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Or, the FBI Is Lying
In these quickening times, the abbreviated news cycles are so packed with fast moving events (and pseudo-events) that many things pass relatively unnoticed and disappear forever from our focus all too quickly. More and more these days I will come across a story…or even a short sentence within a story (see title above)…that illustrates quite well just why (I suspect) much of the background noise is purposefully injected into the news cycles. Certain inconvenient details and “knowns” must be snuffed out of our collective memories (and the text of the narrative used to push our buttons at critical moments long ago) and reminders of them must be muted as much as possible. With a hat tip to OffThePress.com for pointing me to this link earlier this week, this may be just the latest good example:
The January 6 Pipe Bombs Look Like Another FBI Hoax
No one still trying to convince the public that two pipe bombs were planted near the Capitol in advance of January 6 can be believed.
Because I have my own agenda, I want to start with this:
In the 15-minute time span before the joint session of Congress convened at 1:00 p.m. on January 6, 2021, … a woman named Karlin Younger who just happened to be walking to a laundry facility near the Republican National Committee headquarters just happened to look down and see what she believed was a pipe bomb nestled between a dumpster and a fence right next to the building.
I really want to focus on a key – yet probably under-noticed – point of the story so far even though it appears twice in that short passage: “…just happened to be…”. At this point I am reflexively reminded of a strange tale from the late 1990s when (if I recall correctly) a married couple just happened to be out on one of their frequent evening drives around rural Georgia where they enjoyed listening to the various wireless phone signals for which their car just happened to be equipped to detect. It seems they came across a strategy call among Speaker Gingrich and his cohorts. Thankfully, this couple also just happened to have equipment for recording these signals and did so. Additionally, this couple just happened to be Democrat Party informants, so they delivered their recording rather directly to the DNC where is made some measure of “breaking news” for quite a few cycles…and the miraculously complex “just happened to” details behind the origin of the recording were quickly pushed out of the story. (That is all from memory…feel free to correct or add to the story as you wish.) Anyway, in our current story, I am already suspicious of one of our characters:
Which leads us to the woman who “found” the pipe bombs outside the RNC right just before the joint session gaveled in on January 6. Karlin Younger is described in news reports as a “resident” of D.C. or an employee of the Department of Commerce.
But Younger’s résumé is a bit more detailed. On January 6, when she took a midday walk to the laundromat and found the first pipe bomb, Younger was a project manager for FirstNet Authority, a public-private partnership between AT&T and first responders to prioritize emergency communications during an attack or disaster. Standing board members for FirstNet include the attorney general and secretary of Homeland Security. Several federal agencies, including the Justice Department, use FirstNet services.
And a few weeks before January 6, FirstNet received its largest-ever commitment from a law enforcement agency, a $92 million contract for FirstNet’s services.
That agency was the FBI.
Seems there are several “just happened to be” details in there. News reports just happen to leave out the interesting details of the biography of the person who reported finding the pipe bomb…a person who just happened to be on a mundane Monday mid-day walk to the laundromat that just happened to be very near the center the news universe…on a day that just happened to be 10x more brilliantly lit than any in recent history…and she just happened to find the explosive device. I would not be surprised in the least to find out that this woman just happened to be the favorite niece of the Georgia couple I discussed above.
But, my agenda aside, there is much more to the story:
Capitol police the next day issued a statement. “The USCP Hazardous Materials Response Team determined that both devices were, in fact, hazardous and could cause great harm to public safety,” Steven Sund, the Capitol police chief wrote on January 7, the day he resigned from the force. “The devices were disabled and turned over to the FBI for further investigation and analysis.”
…[The FBI] has yet to produce any investigative report about the pipe bombs or official confirmation of how the devices were detonated.
As the skeptic I am, the seemingly purposely precise language “both devices were, in fact, hazardous and could cause great harm to public safety” is too vague for me anymore. And again, the lack of a report (and/or any real reporting) by now seems to mean that they want us to forget about this little part of the narrative.
One more interesting detail:
Politico recently reported that Kamala Harris was inside the DNC headquarters at the same time the explosive sat outside the building. Harris, who inexplicably left the Capitol around 11:30 a.m. on January 6 after attending an intelligence briefing, choosing not to participate as a U.S. senator in the certification of her own historical election, was evacuated out of the DNC headquarters by the Secret Service at 1:14 p.m., several minutes after Capitol police inspected the building after the RNC bomb was found.
That shocking revelation means one of two things: The Secret Service, in a security sweep of the DNC building and exterior grounds prior to her arrival, missed what the FBI insists was a viable explosive device—a scenario that seems deeply unlikely considering the city was in a state of heightened alert and agents presumably would be extra cautious.
Or, the FBI is lying.
Go read the whole thing. (Maybe even print a hard copy for your file…I know I did.)
