Department of Book Reports 51: a Perfectly Executed crime?

Perfectly Executed, by Peter Van Sant* and Jenna Jackson (Pocket Books $7.99)
I remember this case well, because of the shockingness of the crime, but also because the news broke on my birthday 1994. The evening of July 13, the Rafay family in Bellevue were brutally bludgeoned to death. Their 18 year old son, home visiting from his first year in college, Atif, had found the bodies after returning from a movie with his best friend Sebastian Burns. Although questioned early on, the two young men returned to Vancouver BC on Friday, with the consent of the Canadian Consulate and the Bellevue police department, without knowing* that the families funeral would be held on that day.

The police would sift through many clues, but soon became convinced these two young men were responsible for the crime. The father, a structural engineer, had caused some friction in Vancouver, by suggesting that Muslim temples in Vancouver were not sited exactly true East. One person had come to the police precinct to report that the motive may have been religious. He explained to the officers that as Sunni Muslims, the Rafays could have been targeted by resentful Shiites. There were also reports of a hit being put out in Vancouver by Jamaat ul-Fuqra, for a family that had recently moved to Bellevue. These tips were completely dismissed by a police department that could not comprehend the implications.

Lacking any physical evidence to tie Atif and Sebastian to the murders, BPD sought to convince the West Vancouver police to begin seeking confessions based on the assumption the crimes had been premeditated on Canadian ground. Soon the WVPD & RCMP began an elaborate scenario involving supposed underworld crime bosses, who needed to know what had happened down there to trust Rafay and Burns. Hiring them to engage in an escalating series of crimes, and encouraging them to tell all, they secretly taped Rafay and Burns confessing and laughing about how much "extra bat work, effort" the austic daughter required as she tried to flee. The tapes are chilling, the cold calculated way the two confess to the crime lords with arrogance and pride.

This case ground on for years, with squabbles over the extradition, and the possibility of the death penalty. Finally brought back to America on March 29 2001, with the death penalty off the table, the trial begins with a flamboyant red head lawyer who fiercely believes the innocence of her clients. But soon the case is to take a bizarre turn. Theresa Olsen, after returning from Japan, August 10 2002 tracking a sympathetic witness, is seen by guards having sex with Sebastian in the visitation room. A new defense team must be formed for the trial to proceed.

Finally the jury began deliberation May 20 2004. Four days later they returned with unanimous guilty verdicts for both defendents.

I really have no problem with the 3 guilty verdicts. I think the lying little shits probably did do it. The problem with this case is that the techniques employed by the RCMP would not be at all legal in America, but since they were conducted by RMCP, are admissable as "Silver Platter" evidence in US courts. There is no feeling of Justice in a case as tenuous as this one.

democommie™™™™®©: what ever you do, don't plan on hiding out in Canada. just sayin'.

Perfectly Executed is available at Jackson Street Books and fine Independent Bookstores everywhere!

UPDATE: Linkies* now fixed. D'oh.

The Naked Comusexual

Rep. Curtis Bowers
Idaho State House of Representatives

Dear Rep. Bowers,

I salute you. It takes a lot of guts to grow a goatee and infiltrate a communist meeting, but by God, I'm glad you did it. If you hadn't, we may have never learned that the homosexual movement is nothing more than a communist operation to destroy America by first destroying the American Family.

Now it's time to take the next step and infiltrate the comusexual's Idaho headquarters, a bar called the The Sheepherder's Secret in Soda Springs. It's not going to be easy. It'll take more than a goatee to get in there this time. We'll need to break out our nipple chains, leather jock straps, and ass chaps. You know the kind of chaps I'm talking about: red leather, gold hammer and sickle, chaps so sexy it's like they have "seize my means of production" written all over them.

And we're going to have to speak their lingo too. No "Hi, nice to meet you" when we arrive there. It's "Socialist greetings comrade sailor. Let us celebrate the joys of dialectical materialism by placing our party organs in each others' proletariat."

Now that I think more about it, I realize it's going to take a lot of preparation to pull this off. Maybe you could join me in my trailer for a weekend. We could practice and work out and watch my extensive collection of gladiator movies. Do you have a gladiator outfit?

Heterosexually yours,

Gen. JC Christian, patriot

An Intro by Citizen N.

NOT BAD for a sick man working all gear and angles himself! Just a little intro vlog for my MTV gig. And hey, I only look a little bleary. Which is actually what impressed me. Aside from the fact that gettting through the entire approval process (for Street Team members, not just any member) felt like a patdown in an Israeli airport.

Not that I've ever been through an Israeli airport. I just like slinging metaphors around that deal with experiences I've never had. I mean...isn't that the core of Citizen Journalism? So say some.

You can find the embed code here if you need it for any reason, like say, for example, you hear a knock on the door in a minute and an agonized voice pleading "Help! Help! Can you spare an embed code for a Nezua vlog or somethin'?" (Don't laugh, it happens to me all the time.)

(Origin of this gig here)

Crossposted to The Unapologetic Mexican, Corrente, and Culture Kitchen.

From Swiftboating to Pork Shot Hand Ointment

Ted Sampley
Professional Veteran

Dear Ted,

Although I was a big fan of your swiftboating operation against John Kerry, I haven't visited your website in a couple of years. It's good to see to you're giving John McCain the same treatment. I particularly enjoyed the story about how McCain can't be president because he suffered from PTSD after the war. Civilians just can't exploit the old crazy-Vietnam-vet stereotype as credibly as someone like you, a conservative professional veteran, can.

