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      Austin, Texas (AP) - A software engineer who crashed his plane
into a Texas office building containing nearly 200 Internal Revenue
Service employees, killing himself and at least one worker,
apparently left behind an irate anti-government manifesto but
offered little other hint of his intentions before the attack.

      The Red Cross said the wife of A. Joseph Stack III planned to
contact media and answer questions Friday, a day after law
enforcement officials, speaking on condition of anonymity because
the investigation was ongoing, said her husband apparently set fire
to their house and posted his rambling screed on the Web before
launching his suicide attack.


      It was unclear what she might discuss.

      "He didn't rant about anything," said Pam Parker, an Austin
attorney whose husband played in a band with Stack. "He wasn't
obsessed with the government or any of that. ... Not a loner, not
off in a corner. He had friends and conversation and ordinary
stuff."


      But in the self-described "rant" dated Thursday and signed
"Joe Stack (1956-2010)," the author fumed about the IRS and
wrote, "Nothing changes unless there is a body count."

      "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 engine Piper PA-28
from an airport in Georgetown, about 30 miles from Austin. He flew
low over the Austin skyline before plowing into the side of the
hulking black-glass building just before 10 a.m. Flames shot from
the building, windows exploded and terrified workers rushed to get
out.

      The Pentagon scrambled two F-16 fighter jets to patrol the skies
over the burning building before it became clear 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."


      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.

      Emergency crews originally said people were missing inside the
building, but later recovered two bodies. Austin Fire Department
Battalion Chief Palmer Buck declined to discuss the identities of
those found, but said authorities had now "accounted for
everybody."

      At least 13 other people were injured, with two initially
reported in critical condition.

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

      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.

      The FBI launched an investigation and 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.


      The tirade posted Thursday on a Web site registered in Stack's
name 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."

      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!"'

      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. That wave culminated in the 1995 bombing of a federal
building in Oklahoma City that killed 168 people. Several domestic
extremists were later convicted in the plot.

      Associated Press writers April Castro and Jay Root in Austin;
Michelle Roberts in Georgetown; Linda Stewart Ball, Danny Robbins,
Jeff Carlton and John McFarland in Dallas; Devlin Barrett, Lolita
C. Baldor, Eileen Sullivan and Joan Lowy in Washington; and Melanie
Coffee and Barbara Rodriguez in Chicago contributed to this report,
along with the AP News Research Center.

Gallery

Crime, Law and Justice

Disasters

A software engineer who crashed his plane
into a Texas office building containing nearly 200 Internal Revenue
Service employees, killing himself and at least one worker,
apparently left behind an irate anti-government manifesto but
offered little other hint of his intentions before the attack.

Texas man angry with IRS crashes plane into office

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