SPRINGFIELD "SIMULATOR" PROVES PORT ARTHUR A FAKE

The recent mass shooting in the Thurston School Cafe in Springfield, Oregon USA, makes the release of sensitive information unnecessary. A direct comparison between Springfield and Port Arthur proves once and for all time that the shooter in the Broad Arrow Cafe on 28th April 1996, was not Martin Bryant, but a highly trained professional marksman.

When the military needs to prove a scientific point one way or the other, it invariably tests that point for real, either in combat or by artificial simulation. A good example of this was the recent reaction of the US military to Federal Government claims that the Alfred P. Murrah building in Oklahoma City was blown up by a 2000 pound low- explosive ammonium nitrate weapon, allegedly parked outside the front door of the building by young Timothy McVeigh.

Knowing the ammonium nitrate claim was impossible rubbish, United States Air Force explosives experts at Eglin Air Force Base in Florida, promptly constructed a three story test building out of the same materials used in the Alfred P. Murrah federal building in Oklahoma. Then they placed the correct equivalent explosive charge at precisely the same distance from their test building and stood back briefly to admire their "simulator". And what a simulator it was! When the massive charge was detonated on camera the results were exactly as the explosives experts had forecast: the huge open-air blast barely scratched the front face of the building, proving for all time that the White House, FBI, and others in Washington, had deliberately and continually lied about the explosion in Oklahoma City, and of course about "patsy" Timothy McVeigh as well, for political reasons.

The comprehensive results of these scientific tests were printed in a report titled the "Eglin Blast Effects Study" (EBES), a copy of which was forwarded by the commanding general to Senator Trent Lott, majority leader of the US Senate. In a covering letter the general urged Senator Lott to resist White House calls to bring in new counter- terrorist legislation, which if passed would have given federal agencies such as the FBI and BATF new draconian powers over American citizens.

You didn't read about the EBES in your newspaper? This is not surprising, because Eglin's scientific work would have destroyed the Government's lying hype about Oklahoma at a single stroke. And so it is with Port Arthur. The military, this time special forces, could easily prove that Martin Bryant was incapable of achieving the stunning kill rates exhibited in the Broad Arrow Cafe, but are unable to do so because the required facilities i.e. simulators used to train counter-terrorist marksmen in enclosed space operations, are shrouded in secrecy for obvious reasons.

The SAS, GSG9, and others are not enthusiastic about public demonstrations. But a recent mass shooting in Springfield, USA, provided a chillingly live simulation of enclosed space operations in a cage very similar to the Broad Arrow. In order to understand how a simulation on the other side of the world proves Port Arthur a pre- meditated covert action conducted by experts, it is first necessary to gain a basic knowledge of enclosed space simulators. Special forces simulators are normally used to literally simulate an environment in which counter-terrorist marksmen might be required to operate, usually a room or rooms of known dimensions, containing both terrorists and hostages. Immediately on entry the special forces marksmen must kill or disable the terrorists but leave the hostages unharmed: a task calling for split-second timing and accurate point shooting. In a murky simulator where the difference between life and death can be as little as 1/10th of a second there is no time to use gun sights.

Point and shoot, point and shoot. With luck the terrorists will die from bullet wounds to the head, but if the counter-terrorist marksman makes a single split-second error of judgment he will surely die instead. To evaluate scientifically whether an amateur like Bryant could equal the very high killed-to-wounded ratio (KTIR) achieved in the Broad Arrow Cafe, the instructors would arrange dummies inside the simulator in the same configuration as the victims on the day. Next an unskilled amateur would be equipped with a Colt AR15, two clips of ammunition and other essential items, before being told he had "X" seconds from point of entry to shoot dead twenty of the victim dummies with single shots to the head, and wounds twelve more, with only 29 rounds. This would be quite impossible for the amateur, as the simulation would prove scientifically.

The biggest drawback would be the amateur's complete inability to point shoot instinctively, essential in this enclosed environment. The shooter in the Broad Arrow Cafe at Port Arthur demonstrated all of the qualities of a trained counter-terrorist marksman but made no amateur mistakes. Always in motion and point shooting from the right hip with devastating accuracy, he killed twenty of the occupants with single shots to the head and wounded twelve more, firing a total of only 29 rounds. Using known techniques reported by witnesses, he ensured his own safety from attack by turning on the spot and staying outside grappling range. It was an awesome display of expertise, even by special forces standards. That he was point shooting from the hip is beyond question. The Colt AR15 allegedly used in the massacre was fitted with a wide-angle telescope sight designed for the Armalite AR180, mounted on the AR15 so crudely that it completely obscured the "iron" sights on top of the weapon. Thus the iron sights could not be used at all, and the range was much too short to use the telescopic sight. Remember that the shooter knew this before he entered the Broad Arrow Cafe, so must have been supremely confident in his point shooting ability. Sadly, his confidence was more than justified. To accuse intellectually-impaired Martin Bryant of this stunning performance was quite absurd, a point clearly shared by police interrogators on the 4th July 1996, who openly queried Bryant's shooting skills, with special reference to point shooting i.e. firing the Colt AR15 from the hip:-

Police: "And ahh, did you ever practice shooting from the hip?"

