Pentagon gunman believed that US Govt. staged 9/11

Washington, Mar. 6 (ANI): The 36-year-old gunman, who shot at two Pentagon police officers while trying to enter the complex on Thursday evening, might have been suffering from a mental illness that led him into believing that the federal government orchestrated the Sept. 11 attacks.

According to the New York Times, John Patrick Bedell, who was killed by the officers in exchange of fire, "made copious and often rambling postings and recorded lectures on the Internet in the past few years."

"This organization, like so many murderous governments throughout history, would see the sacrifice of thousands of its citizens in an event such as the Sept. 11 attack as a small cost in order to perpetuate its barbaric control," he said in a Web recording.

"The true nature of such a regime would find its clearest expression in the satanic violence currently ongoing in Iraq," he added.

Friends say that Bedell, who was unmarried and a regular marijuana smoker, was living with his parents and he seemed to slide into a deep paranoia in the past couple of years.

"From what I gather from the family, he's been on a downhill spin for a while. And they were very, very concerned about him," Reb Monaco, 65, was quoted, as saying.

About a month ago, Bedell disappeared and his parents filed a missing-persons report with the authorities.

"To us, he was a beloved son, brother, grandson, nephew and cousin. We may never know why he made this terrible decision. One thing is clear though: his actions were caused by an illness and not a defective character," his family said in a statement on Friday.

On Friday, the police here were trying to determine whether Bedell's views on the 1991 death of a Marine officer, Col. James E. Sabow, played a role in his attack.

Colonel Sabow's death, which was officially ruled a suicide, is the subject of numerous dark theories about military cover-ups, claiming that he was murdered because he was about to expose covert military operations in Central America involving drug smuggling.

Bedell wrote on the Web that he was "determined to see that justice is served" in the death of Colonel Sabow and that to uncover the truth behind the death would be "a step toward establishing the truth of events such as the Sept. 11 demolitions." (ANI)