( Authorities investigate the scene of an accident near a gate to Fort Meade, MD this morning. WJLA-TV/AP Photo )
This bizarre headline stands on its own merits. I am quoting from the latest report by a man named Justin Fishel who works for ABC news. I think he is a guy, anyway, not being judgmental.
I mentioned that it seemed to me the other day that there appear to be some real problems with the space-time continuum, but this story built over the course of the morning. Justin was assisted in his reporting by Mike Levine, probably because the level of nuance in this one is deep.
It required helicopter support to fully capture the scene.
I was listening to the News-and-Traffic on the 8’s around the Skype conference call with some students in Australia way early this morning. They who are taking a course taught by my pal Fred on the business and tradecraft of intelligence through history.
This was a real novelty- apparently my beaming 0600 unshaven mug was projected on the wall of the classroom like the Wizard of Oz, direct from the camera on my computer.
It was ten in the evening there, so I commended the college kids for their devotion to World War II history. Anyway, between that and another conference call the news started to spread about the attack on the gate at the National Security Agency. There was a time when I had business up there a fair amount, and the offspring of one of my colleagues is a GS-12 at the Fort, carrying on the Family Business.
These days I am considering each visit to a National Agency to be potentially my last. I bought a hoodie the last time I was at ONI from the gift shop as a sort of career souvenir, since I do not intend to go back. Ditto for NSA. I vividly recall the day I was escorted out of the Pentagon when my contract was terminated with the AF-PAK folks. I was stripped of access to the place I worked for a decade along with the building pass and I was nearly overcome with ambivalence about the matter.
I look suspiciously at DIA when I am over there, and wonder if the last visit is already in the rear-view mirror.
Anyway, I thought about The Fort and hoped everyone was OK as the day-workers queued up on Route 32 to get on post. The first reporting indicated that two women has driven up to the gate and hassled the patrolman who was checking identification. It would have been at the busy time of the morning rush, and after being directed to turn their SUV around and depart, the driver instead hit the gas and rammed the gate.
There was an exchange of gunfire, a weapon found, and mention of cocaine.
Later reporting on the twenty-and-fifty indicated one of the women was killed and an officer wounded. I have heard about smash and grab events at military reservations, but those were in the District, and specifically at the Navy Yard in the days when the sound of gunfire was a regular occurrence.
With exception of what is delicately called “acts of workplace violence,” I have not heard of people trying to crash into a military installation. Well, except for the Navy Yard shootings last year, and an incident last week at Fort Knox in Kentucky. An Army civilian employee was shot by a soldier- reportedly over a domestic matter- outside the Army Human Resources Command building. Yesterday, a National Guard soldier in Chicago and his cousin were arrested as one attempted to fly to Cairo to join the ISIS fighters and the other plotted to attack the armory and mow down some soldiers.
I don’t know if this is a trend; ISIS was publishing the names and addresses of military folks gleaned from social media and encouraging “lone wolf” attacks against them, or their families.
Then, the story from Fort Meade got even stranger. The women were not women at all, but rather cross-dressers. One of them was dead at the scene, and the other transported to the Shock-Trauma unit of the hospital in Baltimore and may not survive.
I have no idea of the motivation for the attempt to breach the gate, nor the garb. Taliban fighters have been known to wear Burkhas to cover weapons, and perhaps this was something along those lines. I don’t know. The FBI said they do not believe the incident is related to terrorism, which appears to be a little premature.
Seems like the line between “terror” and “madness” is getting a little blurry, and maybe there isn’t enough nuance in the terms. I honestly do not know what to think, but I think we need to work on our terminology.
Copyright 2015 Vic Socotra
www.vicsocotra.com
Twitter: @jayare303