# Portland bomb plot **URL:** \ **Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share\ **Created:** [November 27, 2010, 5:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/portland-bomb-plot/562076 "2010-11-27T17:36:18Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 13\ **Page:** 3
**Author:** ![Rysto](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/ecccb3/32.png) [@Rysto](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Rysto)\ **Post date:** [November 28, 2010, 11:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/portland-bomb-plot/562076/41 "2010-11-28T23:56:04Z")
Do you really want the government arresting people and not telling anybody about it for _months_? ---
**Author:** ![rowrrbazzle](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/rowrrbazzle/32/414_2.png) [@rowrrbazzle](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/rowrrbazzle)\ **Post date:** [November 29, 2010, 3:47am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/portland-bomb-plot/562076/42 "2010-11-29T03:47:16Z")
[http://washingtonexaminer.com/blogs/beltway-confidential/2010/11/politically-correct-portland-rejected-feds-who-saved-city-terrori](http://washingtonexaminer.com/blogs/beltway-confidential/2010/11/politically-correct-portland-rejected-feds-who-saved-city-terrori) > [@](#): > > In 2005, leaders in Portland, Oregon, angry at the Bush administration’s conduct of the war on terror, voted not to allow city law enforcement officers to participate in a key anti-terror initiative, the FBI’s Joint Terrorism Task Force. On Friday, that task force helped prevent what could have been a horrific terrorist attack in Portland. Now city officials say they might re-think their participation in the task force – because Barack Obama is in the White House. Dear Portland “leaders”: your sanctimonious posturing wouldn’t have saved you if it weren’t for the very people you think you’re morally superior to. You could’ve gotten lots of your fellow citizens killed. Well done. :mad: ---
**Author:** ![Chronos](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chronos/32/134_2.png) [@Chronos](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chronos)\ **Post date:** [November 29, 2010, 4:22am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/portland-bomb-plot/562076/43 "2010-11-29T04:22:02Z")
Quoth **Justin Bailey** : > [@](#): > > That being said, while I met a number of kids in my high school days who were a little “off,” I never would have thought any of them were capable of shooting up the school. Hell, I fit the school shooter profile to a T and, last I checked, I didn’t shoot up my high school either. That’s the point exactly. You didn’t, but what if you had a group of people encouraging you, one of whom put a gun in your hands on your most pissed-off-at-the-world bad day? ---
**Author:** ![Justin\_Bailey](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/justin_bailey/32/8792_2.png) [@Justin\_Bailey](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Justin_Bailey)\ **Post date:** [November 29, 2010, 12:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/portland-bomb-plot/562076/44 "2010-11-29T12:41:27Z")
> [@Chronos](#): > > That’s the point exactly. You didn’t, but what if you had a group of people encouraging you, one of whom put a gun in your hands on your most pissed-off-at-the-world bad day? But that’s not how school shooters operate. It’s always one or two guys alone, who often don’t have anyone egging them on. One of the things people forget is that Klebold and Harris were relatively popular and bullies themselves. Klebold even had a girlfriend. They weren’t disaffected losers who were lashing out at an unfair high school community. They were mentally deficient psychos who went on a killing spree for funsies. ---
**Author:** ![Shirley\_Ujest](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/45deac/32.png) [@Shirley\_Ujest](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Shirley_Ujest)\ **Post date:** [November 29, 2010, 1:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/portland-bomb-plot/562076/45 "2010-11-29T13:39:55Z")
That kid looks like a supermodel. He’ll be popular in prison. ---
**Author:** ![Quercus](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/q/7ab992/32.png) [@Quercus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Quercus)\ **Post date:** [November 29, 2010, 4:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/portland-bomb-plot/562076/46 "2010-11-29T16:09:11Z")
> [@Gala\_Matrix\_Fire](#): > > Well, maybe I’m just speaking for everybody who has attended public or private school in the United States, who has known a potential Luke Helder, Eric Harris, Dylan Klebold, Adam Gadahn, Asa Coon, Matthew Smith, Ross McKnight, Todd Cameron Smith, Alvaro Castillo, and so on, ad infinitum. Let’s add Timothy McVeigh. I believe he was fairly explicitly Christian, too. ---
