ZACHARY BARBERA HAS NOTICED SOMETHING INTERESTING about Turkey and the Kurds.

ANOTHER EMAIL FROM A READER IN THE DC/MARYLAND AREA: John Scanlon writes:

Like Mr. Henley, I live and work within a few miles of these attacks. Three points:

First, if the reportage is accurate, the shooters are extremely well trained. Five shootings, five kills, all apparently at some distance; no reports (at this point) of unsuccessful attempts or woundings. The last victim was killed with a single shot, again by someone far enough away to have disappeared by the time the nearby witness arrived at the scene. In the typical random shooting spree, there are two or three wounded for every person killed, and bullets or shot tend to be sprayed around indiscriminately. These facts point to hunters, soldiers or other experienced killers.

Second, the Post does its local readers a grave disservice by failing to disclose not only descriptions of the killers but also the race, sex and other characteristics of the victims. If the victims were all Asians, doesn’t the Post owe its Asian readers that information so they can take special precautions? On the other hand, if the killings are random (we know only that the killers targeted three men, then three women), that would fit with the terrorist MO.

It’s interesting that the shooters’ vehicle is a white van. I don’t know about your city, but DC and its suburbs are chockablock with them. As we all know from watching too many spy movies, they are favored by law enforcement surveillance teams. Just the kind of car for stirring up suspicions in neighborhoods already leery of cops.

Indeed. Another emailer who knows something about such matters calls these “mobile sniper” attacks. That does seem like a good term for the approach that seems to be involved. As for the descriptions, it’s interesting that the Post has none. It’s possible that no one was able to give a good description, but it’s surprising that the Post isn’t reporting that fact, if so.

UPDATE: The Baltimore Sun identifies victims by race. No obvious pattern. No description of the killers, though. The Sun report says there’s no description available. It also says that police don’t think there’s a terrorism connection.

ANOTHER UPDATE: Reader Louis Zurr writes:

I suppose it’s too much to hope from the almost uniformly boneheaded law-enforcement personnel of our nation, that they should keep in mind that these random shootings might possibly be intended as a diversion while something even worse goes down….

Well, I hope that people are smarter than that.

TED BARLOW IS FINALLY BACK after a long absence, and from his blog I learn that LL Cool J has endorsed George Pataki.

Ted learned that, I should say, from Cal Ulmann, one of the many bloggers whose sites I should visit more often. And would, if there were three of me.

DAWN OLSEN HAS LEFT THE BLOGSPOT and moved to a slick new Sekimori-designed site that’s now here. A problem with Blogger was the immediate cause of the move: “I am shocked at how dependent I have become on the technical tools that I take for granted. Without them I feel helpless. I feel the walls closing in on me.”

Look, I am incredibly grateful for what Pyra, Blogger, and Blogspot have done for the blogosphere. But now I cringe whenever I see a blogspot link — or even the telltale URL that tells me the site is blogger powered. Because I know that the link may not work, or that if it works now it probably will stop working later.

Really: if you can afford to move, do. You’ll be doing yourself, and the rest of us, a favor.

These folks have done it, too.

UPDATE: Misha has made the move too!

BUNCH OF UPDATES ON THE DC SHOOTINGS by Dean at Blogs4God. And here’s a link (via Dean) to a map and chronology from the Post.

THE WEB SEEMS VERY SLOW TODAY, and I notice that other people are making the same complaint. What gives?

UPDATE: Ah, apparently UUNet is having some serious problems. That seems to be happening a lot lately.

ANOTHER UPDATE: Here’s a story on what’s wrong.

Oh, and this link shows graphically that people aren’t imagining the problem.

EUGENE VOLOKH has a long post on potential federal constitutional arguments against the New Jersey decision, as well as a shorter one indicating that the Republicans are making those very arguments in the Supreme Court.

UPDATE: Here’s the New York Times story.

SHOOTINGS UPDATE: A Maryland/DC reader sends:

Two contradicting thoughts on the possible terrorism angle:

1. The Montgomery County police spokeswoman said they have no indications that there was any political message attached to the shootings. No words were exchanged between shooter(s) and victims, according to witnesses. Just gun shots from close range.

2. HOWEVER, it seems that all the victims died from a single gun shot. Also, in at least one case (according to local TV), witnesses didn’t see any bleeding — the gun shot was discovered by paramedics doing CPR. Which makes me fearful that these guys are armed with guns/ammo that is a little more lethal than those carried by your average street punk.

Yes — though usually “more lethal” ammo produces more visible damage. Could just be a lucky shot (er, well, several lucky shots), but it’s something to watch.

