Please continue.

The Chinese KMT/PFP is trying desperately to deflect any suspicion away from them.

Mayor Ma just said that the joint KMT/PFP election headquarters is offering a NT$10 million reward for information on the culprit.

http://udn.com/NEWS/NATIONAL/NATS8/1909331.shtml

It is now over 12 hours since the assassination attempt and major details are coming out maddeningly slowly. Is this typical paternal Chinese style or is something serious being withheld?

Scooter wrote:


Now that is first rate conspiracy theory.

The bullet apparently did not puncture the abdomen so after 14 stitches it is perfectly feasible to address the nation in order to restore calm.





According to reports it was impossible to hear any shots fired due to the exposion of firecrackers. If you saw the video you see that Chen and Lu remain absolutely calm, thus not raising the alarm of the secret service. Lu is casually mentioning it to her bodyguard and Chen maintains appeal to the people without acknowledging it.



It didn’t. the stock market was still open and suffered a brief drop.

My final thoughts after a long day...

What a nauseating spectacle watching Sisy Chen call a press conference [in other words, PROACTIVELY SPREAD] the conspiracy theories: "Someone" says Secret Service agents scouted out the hospital in advance; "Someone" claims A-Bian's medical records have been tampered with, "Someone" says the bullet casings don't match the bullet, blah blah blah.

I'm glad not ONE Green camp politician has openly alleged that it was a KMT plot -- if they're thinking it at least they have the decency to do so in private. In contrast various KMTers are shamelessly vying for media time to promote the idea that the DPP staged the entire event to gain votes. Even Lien had the nerve to not so subtly hint of a coverup by demanding that the government "reveal the whole truth by [Friday] evening." Um... there's something called an "ongoing investigation" that may take more than 6 hours. Too bad he wasn't around when Mrs. A-Bian was run over by a truck to clamor for immediate full disclosure. And if Lien was around in 1963 we could've all found out who shot JFK in 6 hours too.

I personally could not stay in a country where I seriously believed the government would do as deranged and despicable a thing as staging a fake assassination of its own leaders. Hell, might as well move to Zimbabwe in that case. All this just goes to show how shallow democracy really is on this island.

Frankly, even more incomprehensible are the posters here that are swept up in these far-fetched theories. At least the locals have the excuse that they're caught up in the emotions of the campaign and that they're newbies to democracy. What's an expat's excuse: just plain idiocy?

I don't know what the hell is going on??? I don't understand Chinese so all I can do is go off what my wife's family states..

they state that he was not shot, that it was a firecracker, and if from what I saw on TV it didnt appear he was shot.. especially in the leg, he would have dropped immediately.. This guy is no tough guy, and if was he would still drop..

Also, they state he went over 5KM to a hospital when there was one were two private ones much closer, and they state one of his security guards is saying the hospital has been changing the records..

Also, they told me that right before the last elections, his wife got in a wreck so basically they all say this is conspiracy to get sympathy votes... Im not sure if it is true, but based on what I have seen from the government since I have been here I would not put it past them... Also, I have seen someone get shot in the leg by a 22 caliber rifle (accident) and trust me he dropped right a way... Not sure if you know anything about firearms, but if someone was attempting an assasination, they would be using a firearm with a much greater caliber, with bullets that shatter or mushroom on contact so there is noway this guy would still be standing, no possible way. and trust me if someone was close enough for the casings to be in the jeep... come on BS... no one, not even a child could screw that up

I personally believe there was no gun, probably hit by a firecracker....

Guess we will see tomorrow

Depends on what was used. You can make a handgun for the .45ACP cartridge(*) with a piece of water pipe, a pipe cap, a rubber band, and a nail.

(*) and other sizes too, of course, but the dimensions work out pretty easily for .45ACP and .22LR. Also 12ga shotshells.
The site appears to be down at the moment, but (if it ever comes back up) you can get plans for a lot of designs here:
Plans page for homemade guns

Taiwan is full of machine shops. Manufacturing a firearm is NOT rocket science. It's barely even plumbing. If you want a weapon that will fire one shot without blowing up, doesn't need to be quickly reloadable, and doesn't need to be lightweight or made out of weird materials, you can make it in an afternoon. A real, rifled barrel is hard. Using a bottlenecked cartridge means you need a special reamer (might take a day or two to make). But any of the parts could be smuggled in without much difficulty, judging from the lack of customs-inspection scrutiny I saw at CKS.

Get a few rounds of ammunition from a military range or maybe the night market (like that politician's kid did last summer), and you're all set.

uh...did you read the other posts from last night? chen wasn't shot in the leg. if you're watching the videos, and saw the blood stain on his stomach, and then were STILL looking for a shot to the leg, I don't know what to say...

Shoulda stopped there.


On June 9, 1990, Officer Stacey Lim of the LAPD was shot in the heart with a .357 Magnum during an attempted carjacking. She drew her own gun, shot her attacker to death, a neighbor called an ambulance, Lim got taken to the hospital, underwent open-heart surgery to repair her torn-open ventricle, and she survived. LAPD has training videos about her; I'm not sure if they're generally available, although I saw one of them in a class a few years ago.

Meanwhile, some unfortunate sap of a cop got nicked in the arm with a .22LR back in the mid-1980's, and he went into a screaming fit and died.

So, I would say that "it depends". . . .


It was VP Lu who got hit in the knee. I suggest you read through the thread to learn what is already known, instead of relying on what is apparently a bunch of unreliable KMT ass-covering from your wife's family.

case closed.

You're just digging a deeper hole. You obviously haven't even bothered to check the web for accurate reporting from CNN, Reuters, and other sources, yet you are ranting away with all of the conspiracy crap that you've been overhearing.

On top of that, while you may have been raised around guns, you obviously don't know shit about gun-related injuries. Just because some friend of yours panicked and dropped after being hit in the leg(*), it doesn't mean that everyone does that. Take a look at some of the Medal of Honor citations -- Rodger Young's, for but one example -- to see what people can do even after multiple severe injuries.
http://www.army.mil/cmh-pg/moh1.htm

Neither Chen's nor Lu's wounds were especially severe. They were definitely hit by a bullet (or two separate ones; at least one post says there were multiple shots, but I haven't seen that in the news yet), but that doesn't mean instant incapacitation and death like you seem to think.

(*) not to belittle your friend -- perhaps his injury was serious, like a fractured pelvis. Then again, maybe he just got nicked, saw his blood, and panicked. I had to be transported after cutting my finger one time.