Ismail Ax

Cho's early signs of disillusionment?

2007-04-23T06:29:00.000-07:00

Suicidal

"Neighbors, roommates and teachers described Cho as a withdrawn person who rarely spoke. Two students who said they were Cho’s roommates said he had harassed several female students and once told them he wanted to kill himself, which prompted the roommates to report their concerns to the police."

Stalker

University Police Chief Wendell Flinchum said his officers approached Cho in late 2005 when two women students complained of ”annoying” phone calls and instant messages from him.

”I’m not saying they were threats; I’m saying they were annoying. That’s the way the victims characterized them, as annoying messages,” Flinchum told a news conference.

After the second incident Cho’s roommate told police he ”might be suicidal,” prompting them to issue a ”temporary detention order” and send him to a mental health facility for evaluation, Flinchum said.

Authorities would not say how long Cho was evaluated.

Twisted Writer

Fellow students and teachers have described a troubled loner whose writings for his English degree were so laced with violence and disillusionment that they alarmed some of those around him.

Cho Sueng-hui cum Ismail Ax hated the American society to which he had been brought 15 years earlier. His play McBeef (a poor pun from an English Lit major on Macbeth) is one endless screed against the corruption of American culture. A cheesy re-telling of Shakespeare's Hamlet, it involves a young man abused by his step-father, a former NFL football player. The son, throws epithets at his father calling him a 'Catholic priest'. And makes derisive comments about McDonalds. It seems that none of the foundational structures of Western Civilization, Christianity, capitalism, family, are spared his rage. In other words, he really meant what he said in his last words: "you (that is America) made me do this."

Serial Killer-ish

Old roommates talking about how they used to joke about how he was going to be a serial killer because of his pathological behavior.

A note from a former schoolmate says: "After hearing about the mass shootings, I sent one of my friends a Facebook message asking him if he knew anything about Seung Cho and if he could have been involved. He replied: "dude that's EXACTLY what I was thinking! No, I haven't heard anything, but seriously, that was the first thing I thought when I heard he was Asian.""

+something to think about+

"Why do these mass shooting tragedies always become about gun control? Every news magazine show that I have seen has decided to focus on the stupid guns. It isn't about the guns, its about the environment that breeds this insanity. They focused on the guns and didn't explore the meds this guy was on at all. I heard on one radio report that the man was on some anti-depressant medication. Now I know that some people need some of those meds, but I have read about way to many cases where friends and family have noticed horrible personality changes from people on some of those meds. If he was on some meds, maybe they had an adverse effect on him."

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sources:
- http://www.tcsdaily.com/article.aspx?id=041807B
- http://www.ft.com
- http://newsbloggers.aol.com
- http://athesistparents.org

A Public Apology

2007-04-23T02:47:00.000-07:00

Yesterday, I posted No intention of making money from Ismail Ax name.. and it's about the ownership of ismailax.com.

Today I just received a response from "r.patterson":

After consulting friends, family, and co-workers, and after reading countless blogs and forum posts, I have decided to make a change. The domain ismailax.com will be pointed to the official Virginia Tech website memorial fund page:
http://www.vt.edu/tragedy/memorial_fund.php

The word ismailax is bad. It is dark, ugly and forboding. I do not relish being remembered or associated with this evil name but unfortunately, I have become part of the bigger story. I wish I wasn't. But maybe I can help by shining a small beacon of light and hope upon this tragic event. By forwarding this domain, to a good and decent cause, I will have stood up and done my part for a better world. This is how I would rather be remembered. Please forgive me if I have offended anyone. I wish no harm, only peace and dignity to the victims and their families.

Please allow 24-48 hours as the DNS server need time to resolve to the Virginia Tech site.

Given that this is Raymond Patterson himself, there is no reason for me to assume that V Tech bought the site from Mr. Patterson, which I mentioned in my former post. And I do apologize if it brought ill emotions to anyone as well.

Thanks for clearing this up, Raymond.

Chicago Tribune post-mention

2007-04-22T03:56:00.000-07:00

So my first purpose was defeated. It turned out that I did not only created this blog to park the name but eventually also to be a source of information to a researcher, just like me. Only, aside from the hundreds of blogs that post a topic or two, this whole blog was created only to track down the meaning of Ismail Ax, and the side-stories that comes with it.

