Stratfor Has a Great Article on the Phoenix Serial Bomber

Among other things it has this section describing the different kinds of serial bombers. Not all are “terrorists” as we envision them:

Serial bombmakers vary greatly in skill, motivation and affiliation. Most bombmakers involved with militant groups are, in effect, serial bombers, especially when they are exceptional bombmakers such as those we discussed in the May 17 Security Weekly. These include individuals such as Abu Ibrahim of the Black September Organization, Yahya Ayyash of Hamas or al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula’s Ibrahim Hassan Tali al-Asiri. Such individuals typically create hundreds, if not thousands, of innovative explosive devices for their groups’ terrorist operations over a span of many years.

However, not all serial bombmakers are associated with a militant group. There is a long history of individuals who have operated as serial bombers. From 1940 to 1956, George Metesky, who was known in the media as “The Mad Bomber,” deployed 33 IEDs, 22 of which detonated, and injured 15 people. Metesky was angry after being denied disability pay following an injury he sustained while working for Consolidated Edison, Inc. After planting two explosive devices in 1940, Metesky observed a self-imposed moratorium on bombing attacks during World War II. He deployed the bulk of his devices — pipe bombs — from 1951 to 1956. He attacked not only Consolidated Edison, but also theaters, the New York subway system, the New York Public Library, Radio City Music Hall, Grand Central Station and other targets. Metesky was arrested after Consolidated Edison personnel managers identified him based on details he provided in threatening letters.

One of the most famous serial bombers in recent years was Theodore Kaczynski, also known as the “Unabomber.” UNABomb was an FBI case name that stood for “University and Airline Bomber” — Kaczynski’s first targets. From May 1978 until April 1995, Kaczynski deployed 16 IEDs that killed a total of three people and injured 23 more. Like the Metesky case, it was Kaczynski’s writings that allowed him to be identified, though it was Kaczynski’s brother who identified him for authorities. As demonstrated in his manifesto, titled Industrial Society and Its Future (1995), Kaczynski was motivated by a fear of technology. He called for a revolution against modern society’s “industrial-technological system.”

Eric Rudolph first came onto the scene in July 1996 when a bomb he planted in Atlanta’s Centennial Olympic Park detonated during the 1996 Summer Olympics. Rudolph also conducted IED attacks against abortion clinics in Atlanta in 1997 and in Birmingham, Ala., in 1998 and against a gay bar in Atlanta in 1997. Rudolph’s IED attacks killed two and wounded more than 100. Rudolph was motivated by his extreme anti-abortion and anti-homosexual convictions.

Not all serial bombers have intended to kill their targets. From 1994 to 2006, an unidentified bombmaker known by the media as the “Italian Unabomber” planted dozens of small IEDs in various locations in Italy. While many of the IEDs were pipe bombs, the Italian bombmaker also concealed IEDs in cans of tomato paste, cigarette lighters, church votive candles and in items intended to target children, such as bottles of soap bubbles, colored markers and Kinder Eggs. The size of many of these devices suggests that the bombmaker hoped to maim and terrorize his victims but not kill them. A suspect was arrested in the Italian case but was later acquitted, and the case has never been officially solved. Since many serial bombmakers, such as Metesky and Kaczynski, go through periods when they suspend bombmaking activity, it is possible that the Italian bombmaker is still at large and will attack again.

We have to be careful in situations like this to not automatically assign political motives. The whole article is worth your time so check it out.

Cartel Paramilitaries Continued Threat Destabilizing American South West

Via N.T.A. we have two reports that show the cartels are expanding operations and capabilities in an alarming way. First from KRGV:

MEXICO CITY (AP) – Mexican marines say they have found a clandestine workshop in northern Mexico where presumed drug traffickers made copies of military uniforms.

The navy says hundreds of camouflage pants, shirts and vests were found at the workshop in the northern border city of Piedras Negras., across the border from Eagle Pass, Texas.

The uniforms are part of an effort by criminal gangs to damage the reputation of the marine corps, the navy said Thursday.

