Gunman Was Obsessed with Pollution/Environment

James J. Lee

James J. Lee, the 43-year-old gunman who was killed by police Wednesday after a hostage standoff at the Discovery Channel's headquarters in Silver Spring, Maryland, was a radical environmentalist obsessed with the Daniel Quinn novel "Ishmael." In 2008, Lee staged a protest where he threw thousands of dollars in cash into the air outside at the Discovery Channel building. TheWrap uncovered a series of postings on an "Ishmael" messageboard that reveal when Lee discovered the book that shaped his radical ideology and the source of the funds that financed his obsessions. "Ishmael," which was written in 1992, features a telepathic ape that discusses solutions for humanity's problems. Lee's interpretation of the book led him believe that humans must cease breeding to stop overpopulation. In the list of demands to the Discovery Channel that he published just prior to the Sept. 1 standoff in Silver Spring, Lee wrote: "The Discovery Channel and it's affiliate channels MUST have daily television programs at prime time slots based on Daniel Quinn's 'My Ishmael' pages 207-212 ...

Focus must be given on how people can live WITHOUT giving birth to more filthy human children since those new additions continue pollution and are pollution." Before going to Maryland, Lee lived in California. On December 6, 2006 he sent an email to a man named Mike Thayer about a "new group" he was organizing "focusing on the works of Daniel Quinn and his books." The group met weekly at a Borders Bookstore on G Street in San Diego's Gaslamp district. "Active discussions, lectures, topics of interest, readings, debates, science, and leadership training will be discussed ... Let's do it. Let's do this now," Lee wrote. Read more here:

Gunman Was Obsessed with Pollution/Environment