Words have consequences...

From here:

RALEIGH, N.C. — A University of North Carolina graduate accused of running down nine people on campus in a sport utility vehicle rented the Jeep to inflict maximum injury, according to an affidavit released Tuesday.

Mohammed Reza Taheri-azar, a 22-year-old Iran native, told authorities he drove a rented Jeep Grand Cherokee because it had four-wheel drive and could "run things over and keep going," according to an application for a warrant to search his home and vehicle.

No one was seriously hurt last Friday when a vehicle plowed through a part of the campus known as The Pit, scattering students. Moments later, Taheri-azar called 911 to surrender, and prosecutors charged him with nine counts of attempted murder and assault.

During the call, Taheri-azar told a dispatcher he wanted to "punish the government of the United States for their actions around the world," according to a recording released by police. He later told investigators he hoped to "avenge the deaths of Muslims around the world," authorities have said.

Now the actions of Mr. Taheri-azar could not have been influenced by the words of an erstwhile V.P, could they?

Former Vice President Al Gore told a mainly Saudi audience on Sunday that the U.S. government committed "terrible abuses" against Arabs after the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks, and that most Americans did not support such treatment.

Gore said Arabs had been "indiscriminately rounded up" and held in "unforgivable" conditions. The former vice president said the Bush administration was playing into al-Qaida's hands by routinely blocking Saudi visa applications.

"The thoughtless way in which visas are now handled, that is a mistake," Gore said during the Jiddah Economic Forum. "The worst thing we can possibly do is to cut off the channels of friendship and mutual understanding between Saudi Arabia and the United States."

Gore told the largely Saudi audience, many of them educated at U.S. universities, that Arabs in the United States had been "indiscriminately rounded up, often on minor charges of overstaying a visa or not having a green card in proper order, and held in conditions that were just unforgivable."

"Unfortunately there have been terrible abuses and it's wrong," Gore said. "I do want you to know that it does not represent the desires or wishes or feelings of the majority of the citizens of my country."

Words have consequences. Even politically opportunistic words designed to put your political opposition in a bad light. Al Gore knows better. But Al Gore (and the rest of his idiotic moonbat friends in the DNC) are evidently willing to put lives on the line to further their agenda. Damn the deaths.



(Filed under the fifth column)