Who is “The Lone Wolf”?

| August 17, 2011

I’m certain many of you have seen this story?

WASHINGTON — President Barack Obama said Tuesday that a “lone wolf” terror attack in the U.S. is more likely than a major coordinated effort like the Sept. 11 attacks nearly a decade ago.

With the nation preparing to observe the 10th anniversary of hijacked airliners crashing in New York and Washington and along the Pennsylvania countryside, Obama said the government is in a state of heightened awareness.

“The biggest concern we have right now is not the launching of a major terrorist operation, although that risk is always there,” the president said in an interview with CNN.

“The risk that we’re especially concerned over right now is the lone wolf terrorist, somebody with a single weapon being able to carry out wide-scale massacres of the sort that we saw in Norway recently,” he said. “You know, when you’ve got one person who is deranged or driven by a hateful ideology, they can do a lot of damage, and it’s a lot harder to trace those lone wolf operators.”

He opted to cite a loon who shot up a foreign country rather than folks named Nidal Malik Hasan,  Naser Jason Abdo, or Abdulhakim Mujahid Muhammad, etc. I suppose that is understandable?

But the phrase “driven by a hateful ideology” troubles me some.  Is that intentionally too broad, or too convenient?  The Tea Party has been called terrorists. Veterans have been singled out as risks.

It just seems to me the word “hateful” has been used all too frequently to describe folks who simply disagree with the government… about pretty much anything.

I dunno about his broader point concerning potential threats either.  Our porous boarders, folks who call us The Great Satan, and those with lengthy track records would seem to be good starting points.  Addressing those elements would do far  more good overall than trying to find a Lone  Wolf who hates you.

Category: Geezer Alert!, Guns, Pointless blather

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CI

Working in the IC, the ‘Lone Wolf’ threat is posited as one of the more likely courses of action against domestic targets.

Being a gun toting Vet who rails against both local and Federal overstep, I was concerned about the DHS report as well….though there are enough known instances of gang and militia members joining the military purely for technical and tactical training, to make it of some concern.

Darwin

This article would make more sense if there hadn’t been a slew of attacks in the US and other countries by right wingers.
Oh and the DHS report was written under the Bush administration. Funny how that never comes up.

DaveO

If past is prologue, and personnel is policy, then the Feds have credible evidence of something planned for 9/11. Having evidence leads to preventing a terrorist from carrying out his/her plan. Then the news is announced.

Why would the POTUS then go on the air BEFORE saying someone was caught?

And yes Darwin, anti-American Progressives worked in the Bush Administration too. One need only review the press leaks from the CIA to know that. The report was a suck-up to Napolitano to show her who was willing to lick her boots.

UpNorth

Hey, Darwin, you forgot to post links to the “slew of attacks” by right wingers. What’s that, crickets? Or, are you going to try to sell the discredited meme that Jared Loughner and Anders Breivik were right wingers? Or, are you lumping muslims in with the right now?

DaveO

The script has been written. The villain assigned. Now if only combat veteran member of the TEA Party with a machine gun bought from the Sineloa Cartel can make it to the stage on time.

Elric

You don’t even know the half of it. We had to brief Napolitano and her flunkies when they came to ELP for their “Border Tour”. Judging from the inane questions and the thousand yard stare, nothings changed.

Don Carl

McQuade

CI

“Or, are you going to try to sell the discredited meme that Jared Loughner and Anders Breivik were right wingers?”

Wait….the script is that Breivik is a lefty now?

UpNorth

Probably not,CI. He’s just a whack job, sorry to disappoint, but he’s just a nut, like Loughner. Nothing in his “manifesto” is his, he’s a cut-and-paste “conservative”, a lot like the Una-Bomber.

CI

No disappointment here, just gets difficult to keep the talking points from each camp straight.

PN2

We have plenty of “lone wolves” in this country. Think of the serial killers that have been caught with bodies all over their property, and have left them all over the country. Think of the mass shootings we’ve had. We have vicious, crazy, and unaccountable people from one side of this nation to the other. It’s not the groups that meet regularly and that have websites and addresses that worry the feds particularly; they can be tracked and monitored and even infiltrated, if necessary. It’s the ones that live alone, pay with cash, and write in their diaries, that scare the hell out of the feds, because those are the ones they don’t know about until it is way, way too late.

DaveO

PN2: true, but generally speaking, serial killers and lone wolves tend to announce themselves well beforehand. Either in gateway crimes, or on fringe (or not so fringe) chatboards.

PN2

I agree with that, because very, very few criminals of this type are completely autonomous; either by simple incompetence or by reluctance to be that anonymous (they WANT people to know what they’ve done and why), they do leave a trail. It does depend on what trail they leave as to when they get caught – before, or after, an attack.

Doc Bailey

I would have to ask what Earth Liberation Front would be considered. Or those Jacktard Narcissistic fools on the “Sea Shepherd”? OR how about the Rioters in Britton. They seemed to be filled with a LOT of hate. Strangely they seemed to talk a LOT about the “Rich” having too much money. Now where have I heard that?

I do not think most veterans (unless we’re talking about the PV2’s that CONSTANTLY end up on POWnet) would riot, or pose a credible danger to their fellow citizen. We spend months indoctrinating them to PROTECT them. The idea of an Army Veteran, of any real quality shooting up a school doesn’t fit right, and pisses me off when people try to make it sound like it might happen. Most of the Army vets I know would run TOWARD the gunfire, or would help evacuate, or any number of things. This notion that returning veterans are CRAZY (“there’s Charlies in the trees man!” is usually a line they expect me to say, though that was a different war) salves the Left’s conscience that it is not THEM that are causing the violence, but OTHERS. But History tends not to lie.

The “Lone Wolf” metaphor is a little annoying too. You know wolves are most dangerous in a pack right? Also, “Lone Wolves” are less likely to attack larger prey cuz they don’t have anyone backing them up. They tend to go after bunnies. Lone Bear, that’s a little scarier. “BEWARE LONE BEAR IS STALKING CITIZENS” will have people shitting their pants.

daendda

Ah the “Boy Who Cried Lone Wolf”. It’s a classic tale told at bedtime nightly in this Tea Party household.

CI

“The “Lone Wolf” metaphor is a little annoying too. You know wolves are most dangerous in a pack right?”

Amen. This instance does however, rate slightly below my professional sense of insult at the media’s use of the term Sniper.

Old Trooper

What Darwin fails to tell anyone is that even though the DHS report was written at the end of Bush’s 2nd term, but not by DHS personnel and it wasn’t presented to DHS until after Bobo and Janet Incompetano took over. The report was written for the DHS by SPLC and presented, after having a few frails and dressings thrown on it, as their own. How do I know this? Because I actually talked with my congressman about it, since he is privy to such information.

It is well known that SPLC makes claims that are wildly inaccurate and knowingly embellished to make it seem worse than it is, otherwise the New Black Panther Party wouldn’t be considered “right wing” in any stretch of the imagination. That’s how they get their funding.

Funny how THAT never comes up; eh, Darwin? Now, please lay out the right wing attacks you referenced. What’s that? You can’t? Why not? Is it because you’re full of shit and was just repeating the leftist meme? Yeah, that’s what I thought. Go back to watching Spongebob and let the adults talk.

LittleRed1

Maybe they are talking about the retired Texas Ranger (law-enforcement type) called “Lone Wolf.” Apparently he was a holy terror to those on the wrong side of the law.

Anonymous

LittleRed1, it has to be Lone Wolf McQuade. I hear he even still pours beers over his head…