American Anarchist Page #5

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How much?

Total over the entire

period that I received royalties,

I probably received

maybe $40 or $50,000.

I mean, this is not

a literary masterpiece.

This is a fad book.

And, essentially,

my understanding was

that it was going

to go the way of all fads.

People were going to increasingly

lose interest in it.

Or that's what I thought.

I have a student

down in the athletic hall.

I see two shotgun shells on

the ground right here.

I heard two big bangs.

Just "boom!"

Sadly, it's happened again,

this time a 17-year-old girl

is in a coma

fighting for her life

this morning.

Shot by one of her classmates.

Could Karl Pierson

have been quietly plotting

a violent attack at his school

for even a couple years?

Karl had been reading

"The Anarchist Cookbook"

since sophomore year.

I learned

that the book had been

found in the possession of

a young man up in Colorado

who had been engaged

in a school shooting.

"The Guardian" sent me an email

inviting me

to write an op-ed piece.

"I wrote the Anarchist Cookbook

in 1969.

"Now I see

its premise as flawed."

"For the last 40 years,

I have served as a teacher

"and a school leader

in Africa and Asia,

"working in some of the poorest and

least developed countries of the world.

"Together with my wife,

"I have been involved in supporting

schools around the world

"in becoming more inclusive

"of children

with learning challenges.

"So what is the connection

"between the needs of these

children with learning disabilities

"and my wish to see

the Cookbook go out of print?

"The Cookbook has been

found in the possession

"of alienated

and disturbed young people

"who have launched attacks

against classmates and teachers.

"I suspect that the perpetrators

of these attacks

"did not feel much of

a sense of belonging,

"and the Cookbook may have added

to their sense of isolation.

It should go quickly

and quietly out of print."

To be clear, you

did not approach "The Guardian"

-to write...

-No. No, they approached me.

Did you think about

speaking out more publicly?

No.

I'd already written

two public statements.

The one on Amazon and then

the op-ed to "The Guardian."

The op-ed to

"The Guardian" came in 2013.

-Correct.

-13 years later.

There were many incidents

between 2000 and 2013.

Were you aware

of the incidents?

I learned about Columbine,

and then later Arapahoe.

I assumed that they were,

isolated, kind of, events.

The book is published in 1970.

In 1976,

John Adamson plants a bomb

that killed a reporter

investigating organized crime.

When Bolles started to drive

out of the hotel parking lot,

his car exploded.

A copy of the Cookbook

was found in his apartment.

I was not aware

John Adamson was found

in possession of the Cookbook.

Five hijackers were arraigned

in New York today

for the murder of

a New York police officer.

In 1976, a hijacker

hijacks a plane with bombs.

The bombs turned out to be fake.

And put a real bomb

in Grand Central Station.

He built the bombs

using the book.

I was not aware.

But I didn't really follow

that kind of news at the time.

In 1979 I went off

to Saudi Arabia

and really didn't think

anything more about it.

And really, in the '80s,

it was dormant. It was a dead

issue during that whole time.

In 1981, the

Black Liberation Army

is arrested for a bank robbery.

Getaway car is filled

with explosives, guns,

and a copy of

"The Anarchist Cookbook."

In 1981,

we moved to Tanzania.

And there was absolutely

no television in Tanzania.

We've never had a television.

We didn't even have

a telephone in the house.

Eight bombing in the past year

in Washington D.C.,

Maryland, and Virginia.

Mid '80s, Thomas Spinks

bombed 10 abortion clinics.

He has a copy of

"The Anarchist Cookbook."

A wave of parcel bombs

that spread terror.

1989, Walter Leroy Moody

bombed and killed

a federal judge,

was in possession of the book.

I... I didn't know about them.

But would you

say that you were interested

in finding out

more about these incidents?

If I didn't know about it...

and I didn't...

it's not a question of being

interested or not being interested,

it's a question

of being ignorant.

The death

toll is clearly increasing

as the hours go by.

The Oklahoma City bombing,

did you ever learn that

there was any connection?

Was there?

I had no idea

that the Cookbook had

been connected.

This is Thurston High School,

we have a gun on campus,

there's someone shooting.

The suspect may be Kip Kinkel.

He gets off 51 shots.

Even brought a copy of

"The Anarchist Cookbook" to school.

Back at

his Springfield area home,

Kinkel shoots both his parents.

There was a terrible rash of

attacks on kids in schools.

But I hadn't associated those

with the Cookbook.

Multiple bomb sites.

Three trains and a bus.

The death

toll rose from 37 to 50.

London public transit bombings.

I was obviously aware of

the transit bombings.

Soon it becomes clear

that the congresswoman has been shot.

I was very much

aware of Gabby Giffords.

In neither case was I reading anything about

"The Anarchist Cookbook" or hearing it.

There were articles

about all of these stories.

Again, I wasn't

in the United States,

and I didn't have access

to American media.

The Internet,

making everything accessible.

I wasn't trolling the Internet

daily or even weekly,

you know,

looking for connections.

Fair enough.

When you would learn

about another incident,

did you think, "God, I hope

the book is not connected?"

No, I wasn't.

No.

I got seven

down in theater nine!

Seven down!

We've got rifles, gas masks,

and an open door going

into the theater.

In 2012, James Holmes

shoots several people in an

Aurora, Colorado, movie theater.

Um...

Was that the incident

of the Batman film?

Yes, I had heard about it

or read about it in the paper.

It has been suggested

that "The Anarchist Cookbook"

was used

to set boobytraps for

the police in his apartment.

Homemade

bombs and armed explosives.

Large glass jars

with homemade napalm

filled with

.40 caliber bullets.

Around them are 11 green

plastic bottles with gasoline.

A morass of tripwires,

a deadly jigsaw puzzle

that had to be disarmed.

When you heard of that story,

did it occur to you that

the book might have been used?

No.

No, it didn't occur to me.

I didn't associate it

with any of those.

Why would I

make the connection?

You had

written a book about it.

An instructional book.

You know, you may think that that's

a very strange thing not to make,

but it just didn't happen.

I mean, this is the first time

that I'm becoming aware

of the laundry list

of associations

that the book has had.

You don't wrestle

as much as I thought you might

with responsibility.

Your sense of how

responsible you are

for the way that

the book has been used.

Um, do you feel responsible

for the ways that the book

has been used?

Yes.

I do feel responsible

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