Joe Stack STATEMENT: Alleged Suicide Note From Austin Pilot Posted Online

A Joe Stack statement has surfaced online, allegedly a suicide note by the pilot of the Austin plane crash today.

Local newspaper The Austin Statesman tweeted a link to the statement as an "Internet note left by Joe Stack, the man linked to today's plane crash."

Stack, also known as Joseph Andrew Stack III in records, begins the 36-paragraph note:

If you're reading this, you're no doubt asking yourself, "Why did this have to happen?" The simple truth is that it is complicated and has been coming for a long time. The writing process, started many months ago, was intended to be therapy in the face of the looming realization that there isn't enough therapy in the world that can fix what is really broken.

Stack writes at length about the state of the economy and claims the government has stolen from the middle class. He writes that, "I know I'm hardly the first one to decide I have had all I can stand."

Stack concludes:

I saw it written once that the definition of insanity is repeating the same process over and over and expecting the outcome to suddenly be different. I am finally ready to stop this insanity. Well, Mr. Big Brother IRS man, let's try something different; take my pound of flesh and sleep well.

Read the full Joe Stack statement on the next page below.

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Comments

[Annette Smith]

07:08 PM on 02/25/2010

Wow. That was a lot more lucid and coherent than I expected.

[Bobzmcishl]

05:12 PM on 02/23/2010

No matter what Joe Stack's motivations were, he was a murderer and a homegrown terrorist who was striking at the United States of America. Reading his manifesto, it is apparent his anger at his own country was not that far off from the foreign terrorists who struck us on 9/11. Joe Stack portrayed himself as a victim of the system and instead of accomodating himself to the IRS regulations governing independent contractors he elected to fight it. Someone should have told him early on that life is not fair, and all of us from time to time face adversity. His story is not unfamiliar and it seems to involve middle aged white guys who just can't adapt. By the way, the law he was fighing , was adopted because of companies trying to avoid paying benefits to employees by engaging them as "independent contractors". I was involved in hiring hundreds of Joe Stacks, and the new law actually helped these guys as it put them under agencies that for the most part gave them the same wages they were making earlier and also gave them greater access to health care at reasonable cost. Of all the hundreds of contractors our firm hired, no one ever complained about this IRS regulation. It seems like Joe Stack had a big problem with "authority" and following rules. All of his other ranting was more an excuse to justify his actions, for which there is no justification.

[Etniks]

03:37 PM on 02/25/2010

I just wonder when people like you Bob.... can at least for a moment step out of his tribal shoes, and see reality on its own terms.

Joe Stack did his thing because he wanted to WAKE UP people like you to the fact the IRS is an agent of the powerful to the detriment of the majorities, like you.

The way tax revenue is being distributed is incrementally being changed to benefit less and less individuals while more and more people who pay those taxes get less and less benefits.

Please read the book FREE LUNCH by David Cay Johnston ( http://www.freelunchthebook.com/ ) where you will have a clear view of how the richest people are sucking the wealth from the majority, using the government. It's Corporate Socialism in its worst form.

So in fact Joe Stack IS A HERO because he wants a BETTER USA and has given his life so people like you open your eyes and do something about it.

[Big Bad John]

02:39 PM on 02/23/2010

"Austin suicide pilot Joe Stack kept some very interesting company as far as the client list for his software programming company is concerned, including a defense contractor with NSA and Homeland Security connections that ironically dealt with air defense systems.

"The Georgetown Airport hanger in which Stack’s ill-fated Piper Cherokee was kept was jointly leased by Stack and a man called John Podolak, records show.

"The Of Goats and Men blog highlights the fact that Podolak was appointed in 2004 to manage L-3 Avisys’ Department of Homeland Security (DHS) Counter-MANPADS (Man-Portable Air Defense Systems) initiative.

"L-3 Avisys is a defense contractor with its main headquarters based in Austin Texas which sells products and works closely with the Department of Defense and unnamed “U.S. Government intelligence agencies”.

"Podolak was hired to “oversee a strong team of more than 10 IRCM defense suppliers who will perform research studies and lead the transition of the team’s proposed CAPS (Commercial Airliner Protection System) technology to the airline industry.”

"L-3 was also a key client for Stack’s software programming business. Stack helped develop a GPS-based Fight Management System for IEC, which is a wholly owned subsidiary of L-3.

