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Unabomber Ted Kaczynski Dies in Prison at 81

Published

11 months ago

2023-06-11

Unabomber Ted Kaczynski Dies in Prison at 81

Unibomber Ted Kaczynski, a Harvard-educated mathematician who retired to a run-down cabin in the Montana woods and launched a 17-year bombing campaign that killed three people and injured 23 others, died Saturday. He was 81.

According to Kristie Breshears, a spokesperson for the federal Bureau of Prisons, Kaczynski died at the federal prison medical centre in Butner, North Carolina, after being labelled the “Unabomber” by the FBI. He was discovered unresponsive in his cell early Saturday morning and died at 8 a.m., she added. The reason of death was not immediately determined.

He had been incarcerated in the federal Supermax prison in Florence, Colorado, since May 1998, when he was convicted to four life terms plus 30 years for a terror campaign that had campuses around the country on edge. He admits to carrying out 16 explosions between 1978 and 1995, injuring several of his victims permanently.

Years before the Sept. 11 attacks and the anthrax mailing, the Unabomber’s lethal homemade explosives altered how Americans shipped goods and boarded flights, effectively shutting down air travel on the West Coast in July 1995.

In September 1995, he compelled The Washington Post and The New York Times to make the agonizing decision to publish his 35,000-word manifesto, “Industrial Society and Its Future,” which claimed modern culture and technology were contributing to a sense of impotence and alienation.

But that was his undoing. The tone of the book was recognised by Kaczynski’s brother, David, and David’s wife, Linda Patrik, who alerted the FBI, which had been searching for the Unabomber for years in the nation’s longest and most expensive manhunt.

In April 1996, authorities discovered him in a 10-by-14-foot (3-by-4-meter) plywood and tarpaper shack outside Lincoln, Montana, including journals, a coded diary, explosive materials, and two constructed bombs.

As an enigmatic criminal mastermind, the Unabomber drew admirers and similarities to Daniel Boone, Edward Abbey, and Henry David Thoreau.

But when he was revealed to be a wild-eyed recluse with long hair and a beard who spent Montana winters in a one-room cabin, Kaczynski struck many as a pitiful loner rather than a romantic anti-hero.

Even in his own notebooks, Kaczynski comes across as a bitter hermit driven by petty grievances rather than a devoted revolutionary.

“I certainly don’t claim to be an altruist or to be acting for the’good’ (whatever that is) of the human race,” he wrote on April 6, 1971. “I only act out of a desire for vengeance.”

Kaczynski was classified as a paranoid schizophrenic by a psychiatrist who interviewed him in prison.

“Mr. Kaczynski’s delusions are mostly persecutory in nature,” wrote Sally Johnson in a 47-page study. “The central themes involve his belief that he is being maligned and harassed by family members and modern society.”

Kaczynski despised the thought of being labelled as mentally ill, and when his lawyers attempted to use insanity as a defence, he attempted to fire them. When that didn’t work, he attempted to hang himself with his pants.

Rather than allowing his defence team to pursue an insanity defence, Kaczynski eventually pleaded guilty.

“I’m confident that I’m sane,” Kaczynski told Time in 1999. “I don’t have delusions or anything like that.”

He was unquestionably brilliant.

At the age of 16, Kaczynski skipped two grades to attend Harvard and had papers published in major mathematics journals. His explosives were meticulously tested and delivered in handcrafted oak boxes polished to remove any fingerprints. Later bombs had the “FC” abbreviation for “Freedom Club.”

He was dubbed the “Unabomber” by the FBI since his initial targets appeared to be colleges and airlines. An altitude-triggered bomb he delivered in 1979 detonated as planned aboard an American Airlines flight, injuring a dozen passengers.

Hugh Scrutton, the owner of a computer rental company, advertising executive Thomas Mosser, and forestry industry lobbyist Gilbert Murray were all assassinated by Kaczynski. Two days apart in June 1993, bombings injured California scientist Charles Epstein and Yale University computer expert David Gelernter.

