Toronto Mass Shooting

[william.scherk]

There is a bit of literature on a mental-illness/ISIS connection, as noted in this Twitter thread by Rukmini Callimachi (which also contains link to a NYT story):

 

Edited July 26, 2018 by william.scherk
Fixed Rukmini's name ...

[william.scherk]

Amarnath Amarasingam does some information collection from various outlets and statements.  

 

[caroljane]

Sadder and sadder. CTV reports a high school classmate says he talked about "beating up his mom", and told  a teacher he wanted to kill people, which triggered  a police visit. Nine years ago.  If his poor mother is still around, he sure has achieved both of his ambitions now.

[Michael Stuart Kelly]

3 hours ago, william.scherk said:

There is a bit of literature on a mental-illness/ISIS connection...

William,

This is an avenue I agree merits investigation.

A well-known tactic for dirty-tricksters is to put someone next to an unstable person to become a very good friend. Lots of deep conversations ensue. Once the bad guy is strongly embedded in the unstable person's life, he knows what buttons to push to set the unstable person off. When the day comes he gets orders, he pushes the buttons.

It's not a perfect system because the unstable person may act, well, unstably and not create the mayhem he was programmed to do. So sometimes it fizzles. But generally, after the tragedy happens, the "friend" silently fades into oblivion whether the unstable person was killed or captured.

Oddly enough, I became aware of this technique through studying how Scientology works. Hubbard had studied all kinds of spycraft manuals and made up his own techniques. The one of putting a false friend in the life of an unstable person is presented perfectly in The Unbreakable Miss Lovely: How the Church of Scientology tried to destroy Paulette Cooper by Tony Ortega.

The false friend didn't want Paulette to commit an act of terrorism, but he did want her to jump off a building and end it all. He got really close, too. Paulette's relationship with the false friend was not a fly-by thing. It was a friendship cultivated over months, or maybe even a year or two (I'm going from memory and don't recall the exact time, only that it was pretty long). Ortega's writing is really good, so, when false friend and Paulette were on the roof to "see the view" and so on, and he urged her to take the step after getting her to go close to the edge, you can see it. And you can also see how you could fall into that trap if you were drunk or drugged or something.

This is a vicious technique. And a formal one that is taught. So I'm sure it is much more common with terrorists than the news talks about.

Michael

[Peter]

8 hours ago, Michael Stuart Kelly said:

William,

This is an avenue I agree merits investigation.

A well-known tactic for dirty-tricksters is to put someone next to an unstable person to become a very good friend. Lots of deep conversations ensue. Once the bad guy is strongly embedded in the unstable person's life, he knows what buttons to push to set the unstable person off. When the day comes he gets orders, he pushes the buttons.

It's not a perfect system because the unstable person may act, well, unstably and not create the mayhem he was programmed to do. So sometimes it fizzles. But generally, after the tragedy happens, the "friend" silently fades into oblivion whether the unstable person was killed or captured.

Oddly enough, I became aware of this technique through studying how Scientology works. Hubbard had studied all kinds of spycraft manuals and made up his own techniques. The one of putting a false friend in the life of an unstable person is presented perfectly in The Unbreakable Miss Lovely: How the Church of Scientology tried to destroy Paulette Cooper by Tony Ortega.

The false friend didn't want Paulette to commit an act of terrorism, but he did want her to jump off a building and end it all. He got really close, too. Paulette's relationship with the false friend was not a fly-by thing. It was a friendship cultivated over months, or maybe even a year or two (I'm going from memory and don't recall the exact time, only that it was pretty long). Ortega's writing is really good, so, when false friend and Paulette were on the roof to "see the view" and so on, and he urged her to take the step after getting her to go close to the edge, you can see it. And you can also see how you could fall into that trap if you were drunk or drugged or something.

This is a vicious technique. And a formal one that is taught. So I'm sure it is much more common with terrorists than the news talks about.

Michael

Like the Manchurian Candidate? 

[Michael Stuart Kelly]

8 hours ago, Peter said:

Like the Manchurian Candidate? 

Peter,

No.

A Manchurian candidate was supposed to be programmed to do a specific act like assassinate someone based on a verbal cue. With the magic command, he turns into a zombie and carries out a step-by-step procedure. (btw - This doesn't exist.)

The process I talked about is more like smoking a cigar while sitting on a keg of gunpowder. You take someone who is already crazy, so to speak, learn what things to talk about that make him absolutely livid and commiserate with him, then gradually tell him there's a way to do something about it. As you are goosing him up to rage or despair on one end, you are giving him a shoulder to cry on at the other. So you gain his trust and "help" him. You discuss plans and prompt him to make random preparations. At the right time, you push hard on the buttons that set him off and get out of the way.

It's not a foolproof thing, but boy, does it make messes at times.

Michael