Meanwhile, read this article by Bryan Preston on Al Qaeda tactics:

The tapes also suggest that the group is shifting its tactics to take into account post 9/11 realities. During the past decade, al Qaeda established a pattern of always trying to top its last feat: A mostly failed attack on the World Trade Center in 1993 led to larger and deadlier attacks on a U.S. installation in Saudi Arabia, the U.S. embassies in Africa, the near-sinking of the USS Cole, and culminated on 9/11. But the U.S. bombing and ground campaign in Afghanistan has, by all accounts, decimated al Qaeda and scattered it across dozens of countries. Following that pattern of bigger and deadlier, we should expect al Qaeda to try a mass-destruction attack on an even higher-profile target than the WTC and the Pentagon, though few landmarks fit that description. But if the training tapes are our guide, a weakened al Qaeda would be planning a series of smaller attacks spread around the West, targeting soft targets which would offer little or no resistance. The purpose of such a spread attack would be to demonstrate that al Qaeda is still capable of carrying out attacks on our soil, and to instill fear and panic around the world. It would be successful on both counts, if we aren’t prepared for it.

Hmm. Stay tuned.

UPDATE: Reader Jim Hogue emails that he’s seen this effect with prefragmented rounds like the “Glazer Safety Slug”:

In 1988-89, I conducted a murder investigation in which the victim, a U.S.A.F. NCO, was shot in the right chest at a relatively close range, 8 feet, with one of these rounds. The projectile completely fragmented and dispersed inside the body with little outward sign of trauma, except the entry wound. The victim bled less than a cup of blood and death was almost instantaneous, rare for a thoracic wound. Without several detailed X-rays taken during the autopsy, it was impossible to determine what had killed him since there was no big radiological “shadow” of a normal round. On the X-ray it looked like his chest was full of small metal shavings, something not normally considered fatal.

The current round of information available on your site i.e. “Also, in at least one case (according to local TV), witnesses didn’t see any bleeding — the gun shot was discovered by paramedics doing CPR” sounds to me to be very much like a GSS type of ammo. Especially in light of no reported massive body trauma and copious amounts of blood associated with other type of man stoppers like Federal’s “Hydra-shok” etc., which leave horrific wounds on both sides of the equation; entry and exit wounds.

Anyway, as is almost always the case, most of what’s being speculated – including this – are probably wrong!!! :)

Interesting — and the final point is very much worth keeping in mind. Though I’d say that this is almost certainly an act of terrorism, one way or another. The real question is what kind of terrorism?

ANOTHER UPDATE: Hogue adds:

P.S. Glaser also makes rifle rounds, .223 (M-16 type) 7.62, (WARSAW PACT ammo for AK-47’s, etc.) .308 (sniper rifles) 30-06 (for good ol’ American deer hunters!!) I’ve seen what the handgun versions of the GSS do; I can’t even imagine the rifle ammo version!!!

I don’t really want to.

READER ROBERT MOUNCE wonders why no one has mentioned terrorism with regard to this incident of sabotage at Camp LeJeune, in which parachute lines were stealthily cut:

The inspections determined the suspension lines had been severed on the 13 affected main parachutes in such a manner that pre-jump inspections would not detect any signs of tampering,” according to a statement from Camp Lejeune.

All parachutes were being re-inspected at the base before further jumps.

Yeah. On the other hand, if this is the worst they can do. . . .

UPDATE: Donald Sensing doubts that terrorism is involved here.

NOBODY’S MENTIONING TERRORISM in connection with these apparently motiveless shootings in the DC area. Why not?

UPDATE: A reader emails that based on this review of Al Qaeda training tapes, such attacks might well be terrorism. There are a number of scenarios that seem reasonably close to what’s supposed to have happened, along with this observation:

There is information to the effect that the “perfect day” as seen by Al Qaeda would combine attacks designed to produce the maximum number of casualties with attacks that would give them the opportunity to get “face time” on the news channels to deliver their rhetoric. For maximum effect these attacks would take place nearly simultaneously at multiple geographically separate locations.

This does seem to have gotten maximal news attention for minimum risk and effort — the sort of thing that a cut-off terror cell, or a group of freelancers with minimal resources, might do. We’ll just have to wait and see. Meanwhile reader Mitch Berg writes: “And yet again – a mass shooting in a state without a shall-issue concealed-carry law.”

Well, there are two lessons from the LAX shooting: that people on the scene with guns can bring such things to a prompt end, and that authorities will be very slow to blame such attacks on terrorism. But at the moment this is all speculation — we’ll have to wait on evidence, if any materializes. I’ll leave you with these comments emailed by Jim Henley:

Glenn, no one’s talking about terrorism yet because it’s a developing story – no one fucking knows right now. I can tell you that these shootings are way way too close to home in a literal sense, all occurring in places where the Henley family actually shops or drives. Latest word from the schools (currently locked down, which means my son hasn’t had recess, sure to be a root cause of terrorism on HIS part I don’t know what will) is that they’re going have police supervise the loading of the buses, but not apparently taking the crushingly obvious step of putting police ON the buses. The other concern is all the parents who will be congregating on corners WAITING for buses.