Mosser was murdered at his North Caldwell, New Jersey, home on December 10, 1994, the day he was due to go tree-hunting with his family. Susan, his wife, discovered him severely injured by a hail of razor blades, pipes, and nails.

“He was moaning very softly,” she stated during Kaczynski’s sentence in 1998. “His right hand’s fingers were dangling. I took his left hand in mine. I informed him that assistance was on its way. I told him how much I adored him.”

Experts speculated that when Kaczynski increased his bombings and letters to journalists and scientists in 1995, he was resentful of the attention being afforded to Oklahoma City bomber Timothy McVeigh.

A threat to blow up a plane leaving Los Angeles before the end of the Fourth of July weekend disrupted air travel and mail delivery. Later, the Unabomber claimed it was a “prank.”

The Washington Post published the Unabomber’s manifesto at the request of federal authorities, after the bomber stated that if a national publication published his treatise, he would cease terrorism.

Patrik had had an uneasy feeling about her brother-in-law even before reading the manifesto, and she eventually got her husband to borrow a copy from the library. They took some of Ted Kaczynski’s letters to Patrik’s boyhood friend Susan Swanson, a private investigator in Chicago, after two months of arguing.

Swanson forwarded them to Clint Van Zandt, a former FBI behavioural science expert, whose analysis concluded that whoever authored them had also likely penned the Unabomber’s manifesto.

“It was a nightmare,” David Kaczynski, who admired his older brother as a boy, said in a 2005 lecture at Bennington College. “I was literally thinking,’My brother’s a serial killer, the most wanted man in America.'”

Swanson contacted the FBI through a business lawyer buddy, Anthony Bisceglie. During his prior tenure at the Justice Department, now-Attorney General Merrick Garland oversaw the investigation and prosecution.

David Kaczynski wanted his role to be kept private, but his identity was swiftly revealed, and Ted Kaczynski vowed never to forgive his younger brother. He ignored his letters, turned his back on him at court proceedings, and in a 1999 book draught, he called David Kaczynski as a “Judas Iscariot (who)… doesn’t even have enough courage to go hang himself.”

Ted Kaczynski was born in Chicago on May 22, 1942, the son of second-generation Polish Catholics — a sausage manufacturer and a housewife. He was in the school band, collected coins, and skipped sixth and eleventh grades.

His high school classmates thought he was strange, especially after he demonstrated to a school wrestler how to create a mini-bomb that exploded during chemistry class.

His Harvard classmates remembered him as a lonely, scrawny boy with bad personal hygiene and a room that smelled like sour milk, decaying food, and foot powder.

He acquired a position teaching maths at the University of California, Berkeley after finishing his PhD studies at the University of Michigan in Ann Arbour, but he found the work challenging and left abruptly. In 1971, he purchased a 112-acre plot of land approximately 4 miles (6 km) outside of Lincoln and constructed a cabin there with no heating, water, or electricity.

Living on a few hundred dollars a year, he learned to grow, hunt, create tools, and sew.

In the late 1970s, he left his Montana cabin to work with his father and brother at a foam rubber goods business north of Chicago. When a female supervisor abandoned him after two dates, he began writing derogatory limericks about her and wouldn’t stop.

Ted Kaczynski was fired by his brother, and he quickly returned to the wilderness to resume plotting his vindictive murdering rampage.

News

Elon Musk Launches Starlink Satellite Internet Service In Indonesia, World’s Largest Archipelago

Published

19 hours ago

2024-05-19

Kiara Grace

Elon Musk visited Bali, Indonesia: Getty Images

DENPASAR, Indonesia — On Sunday, Elon Musk visited Bali, Indonesia’s resort island, to debut Starlink satellite internet service in the world’s largest archipelago.

In a green Batik shirt, Musk was greeted with a garland of flower petals at a community health center in Denpasar, Bali’s provincial capital, where he and Indonesian politicians launched the Starlink service.

