rhetoric in Stack's rant clearly matches the USA Patriot Act's definition of terrorism: a criminal act that is intended to "intimidate or coerce a civilian population to influence the policy of a government by intimidation or coercion; or to affect the conduct of a government by assassination or kidnapping."

"When you fly an airplane into a federal building to kill people, that's how you define terrorism," said Rep. Michael McCaul, a Texas Republican whose district includes Austin. "It sounds like it to me."

It doesn't to Austin Police Chief Art Acevedo, who instead sees an isolated, criminal attack carried out by a lone individual. He said branding the crash as terrorism so soon after the plane's impact could have provoked unnecessary panic and prompted residents of Austin and beyond to erroneously conclude that other attacks might be imminent.

"I did not want to use it because I didn't want people that have children in school and loved ones at work to be panicking, thinking that, 'Oh my God, is there going to be 10 more little planes around the country crashing into buildings?"' Acevedo said. "I knew that this appeared to be one guy in one city in one event."

Other experts agree. Ami Pedahzur, a professor of government at the University of Texas and author of the book "Suicide Terrorism," said that while Stack's actions might be viewed as a copycat version of 9/11 attacks, they fall short of terrorism.

Pedahuzur said there is no evidence that Stack was involved in a highly planned conspiracy, and descriptions of Stack's state of mind in the days before the crash suggest the software engineer "snapped" after suffering an emotional breakdown. His manifesto was filled with rants that were just as personal as they were political, such as his complaint that corrupt politicians are not "the least bit interested in me or anything I have to say."

Pedahuzur compared the incident to the criminal rampage depicted by Michael Douglas in the 1993 movie "Falling Down," in which an unemployed defense worker angry at society's flaws goes on a rampage.

"(Stack) seems to be trying to cover up a personal crisis with some type of political agenda," Pedahzur said. "It looks like terrorism, but basically it's a story of a person whose anger was building up. It's more of a personal issue than a large movement."