I suppose in Knoxville people would just bring their guns to the bus stop. Alas, here in Montgomery county only outlaws will have guns (more because of cultural cringe and relative safety than local laws). Since it’s been quiet for a few hours, police think the killers are in hiding, according to my wife. (I work over in Virginia, so I’m getting all my updates from her.)

It sounds like a Starkweather-style spree. It may yet prove to be terrorism. The only things I see that incline me in that direction right now are that it’s two guys, not one, and the report that they’ve gone into hiding. (Default assumption in a spree case is that one guy really wants to be shot dead himself and keeps going until he is.)

I guess there’s one more thing that makes it worth speculating about a terrorist angle – the Post report you cite omits any, even fragmentary description of the killers. The Post has a tendency to do that when they’re afraid such descriptions will inspire what they think of as retrograde reactions.

Yes, I noticed that omission from the Post account myself.

ANOTHER UPDATE: And now there’s a similar shooting incident at the U.N. though no one appears to have been hurt, and the M.O. is different. Asparagirl has blogged it.

VIA VIRGINIA POSTREL, I also found this article by Walter Russell Mead on Bush foreign policy:

Despite the public disagreements between the Pentagon and the State Department, the most striking thing about this administration’s foreign policy is its intellectual consistency. The ideas that Condoleezza Rice, the national security adviser, outlined in a Foreign Affairs article in 2000 shape the administration’s foreign policy today. In particular, Ms Rice laid down an approach to multilateralism versus unilateralism to which the administration has returned at every important moment since – and that forms the basis of the new US national security strategy.

This is absolutely right. I was reading that article just the other night, and planning to do a post on it. Now I don’t have to.

VIRGINIA POSTREL likens the New Jersey decision to “Calvinball” and asks:

If they’re so worried about giving the voters “the choice they deserve,” where were the New Jersey Supreme Court and the NYT in 1984, when my ballot offered the choice (I am not making this up) between Tip O’Neill and a Communist?

Howard Kurtz, meanwhile, observes that:

Bob Torricelli is no longer a New Jersey issue.

He’s an albatross that conservatives want to hang around the neck of every breathing Democrat.

He’s their new symbol of self-indulgent sleaze, rule-bending and evading responsibility.

Judging by what I heard of Neal Boortz’s show on my drive into the office, I’d say he’s right.

YOUR TAX DOLLARS AT WORK: The federal government subsidizes a lot of work in Middle Eastern Studies, in the hopes that it will produce knowledge useful in war and diplomacy. Martin Kramer says we’re not getting our money’s worth. Excerpt:

Now no one can object to lectures on clothes and sex. And reading through the program, I confess that many of the more obscure subjects appeal to my antiquarian tastes. But there is very little in this program to justify the notion that Middle Eastern studies serve the national interest, or that they deserve the massive increase in federal funding authorized by Congress last January. Given the fact that the conference is meeting in Washington, the omissions are even more striking.

Actually, it looks as if much of the work is worse than merely useless:

The words “al-Qaeda” and “Osama bin Laden” are nowhere to be found. The word “terrorism” is either between quotation marks or in the context of “Arab Responses to America’s War on Terrorism.”

I hope some journalists will attend, and ask about this stuff. (Link via The Corner).

SHILOH BUCHER’S SECRET IDENTITY has been revealed.

HARKIN SCANDAL UPDATE: Iowa blogger David Hogberg has the latest.

COMPUTERS ENFORCING THE LAW? Yep. And doing it badly, in association with clueless and irresponsible humans. It’s in my FoxNews Column today.

STACY TABB offers a full-frontal Fisking to a study on child discipline. Nutshell version: ” More free advice from the U.N. If they knew their asses from their elbows, they might actually use their power to put an end to the murder, prostitution and enslavement of children around the world instead of denouncing spankings.” (Heck, I’d be happy if the U.N. would just stop participating in the prostitution and enslavement of children).

Speaking of the U.N., I heard an NPR story earlier on a global violence survey from the WHO. The main cause of death by violence around the world is . . . suicide!

Now, as soon as I heard this, I lost all respect for the study. Suicide is, usually, a Bad Thing. But it’s a sufficiently different thing from, well, murder, that when you lump the two together it’s because you want to make the numbers bigger. And when you want to make the numbers bigger, it’s out of self-promotion and bureaucratic aggrandizement — or worse, as when gun-control advocates lump suicide into their figures on “gun deaths,” which they do because, well, there are a lot of suicides, which actually make up the majority of “gun deaths.” (In 1999, according to James Jacobs’ new book Can Gun Control Work? from Oxford University Press, there were 17,400 firearms suicides and only 9,000 firearms homicides. So naturally gun-controllers want to combine these, since it almost triples the size of the number of “gun deaths.”)

