In the Bush Government’s latest effort at international diplomacy, the US Postal Service attacked the United Nations today in a failed attempt to disrupt the ongoing proceedings regarding Bush’s urgent call to arms against Iraq. The crack postal worker / commando was subdued by several heroic members of the New York Fire Department and a group of bewildered Swiss peacekeepers (undoubtedly surprised it wasn’t them he was shooting at).
Actually, you can spot CNN’s woody from here: This is a great confluence of Bush-Doctrine era news stories. They figured out a way to aggregate all of Donald Rumsfeld’s morning press conference agenda items into one:
– Gun control (or lack thereof) and its benefit to fortress America (just TRY to fuck with the postal service, Mr. Annan!) – Postal Worker violence is totally under control — we’ve put it to productive use! – The UN is irrelevant and can’t even defend itself against a lone gunman, let alone a warmongering dictator bent on global nuclear destruction – More tragic events in New York — close the stock exchange! Schedule another rock concert! – Those damned immigrants we just can’t trust anymore — let’s round up all the Koreans now – Another graphic illustration that the Axis of Evil intends to disrupt homeland security
It’s perfect! Oh, ok… pardon my cynicism.
-Ian.
—— http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&ncidW8&e=2&cidW8&u=/nm/ 20021004/ts_nm/un_shots_dc
Postal Worker Fires Shots at UN, No One Injured Thu Oct 3, 8:28 PM ET
By Irwin Arieff
UNITED NATIONS (Reuters) – A postal worker jumped the fence around U.N. headquarters and fired several shots in the air on Thursday, striking the building at least twice and sending U.N. staffers scurrying for cover.
The man, identified as Steve Kim, 57, and believed to be of Korean descent, threw leaflets in the air containing a rambling, handwritten message about human rights in North Korea ( news – web sites) before being grabbed by security agents.
Kim is a resident of Des Plaines, Illinois, near Chicago, the Federal Bureau of Investigation said in New York.
He has been an employee of the U.S. Postal Service since 1988 and is currently a mail processing clerk at a Palatine, Illinois, plant, postal officials said.
The gunman was believed to have fired seven shots, U.N. security chief Michael McCann told reporters.
At least two bullets struck the 18th and 20th floors of the landmark U.N. Secretariat building on Manhattan’s East Side, piercing windows and “narrowly missing several employees,” but causing no injuries, he said.
While several U.N. staff members were receiving medical attention, none was wounded by the gunfire, McCann said.
U.N. spokeswoman Nanci St. John, who watched the incident from her third-floor office, said the man had already thrown down his gun when apprehended.
“There was a man firing into the air. He fired several shots, then threw his gun down and was grabbed by security guards,” she told Reuters.
The man, about 57 years old and wearing brown slacks and a blue shirt, began firing his .357 magnum revolver just after 1 p.m. EST while standing on the broad circular driveway in front of the U.N. Secretariat.
‘A CITIZEN OF UN’
The incident was over in less than a minute.
The 38-story building houses the 15-nation Security Council and thousands of offices for U.N. staff as well as Secretary-General Kofi Annan ( news – web sites).
The gunman’s two-page message was written in English in neat but tiny, dense lettering and signed, “a citizen of UN, Steve Kim, Oct. 2, 2002.”
“North Korea … is groaning under the weight of starvation and dictatorial suppression. They don’t have even the most basic of human rights since all things body and spirit plants and plows belong to one named greatest general Kim Jong Il,” the message said.
“It is our understanding he came here to make this statement on North Korea,” McCann said. “We don’t see any logic to his bringing attention to that cause in this manner.”
The shooting occurred as the Security Council was discussing arrangements for sending weapons inspectors back to Iraq after a four-year absence.
The gunman put up no resistance as security agents ran toward him with guns drawn. The first officers to reach him were from the U.S. Secret Service and the State Department diplomatic security service, joined shortly afterward by U.N. security guards, witnesses said.
“The response here was very quick, by both U.N. and U.S. security officials,” McCann said. “Their response was very brave and very quick and very appropriate.”
He said U.N. officials turned Kim over to the FBI ( news – web sites), which was processing the arrest.
The FBI later said he would be charged in Manhattan federal court on Friday.
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