WP: Cho 'never spoke a word' Teachers, fellow students were disturbed by man 'who never spoke a word' By Ian Shapira and Michael E. Ruane The Washington Post Updated: 12:50 p.m. CT April 18, 2007 BLACKSBURG, Va. - They met across the professor's desk. One on one. The chairman of the English department and the silent, brooding student who never took his sunglasses off. He had so upset other instructors that Virginia Tech officials asked whether the professor wanted protection. Lucinda Roy declined. She thought Cho Seung Hui exuded loneliness, and she volunteered to teach him by herself, to spare her colleagues. The subject of the class was poetry. Roy, other officials, investigators, acquaintances and neighbors helped fill in a dark portrait Tuesday of the bespectacled young South Korean citizen who had sought bizarre expression in literature and then massacred 32 fellow students and teachers here Monday in the worst shooting rampage in U.S. history. As police closed in, he shot himself and was found on the floor of a classroom building with his weapons nearby. Cho, of Centreville, the son of immigrants who run a dry cleaning business and the brother of a State Department contractor who graduated from Princeton, was described by those who encountered him over the years as at times angry, menacing, disturbed and so depressed that he seemed near tears. He often spoke in a whisper, if at all, refused to open up to teachers and classmates, and kept himself locked behind a facade of a hat, sunglasses and silence. Unanswered questions Authorities still are not sure what set him off and what propelled him Monday as he stalked the halls and classrooms of Norris Hall with two semiautomatic pistols, chaining doors closed and murdering and maiming as he went. Authorities found two three-page notes in his dorm room after the shootings. They weren't suicide notes and provided no clue about why he did what he did. Instead, they were expletive-filled rants against the rich and privileged, even naming people who he thought had kept him down, federal and state law enforcement sources said. Two government officials said he had been treated for mental health problems. Police also are uncertain why Cho stopped and shot himself to death in Norris Hall, where most of his victims lay scattered around him. Any comprehension of what happened seemed to come only in hindsight. Cho (whose full name is pronounced joh sung-wee) appears first to have alarmed the noted Virginia Tech poet Nikki Giovanni in a creative writing class in fall 2005, Giovanni said. Cho took pictures of fellow students during class and wrote about death, she said in an interview. "Kids write about murder and suicide all the time. But there was something that made all of us pay attention closely. None of us were comfortable with that," she said. The students once recited their poems in class. "It was like, 'What are you trying to say here?' It was more sinister," she said. Days later, seven of Giovanni's 70 or so students showed up for a class. She asked them why the others didn't show up and was told that they were afraid of Cho. "Once I realized my class was scared, I knew I had to do something," she said. She approached Cho and told him that he needed to change the type of poems he was writing or drop her class. Giovanni said Cho declined to leave and said, "You can't make me." Giovanni said she appealed to Roy, who then taught Cho one-on-one. Roy, 51, said in a telephone interview that she also urged Cho to seek counseling and told him that she would walk to the counseling center with him. He said he would think about it. 'He never spoke a word' Roy said she warned school officials. "I was determined that people were going to take notice," Roy said. "I felt I'd said to so many people, 'Please, will you look at this young man?' " Roy, now the alumni distinguished professor of English and co-director of the creative writing program, said university officials were responsive and sympathetic to her warnings but indicated that because Cho had made no direct threats, there was little they could do. "I don't want to be accusatory or blaming other people," Roy said. "I do just want to say, though, it's such a shame if people don't listen very carefully and if the law constricts them so that they can't do what is best for the student." Cho wrote poems, a novel and two plays, acquaintances and officials said, in addition to the rambling multipage "manifesto" directed against the rich, the spoiled and the world in general, which police found in his dorm room. Paul Kim, a senior English major, said Cho was so withdrawn on campus that he did not know "we had a Korean person who was in the English department and was male until I met him in class." "He never spoke a word," Kim said. "Even when the professor asked questions, he never spoke. He constantly looked physically and emotionally down, like he was depressed. I had a strong feeling to talk to him on the first day of class, but I didn't get to talk to him because he sat right beside the door, and as soon as class was over, he left." For Kim, one detail stood out. The classroom was rectangular. The class was split in half, with one half facing the other. "I always sat directly across, looking directly at him," Kim said. "He never looked up." Kim said he might have seen signs of Cho's deterioration: He disappeared from class. "For the past month, he stopped coming," Kim said. Charlotte Peterson, a former Virginia Tech student, said she shared a British literature class with Cho in 2005. On the first day, when the instructor asked students to write their names on a sheet of paper and hand it up, Cho wrote a question mark. "Even the teacher laughed at him," Peterson said. "Nobody understood him." 