All those oddball stories you hear... The thing with the gun in the briefcase takes the cake for me so far.

Mr He wrote:
All those oddball stories you hear... The thing with the gun in the briefcase takes the cake for me so far.


look where that came from.... it's sad.

I have a confession to make.

I shot the president.

Now, it is no easy task to hit a man-sized target moving at a speed of 30kph from a distance of greater than 10m.

I know, because I have done it many times. As a former sergeant in the US Marine Corps, I was required to maintain proficiency in -- and received training with -- a variety of weapons. I won't pretend to be a super-marksman, nor was I ever trained as a sniper or a hit man. But I do reckon myself a fair shot, and so did the US Marine Corps, which awarded me its highest marksmanship designation.

This, coupled with the highly-respected tradition (Lee Harvey Oswald fans will appreciate this) of using former Marines in presidential-assassination plots, was all it took to spur the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) into action.

So when they came to me a week before the election and asked me if I could wing President Chen Shui-bian (???) while he stood in the back of a Jeep moving 30kph from 10m with a handmade 8mm two-shot pistol using homemade ammunition, I replied, "Why the hell not? Any requests for where exactly you would like me to flesh-wound the target?"

But perhaps you don't believe me....

There is only one valid response to those who still believe these idiotic conspiracy theories about the assassination attempt on the president: Prove it.

As the astronomer Carl Sagan said, "Extraordinary claims require extraordinary evidence."

There is only one valid response to those who still believe these idiotic conspiracy theories about the assassination attempt on the president: Prove it.

A nutcase with an 8mm pistol tried to shoot Chen -- for whatever reason. As the pistol was either homemade or poorly maintained and the ammunition was homemade, the nutcase only succeeded in wounding Chen before his weapon jammed.

Perhaps that is a little too far-fetched for anyone to believe. After all, how realistic is it that some unhinged fruitcake would make an amateurish attempt to kill a prominent and controversial political figure?

After all, how realistic is it that some unhinged fruitcake would make an amateurish attempt to kill a prominent and controversial political figure?