This kind of obvious bogosity is why “public health” studies have lost so much credibility over the past couple of decades: they’re full of distortions, misrepresentations, and outright lies. They’ve branched out into this stuff because they decided some time ago that infectious disease was no longer a problem, and they had to do something to keep the grant money flowing.

Do something about AIDS and biowar, guys, or start selling insurance. This stuff is a waste of time and money.

I JUST VISITED TED BARLOW’S PAGE (don’t bother, he still hasn’t posted anything new — come back, Ted! What does work have to offer compared to blogging?) and I noticed his link to The New Republic’s house blog &c bears the notation “prounounced ‘Prince.'” Heh.

BONIOR / MCDERMOTT UPDATE: Chris Suellentrop writes in Slate that Bonior and McDermott have their pluses and minuses. Minuses:

When it comes to foreign policy, Democrats have a reputation as credulous stooges whose reflexive anti-war leanings make them willing dupes for murderous dictators. That didn’t happen in this case (at least not yet),[It didn’t? — Ed.] but the charge is so effective that it doesn’t matter whether it’s true. Bonior and McDermott may not have played into Saddam’s hands, but they did play into the GOP’s.

Also customary is anti-war Democrats’ tendency to cry “Vietnam” and “quagmire.” . . . Of this, McDermott is particularly guilty. He criticized the early airstrikes in Afghanistan last October, raising the specter of the war in which he served as a Navy psychiatrist at Long Beach Naval Station: “There are some eerie parallels that trouble me.” McDermott has repeated similar fears during the buildup to war with Iraq. At times, the opposition to war from the Party That Cries Vietnam appears to stem more from ’60s and ’70s nostalgia than from moral or political beliefs.

On the upside, Suellentrop says:

If Maureen Dowd is to be believed, Hillary Clinton is keeping her private doubts about an Iraq war to herself in order to preserve her “political viability” in the 2008 presidential race. She’s not the only Democrat with similar motives. Say what you will about Bonior and McDermott—they’re naive, they’re too trusting of an evil tyrant, their decision to condemn Bush from a foreign land was ill-timed and foolish. All that is true. But at least they’re sincere. And at least they’re not silent.

So they’re useful idiots, but in their defense, they’re idiots — unlike the other Democrats, who are political opportunists. With this being what defenders of Democratic positions on the war are saying, I think the Democratic Party is in real trouble here. Which explains why Bush is facing so little opposition on this question, I guess.

Meanwhile, back on Bonior and McDermott in specific, rather than the Democrats in general, Bill Herbert has looked at the transcript of yesterday’s press conference and points out a howler that other commentators missed.

UPDATE: Here’s a story on how Daschle got rolled on the war resolution. Does this have anything to do with Dick Gephardt’s presidential aspirations? The story of the intra-Democratic infighting on this subject isn’t getting the attention it deserves — though it sounds as if Bonior and McDermott’s action, and the bad publicity it created, played a role here too.

Hmm — puts the old “if you want peace, prepare for war” saying in a new light, doesn’t it?

PATRICK RUFFINI thinks that Forrester can still win in New Jersey. Reason: “On the whole, Lautenberg has been a pretty lousy politician.”

Yes, Forrester’s big advantage has been that he’s Mr. Not Torricelli. But, of course, that’s Lautenberg’s main claim to fame, too. Yeah, he used to be a Senator, but, well, that can cut both ways.

Ruffini has a lot more analysis. Check it out.

ARE NGOS THE MODERN AXIS OF RACISM? This would support that theory.

VIA BILL QUICK, this fascinating story:

Media heads face prosecution in Iran over a ground-breaking opinion poll on mending relations with the United States.

It showed a large majority of the population in favour of dialogue with the “Great Satan” and nearly half showing sympathy with US policy on Iran. . . .

According to the poll of 1,500 Iranians, conducted by three separate institutes including the National Institute for Research Studies and Opinion Polls (NIRSOP) and published by Irna on 22 September:

74% of respondents over the age of 15 support dialogue with the US

45.8% believe Washington’s policy on Iran is “to some extent correct”.

But the judiciary has responded by charging NIRSOP director Behrouz Geranpayeh and Irna’s Abdollah Nasseri of “publishing lies to excite public opinion”, the Iran newspaper reports.

Advice to mullahs: Switzerland is nice this time of year.

AS A SUBSCRIBER TO “INSTAPUNDIT PREMIUM” (premium grade’s all we got here) you get access to my FoxNews column for tomorrow, tonight! That’s something you couldn’t get otherwise unless you went to the FoxNews site, er, on your own.

THE DEVASTATING REPUBLICAN RESPONSE to the New Jersey decision is now public. I should have seen this one coming.

READER THOMAS MANNING WRITES: “Who is S. French of Baltimore, Maryland, and why did he register the domain name lautenberg2002.com on Monday?”

Good question.