FBI Profiler Notices Glaring Red Flags During Bomb Scare
Now retired, James Fitzgerald knows a few things about bombers.
He was an FBI profiler whose cases included serial bomber Ted Kaczynski, the notorious “Unabomber” who baffled authorities for almost two decades.
He has some thoughts on the suspicious packages that arrived at multiple locations this week, including CNN’s headquarters in New York City as well as the Washington, D.C., home of former President Barack Obama and the New York state home of billionaire George Soros.
Fitzgerald has broken down his list of suspects to three possibilities, and shared that while appearing Wednesday on Fox News.
According to Fitzgerald, potential suspect No. 1 is basically “a right-wing guy who doesn’t like the Dems.” This would seem like the most obvious choice because of the target selection, but there are others that also make sense.
Fitzgerald’s second possibility was from outside the country. He explained that “we can’t rule out international aspects to this, Russians messed with our 2016 elections just using Facebook, could they have done this?”
His final potential suspect is “that false flag” — someone supporting those who would benefit from making Trump and his supporters look bad.
“There could be someone in there — some Democrat, low-level person. I’m not suggesting anyone on the top — but they just decided, ‘You know what? I’m going to put this out because two weeks before a major election, who’s gonna look like a bad guy here? The Republicans.'”
Fitzgerald also stated that in the past, almost all bombers have been single actors. He said he believes the person behind these packages is acting alone, as well, though he added that the possibility of the guilty party have had “help somewhere down the line” can’t be ruled out.
Fitgerald also pointed out some other red flags that could be a clue to the case. He noted that some packages included misspelled names.
The one that went to Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz, D-Fla., left the “c” out of her name, according to Business Insider; the one addressed to former FBI Director John Brennan at CNN’s New York headquarters left out an “n.”
Package Bombs/Suspicious Packages
– Misspellings & more•Shultz [should be Schultz]
•Florids [should be Florida]
•Brenan [should be Brennan]
•Saw Grass [should be Sawgrass]
•Left out the word “Street” on Holder’s label— Fox News Research (@FoxNewsResearch) October 25, 2018
“That kind of surprised me, and I have a feeling that was done on purpose to make this look like somebody who doesn’t really know who these people are and that wasn’t an honest mistake,” Fitzgerald said.
“If he had this much anger and vitriol against these people, you’d think he would know how to spell those names.”
He said he thinks something else might be coming soon to help whoever created these packages to more clearly state a message, such as a DVD or social media post claiming responsibility.
“They may want to get their point across somehow,” he said “These IEDs, improvised explosive devices, didn’t detonate, and that’s the good news.
“But it sounds like they were sophisticated enough that they could have, if some kind of triggering device was manipulated in some way, that could have happened.”
The fact that the packages did not explode could help provide the clues to track down whoever is responsible.
Anything else the guilty party does can also provide more clues for law enforcement. Fitzgerald stated that all the components of the devices were being examined, and naturally every aspect of the package delivery would be, as well.
Tom Rogan, a commentary writer for The Washington Examiner, predicted that the guilty party will likely be caught quickly, pointing to the fact that because the devices did not explode, a very thorough examination of the components can take place, which could produce a “treasure-trove” of clues.
Rogan noted that, “the number of devices and their apparent viability also suggests a suspect who has had some prior military or construction training and is comfortable working with explosives.”
All of that, along with information from profilers such as Fitzgerald, could help law enforcement zero in on the individual responsible fairly quickly.
Only time will tell who is responsible and what the goal of mailing the packages was. But with it appearing to be politically motivated, the fallout may last for a while to come.
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