And so, it was noticed... on April 17, 2007, 11:17 PM CDT, Chicago Tribune published, and here's part of the screen shot:

read the rest of the article on the link below.

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source: Chicago Tribune: Web aids public's search for clues to killings

No intention of making money from Ismail Ax name

2007-04-22T03:20:00.000-07:00

I first mentioned there was an existing site www.ismailax.com [here]

A kind commentator named Squall, gave details that GO DADDY SOFTWARE, INC. is an Internet domain registrar and web hosting company. And owns it in order to resell it to anyone's interested.

But, on further investigation, I found out that Raymond Patterson, a TV repair-shop owner in Corpus Christi, Texas, registered the domain name www.ismailax.com Tuesday morning.

"When I hear a name, I register it. I have about 200 names right now," said Raymond Patterson, who registered the site five minutes after he heard the phrase "Ismail Ax" mentioned on a Fox News broadcast. He said he had no intention of making "blood money" from the site.

But try going to this site and you get re-directed to the V Tech Memorial Fund they named Hokie Spirit Memorial Fund

So technically, V Tech bought the site from Mr. Patterson for a better purpose.. So, it's first come first served eh? But who's HOKIE? erm..

Cho Seung-Hui's Manifesto

2007-04-19T16:39:00.000-07:00

Oh the happiness I could have had mingling among you hedonists, being counted as one of you, only if you didn't fucked the living shit out of me.

You could have been great. I could have been great. Ask yourself what you did to me to have made me clean the slate.

"You have vandalized my heart, raped my soul and tortured my conscience. You thought it was one pathetic more life you were extinguishing. Thanks to you, I die like Jesus Christ to inspire generations of the weak and the defenseless people."

Let the revolution begin!

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source: http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/18186053/

Mean schoolmates created the Ismail Ax

2007-04-19T16:32:00.000-07:00

My theory is that Ismail Ax is Cho Seung-Hui's alter-ego. His safe zone.

Schoolmate Chris Davids, same batch who graduated with Cho from Westfield High School in Chantilly, Va., in 2003, and also a a Virginia Tech student, recalled that Cho almost never opened his mouth and would ignore attempts to strike up a conversation.

Once, in an English class, the teacher had the students read aloud and, when it was Cho’s turn, he just looked down in silence. Finally, after the teacher threatened to give him a failing grade for non-participation, Cho started to read in a strange, deep voice that sounded “like he had something in his mouth.

“As soon as he started reading, the whole class started laughing and pointing and saying, ‘Go back to China,’” Davids said.

Among Cho’s victims were Reema Samaha and Erin Peterson, who also both graduated from Westfield High School last year. Police said it was not clear whether Cho singled them out.

Obviously..

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source: http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/18169776/?GT1=9246

"The question mark kid"

2007-04-19T16:24:00.000-07:00

Alison Heck, a Virginia Tech student, said a suitemate of hers on campus found a mysterious question mark scrawled on the dry erase board on her door. The young woman went to the same high school as Cho, Westfield High School.

“I don’t know if she knew that it was him for sure,” Heck said. “I do remember that that fall that she was being stalked and she had mentioned the question mark. And there was a question mark on her door.”

Hmm.. baseless and coincidental! But another add up for the mystery. So, what the HECK!

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source: http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/18169776/?GT1=9246

stereotype of a "school shooter" (?)

2007-04-17T18:34:00.000-07:00

Does this sound familiar?

– a loner, obsessed with violence, and serious personal problems, refused talking to anyone, didn't want to be friends with anybody, just came to class every day and submits work on time, worse, when offered some Halloween candy, he will slowly shook his head, and refuse it... (?) Hmm..

Add these:

an intelligent person — quite a gifted student in some ways, but also seemed to be an awkward and very lonely person who never took off the sunglasses, even indoors. And sometimes, there is as long as a 20-second pause before the person would respond, and people around him didn't up a rapport, because he wasn’t the kind of student who would permit that... (?) Hmm...

The following words I'm sure aren't, unless you personally know Cho Seung-Hui:

"A major part of the playwriting class was peer reviews. We would write one-act plays and submit them to an online repository called Blackboard for everyone in the class to read and comment about in class the next day. Typically, the students give their opinions about the plays and suggest ways to make it better, the professor gives his insights, then asks the author to comment about the play in class.