Published in General
I am more curious that somebody could drop two pipe bombs (large enough to damage a building) and there is no trace of them. Are there no cameras in DC? Was it the Seth Rich mugger? We know that person is invisible to video equipment.
Defund the state police.
Did you forget to put “again” at the end of the title??
Or “still?”
I will freely admit that I have never made a pipe bomb of any sorts but if I was going to make a couple of props for a cheesy play or movie they would look a lot like this:
And they would be placed just that way for easy visibility for the audience.
It seems the only suspect that was being sought planted them the night before…an interesting strategy given the 60 minute timers…and didn’t leave any digital footprint even though he/she was seen using a phone. No wonder the “authorities” just want this to go away.
Until we get some kind of real report (or reporting) on this, I suspect it is safest to assume this was a hoax.
Yeah, the kitchen timer is kind of a giveaway.
Don G , Of course it was the Seth Rich Mugger! Duh! Who else could it be?
The Seth Rich Mugger was clearly a RightWing Nutjob because Seth was a Bernie supporter! Why else would he be murdered – just because he sent a few DNC files to Assange that were printed worldwide- as our Supreme Leader would say Ah C’mon! ? And now that dastardly Mugger was back on January 6th planting these clearly very sophisticated bombs hidden where no one could find them.
I never saw a photograph. This is worse than six thirtysomething men in khakis holding tiki torches in front of a Republican’s campaign bus.
My pipe bomb training manual said “…use a bag, preferably something gross like a KFC bag, but don’t have any food in it because raccoons or homeless people might disturb it or set it off prematurely, which will thwart your mission”
Later in the manual: “…due to clocks and timers being associated in many films and TV shows with an inevitable ending and used in a dramatic manner to raise tension, it’s not advisable to have the timing mechanism exposed in any way…”
My coffee table book is The Anarchist Cookbook.
And the exposed alligator clips.
Is this from the Anarchist’s Cookbook?
It’s fiction. For comedic effect. Hopefully…
I thought I detected a wink in there. But one time I mentioned the Poor Man’s James Bond and the Anarchist’s Cookbook to someone at work (this was a few decades ago) and she gave me a pathetic, worried look and asked, “You don’t belong to a militia, do you?” And I had explain that I got Cabela’s camping catalogue, which put me on the list for hunting catalogues, which led to gun and scope catalogues, and finally got me onto the Parallex(sp?) mailing list, and it advertised books like Man Trapper, and The Art of Poisons, and How to Escape From Prison Vol. 1.
I never bought anything from the catalogues, but they were very interesting to browse.
Are you serious? Are these truly pictures of the actual devices? I’d heard about the kitchen timers, but . . . Are you sure these pix aren’t from the Babylon Bee?
Plunger/detonator on top for easy access.
Those are the photos that show up here (and elsewhere):
As I continue to poke around the interwebs:
So may questions start to pop-up. Top of the list is still: Why did Nancy and Mitch not heed the information provided ahead of time to properly secure the Capitol? That really is the root of so much of what went wrong here.
I have not yet seen who found the device at the DNC. I believe it was this one:
If that was placed there the night before as we are told by the FBI, why was it not found in the sweep before the VP-elect showed up there that day? (Again, why was she not at the Capitol?)
But now I am also curious as to what calls and/or texts Ms. Karlin Younger received just before she just happened to head out for the laundromat and, on the way, happen across (it appears) this one:
Given my consumption of streaming services over the last couple of weeks, I am also now keenly interested in what Reacher could tell us from watching the video here:
At the very least, it seems at times that this dude knows where at least some of the cameras are and is intentionally documenting his presence. Are his “random” wanderings really “random”? Why no tracing on his phone?
Lastly, for now, why do we know so little of importance more than a year later?
P.S.:
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“You don’t prove a man a liar by cutting out his tongue. You prove you’re afraid of what he might say”
These photos are borderline comical. They would only be more farcical of they were round, had a fuse and were labeled “bomb”.
I am surprised you didn’t use a crock pot, given it’s similarity to a pressure cooker used at the Boston Marathon.
There is a pic floating around of the suspected bomb-placer. Nothing extraordinary. Mask and hoodie. One pic has him sitting in a park bench near the DNC. Supposedly the FBI has made little effort to find the guy – but who knows ?
Also, the actual whereabouts of KH on Jan 6 caused some trouble in the charges against the Jan 6 defendants. Apparently the government claimed she was at the Capitol, I believe the judge made them change the charges as she was NOT there. For whatever reason she was at the DNC (????)
Also, also, I find the kitchen timer an inspired touch. No way someone who “just happens” to be walking by ain’t going to recognize that!
Is that the same set from Mario Bros.?
No idea.
probably the same brand of camera used to monitor Jeffrey Epsteins cell.
No, I can’t let that go. Why do you ask?
That’s the best. Adam West doing a pretty respectable leap from about 5 feet off the ground at the start, didn’t even pause for a second. That’s not nothing.