'He just seemed odd' Brooke Kistner, 22, a senior English major from Chester, Va., said she had three classes with Cho. "He would keep his headphones on a lot," she said. "I remember one instance where the teacher had addressed a question to him and he really just stared off into space. He didn't even recall acknowledging that she was talking to him. We were like, 'What are you doing?' The teacher said, 'Will you please see me after class?' and he still didn't even acknowledge her. It was an awkward silence, and then she went back to lecturing." In his Centreville community, residents recalled him as a strange young man. "He just seemed odd," said Greg Kearns, a neighbor who tried unsuccessfully now and then to strike up conversations with Cho. Kearns recalled seeing Cho in front of his parents' townhouse a few years ago. Kearns was walking his dog. When he said hello, Cho turned his head and shoulders away. "It was like he was carrying on a conversation with himself," Kearns said. Abdul Shash, who lives next door to the Chos, said Cho never seemed to have any friends over the years. "If you walk and you come close to him, he'd walk away," Shash said. "I have kids, and he never talked to them." Shash described Cho's parents as quiet, modest and hardworking people who seemed devoted to helping their son. During his years at Virginia Tech, his parents regularly shuttled him to and from Blacksburg, more than four hours each way. "Nobody knows him really," Shash said. "He's always quiet. When I talk to him, there's no response." Cho graduated from Westfield High School in Chantilly in 2003. He turned 23 on Jan. 18 and had lived as a legal permanent resident since entering the United States through Detroit on Sept. 2, 1992, when he was 8 years old, according to the Department of Homeland Security. Cho held a green card through his parents, and he renewed it Oct. 27, 2003, according to Homeland Security. He listed his residence as Centreville. Cho's sister, Sun Cho, graduated from Princeton University with a degree in economics in 2004 after she completed summer internships with the State Department in Washington and Bangkok. A State Department spokesman said Sun Cho works as a contractor specializing in personnel matters. Gun laws observed Investigators said Cho procured one of the guns he used in the rampage, a Walther .22-caliber pistol, Feb. 9 from a pawnshop on Main Street in Blacksburg near the Virginia Tech campus. On March 16, he bought the second gun, a 9mm Glock 19, from Roanoke Firearms, a gun shop on Cove Road in Roanoke. He used his driver's license as identification and had no problem buying the guns because he was complying with Virginia law, which permits the purchase of one gun a month, investigators said. The Glock was used in two shootings, first in a dormitory and then in Norris Hall more than 2 1/2 hours later, officials said. A surveillance tape, which has now been watched by federal agents, shows Cho buying the Glock, sources said. Both guns are semiautomatic, which means that one round is fired for every finger pull. Cho reloaded several times, using 15-round magazines for the Glock and 10-round magazines for the Walther, investigators said, adding that he had the cryptic words "Ismale Ax" tattooed on one arm. Although there are many theories, sources said, no one knows what it means. As the university mourned Tuesday and the identities of the dead were made public, more details of Monday's tragedy emerged. One of Cho's suitemates in Harper Hall said the killer began the day looking like he had every other day since moving in. Karan Grewal said Cho's face was blank and expressionless. "He didn't have a look of disgust or anger," Grewal said. "He never did. There was always just one look on his face." In August, when Grewal, Cho and four others moved in, Cho's suitemates tried to talk to him but never got a word in return. "My impression was that he's shy," said Grewal, 21, a senior accounting major who lived in a room across the hall. "He never looked anyone in the eye. If you even say hi, he'd keep walking straight past you." The six students lived two to a room in a three-bedroom, one-bathroom suite. The others never saw Cho with any women or friends. He would turn his head away to avoid conversation. His room had the typical college dorm look, strewn with cereal boxes and clothes, Grewal said. Recently, Cho had started going to the gym. Other than that, his suitemate had been behaving exactly as he always had. "He had that blank expression," Grewal said, "nothing else." Ruane reported from Washington.