"L-3 was also investigated by the SEC for its role in the suspicious number of “put options” on United and American Airlines, speculation that a company’s stock will fall, in the days before 9/11." (Joseph Watson for PrisonPlanet.com)

[z1rexb]

12:20 AM on 02/23/2010

I'm new to computers and have never commented on a blog. Until the Joseph Stack incident I never felt compeled to share my thoughts but I would like to respond to what I read in his last words.
If you were here today Joe I would say this to you,
Your position on government and religion are totally accurate in my opinion. That they are the most profoundly corrupt obastacles facing mankind today is inarguable. However your view seems somewhat myoptic. You go on about issues that have been in place since Caine killed Able. The scope has become larger but the dynamics are still the same. Greed trumps all cards is the rule and it never changes.
Humans are a failed species. By definition, an organism that consumes its host, will itself cease to exist.
We have ravaged the planet and multiplied our numbers without restraint. Billions go hungry while others grow food, not to feed them, but to power their own automobiles. Efforts to reduce our number have been discouraged by governments and religion because fewer people do not pay more taxes nor do they field larger armies. If the cycle of greed repeats itself over a period of thousands of years, it doesn't take an Aztec to predict the outcome. You killed yourself and an innocent individual in order to communicate the obvious. Your victim may even have agreed with some of the points that you wrote about.

[Big Bad John]

07:20 AM on 02/24/2010

No, its not to power our automobiles, but to give total control and power to a tiny group.

[ricardocoav]

12:55 PM on 02/22/2010

What would a politician think of Joe Stack's action? If he is honest, he would probably say to a collegue: "This is just one of those guys who couldn't stand our looting the system. I wonder how many guys like him are out there?" Response from his collegue: I just hope there aren't not too many! They will put us guys in jeopardy!

[ken hypes]

11:33 AM on 02/23/2010

Yes, and that is why they have pulled the story from all mainstream media. They don't want the word to get out that we can revolt.

[Big Bad John]

08:19 AM on 02/22/2010

The question of whether Joe Stack was the initiator of this murderous act or not is an interesting one. No, I guess I find it fascinating that the technology and know how resident in secret quarters to make people do things they are ordinarily not prone to do is now all the rage.

Of course, making people do extraordinary things are skills seen in "933" and "933 Skills", in the documentaries, that is. Check 'em out at www.etigrail.com (wait towards the end).

Joe Stack, the musician, is described by those who knew him was a studious, "together", apolitical, even tidy. Not your everyday terrorist. Write that one down.

[GritsJr]

01:00 PM on 02/22/2010

OK, let me get my tin foil hat on first...

[Big Bad John]

07:10 AM on 02/24/2010

What you need, GritsJr, is to turn off your TV. There's very little real news there, and virtually no investiative news reporting on government and corporate corruption that is rampant and systemmic in our society. Just propaganda .

[ken hypes]

01:12 PM on 02/21/2010

Joe Stack has virtually vanished from mainstream media. Is this because his ideals were right? Is the government afraid of a movement being formed? If he had stated that he was a religious zealot, I think we would be hearing it 24/7. Makes me wonder if there is a cover up in progress. The government has no intention to do the people's business. They are only looking for more money for their campaigns and with the latest supreme court ruling, that is now easier. When one of their own has now come out and said that they are not doing the people's business, we have a problem. Lets take our country back! VAIO Vote All Incumbents Out !

[GritsJr]

05:19 PM on 02/21/2010

No, it's because a nation has been sensible enough not to give a terrorist more than his 5 minutes of fame, which is far more than he deserves for attempting mass murder on innocents.

[ken hypes]

07:13 PM on 02/21/2010

So, you think the nation is sensible to the killing of innocents? Iraq? Afghanistan? Name one revolution where there was no bloodshed, or the loss on innocent life. It is called collateral damage and believe me, that is what you are to the government as well.

[ricardocoav]

01:13 PM on 02/22/2010

The leaders of the political parties are at fault. Political parties have been turned into private clubs by these politicians. Politics is a game where voters are enticed by promises of reform or better government and when they take charge they go against their voter's wishes. Once they are in, they will do what ever they want to do and that includes over taxing people and taking their homes when they can't pay. There should be laws against taking someones home. Having a home of your own home in America is part of the American dream. Don't turn it into a nightmare! Take everything else, but not their homes!!!

[Big Bad John]

04:32 AM on 02/21/2010

And, yes, we do appreciate the fact that only one person was sacrificed. This time.

[Cybesq]

08:11 PM on 02/20/2010

You have to love the thought process of lunatics. He rails against the rich, claims they control the government, and then flies his plane into a building of modestly paid government workers.

[Big Bad John]

07:13 AM on 02/24/2010

Don't believe everything you read on the internet (either). Always verify.

