Richard Fernandez blogs as Wretchardthecat, and Instapundit has posted his latest X (formerly Tweet). He writes:
A fiction story would go like this. Find a bright kid with a chip on his shoulder. Give him a secret life and training that makes him feel like Jason Bourne. He's psychologically yours. Send him on a mission with a BS exit plan that isn't meant to work.
Translating that last sentence: Plan for Secret Service snipers to clean up your ‘loose ends,’ as in fact they did.
All of the above is much easier in fiction than in inconvenient “real life.” The “secret life and training” specified above would leave a substantial gap in Crooks’ hometown life which cursory investigation would reveal.
Or would do so if anyone chooses to undertake an investigation. If you assume the entire government plus media is in on the plot, that’s too many to keep a secret.
Later ... Fox News has biographical details of the apparent shooter Thomas Crooks. Since high school he has graduated from a junior college in Pittsburg, some 40 miles away, and was scheduled to attend a nearby university in the fall. It appears he has lived at home the whole time. If true, it puts paid to the "secret life" scenario.
Late info indicates Crooks was a gamer, and he left a message hinting at his big July 13 plans on a gamer message board. Bourne never did this, his style was to call those hunting him, "Get some rest, Pam, you look tired."