^^I thought you was an insider! Man,Since when did they put you in the doghouse ?

Red Sea, give it up man! SL blew it. It was Kamikaze-like operation to begin with...

^^Galayr bashing is an art and this guy excel in it!

^^Waagacusub and Iidamaale may soon reach an agreement to support the tfg!

^^Really? The video was not geneune eh? Emberor, Just watch xaq-u-dirir humble this Ethiopian thing! btw, are you from shalaan degnay ?

^^Take it easy adeer, just pointing it out!

Duke, what insults are you talking about? You are supporting criminals and you are proud of it hence your reference of the law. Take a pride in CabdiQaybdiid. Adduunyo! Now i am very proud of my signature .

lol@sadexda libaax...

Why talk about confusion bro when you are openly supporting criminals?

Solving the wrong problem, and with a wrong medicine yet. You want peace and stability, find the good leaders of Islamic Courts and talk to them. Alternatively, put your head in the sand as it were and pretend that you are taking strides toward addressing this conflict… Think about this: Qaybdiid is named for Somalia’s police chief and good Aweys is wanted for terrorism….

Roob, every thing you said about Somaliland could be said about Puntland. They are both peaceful and have some semblance of government. So you can’t honestly differentiate Somaliland from the rest of Somalia on the basis of what you just listed up there. I would even go further and assert, short of colonial legacy, there is no difference today between Somaliland and Puntland. Rationalizing separatist agenda on the basis of peace, stability, and good governance is clearly a broken argument. There is got to be more to why one of these two regions wants to secede while the other is content to stay with the Somali fold, no?

^^ .. But the old dog was behind the defeat of ICU, hence he did Somalia.

Originally posted by roobleh: But Somaliland is different. It has created peace and security. Somaliland is a nation that is committed to provide peace and prosperity for its people. The Somaliland government is there to protect the interest of its citizens (Somalilanders). Somalilanders do not want to take part in anything that can jeapordise their hard-worn peace. But we are ready to help the region to make peace and prosper, and hope Somalia will seek the Somaliland government to help them stabilize their country. ^^That’s a half-truth yaa Roobka (ta?)!

