Olbermann reporting shooter was not a VA Tech student

[blitzen]

but was a Chinese national here on a student visa--according to a source from ATF

[graywarrior]

1. I just have a feeling everything "they" tell us about this is a lie.

[brentspeak]

2. Why are the authorities revealing so little about the shooter?

Dribs and drabs on information, handed out in tiny little bits.

[blitzen]

6. does seem strange...usually by this point we'd hear interviews from the neighbors...

about how he was a quiet guy who kept to himself

[nadinbrzezinski]

10. He had no ID on him

and the bullet that took his life took his face

ID will take a while, in particular possitive ID.

If he was here on a Student visa his finger prints are in an ICE database

If he commited a crime previous to this, they are somewhere else

And... the dribbling may also have to do with the fact that if he is a Chinese national they have to inform the Chinese embassy, that will inform next of kin...

What can I say

[Renew Deal]

15. They don't want you to know more than they do.

Give out a name and we'll know everything about this person in 10 minutes.

[slackmaster]

3. So, who committed a felony by transferring a gun to a non-resident alien?

Inquiring minds want to know.

[Ignacio Upton]

4. So will we see a new "yellow peril" campaign?

Then again, I doubt that the shooter will become another Gavrilo Princip.

[Nikki Stone1]

7. I don't think it is about China; it's about student visas and how terrorists use them to get in

He could have been from anywhere.

[Cabcere]

8. Yeah, I can't wait to see BillO's take on this.

:eyes: :puke:

[Nikki Stone1]

5. Isn't that how terrorists get in, on student visas?

That was one reason why, after 9/11, there was a move to reduce the number of such visas.

[pitohui]

18. engineering schools die financially w.out foreign students

when i was in college in the dark ages we had a joke that "only fools and foreigners" studied engineering and job security has not gotten any better in intervening decades

many nations appreciate people w. technical skills

usa is not one of them

without foreign students engineering and science depts. collapse for lack of grad assistants esp.

the hysteria after 911 had to be eased because of the financial harm being done to our nation's university by shutting down enrollment to talented foreign students

if we want to change that, we need to change our culture which hates people who work with their minds-- this is not true of DU but the majority usa culture is anti-intellectual, anti-science, and pro-business bullshit -- until that changes in a big way then we need the foreign student

unfortunately a high IQ is no guarantee that you won't suffer from a mental illness, this is just an unfortunate event on many levels but it won't help any technical university if suddenly we shut out the asian student on the remote chance that he (or she) will be ill

[Ignacio Upton]

21. So true

I work part time at the Science & Technology Library at my school for work study, and the majority of students who come in there are Indian or Chinese.

[lstrether]

22. why "fools and foreigners" ??

What does the joke about "only fools and foreigners" studying engineering mean?

I can't make it sensible without also making it foolish. But since I'm an engineer I suspect it may be the beam in my eye rather than the mote in yours. Help me out.


-Casey

[pitohui]

24. there was a very poor job market in new orleans at that time for engineers

hence only fools who were blithely unaware that jobs for engineers (such as petroleum engineers) was a dying career choice and foreigners who would be able to go home and help build infrastructure in their own country

think early ronald reagan/collapse of oil boom days and it makes more sense

[Bluebear]

9. What's taking so long to identify him? What are they conjuring up? nt

[nadinbrzezinski]

12. look at post #10

unfortunately I am familiar with some of this

[Bluebear]

14. thank you nb

[nadinbrzezinski]

19. As a real life example

south of the border we had a kid arrested for running a red light, crashing, driving while drunk... long grocery list of charges

EMS or PD could not release the name to the Mexican Press until the US Consulate informed next of kin in the States

That is why I know of these things.... and procedure does not change here that much... police family, and we were discussing procedures one day regarding foreign nationals.

Hell, there is one particular form that we all get to fill up... only difference, the langauge it is in.

;-)

So they have to inform the chinese Embassy, that can also claim, or try to claim the body, for repatriation, before any autopsies are done

On the last one... good luck.

[pitohui]

20. despite all this, they know from the domestic dispute victim who it was, i think

it seems not exactly a case for sherlock holmes

i'm thinking they need a little space to try to track down the person who supplied the weapons

ah and the point that they have to talk to the embassy first, that makes sense too, very good point!

[blitzen]

11. may just mean that he wasn't currently enrolled...he may have flunked out

already, or may have been expelled. It is strange that they seem to be withholding his identity.

[pitohui]

16. do you really think it's strange?

someone sold this man his weapons, give law enforcement some time to get a jump on these people before publishing the name

in my humble opinion, i don't think the names of mass murderers should ever be released, they should be denied posthumous fame/notoriety for their crimes -- a view not widely held in america if anywhere

but at least withhold the name long enough to give the LEOs some tiny chance of finding the gun seller before this person heads for the hills never to be seen again

[blitzen]

17. only strange in the sense that usually that info would have come out by now...

but your points are well taken

[pitohui]

13. rumor has it he's from radford university

believe it or not, there is more than one university in virginia where a sharp chinese man could get a good education!

well, i know you know that, but i get the impression below in the thread that some don't

[AZBlue]

23. Later it was released that they think he was a student.

They aren't 100% sure who he was yet - but if they are the person they think he was, he was a student. As for the visa, that they didn't discuss lately.