[GritsJr]

05:59 PM on 02/20/2010

http://www.myfoxphoenix.com/dpps/news/dpgonc-vernon-hunter-victim-in-austin-plane-attack-identified-fc-20100219_6168034

Vernon Hunter was the man that Stack murdered. He leaves behind a wife (who was also in the building that day and thankfully not hurt) and six children.

They are now without a husband and father because of this terrorist.

[GritsJr]

03:45 PM on 02/20/2010

The man was a domestic terrorist, no different from Timothy McVeigh or any other traitor who thought he had the right to take the life of innocent Americans to justify personal grievances. His manifesto is incredibly self-obsessed and unbelievably selfish in its world-view. We all pay taxes. We pay them so that the system of government set up by our Founders can function for our mutual benefit (and of course the Constitution was written for the sole purpose of increasing the powers of the federal government, including powers of taxation). Stack needed therapy, probably from an early age, and would have been better off spending his energy there as opposed to running around to anti-tax group meetings.

[Big Bad John]

07:16 AM on 02/24/2010

Either that or a patsie victim. Always verify; never take at face value what the appearance is -- not anymore.

[TexasJeff]

02:51 PM on 02/20/2010

I agree 100% with his motive and disagree 100% with his method of expressing himself, as others have also said.
He is spot on about the blatant and rampant greed that consumes our political system, and that there is need for " the American Zombies" to get off their asses.
Sadly, his actions make him little more than a terrorist. Think of the monks who burned themselves:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Th%C3%ADch_Qu%E1%BA%A3ng_%C4%90%E1%BB%A9c
Mr. Stack could have chosen a way to get his message across with the added punch of shock value and not put innocent life at risk. This was his biggest mistake.

[Victoria Casseday]

12:01 PM on 02/20/2010

So, just what drove Joe to feel that all hope was lost? His act was one of somebody that felt he had nothing more to lose. The wife leaving, which turned out to be just for the night, seemed to be the straw that broke the camel's back. Too bad he didn't stick around for another hour. Perhaps, this whole ordeal could have been avoided. His reaction was a knee jerk kind of thing. A psychotic break could happen to anyone, really, if the right circumstances were in play. Granted, he probably fantasized about doing what he eventually did, but from what people who knew him have said, he was pretty easy going overall. The most dangerous species on earth are human beings who feel there is nothing left to lose and all hope is lost. Unfortunately, there are a lot more of them out there just lying in wait of that trigger, that straw that breaks the back of the camel. It's like, no, IT IS, a sleeper cell.

[Pdiana]

06:45 PM on 02/20/2010

I totally agree with you, everyone has a breaking point, a straw....
People are so eager to JUDGE, they can't look past their own opinion and see that THEY too have a breaking point... I've learned along time ago to never say, I'D NEVER DO THAT, I've learned to say ( BUT ) by the Grace of God .
If people will remember, the STOCK MARKET CRASH OF 1929,,, BLACK TUESDAY , people were jumping out of high rise windows , committing suicide, they reached their breaking point. I'm afraid to say Joe Stack is not the first or the last.

[ricardocoav]

01:23 PM on 02/22/2010

"Everyone has a breaking point". That is very true and some could hold on for long and not break, but there are many, many out there that can't take it any longer and this will be a grave problem for America if the economy is not fixed soon and government continues to act as if it is WELL and keep breaking people that can't hold on for long. This is a tragedy that we will be seeing more and more of as time passes if the economy is not fixed. These acts I am sad to say are the acts that wake up some politicians. The intelligent ones, that is and they right the wrong. A home is a man's castle. It is the American Dream. Don't take it away!

[Pdiana]

07:29 PM on 02/19/2010

Who is Joe Stack? No one, will forget who Joe Stack was, or what he did. There is no doubt , Joe Stack was wrong.... It is Never Right to do WRONG,, to do Right.....
Joe Stack thought it was the right thing to do, he believed it SO MUCH , he was willing to DIE for what he believed in. Well guess what Joe? It didn't change anything, it only hurt yourself, your family and your friends.
No one will forget who Joe Stack was, OR who he was mad at, so Joe made his STATEMENT, but it didn't change a thing.

[GoBlue]

11:30 PM on 02/19/2010

When you agree with the words of someone that committed a "crime" against our government, you know there is something seriously wrong with our government.