April 18, 2007 Cheney Does Africa Philip Giraldi The "Global War on Terrorism," or GWOT for short, has become such a staple of political discourse that it has been embraced both by Republicans and Democrats as well as the media. Republicans cite Iraq as the "central front" in the GWOT to justify continuation of the war in that unhappy land while Democrats point to Iraq as a distraction from the GWOT, which presumably is taking place elsewhere. Both views are echoed by an uncritical media eager to tell a good story and willing to pay any price to do so. Both the Republican and Democratic spins are, unfortunately, factually challenged. Al-Qaeda Between-the-Two-Rivers in Iraq does not threaten to take over the country, is only a small part of the resistance, and would quickly become completely marginal if the U.S. forces were gone. It has exactly zero capability to transfer its activity to American soil. That there is a GWOT elsewhere that is starved of resources by Iraq is also a myth, as the U.S. government effort against terrorism is, if anything, overly muscular, with armored brigades being poorly employed to cope with a threat that should be dealt with through better use of intelligence, diplomacy, and law-enforcement capabilities. Because of the convenient shorthand provided by expressions like GWOT, the Republicans, Democrats, and media all lump terrorist groups together, not distinguishing between those like al-Qaeda that genuinely threaten the United States and groups like Hamas, the Chechens, and Hezbollah that do not. The blinders firmly fixed in place on the politicians and the media are not just another neocon mind game, however, and have genuine consequences in terms of the billions of dollars and thousands of young lives that are being wasted. The profound misreading of reality virtually guarantees a continuing tragedy for the United States and its citizens, still more for the countless foreigners who have been on the receiving end of American military power. Terrorism is serious business, after all, and the failure to learn from mistakes made has unfortunately become a hallmark of the White House and its policies. The most recent failure has been in Africa, which is rapidly becoming an epicenter for terrorism that actually threatens both Europe and the U.S. Africa, more particularly North and East Africa, is home to many of the Salafist terrorist groups, a name that derives from Salafism, an approach to Islam that supports a purer, simplified form of worship that looks back to the origins of the religion. The Salafist movement that subscribes to "jihad" grew out of the armed resistance to the Algerian military government's clampdown on religious parties in 1992. The Salafist jihadists believe that there is an obligation to engage in perpetual struggle against corrupt Muslim governments as well as against Western political dominance and the West's values. Salafists believe that government and Islam are essentially identical and that the former should be run under strict Shariah or religious law. Al-Qaeda is philosophically Salafist, as are Jemaah al-Islamiah in Southeast Asia, Abu Sayyaf in the Philippines, and many of the Muslim Brotherhood supporters in Egypt, but the center of the movement in terms of numbers and impact is in North Africa. The Salafist movement is particularly dangerous to Europe, as millions of North Africans reside in France, Belgium, Spain, and Holland. Many Arabs living in Europe have been radicalized by a number of factors. The perpetrators of the Madrid train bombings in 2004 were Salafists. The Salafist threat to the United States is also real, as many of the Europeans with roots in North Africa hold European Union passports that enable them to travel with relative freedom to the U.S. The United States has responded to the terrorist threat in Africa with the Pentagon's recent creation of an Africa Command distinct from existing regional commands in Europe, the Pacific, and Central Command, which have hitherto divided Africa among them. Africa Command, currently operated out of Stuttgart, Germany, is expected to be fully up and running by 2008. The Bush administration also beefed up CIA stations in Africa, but the lead in the counter-terrorism activity has been given to the military by the White House because the Pentagon can act without the "findings" that the intelligence agencies require. This means that Congress is out of the loop. Defense Intelligence Agency offices are now in place in many embassies in Africa, while military teams, frequently operating under aliases as civilians, have been sent to a number of countries. The marching orders of the covert teams do not require them to coordinate with the CIA stations and the U.S. ambassadors. In fact, under orders from Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld, such liaison has been considered unnecessary and even discouraged. The proliferation of clandestine teams reporting only to the Pentagon's Joint Special Operations Center (JSOC) immediately led to problems. Soldiers, unfortunately, look and act like soldiers. There were a number of incidents involving the covert units, made up primarily of Delta Force soldiers and Special Forces. In one instance, last year, the U.S. ambassador in Kenya had to personally intervene to get a group out of jail and onto a flight home. This and other embarrassments in South America, most notably in Paraguay, led to a recent decision by Secretary of Defense Robert Gates that requires any Pentagon operational unit to coordinate with local ambassadors and the CIA chiefs of station. Uniformed Special Forces teams are also reported to be operating in Kenya, Algeria, and Mauritania. Djibouti, with French assistance, has become the center for technical support for the entire African effort and is home base to a fleet of drones that monitor developments