Drug gangs in Mexico have also used fake military uniforms to set up road blocks and carry out kidnappings.

They’ve also launched another car bomb attack which is clearly inspired by the Muslim groups the Cartels work with:

The newly commissioned officers, who hail from around the state, were staying in the hotel until permanent barracks were built. Mexican police frequently requisition hotels in the absence of official barracks, or when threats make it unsafe for them to live at home.

The head of state police and Tamaulipas’ attorney general said three of the wounded officers had third-degree burns, while the rest had minor injuries.

The attack on the hotel took place around 7:15 a.m. on one of the main streets in Nuevo Laredo, less than four hours after unknown gunmen hurled gasoline bombss at the Maranho, one of the city’s most popular nightclubs. The club, which was closed at the time, was badly damaged by fire but there were no injuries, authorities said.

Minutes after the hotel attack, gunmen opened fire on the Nuevo Laredo Institute of Technology, a science-focused university.

Nuevo Laredo is a stronghold of the Zetas. It has been the scene of vicious turf battles between the gang and its former ally, the Gulf cartel, which is now allied with the Zetas’ biggest rival, the Sinaloa cartel led by Joaquin “El Chapo’’ Guzman.

The border city has seen a series of gruesome mass killings in recent week. Fourteen bodies were found in a van in downtown Nuevo Laredo on April 17, and 23 people found hanged or decapitated in the border city on May 4.

Thursday’s attack came less than a week after a high-ranking member of the Zetas was arrested and accused of orchestrating the dumping of 49 mutilated bodies in a northern Mexico town square in order to create terror and confusion as part of a battle with the Gulf and Sinaloa cartels.

That attack has a definite Taliban style feel to it and was clearly done with the sole purpose of publicly declaring that they are in charge of the area.

On our side of the border a hollow state overrun by criminal paramilitaries has led to Americans forming their own paramilitaries which are challenging governmental authority:

Lawmakers killed a bill that would have created a state-sanctioned border militia, but that didn’t squelch the Minuteman impulse in Arizona.

Neither did the movement’s ties to border-militia leader and neo-Nazi J.T. Ready, who killed four people and apparently killed himself May 2 in Gilbert.

People in the cause remain committed to patrolling spots near the Arizona-Mexico border to stop what they see as an invasion by smugglers or illegal immigrants, said participants, their supporters and their critics. Some may be even more motivated now that their plan for state organization was ended by a legislative maneuver.

“There is a large military veteran population in our state who would go down there and do the work that the state needs done under the state flag,” said Michael Frye of Spring Valley, Ariz., who supported SB 1083, which would have created the Arizona Special Missions Unit. Now, he said, “There’s really no other choice but for those folks like myself to form citizen militias.”

A longtime Arizona border-militia leader, Jack Foote, worked for a period with the group that wrote the bill and said its demise is motivating sympathizers of the border-militia movement.

“We have now washed our hands of our state’s Legislature,” Foote, of Cottonwood, said via email. “Now we are going to do things our own way.”

I’ve been talking about the three way dance on the border between American citizens tired of being victimized, Mexican criminal groups and National Socialists for a while and despite what the media would have you think J.T Ready and his ilk were never welcome among the border groups. They were welcomed with open arms by Occupy but that’s another story.

The point is when the shooting starts in earnest you will have Cartel paramilitaries and neo-Nazis shooting it out with American patriots who no longer believe in the American government’s ability to protect their lives and property.

The Blaze has more.

James Rawles Survival Blog Taken Down by DOS Attack

A reader emailed me to say he had been having trouble getting to Survival Blog in the last day or so and sure enough when I went over there was a message saying they were experiencing a DOS attack and not to reload the page.

In April The Epoch Times was attacked in a similar way and the Chi-Coms were suspected.

Recently Rawles site had several articles about government agencies collecting date and in late 2011 there were several posts which used Occupy as an example of civil unrest and societal breakdown. I suspect the latter is the reason Survival Blog was attacked as I have written about Occupy and Anonymous vindictiveness to even mild criticism.