rather biased reporting and headline by the newspaper.

It is hardly unheard of for someone to do such a thing. There is a difference in the likely way that bindings would be applied if one is doing it oneself and if someone else is doing it.

Maybe there is more to it, but it is certainly probable that the findings are correct. Not to say someone didn't make it look like he did it, but if they were to do that there are easier ways to fake a suicide.

The story did not speak of any motive to stage his own killing, or comment on the fact that an individual despondent enough to commit suicide rarely possesses the wherewithal to construct an elaborate faked homicide.

I don't see why you, 2many, assert that it is probable that the findings are correct. If the FBI wanted to make it appear as if he killed himself, but he wanted it to look like he didn't, I'm willing to guess they would know just how to do that. These guys know some weird sh*t.

There is a LOT not reported in that story. Hope we get some more details.

The lack of info, the 3/4 of the article telling us how his family loved him, the use of the term "target", etc is all examples of extreme bias. They don't even go into what crimes he's charged with at least not in detail.

If the FBI wanted to make it look like he killed himself they could have done a much better job, one with a lot less ambiguity to it, heck your 12-year old nephew could have created a more believable scenario. This is part of why it probably is a suicide, why do such a crappy job faking it?

You yourself said they'd know some weird s**t, don't you think they could have set up some more realistic suicide? Real life isn't always nice and neat. Often what is real doesn't look real to us because it doesn't fall within our pre-conceived notions

He may not have wanted to make it look as if he was murdered. Many suicide victims that go out some way like this will do such things as binding hands/feet, taping mouth, and worse to prevent any sort of last minute attempts at backing out which could leave one in worse shape. This is far from unheard of.

Which is more likely: Someone bound and gagged and killed an activist for Palestine who was being investigated by the FBI, or he bound and gagged himself before jumping into a lake because he thought if he could scream or kick he wouldn't die? People with a serious intent to kill themselves simply buy a gun and aim it at the head. If he was serious and didn't know just how, he could type "commit suicide" into Google and, seconds later, know just what to do. He was a teacher, after all.

I would need to see data on people who bind and gag themselves to prevent "backing out" before attempting suicide. What's the source of your information?

Here's mine: I sat on a suicide task force for the state of Oregon about 10 years ago and there are personal reasons why I have educated myself on the topic. I have never come across a single mention of this.

Life insurance would be a pretty good reason to stage your own killing.

And yet you make a blanket statement like:
"People with a serious intent to kill themselves simply buy a gun and aim it at the head."

There are millions of ways people commit suicide as you are very well aware of, better than I.


The bindings are to prevent him from being able to swim to save himself, the mouth covering is just extra assurance. Instinct may kick in and he'll try and save himself even though he doesn't want to do so.
Yes it is unusual, but it does happen.

Also you're forgetting the forensic evidence that points to the bindings being done by himself instead of someone else. If it wasn't for that one detail than yes, it would appear that he was the victim of a homicide.

Of course as you mentioned we have not been given much details at all.


EDIT:
2nd google "suicide by drowning" gives you:

Which talks about people tying their hands/feet together.

the first link is wikipedia for suicide which does say that those drowning themselves will often tie a weight to themselves to solve the same problem.

Also drowning someone isn't the most normal way of killing someone.

What if a hired cronie from the FBI held him at gunpoint and made him tape himself up? Yeah, think about it.

I was thinking precisely along those lines.

Ya know, brilliant minds...

Good point.

Cute idea, but you still have the fact that if someone wants to make it look like a suicide there'd be better ways to do so, ways that wouldn't leave people questioning it.

You know if it wasn't for health freaks like joggers I wonder how many bodies would go unfound around the world, lol.. seems like if you're an avid jogger these days ur bound to find at least one body along ur route..

AHA! You forget, with budget cuts being the norm the FBI has it's own set of contractors similar to the haliburtan ... but much less organized.