in areas that would otherwise be inaccessible. In spite of the intensified effort in Africa, the results have been bad, nearly as bad as in Iraq and Afghanistan. Vice President Dick Cheney was behind the decision to oust the Islamic Courts Union movement from Somalia in December 2006. The genuinely popular Islamic Courts, admittedly Islamists of a fundamentalist type, had brought order to much of Somalia for the first time in 15 years. They had repressed the warlords in many parts of the country, set up religious courts to try criminals, reopened the country's airport and seaport in Mogadishu, and suppressed piracy along the coast. Their leader, Sharif Sheikh Ahmed, rejected U.S. claims that his movement was linked to al-Qaeda and was sheltering Fazul Abdullah Mohammed, the alleged planner of the 1998 U.S. embassy bombings. European diplomats present in Mogadishu as well as UN representatives believed that the Islamic Courts Union represented the best option for a stable and peaceful Somalia. Dick Cheney, true to form, disagreed. He insisted that the U.S. would not deal with anyone linked to terrorists, in spite of the numerous signals being sent by the leadership of the Courts indicating willingness to negotiate an accommodation with the U.S. and Somalia's African neighbors. The White House instead chose to covertly fund the Ethiopian army for an invasion of Somalia in support of the weak and generally unpopular provisional government that remained isolated in the town of Baidoa while the Islamists took control of much of the remainder of the country. As in Iraq and Afghanistan, the military operation was successful while the aftermath was not. The Ethiopians are now withdrawing, and Mogadishu has reached a tipping point in instability, experiencing a wave of warlord generated violence that virtually guarantees chaos for the foreseeable future. It also increases the likelihood that Somalia will again become a "failed state," allowing genuine extremists with a jihadist agenda to take advantage of the instability and assume control. Algeria, Morocco, Tunisia, and even Libya are also experiencing a resurgence of terrorism. Osama bin Laden has frequently cited Africa as the future of his movement, and that moment has perhaps already arrived. Five months ago al-Qaeda deputy Ayman al-Zawahiri announced the incorporation of the North African groups in Libya, Morocco, and Algeria into the central al-Qaeda organization. A recently issued State Department Worldwide Warning about terrorist activity resulted from intelligence raising particular concerns over an expanded Salafist campaign in North Africa, to include Libya. At most risk will be economic targets, an al-Qaeda specialty. While the Algerian al-Qaeda Organization in the Islamic Maghreb (formerly the Salafist Group for Preaching and Combat, or GSPC) has been targeting foreign oil workers for some time, there is new evidence that Libyan jihadist groups, previously quiescent, are now also ready to launch attacks against the Sahara region's gas and oil production. Recent developments indicate that cooperation and guidance from al-Qaeda have already created a more potent and effective terrorist force in North Africa and that the Maghreb has now become the focus of efforts to pursue global jihad. In late December 2006 there was a series of running gun battles in generally peaceful Tunis, resulting in 14 deaths and the discovery of plans by Islamic militants to attack the U.S., British, and Italian embassies. The militants organizing the attacks reportedly came from Algeria, and the Tunisian authorities also arrested 18 Tunisians who traveled to Algeria for terrorist training, taking advantage of the relatively borderless Sahara region to move from west to east all the way across the continent and even into the Middle East. Last week's suicide bombings carried out in Algiers, which almost killed Prime Minister Abdelaziz Belkhadem, were the first major attacks in the Algerian capital in more than seven years. They were also the first suicide bombings in Algeria, and responsibility for them has been claimed by al-Qaeda. There has also been a recent surge overall in successful terrorist attacks countrywide, though most have taken place in remote regions. The Algerian terrorists, who came close to toppling the military government in the early 1990s, have rejuvenated themselves after a series of reverses over the past five years and are now capable of staging more devastating attacks. There are concerns that new bombings, now employing the difficult-to-prevent suicide technique, will again focus on urban centers, leading to an enormous increase in both casualties and the resulting political instability. And there are also signs that the terrorists are working more effectively together. The deaths of four would-be suicide bombers in a Casablanca safe house during a police raid the day preceding the Algiers bombings thwarted an apparent joint operation in which the Moroccan cell would have carried out their own attacks in support of the Algerian cell. Four days later, two more suicide-bombing attacks in Casablanca targeted the American Cultural Center and the U.S. consulate. The coordination of activity reveals that even though terrorist groups now recruit, train, and finance themselves locally to avoid detection, they still plan and communicate across national borders. And so the story of Bush administration ineptitude in its self-proclaimed war against terrorism continues as Africa heats up. The ideologically driven GWOT is a war that always prefers the exercise of a military option and ends up creating more terrorists and terrorism-supporters than it eliminates. Afghanistan and Iraq pose little in the way of a terrorist threat outside their own borders, but they dissolve into chaos while a new, genuine threat grows stronger in Africa.