The same goes for your products. I'd probably catch hell if I sold Combat Infantry Badges on my web site. After all, they aren't trinkets. They're a badge of brotherhood and honor awarded to only those who've fought in combat against our nation's enemies--having a CIB means something. That's why it's great you're selling them. As a conservative professional veteran, you can get away with selling one to anybody. Now, guys like me, who fight our nation's wars with a keyboard, can become a part of the brotherhood too.

And as long as we're talking about your products, I have to tell you how happy I was to see that you're selling Crusader Pork Shot Hand Ointment. Do you use it too? Where do get your pork shot? The first couple of hundred times I tried to harvest it were pure hell--I'm talking broken ribs, lacerations, etc--like I said, pure hell. Then, quite by accident, I learned that if you bite down on the pigs ear, it kind of immobilizes him and you can get down to business. Now, I can harvest pork shot for hours without getting so much as a scratch.

Keep up the good work.

Heterosexually yours,

Gen. JC Christian, patriot

ps: I just noticed the Obama graphic you're using. I'm wondering why you chose that one. Did you think just slapping the word "nigger" across his face would be a little too subtle for your readers?



A helmet tip to William.

A hamster's future in in your hands

The folks at Corrente are a bunch of crazy bastards. I'm telling you, they'll off the hamster if you don't cough up a few bucks.

I was a hate peddler for the FBI

Hal Turner
Conservative Radio Host

Dear Hal,

I've followed your career from back when you were a Republican party official and a Sean Hannity regular to your current gig as a conservative radio host.

I'm not sure what to think of the news that you're an FBI informant. I always thought your spittle-laden rhetoric was genuine, but now I hear it was just a part of your job as a secret agent for the FBI.

I'd like to learn more about it. In an email to your FBI handler, you note that you use "fierce rhetoric...to flush out" potential assassins. Does the FBI just sit back and wait for you to work your rhetorical magic or are they more involved?

For instance, was it entirely your decision to post the name and address of Judge Joan Lefkow on your web site after saying she was "worthy of being killed." Did the FBI's communications department offer their help when you celebrated the subsequent murders of Judge Lefkow's husband and mother by posting her picture on your web site with the caption, "gotcha?" How about the other acts of violence you've promoted on your show? Did the FBI offer advice when you called for the extermination of Jews and Mexicans?

Maybe you should do a show on it.

Heterosexually yours,

Gen. JC Christian, patriot

Update: It looks like Hal shut down his radio show, web site, and email, yesterday. Well, at least we still have Rush Limbaugh.

A hymn to lucifer

Jesus saves, more and more every day.
But the devil owns the bank.

Jesus saves, so to him we pray,
but to the devil we give thanks.

All our lives are sheer hypocrisy
Power comes not from Democracy.
It grows out from an oil storage tank.

Faustus betrayed, for a few days,
some formula on a page,
and then just for this,
a chance for bliss.

Is it so strange? There is no universal love.
There is no heavan, that smiles from stars above.
Don't you see it, where they drill the wells?
We can make this earth, into a hell.

And a century forth men will die at your command,
while we are still stuck, in desert sands.
A gleaming generation, once again sold,
for an empty promise, of empty gold.

It's nothing like to rule over this,
all the world a flaming Dis.
Bodies building up like bricks,
a river of blood just like the Styx.

Only rarely since paradise was lost to man,
has such an unholy writ began.
A coming war forevermore,
to engulf all the wars that came before.
Each side will even the score,
because that is what makes this war.
Consuming the weak, the wretched and the poor.
I lift my lamp, by damantion's door.

Jesus saves,
more and more every day.
But the devil owns the banks.

Jesus saves,
so to him we pray,
But to the devil we give thanks.

All our words are sheer hypocrisy,
power comes not from Democracy.
It grows beneath the treads of moving tanks.

Little by little,
so I say,
we will send their prayers,
the other way.
And when they are decrepit,
and gone a stray,
the will soon learn,
that there's hell to pay.
And perhaps then they'll recollect,

That the devil calls collect.

A late tip of the ole helmet

I just realized I for got to tip my helmet to MsNomir at I Dreamed I Saw Grace P. Last Night for telling me about the Dr. Laura action figures. Thanks!

Katie's War

Elsewhere:

The Battle of the Strait of Hormuz.

The Filipino Monkey.

The Jivester salutes the Filipino Monkey.

Old Man Harrington has a big stick and he's going to hit you with it.

Values-based education

If you didn't already see this at Lafayette's blog, Eschaton.

Accessories for your Dr. Laura Action Figure

Dr Laura Schlessinger
Radio Physiologist

Dear Dr. Laura,

I love the talking Dr. Laura action figure you're selling on your website, but I think it could be even a little better if you added a line of accessories. Specifically. I'm thinking about things like:

• I am my Conservative Child-Raising Expert's Son's Hookah and Snuff Porn Collection.
• I am my Moralists Sugardaddy (Bill Ballance Edition)
• I am my Mistress's Married Boy Toy (Lew Bishop Edition).
• I am my Daughter's Decaying Mother.

I hope my ideas are helpful.

Heterosexually yours in a chaste and non-Dr-Laura-emulating kind of way,

Gen, JC Christian, patriot