April 07, 2009
Yavuz Berke: Sudden Jihad Syndrome?
I might as well say it out loud since I know a lot of you are thinking it. Ed over at Hot Air cites an ABC news report claiming that the pilot Yavuz Berke, was formerly known as Adam Leon.
This seems to be a misprint. From what I've gathered from other media reports, the man was born in Turkey as Yavuz Berke, moved to Canada last year, and then changed his name to Adam Leon.
Other reports claim that the man wanted to be shot down by F-16s. I guess if you're going to commit suicide, then getting shot down by a missile is a pretty quick way to go. At least, I can think of worse ways to end life.
The UK Times is calling it "suicide by fighter jet." He apparently left a suicide note for his girlfriend.
All indications are that this was not another case of sudden jihad syndrome.
I know it's hard to tell in these cases. Especially since the knee jerk reaction of the PR wing of major law enforcement agencies is to deny jihad as a motivation, even before there is any evidence either way. This is no different and than the knee jerk reaction calling all acts of violence by Muslims jihad.
But unless I'm missing something here, I don't see any evidence that this was anything other than what the authorities are claiming: an attempt by a loser to kill himself in a spectacular fashion.
If I'm missing some aspect of the report here, let me know either in an email or in the comments.
UPDATE: Norseman points me to Dinah Lord who seems to think that there's more to the story than we're being told.
Nothing remains out of the realm of possibilities, but I just don't see it.
UPDATE II: Dan Riehl chimes in with speculation that it could have been probing to see how NORAD and the US would respond to a stolen airplane -- although let me be clear that Dan is just thinking out loud here as to possibilities.
Maybe, but I'm still skeptical.