^^Dawladi ma jirtee Allaha dawlad keeno adeer. Aamiin to that and to yours as well...

lol@pimps. War hoy is jir!

lol@Serenity- ! Why dismiss us all, certaintly some of us are making sense...lol. Gediid, it’s really simple if you look at it as a product. You shouldn’t bother how the product is made, as long it is halaal as it’s presented to you. In the days of the Prophet Muslims used to deal with no-Muslims (Jews and Pagans). There were instances when a Muslim might needed a loan from a non-Muslim. Surely it was not about how the non-Muslim got the mony in the first place but it was about the terms and conditions of that particular loan.

Emperor, I have no fear of Eritrea to aggress against us. It neither has the capacity nor the motive to initiate a conflict with us. I am sure that you hold view. Now as you said the tfg says that they want to stabilize the country and that they are using Ethiopia to do so. I don’t doubt that, as that’s what they wish and desire but not know how. Also Ethiopia says that they are there to fight the Muslim extremists whom it deems threat to its regional interest. Again I don’t doubt that, as I believe that’s truly why they are there. There is nothing to be confused there adeer as far as the big picture goes. The complexity lies the fact that Ethiopia is financed to role back the gains of the Islamic sahwah and in under the name of peace and stability, they are indeed inflicting great damage on the political structure of those who have Islamic orientation. After the mass arrests in Kenya and in Somalia during the initial phase of this war, many people understood their game and acted against it. The fact the tfg refused to talk to the Islamic Courts when their defeat was fresh and they were militarily weak deepened this conflict and complicated our strife. It’s not difficult to see this entity for what it’s: a foreign tool. The evidence is out there for you to see. That fact that its army is foreign does not help them. The fact their reconciliation policy is just a badly erected façade does not help them either. The fact that Ethiopian tanks are bombarding the city as we speak does little for them to conceal who they are. They are thusly reduced to another function that prolongs Somalia’s long conflict. Simple. The only way out is reconciliation. Tfg is not buying it as they think they are stronger with the presence of Ethiopian tanks. I am sure though after couple of hard fights they will be convinced to partake in a reconciliation that’s hosted by a third party, and not them, and with the very fighters whom they deny their existence today. That’s the history of fools. Now the insurgency has no plan except to drive Ethiopians out! I don’t blame them for not having a one. After all they had one and the world come together, not to build Somalia, but to defeat Islamic Courts and by default return Somalia, at least the southern portion of it, to its previous status quo, and as soon as the we return to chaos and anarchy the world walked away and we are left with our own devices. That is the hand current insurgent groups are dealt with. They did a good job of solving many chronic problems in the capital and foreign armies under the pretext of terrorism kicked them out, armies mind you that never lifted a finger to care Somalia and its well being for the last sixteen years. As long Ethiopia is stationed on our soil and tfg is in its current form and clings to its present alliances, I am prepared to support these fighters. My expectations are very low adeer. But the task before them is much simpler than the one they had before. To destroy is easier then to build. Their task is to destroy Ethiopia’s occupation… I think we shouldn’t waste our time debating about Eritrea. Like wise one should not labor to explain the fact that Arab and Islamic world don’t necessarily mean only official governments, and you don’t gouge the support Somali fighters get from the the governments say publicly.

Cousin-nadu markay dhalinyaro yihiin way is raac-raacaan. Laakin markay adiga iyo anigoo kale noqdaan waa un iswacaan, oo waxaaba dhacda inaysan muddo is arkin!

^^U digay oo u digay oo duulka waa loo danleeyahaye'e. Says Ali Dhuh!

^^lol@sheh... Adiga yaa ku warramay?

^^I am a bit shorthanded in the politics section saaxiib. Both the old landers and tfgers are at it again. come and help...

^^lol@Human Right. Waryee dalkaad rabtaa inaad kala goyso markaas baad human rights lasoo shirtagaysaa. come again..

Somaliland’s quest to separate from the rest of Somalia is clannishly inspired and it does indeed reek with the shameful legacy of yesteryear’s British colony. It flies in the face of the hopeful aspirations of millions of Somalis to be united under the mantra of One God and ruled by a government that reflects their values. Above all I have to yet hear a reasonable argument for this cause. It’s no surprise then that this project is inherently fated to fail. One would be wise therefore to not spend his intellectual muscle to advance such a scheme. Xiin’s two taano…