[Pdiana]

11:22 AM on 02/20/2010

Joe Stack, as an American had the right to his STATEMENT and his political views. If he thought something was wrong with our government, he should have taken all that frustration and anger to the people. He should have ran for Governor and brought his views and concerns to the table. He represented the average American person trying to make a living and start a business.
JOE STACK vs JOE THE PLUMBER ; no difference
There's not only something wrong with our government, there's something wrong with our SOCIETY as a whole. People have no convictions anymore.... what used to be considered wrong is now accepted. Everyone is obsessed with what platform your with, they ought to get back to basics.... the difference between RIGHT AND WRONG. I don't totally blame the government, it was the indifferent people with their own agendas that put the government in place, and now their STUCK.......

[GritsJr]

05:40 PM on 02/20/2010

Hardly. The Founders encountered self-centered, violent individuals like Joe Stack during the Shay's Rebellion and Whiskey Rebellion, and put them down with force both times. George Washington described the Whiskey rebels as "insurgents," which was apt. Like Stack, they whined about their responsibility to pay federal taxes and thought they were bigger and more important than our system of constitutional government.

The murder that Stack committed (and only by great acts of heroism was only one person killed) was disgusting and justified in no way, shape or form by our Constitution (ratified for the sole purpose of strengthening the federal government and expanding its taxing powers) or the beliefs of the Founders.

[slambos]

05:03 PM on 02/19/2010

Paying taxes is a responsibility of citizenship.

I can't believe so many people agree with this manifesto containing the same antitax radicalism we see coming out of the tea baggers. Tea partiers seem to believe that America has some sort of history of anarchism... that somehow with no government oversight, capitalism would take care of itself. And that somehow this was the plan of the founding fathers. In anarcho-capitalism, you'd either have the rise of a supermonopoly, or a dictator. And without a government with the funds to protect people from this, we'd be a fascist country. It's very sad so many people in our country seem to be losing faith in democracy itself... losing faith that our society actually picked our own leaders.. as if paying taxes to our own country is the same thing as paying taxes to some foreign entity. This is our country, the richest and most powerful country on earth, and it's sad that so many americans see their own country as 'the bad guys' and agree with this terrorist. There is a misconception that individualist anarchism is the 'true america.' but in reality the first word in 'we the people' is 'we'. we are individuals, and also a community. during the cold war both sides tried to spread conspiracy theories, doubt, and the idea that their own government was 'the bad guys.' there is no better way to weaken america than to demoralize its citizens and kill the dream of democracy.

[steven148]

07:29 PM on 02/19/2010

Its sad that you think we pick our own leaders. They give us a multiple choice to pick from. If you don't have millions and millions of dollars then you are stuck picking from what the Gov gives us. How do we even know if the person that gets picked even got the majority of the vote. Bush was elected and the ballots in Florida were finagled by the one in power there which just happened to be his brother. So, I have to disagree with you that we pick them. Why do I pay taxes from the labor I do. I pay taxes everytime I buy something. A car manufactuer pays taxes on all the parts needed for that car. The first owner pays taxes on it and the second and the third and so on. A car purchase gets taxed multiple times when really the manufacturer already paid the taxes on it. They are scamming us out of our money and it is ridiculous. I don't mind paying State tax to keep our schools open and our roads drivable, but all the rest is BS.

[slambos]

08:01 PM on 02/19/2010

We do pick our own leaders. As a constitutional democracy we follow a system that is generally agreed upon in advance. Democracies in European countries also follow a system to pick their leaders. In Germany for example, there are many political parties. Instead of voting for an actual person, you vote for a party... The parties internally pick their own leadership. In America we choose a president directly, and the candidates are also chosen directly by the people, via the primary system. In America more than other places, there is no monopoly on choosing a candidate. And if you don't fit under the big tent of either party, you can run as a third party. There is nothing preventing that, and third parties have been important in many of our elections. We aren't a country run by mob rule, we follow the framework of the constitution to choose our leaders. I'm worried that 'democracy' is being replaced by 'conspiracy' in the minds of many... I'm worried this view will negatively impact the health of our society.

[kryan26]

11:12 AM on 02/20/2010

democracy! this country was founded upon a constitutional republic. our leaders and media have done their hardest to make citizens like you believe we are a democracy and that it is good. democracy is mob rule, its like two wolves and a sheep voting on whats for dinner. who do you think wins. the constitutional republic is a government that operates under the rule of law. our government does not adhere to this. i guess you are too blind to see that. thats because everday americans are more concerned with who tiger woods is banging or whats going on with paris hilton. wake up buddy! america isn't bad, but most the people running it are. and if you think for one minute that we choose our leaders, then you are a fool. those who count the votes control them as well... i dont support what this guy did. never okay to harm others, but then i think of all the people our country harms with the wars we start, the weapons we build and sell to them