Yes, but then there’s the Japa- . . . wait . . . Well, there’s the Kore- . . . The Chi- . . . At least they’re all very polite!
Story in today’s Bangkok Post.
Looks like he was over here recently and planned to move here. We get all the nutcases.
He didn’t quit the Navy, he was tossed out.
Why didn’t the NSA warn us? Why?? We’re the most surveilled and spied upon citizenry in the world. What’s wrong?
You didn’t get this one (permanently) quite soon enough, it seems!
There’s already “proof” making the rounds. It’s an ABC News article dated on the 15th!! They knew about the attack in advance!! (Or someone made a typo or the content management software has a weirdness in it. The URL of the article mentions the fatal trailer fire in Ohio, which happened on the 15th, so it’s probably from that.)
The government is powerful enough to plan the whole attack (or “attack” depending on your conspiracy theory of choice), but it can’t make some news flunky change the date on the article. :rolleyes:
I just posted a response to the guy who posted the conspiracy article. I know that it’s probably not going to do any good, but it sure made me feel better.
I do find myself wondering how someone with a less-than-honorable discharge from the service and a history of gun violence gets hired on and badged for entry into a secure facility.
Apparently he got the badge from another guy, who had been recently fired by the Navy (which can’t be easy). More info to come, but I would expect that a firing entails turning in your badge. It does at a contractor company, after all.
I have a general discharge from the '80s and hold a (very low level) security clearance.
He had an honorable discharge.
Not trying to be rude, but where did you get that, Terr? I had read that he had a general discharge, not an honorable one. Of course, it’s still early in the ‘sorting out just what happened’ process.
Also, didn’t he work at the facility too, and had a security clearance as an IT contractor? Or was that just the guy he took the badge from?
Finally, regardless of whose badge he was using or what clearance he had, how in the hell was he able to get into the building with a shotgun? (My understanding is that he acquired the handgun and M-16 or M-4 from one of his victims.) Did he walk up to the gate and just start blasting?
Aaron Alexis was an employee of a company called ‘The Experts,’ a subcontractor to an HP Enterprise Services contract to refresh equipment used on the NavyMarine Corps Intranet (NMCI) network.
Valerie Parlave, head of the FBI’s field office in Washington, said Alexis had access to the Navy Yard using a valid pass.
How many office buildings you visit have metal detectors?
All of the victims have been identified, and the youngest is 46. I find that interesting, and no less tragic than if they’d been children.
As for children, I have believed from day one that if Sandy Hook had been an inner-city school and the kids all had names like “LuQuavious” or “Sharqueenzia”, it would have vanished from the news faster than the story about the UFO over O’Hare Airport. This theory was almost tested a couple weeks ago in Atlanta. :rolleyes: 
Isn’t NAVSEA one of those? I’ve never been anywhere near the building, but I’d read they deal with enough secret material, and are anal enough about anyone taking anything into the building, that I’d be surprised if they didn’t have the full courthouse suite of x-ray, metal detector, yadda yadda. Besides, metal detector or not, it’s harder to conceal a shotgun (assuming the shotgun wasn’t a Joe Biden special, and he didn’t take a hacksaw to it.) than a handgun. Nobody noticed him walking to the front door with it? Weird.
Thanks for the previous cite. I guess the earlier reports were confused about parts of the Navy wanting to give him a General, but instead giving him an Honorable under the special program the cite mentions. Be interesting to learn just how high his level of clearance was.
The Federal Office Building in Seattle has metal detectors. Probably true of most federal facilities.
I regularly go into building 197 (and other buildings on the Navy Yard) as part of my job. There are no metal detectors. There is one security guard sitting behind a desk, and several turnstile-like things that you have to swipe your ID badge to pass through. The security guard occasionally asks to look inside your bag if you have one, but this is not very common.
In short, it would not be very difficult for someone to get into the building with a shotgun (in a bag, or perhaps in a big coat) if they have the proper ID.
I can answer any other questions about day-to-day work on the Navy Yard as well.
A general discharge is an honorable discharge.
This is incorrect- see here.