When we read Cho's plays, it was like something out of a nightmare. The plays had really twisted, macabre violence that used weapons I wouldn't have even thought of. Before Cho got to class that day, we students were talking to each other with serious worry about whether he could be a school shooter. I was even thinking of scenarios of what I would do in case he did come in with a gun, I was that freaked out about him. When the students gave reviews of his play in class, we were very careful with our words in case he decided to snap. Even the professor didn't pressure him to give closing comments.

While I was hesitant at first to release these plays (because I didn't know if there are laws against it), I had to put myself in the shoes of the average person researching this situation. I'd want to know everything I could about the killer to figure out what could drive a person to do something like this and hopefully prevent it in the future. Also, I hope this might help people start caring about others more no matter how weird they might seem, because if this was some kind of cry for attention, then he should have gotten it a long time ago." - Ian MacFarlane, former classmate and current AOL employee

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sources: http://newsbloggers.aol.com/2007/04/17/cho-seung-huis-plays/
MSNBC.com

Cho Seung-Hui's writing: ‘macabre,’ ‘twisted’

2007-04-17T18:20:00.000-07:00

Cho's scripts, brought to public attention by a former classmate, feature dialogue packed with obscenity and violence.

In the screenplay called "Richard McBeef," a young man accuses his stepfather of murdering his father to get his mother, and then accuses him of pedophilia when the stepfather puts his hand on the young man's leg, apparently in a friendly gesture.

"What are you, a Catholic priest," the character John rails at the older man in the play. "I will not be molested by an aging, balding, pedophilic stepdad named Dick. Get your hands off me, you sicko. Damn you, Catholic priest. Just stop it, Michael Jackson."

At the end of the play, the frustrated stepfather hits the 13-year-old stepson, killing him.

The plays, made available by Ian McFarlane, a former Virginia Tech student who now works for AOL.com, have been posted on AOL's "newsbloggers" site. (Click the icons below for each play)

WARNING: If you read these with prejudice, of course you will condemn the play write. But reading these without the idea that the writer just killed himself after killing 32 people and wounded more than a dozen others, will you think otherwise?

I went paranoid.

Who Owns this Domain?

2007-04-17T15:16:00.000-07:00

Strangely, or unstrangely.. there is a domain name that carries this name: http://ismailax.com/

Domain Name: ISMAILAX.COM
Registrar: GO DADDY SOFTWARE, INC.
Whois Server: whois.godaddy.com
Referral URL: http://registrar.godaddy.com
Name Server: NS45.DOMAINCONTROL.COM
Name Server: NS46.DOMAINCONTROL.COM
Status: clientDeleteProhibited
Status: clientRenewProhibited
Status: clientTransferProhibited
Status: clientUpdateProhibited
Updated Date: 17-apr-2007
Creation Date: 17-apr-2007
Expiration Date: 17-apr-2008

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source: http://letthemenforceit.blogspot.com/

A member of the AX Crew Group

2007-04-17T15:01:00.000-07:00

lion, a reader claimed he was a member of this "ax crew" or group of friends by email almost exclusively. He did not hang with them often. The meaning is implicit in the name.

Although further queries weren't answered yet.

I found a group created by Masa D. Luffy at this forum

But is Cho Seung-Hui a member of that group?

Updates later.

According to Islam 101

2007-04-17T14:55:00.000-07:00

Ismail is the Arabic form of Ishmael that translates as “God will hear”. According to Islam 101:

The Prophet Isma’il (peace be upon him) was the eldest son of Prophet Ibrahim (peace he upon him) by his second wife Hajira. As he had no off-spring from his first wife Sarah, he entered into matrimonial allegiance with Hajira, a devoted lady. He did so with the consent of his first wife. The Prophet Ibrahim (peace he upon him) prayed to his Lord to bless him with a son. The Prophet Isma’il (peace he upon him) was born to him in response to his prayers. The Holy Qur’an makes mention of it in these words:

“Ibrahim said: My Lord! Grant me of the doers of good deeds. So We gave him the good news of a boy possessing forbearance.” (37: 100, 101)

Is the shooter trying to link to this prophet? Even in a use of the translation saying “God will hear”?