Indonesia, a large archipelago of 17,000 islands spread across three time zones with a population of over 270 million, has been attempting for years to obtain deals with Musk’s Tesla for battery investment and with Musk’s SpaceX to bring fast internet to the country’s distant parts.

AP – VOR News Image

Elon Musk Launches Starlink Satellite Internet Service In Indonesia, World’s Largest Archipelago

During the ceremony, Musk conducted a speed test of the Starlink internet connection with many health professionals from Indonesia’s remote regions, including Aru, one of the country’s least-served and most distant islands in Maluku.

“This can make it really a lifesaver for remote medical clinics, and I think it could be a possibility for education as well,” Musk stated to reporters.

“If you have access to the internet, you can learn anything and sell your company services around the world. So, I think it’ll be quite beneficial,” he explained.

He also inked an agreement to improve connections in the country’s healthcare and education sectors. Details of the arrangement between the Indonesian government and Musk’s SpaceX, the aerospace company that operates Starlink services, were not disclosed.

According to Coordinating Minister of Maritime and Investment Luhut Binsar Pandjaitan, the launch of the service at a health clinic is consistent with Starlink’s overall aim of offering inexpensive access to high-speed internet services, particularly in underserved and distant areas.

“Our remote regions need Starlink to expand high-speed internet services, especially to help with problems in the health, education, and maritime sectors,” said Pandjaitan, a close supporter of Indonesian President Joko Widodo. He had separate conversations with Musk on Sunday.

Budi Arie Setiadi, Minister of Communication and Informatics, previously stated that local internet providers, who rely on base transceiver stations to transmit signals, are unable to reach the outer islands due to poor coverage. Starlink’s satellites, which are still in low orbit, will help them provide speedier internet with statewide coverage.

Health Minister Budi Gunadi Sadikin states that around 2,700 of the country’s more than 10,000 clinics lack internet connection.

Kids News – VOR News Image

Elon Musk Launches Starlink Satellite Internet Service In Indonesia, World’s Largest Archipelago

“The internet can open up better access to health services as communication between regions is said to be easier, so that reporting from health service facilities can be done in real time or up to date,” he stated.

Musk will also attend the 10th World Water Forum, which aims to solve global water and sanitation issues, during his first in-person visit to Bali.

Musk spoke in 2022 at the B-20 business gathering, which preceded the Group of 20 leading economies’ summit in Bali. He attended the meeting via video link weeks after completing his much-scrutinized takeover of Twitter.

Musk’s visit comes just weeks after Apple CEO Tim Cook met with Widodo on April 17, stating that the business will “look at” manufacturing in Indonesia. Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella paid a visit on April 30 and announced plans to invest $1.7 billion in new cloud and artificial intelligence infrastructure in Indonesia over the next four years.

AP – VOR News Image

Elon Musk Launches Starlink Satellite Internet Service In Indonesia, World’s Largest Archipelago

Indonesia, under Widodo, has pushed the growth of the digital technology and information industries in order to accomplish the government’s Golden Indonesia 2045 vision. The Netherlands aspires to be one of the world’s top five economies, with a GDP of up to $9 trillion, exactly a century after gaining independence from Dutch invaders.

SOURCE – (AP)

News

Canada Fisheries Officers Seize Elvers Worth $500K at Toronto Airport

Published

1 day ago

2024-05-19

Geoff Thomas

The seized elvers are worth between $400,000 and $500,000: CTV News

Fisheries and Oceans Canada (DFO) officers and Canada Border Services Agency (CBSA) officers seized roughly 109 kg of unlawful elvers at Toronto Pearson International Airport. The elvers were scheduled to be transferred overseas.

The seized elvers are worth between $400,000 and $500,000.

An investigation into this matter for violations of the Fisheries Act is currently underway.

