Media: Pentagon shooter doubted official 9/11 story, hated pot laws

Spin USA continues.

As RAW STORY noted last month after Joseph Andrew Stack crashed his small plane into a building containing a federal tax office, "even five years after Jon Stewart famously told CNN's dueling Crossfire hosts to 'stop, stop, stop, stop hurting America,' some folks can't stop politicizing tragic events and claiming them for or against their respective sides."

WKOW reports,

New details are emerging Friday morning about the suspect in a shooting in a Pentagon subway station, including a resentment toward the military and doubt about the Sept. 11. terror attacks.

In an internet posting linked to John Patrick Bedell, the writer says he was determined to see justice for the 1991 death of a California Marine. His death was ruled a suicide but has long been the source of coverup theories.

The user also railed against enforcement of marijuana laws.

The Wisconsin TV station used the headline "Pentagon shooting suspect may have had 9/11 conspiracy" for their article, perhaps forgetting that the 9/11 plot itself by definition was a conspiracy.

The Los Angeles Times used the following headline for an AP story: "Pentagon shooter apparently doubted 9/11 facts in Web posting."

Conspiracy site Prison Planet writes, "Just two days after we warned of false flag domestic attacks that would be blamed on the federal government’s political adversaries were all but inevitable, a Californian man attacked the Pentagon last night in a shooting that wounded two police officers and has since been blamed on the John Patrick Bedell’s advocacy for 9/11 truth."

Conservative blog Patterico's Pontifications claims that "Internet research shows that the guy was a 9/11 Truther and an anti-Bush nut case."

"Via Charles Johnson comes this link to some crazy ranting from the guy. It was recorded in November 2006 — when Bush was president, to belabor the obvious. I transcribed this part, in which he is speaking of criminal organizations working within the U.S. Government":

This criminal organization would use its powers to convert military, intelligence, and law enforcement bureaucracies into instruments for political control, and the domination and subjection of society, while discrediting, destroying, and murdering honest individuals within those services, that work to root out corruption, and faithfully serve their fellow citizens. This organization, like so many murderous governments throughout history, would see the sacrifice of thousands of its citizens in an event such as the September 11 attacks, as a small cost in order to perpetuate its barbaric control. This collection of gangsters would find it in their interest to foment conflict and initiate wars throughout the world, in order to divert attention from their misconduct and criminality. The true nature of such a regime would find its clearest expression in the satanic violence currently ongoing in Iraq.

In November of 2007, an online article noted, "Nearly two-thirds of Americans think it is possible that some federal officials had specific warnings of the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks on New York and Washington, but chose to ignore those warnings, according to a Scripps Howard News Service/Ohio University poll."

A national survey of 811 adult residents of the United States conducted by Scripps and Ohio University found that more than a third believe in a broad smorgasbord of conspiracy theories including the attacks, international plots to rig oil prices, the plot to assassinate President John F. Kennedy in 1963 and the government’s knowledge of intelligent life from other worlds.

The high percentage is a manifestation, some say, of an American public that increasingly distrusts the federal government.

A glance at the website Memeorandum on Friday afternoon shows how the Pentagon shooting incident has been treated by bloggers and journalists on the left and the right.

Patterico's headline "Pentagon Shooter: Anti-Bush Nut Case and 9/11 Truther," is the top cited story related to the events. The next top story is from Christian Science Monitor, which often leans to the left, and is titled "John Patrick Bedell: Did right-wing extremism lead to shooting?"

Next is conservative blogger/columnist's Michelle Malkin's "About the Pentagon shooter; Update: Stop playing games, MSM. John Patrick Bedell was a registered Democrat."

"Pentagon gunman sought ‘truth’ about 9/11," is the headline for an article posted at MSNBC.com which is credited to NBC, msnbc.com and news services.

And, after those links, "Anti-Tea Party Crowd Disappointed, Again," by a conservative law professor blogger also was highlighted on Memeorandum.