According to Wikipedia here are some other indications of this word:

Ismail, Ishmael, Izmail, Isma’il may refer to:

* Ismail bin Jafar, the religious figure of which Ismaili Shiah Muslims follow and are named after.
    * Ishmael, son of Abraham, mentioned in both the Torah and the Qur’an
    * Izmail, a town in Ukraine
    * Isma’il Pasha (1830–1895), wali and khedive of Egypt, also known as Ismail the Magnificent
    * Ismail I, the founder of the Safavid dynasty
    * Ismail Samani, the Samanid amir
    * Mawlay Ismail Ibn Sharif of Morocco (1645/46-1727)

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source: http://www.nickqueen.com/?p=250

The Mysterious "ismail ax"

2007-04-17T14:46:00.000-07:00

one Google ping gave this link, from the archives of School of Computer Science, and showed this page:

But what does it mean?

Cho Seung-Hui’s computer alias?

2007-04-17T11:59:00.000-07:00

According to this site, a Skyrock Blog, the text showed:

“mé cops à moi, mohcine alias “the man with the smoke” à gauche & ismail ax au milieu."

Excuse my French, but I think it says: "my buddies with me, computer alias "the man with the smoke" on the left & ismail ax in the middle."

But, does he look like this man?

Cho Seung-Hui,
file photo from Yahoo News

Although a closer look into the blog says these are 3 French Mid-Eastern Men, non of them seemed Korean, although the blog owner as of this writing haven't responded yet to any of the comments on the post.

Ibrahim's Ax (Ibrahim = Abraham)

2007-04-17T11:56:00.000-07:00

After making sure that nobody was left in town, Ibrahim went towards the temple armed with an ax. Statues of all shapes and sizes were sitting there adorned with decorations. Plates of food were offered to them, but the food was untouched. "Well, why don't you eat? The food is getting cold." He said to the statues, joking; then with his ax he destroyed all the statues except one, the biggest of them. He hung the ax around its neck and left.
--The Koran

Ismail was Ibrahim's son. It was Ismail that Ibrahim wanted to sacrifice for Yahweh (with an ax).

A reader pointed out that "Ismail" is also a variant on the narrator in Moby Dick, and although Cho was an English major, the relationship between Moby Dick's Ismail and an ax/e is less clear.

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source: http://bangkokker.blogspot.com/

The History of Ismail Ax

2007-04-17T11:51:00.000-07:00

The Virginia Tech shooter had a history of odd behavior, and his professors had gone so far as to recommend him for counseling, the Chicago Tribune reports this morning. Seung-hui Cho left behind a note that blamed the "debauchery" of "rich kids" for his shooting spree, and had the words "Ismail Ax" written on his forearm when he died:

The suspected gunman in the Virginia Tech shooting rampage, Cho Seung-Hui, was a troubled 23-year-old senior from South Korea who investigators believe left an invective-filled note in his dorm room, sources say.
The note included a rambling list of grievances, according to sources. They said Cho also died with the words "Ismail Ax" in red ink on the inside of one of his arms.

Cho had shown recent signs of violent, aberrant behavior, according to an investigative source, including setting a fire in a dorm room and allegedly stalking some women.

A note believed to have been written by Cho was found in his dorm room that railed against "rich kids," "debauchery" and "deceitful charlatans" on campus.

Cho was an English major whose creative writing was so disturbing that he was referred to the school's counseling service, the Associated Press reported.

No one is sure as of yet what the phrase "Ismail Ax" means. It appears to be a reference to Abraham/Ibrahim, in which Ismail and Abraham take an axe to the idols of a temple as part of his conversion to monotheism. Is this a cryptic reference to Islamist or Christian radicalism? It certainly suggests one of the two. Hot Air has a more compelling theory -- a reference to James Fennimore Cooper's "The Prairie", which makes sense, given that Cho majored in English.

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source: http://www.captainsquartersblog.com/mt/

The purpose of this blog

2007-04-17T10:53:00.001-07:00

The sole purpose of this blog is to park the name and keep it out of the hands of someone who would misuse news of a tragedy. It is of note that on April 17, 2007, within minutes of the phrase "Ismail Ax" appearing in the news in connection to a profane act of violence, someone had registered the domain name www.ismailax.com. This is not a good thing. It is a sign of bad things to come.