“The magnitude of this elver seizure is an important development,” said Diane Lebouthillier, Minister of Fisheries, Oceans, and the Canadian Coast Guard, in a statement. “It reflects not only the work of Fisheries and Oceans Canada, but also the collaborative efforts of many other government agencies and departments.

“Once again, our message is crystal clear: do not travel to Nova Scotia to illegally fish or export elvers this year, enforcement officers will be waiting for you.”

This seizure was the product of a coordinated operation combining officials from the DFO’s Conservation & Protection Directorate and the National Fisheries Intelligence Service, as well as the CBSA Commercial Operations District and intelligence teams.

The federal government banned the lucrative elver fishery on March 11 following violence and intimidation during last year’s fishing season in Nova Scotia and New Brunswick.

Elvers are often flown to Asia and grown to maturity before being sold for food, with mature eels utilized in unagi dishes at sushi restaurants.

The baby eels are valued approximately $5,000 per kilogram, more than lobsters, scallops, or salmon, making them the most valuable fish by weight in Canada.

The DFO announced in March that no elver fishing would take place this year due to safety and conservation concerns. So far, cops have made 149 arrests and seized around 207.7 kg of elvers.

According to federal data, 149 people have been arrested for elver-related crimes this year, with approximately 208 kilos recovered.

Elvers, the fascinating baby eels

Elvers are tiny, transparent young eels that migrate from the ocean into freshwater rivers and streams. These little snake-like organisms make an astonishing journey, swimming thousands of miles to their destination. Elvers perform an important role in the life cycle of eels, eventually maturing into the adult eels we know.

Their migration is a spectacular natural spectacle. Elvers crawl in large groups upstream, overcoming barriers such as waterfalls and dams. Once in freshwater, they will mature for years before returning to the sea to breed and repeat the cycle. Elvers face numerous dangers, including habitat loss and over fishing, making conservation efforts critical for these extraordinary migratory.

News

CNN Pay Tribute to Alice Stewart: A Very Special Woman Dead at 58

Published

1 day ago

2024-05-18

Geoff Thomas

Alice Stewart, a longtime political strategist and CNN political pundit who worked on multiple Republican presidential campaigns, has died. She was 58. CNN anchor Wolf Blitzer joins Jessica Dean to reflect on Stewart as a friend and coworker.

According to law enforcement officials, Stewart’s body was discovered outside in the Belle View community of northern Virginia early Saturday morning. There is no indication of foul play, and officers assume a medical emergency occurred.

“Alice was a very dear friend and colleague to all of us at CNN,” CNN’s CEO Mark Thompson wrote in an email to employees Saturday. “A political veteran and Emmy Award-winning journalist who brought an exceptional spark to CNN’s coverage, known throughout our bureaus not only for her political acumen, but also for her unfailing kindness. Our emotions are heavy as we lament such a great loss.”

Alice Stewart was born March 11, 1966, in Atlanta.

Stewart began her career as a local reporter and producer in Georgia before relocating to Little Rock, Arkansas, to become a news anchor, she told Harvard International Review. She went on to work as the communications director for then-Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee before taking on a similar role for his presidential campaign in 2008.

She previously worked as the communications director for former Minnesota Rep. Michele Bachmann’s 2012 Republican presidential campaign, as well as former Pennsylvania Sen. Rick Santorum, a former CNN analyst. Stewart most recently served as the communications director for Texas Sen. Ted Cruz’s 2016 GOP campaign.

“Alice was wonderful, talented, and a dear friend,” Cruz wrote in a post on X. “She lived every day to the fullest, and she will be deeply missed.”

CNN hired Stewart as a political pundit ahead of the 2016 election, and she appeared on “The Situation Room with Wolf Blitzer” as recently as Friday to provide insight on the day’s political headlines.

“We always invited her to come on my show because we knew we would be a little bit smarter at the end of that conversation,” Blitzer stated to Jessica Dean on “CNN Newsroom.” “She helped our viewers better appreciate what was going on and that’s why we will miss her so much.”