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PaperclipPerfector  5d ago (text post)   16346 thread views

Culture War Roundup for the week of December 1, 2025

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As someone interested in true crime, this is fascinating:

FBI arrests man in Jan. 6 DC pipe bomber investigation, sources say

Jan 6th pipe bomber arrested

This concludes a five year investigation.

My biggest question, and the question on others' mind is, how was he caught when there is apparently so little evidence? A grainy video, a sneaker brand, and that was it pretty much it. The FBI has even outdone the 4chan geolocators, which describes a community of online sleuths who “dox” targets by analyzing geographic details such as weather patterns, cloud formations, and other environmental cues in photos, who were unable to identify him (of course, the FBI has much more resources, evidence and extralegal powers).

Here is the FBI agent affidavit in support of probable cause for his arrest. The evidence breaks down like:

1. Based on Cole's credit card transaction history he purchased all the parts that were themselves part of the bombs as well as other safety tools one might use to make a bomb across 2019/2020. Sample paragraph (not gonna quote all of them):

Both pipe bombs were manufactured using a 1” x 8” galvanized pipe with markings consistent with a particular manufacturer’s (the “Pipe Manufacturer”) product labeling. COLE purchased a total of six galvanized pipes of this size and shape on or about June 1, June 8, and November 16, 2020. The purchases were made at two different Home Depot location in northern Virginia. According to the Pipe Manufacturer, approximately 26,000 of these items from Pipe Manufacturer were sold in 2020, and over 22,000 of these items were sold to Home Depot.

(continue for the end caps, wiring, steel wool, kitchen timers, etc.)

2. Analysis of cellphone data shows that Cole's phone was connected to towers in the vicinity of where the bombs were placed at the same time surveillance footage shows the bomb planter in the area. Sample paragraph (5 or so of these, covering from 7:39 to 8:24):

At approximately 7:39:27 p.m., the COLE CELLPHONE interacted with a particular sector of Provider tower 59323, which faces southeast (approximately 120˚) from its location at 103 G Street, Southwest in Washington, D.C. (“Sector A”). Also at 7:39:27 p.m., the COLE CELLPHONE interacted with a particular sector of Provider tower 126187, which faces east (approximately 90˚) from its location at 200 Independence Avenue, Southwest in Washington, D.C. (“Sector B”). Video surveillance footage shows that at approximately 7:39:32 p.m., the individual who placed the pipe bombs walked westbound on D Street, Southeast and then turned southbound on South Capitol Street, Southeast. These locations are consistent with the coverage areas of Sector A and B.

3. A license plate reader caught Cole's vehicle in the area shortly before the first security camera footage captures the bomb planter. Cole's cell phone also starts communicating with towers in the area shortly after.

COLE is the registered owner of a 2017 Nissan Sentra with a Virginia license plate. On January 5, 2021, at approximately 7:10 p.m., COLE’s Nissan Sentra was observed driving past a License Plate Reader at the South Capitol Street exit from Interstate 395 South, which is less than one-half mile from the location where the individual who placed the devices was first observed on foot near North Carolina and New Jersey Avenues, Southeast at 7:34 p.m. Approximately 5 minutes later, at 7:39:27 p.m., the COLE CELLPHONE began to interact with Provider towers in the area.

You'd have to be stupid to commit a serious federal crime and expect to get away. There feds have so many resources and so determined, and also it does not help that the vast majority of criminals are not masterminds and make in hindsight stupid mistakes.

You'd have to be stupid to commit a serious federal crime and expect to get away.

Well I think that's true today with surveillance cameras; cell phone records; DNA; and so on. But in the past, a serious criminal had a better chance. Look at the Unabomber -- the only reason he was caught is that his brother read the Unambomber manifesto and recognized the style.

Over the last 20 years, it's become basically impossible to commit a serious crime on US soil and avoid getting caught* (if the government is willing to devote the resources to catching you) but I think it is taking time for awareness of this fact to seep into public knowledge.

*I would make an exception for situations where the criminal has the support of a serious state actor.

I think it is taking time for awareness of this fact to seep into public knowledge.

Well, that's largely because of this part

if the government is willing to devote the resources to catching you

It's just pure anarcho tyranny. We aren't as far gone as the UK where they are releasing foreign rape gangs to make room for people who got a little too mouthy criticizing foreign rape gangs. But it's inching there. Only enemies of the deep state get the full weight of the law and it's infinite spying capabilities thrown at them. Everyone else basically has to commit the crime in such a lazy manner in front of hundreds of witnesses who can identify them, and then a Soros DA might get pressured into lazily pressing charges and then cutting a probation only plea deal once it's out of the news.

Now, the obvious flaw in that narrative is this very arrest. Are the tools of the deep state finally getting yanked out of their hands by the current administration? Maybe. There is a story where deep state FBI agents were purposely fucking up the investigation, and Kash put a fresh team of loyalist on it who immediately solved the case with no new evidence. If that is happening, it's a process, not an event however. Anarcho Tyranny is not "solved" on the basis of a single prosecution, just like Cancel Culture wasn't cancelled on the basis of Jimmy Kimmel getting his show back. It's who/whom trench warfare and bureaucratic defense in depth until the point where the only solution is to drop the pretenses and start killing each other in the war we are obviously already in.

It's just pure anarcho tyranny.

I agree that anarcho tyranny is a problem but I wouldn't go that far. A garden variety serial killer is going to get busted. A Mangione is going to get busted despite being a darling of the Left.

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