Bryant: "No never."

Police: "Did you get pretty accurate?"

Bryant: "No not really."

Naturally enough the police had no access to counter-terrorist simulators and probably lacked the firearms experience to work out that Martin Bryant was completely incapable of executing the gross crimes of which he stood accused.

But unknown to police at that time, two years later 15 year-old Kip Kinkel was to stage a mass shooting in an identical environment, firing a semi-automatic weapon of the same calibre (5.56-mm). Kinkel's performance in the Thurston High School Cafe was exactly what any expert would expect from a random shooting event, and proves that Bryant could not have caused the terrible carnage in the Broad Arrow Cafe. Again sadly, Kip Kinkel provided the perfect "live" cafe simulation needed to prove Martin Bryant's innocence at Port Arthur.

Kinkel's choice of a cafe for his mass shooting may well have been influenced by the massive international publicity about the Broad Arrow Cafe at Port Arthur in Tasmania, and he may have expected to achieve the same spectacular results. His extensive weaponry further indicates a possible "copy cat" event.

Kip Kinkel was carrying a 5.56-mm Ruger semi-automatic rifle with several full clips of ammunition, plus two loaded handguns and a large hunting knife. In addition police found a sizable quantity of loose 5.56-mm rounds in his haversack. Multiple weapons and bags of loose ammo were notable media "features" at Port Arthur. Within seconds of entering the school cafe and opening fire on his fellow students, Kinkel must have realised that he was simply not in the same class as the professional shooter at Port Arthur.

Despite firing fifty one rounds, nearly twice as many as those fired in the Broad Arrow Cafe, Kinkel killed only two and wounded another twenty one. Of the two dead, only one was hit in the head. Nor did he have the expertise to keep his fellow students at bay. While fumbling a clip-change on the 5.56-mm Ruger he was overpowered and brought to the ground. Killer Kinkel had done his murderous best, but it was a best that fell far short of the very professional massacre in the Broad Arrow cafe two years before. In the Broad Arrow Cafe twenty were killed and twelve wounded, while in the Thurston School Cafe two were killed and twenty-one: wounded. So in the Broad Arrow Cafe the shooter scored an incredible inverted killed-to-injured ratio (KTIR) of 1.66 to 1, on a par with the best special forces counter-terrorist marksmen in the world.

In the Thurston School Cafe, Kinkel scored a KTIR? of 1 to 10, entirely in accord with random shootings worldwide. Remember once again that every one of the twenty dead in the Broad Arrow Cafe was killed with an accurate single shot to the head, an almost impossible achievement. No doubt psychiatrists and other government apologists will cry "foul" at this point and trot out all kinds of inane academic excuses for the differential in performance between Springfield and Port Arthur. In reality no excuses exist. Kinkel was bought firearms and encouraged to use them by his parents. Bryant was denied firearms and discouraged to use them by his parents. Kinkel was thus a proven experienced shot while Bryant was not.

Kinkel was 15 years old and Bryant had an assessed mental age of 13 years at the time of the Port Arthur massacre, giving Kinkel a two year intellectual edge over Bryant. Any academic or politician still willing to believe that Martrin Bryant executed the massacre in the Broad Arrow Cafe, should as a matter of urgency visit his or her nearest hospital for immediate psychological assessment. A side issue that has raised its head from time to time since the author started writing reports on Port Arthur, is that Martin Bryant was taking the anti-depressant drug "Prozac", which in some magical way managed to convert him from an intellectually-impaired invalid into the crack-shot equivalent of a US Navy SEAL. While there is some evidence available that Bryant was prescribed tranquilizers long before the massacre, no evidence has emerged on Prozac, though interestingly, the Murdoch press announced that Kip Kinkel was subjected to the drug by his parents: "They were coping with his bouts of anger by giving him Prozac."

There is no doubt that Prozac is a highly controversial drug, with more adverse reactions reported to the FDA than any other drug since that regulatory agency was formed. It is also known that one of the reported adverse reactions is "rage", but rage alone cannot turn an average citizen into special forces marksman material. So while Prozac and others drugs capable of inducing acute adverse reactions may alter brain chemistry to the point where the recipient wants to kill people, no drug on earth can teach the recipient how to kill people. Prozac may or may not have played a part in triggering Kip Kinkel's killing spree, but it is a red herring in the case of "patsy" Martin Bryant, who was completely incapable of conducting the Port Arthur massacre. Horrific though it was, Kip Kinkel's performance in Springfield proved Bryant's innocence completely, but this is unlikely to kick-start Australia's politicians into action. Most in Canberra stopped worrying about our national security decades ago, deciding instead to sign multiple United Nations "conventions" on behalf of all Australians, without bothering to explain to the voters that 99% of these conventions violate Australian sovereignty. To the average politician in Canberra nowadays, Bryant and Port Arthur are of no importance as he or she grovels before yet another lobby group holding the international purse strings.

The author is an independent investigator with thirty years direct experience of international military and oilfield operations.