**Author:** ![ralph124c](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/8797f3/32.png) [@ralph124c](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ralph124c)\ **Post date:** [November 29, 2010, 4:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/portland-bomb-plot/562076/47 "2010-11-29T16:29:49Z")
> [@alphaboi867](#): > > Again he didn’t actually kill or even injure anybody. Yeah, by that reasoning, he’s a fine upstanding US citizen! I say, let’s import more muslims from Somalia! ---
**Author:** ![Mehitabel](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/8797f3/32.png) [@Mehitabel](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mehitabel)\ **Post date:** [November 29, 2010, 4:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/portland-bomb-plot/562076/48 "2010-11-29T16:44:23Z")
Sigh. Tim McVeigh was an atheist. It even said so on his Army dogtags. He never invoked religion in his defense or explanations. I can’t believe the guy’s been dead for nearly a decade and people are still trotting this out. ---
**Author:** ![Dinsdale](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/97f17d/32.png) [@Dinsdale](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dinsdale)\ **Post date:** [November 29, 2010, 5:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/portland-bomb-plot/562076/49 "2010-11-29T17:16:26Z")
The kid in question was an idiot. I’m glad he was caught, and have no objectons to the methods or publicity. I do, however, question how common more “serious” threats are, it this is the biggest recent “success” our considerable security efforts have had to announce. Between this guy and the panty and shoe bombers, either our security is wicked awesome, or the terrorist threat ain’t exactly all it is made out to be. ---
**Author:** ![Chefguy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chefguy/32/138_2.png) [@Chefguy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chefguy)\ **Post date:** [November 29, 2010, 6:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/portland-bomb-plot/562076/50 "2010-11-29T18:15:13Z")
> [@ralph124c](#): > > Yeah, by that reasoning, he’s a fine upstanding US citizen! > I say, let’s import more muslims from Somalia! Do you work at being an idiot or does it come naturally? ---
**Author:** ![twickster](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/ec9cab/32.png) [@twickster](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/twickster)\ **Post date:** [November 29, 2010, 8:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/portland-bomb-plot/562076/51 "2010-11-29T20:04:04Z")
> [@Chefguy](#): > > Do you work at being an idiot or does it come naturally? Please refrain from personal insults in MPSIMS. If you have a problem with another poster, take it to the Pit. Thanks, **twickster** , MPSIMS moderator ---
**Author:** ![Gala\_Matrix\_Fire](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/4da419/32.png) [@Gala\_Matrix\_Fire](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gala_Matrix_Fire)\ **Post date:** [November 29, 2010, 9:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/portland-bomb-plot/562076/52 "2010-11-29T21:12:25Z")
My list was not all school shooters, it was all young, recent, American terrorists. Luke Helder was the [Smiley Face bomber,](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Luke_Helder) who wounded six fellow Americans with home-made bombs. [Adam Gadahn, a suburban, Christian](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Adam_Yahiye_Gadahn), death-metal enthusiast who is now al-Qaeda’s English-speaking spokesman, Asa Coon, [school shooter](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SuccessTech_Academy_shooting), shot four Americans. Matthew Smith and Ross McKnight, who were acquitted of[plotting a school shooting,](http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/uk/crime/article6836860.ece) Todd Cameron Smith, [school shooter,](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/W._R._Myers_High_School_shooting) killed one, wounded two more, Alvaro Castillo, [school shooter and murderer.](http://articles.cnn.com/2009-08-21/justice/north.carolina.castillo.trial_1_insanity-first-degree-murder-columbine-high-school-massacre?_s=PM:CRIME) The point being that it would not be at all hard to find a student, more likely several students, at any given high school and, with an FBI task force working at it for year, end up with a terrorist plot. Wikipedia formerly had a page of American terrorists, but they have removed it. Makes it hard to find these stories aggregrated together, especially since so many people are reluctant to admit that anything is terrorism if it’s not done by a Muslim. ---
**Author:** ![Chefguy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chefguy/32/138_2.png) [@Chefguy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chefguy)\ **Post date:** [November 30, 2010, 12:48am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/portland-bomb-plot/562076/53 "2010-11-30T00:48:24Z")
> [@twickster](#): > > Please refrain from personal insults in MPSIMS. If you have a problem with another poster, take it to the Pit. > > Thanks, > > **twickster** , MPSIMS moderator Oops, forgot where I was. Sorry. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/portland-bomb-plot/562076.md?page=2)