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A software engineer furious with the
Internal Revenue Service launched a suicide attack on the agency
Thursday by crashing his small plane into an office building
containing nearly 200 IRS employees, setting off a raging fire that
sent workers running for their lives.


      Emergency crews recovered two bodies from the wreckage. The
pilot was presumed dead and one worker in the building had been
missing. Austin Fire Department Battalion Chief Palmer Buck
declined to discuss the identities of those found, but said
Thursday night that authorities had "accounted for everybody."


      The FBI tentatively identified the pilot as A. Joseph Stack III,
53. Law enforcement officials, speaking on condition of anonymity
because the investigation was still going on, said that before
taking off, Stack apparently set fire to his house and posted a
long anti-government screed on the Web. It was dated Thursday and
signed "Joe Stack (1956-2010)."


      In it, the author cited run-ins he had with the IRS and ranted
about the tax agency, government bailouts and corporate America's
"thugs and plunderers."


      "I have had all I can stand," he wrote, adding: "I choose not
to keep looking over my shoulder at `big brother' while he strips
my carcass."

      The pilot took off in a four-seat, single engineer Piper PA-28
from an airport in Georgetown, about 30 miles from Austin, without
filing a flight plan. He flew low over the Austin skyline before
plowing into the side of the hulking, seven-story, black-glass
building just before 10 a.m. with a thunderous explosion that
instantly stirred memories of Sept. 11.


      Flames shot from the building, windows exploded, a huge pillar
of black smoke rose over the city, and terrified workers rushed to
get out.
      The Pentagon scrambled two F-16 fighter jets from Houston to
patrol the skies over the burning building before it became clear
that it was the act of a lone pilot, and President Barack Obama was
briefed.


      "It felt like a bomb blew off," said Peggy Walker, an IRS
revenue officer who was sitting at her desk. "The ceiling caved in
and windows blew in. We got up and ran."


      At least 13 people were injured, with two reported in critical
condition. About 190 IRS employees work in the building.


      Gerry Cullen was eating breakfast at a restaurant across the
street when the plane struck the building and "vanished in a
fireball."


      Matt Farney, who was in the parking lot of a nearby Home Depot,
said he saw a low-flying plane near some apartments just before it
crashed. "I figured he was going to buzz the apartments or he was
showing off," Farney said. "It was insane. It didn't look like he
was out of control or anything."


      Sitting at her desk in another building a half-mile from the
crash, Michelle Santibanez felt the vibrations and ran to the
windows, where she and her co-workers witnessed a scene that
reminded them of 9/11.


      "It was the same kind of scenario, with window panels falling
out and desks falling out and paperwork flying," said Santibanez,
an accountant.


      The building, in a heavily congested section of Austin, was
still smoldering six hours later, with the worst of the damage on
the second and third floors.


      The entire outside of the second floor was gone on the side of
the building where the plane hit. Support beams were bent inward.
Venetian blinds dangled from blown-out windows, and large sections
of the exterior were blackened with soot. It was not immediately
clear if any tax records were destroyed.


      Andrew Jacobson, an IRS revenue officer who was on the second
floor when the plane hit with a "big whoomp" and then a second
explosion, said about six people couldn't use the stairwell because
of smoke and debris. He found a metal bar to break a window so the
group could crawl out onto a concrete ledge, where they were
rescued by firefighters. His bloody hands were bandaged.


      Austin Police Chief Art Acevedo said "heroic actions" by
federal employees may explain why the death toll was so low.


      The FBI was investigating. The National Transportation Safety
Board sent an investigator as well.


      Rep. Michael McCaul, a Republican from Austin on the Homeland
Security Committee, said the panel will take up the issue of how to
better protect buildings from attacks with planes.


      In the long, rambling, self-described "rant" that Stack
apparently posted on the Internet, he began: "If you're reading
this, you're no doubt asking yourself, `Why did this have to
happen?"'

      He recounted his financial reverses, his difficulty finding work
in Austin, and at least two clashes with the IRS, one of them after
he filed no return because, he said, he had no income, the other
after he failed to report his wife Sheryl's income.


      He railed against politicians, the Catholic Church, the
"unthinkable atrocities" committed by big business, and the
government bailouts that followed. He said he slowly came to the
conclusion that "violence not only is the answer, it is the only
answer."


      "I saw it written once that the definition of insanity is
repeating the same process over and over and expecting the outcome
to suddenly be different. I am finally ready to stop this insanity.
Well, Mr. Big Brother IRS man, let's try something different; take
my pound of flesh and sleep well," he wrote.


      According to California state records, Stack had a troubled
business history, twice starting software companies in California
that ultimately were suspended by the state's tax board, one in
2000, the other in 2004. Also, his first wife filed for bankruptcy
in 1999, listing a debt to the IRS of nearly $126,000.


      The blaze at Stack's home, a red-brick house on a tree-lined
street in a middle-class neighborhood six miles from the crash
site, caved in the roof and blew out the windows.


      Elbert Hutchins, who lives one house away, said the house caught
fire about 9:15 a.m. He said a woman and her daughter drove up to
the house before firefighters arrived.


      "They both were very, very distraught," said Hutchins, a
retiree who said he didn't know the family well. "'That's our
house!' they cried. `That's our house!"'


      Red Cross spokeswoman Marty McKellips said the agency was
treating two people who live in the house and that the family had
no comment Thursday. McKellips said the family would "give
information and answer questions" on Friday.


      Thursday was not the first time a tax protester went after an
Austin IRS building. In 1995, Charles Ray Polk plotted to bomb the
IRS Austin Service Center. He was released from prison in October
of last year.


      The tax protest movement has a long history in the U.S. and was
a strong component of anti-government sentiments that surged during
the 1990s. Anti-tax protesters typically believe that they do not
have to pay income taxes. Some have been convicted in recent years
for targeting IRS officials for harassment and even murder.

Gallery

Crime, Law and Justice

A software engineer furious with the
Internal Revenue Service launched a suicide attack on the agency
Thursday by crashing his small plane into an office building
containing nearly 200 IRS employees, setting off a raging fire that
sent workers running for their lives.


Officials investigating Texas crash as a crime

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