Guilty Naveed Afzal Haq

Naveed Afzal Haq isn't trying to dodge what he did in Seattle.

He threw his lawyer a curve by unexpectedly stating his desire to plead guilty at his arraignment today.

SEATTLE (AP) -- The man accused of shooting of six people at Seattle's Jewish Federation offices has indicated he wants to plead guilty, his attorney told a judge Thursday.

Naveed Afzal Haq is charged with murder in the death of Pamela Waechter, who was the director of the Jewish charity's annual fundraising campaign, and with five counts of attempted murder.

The 30-year-old said little at his brief arraignment Thursday, but his court-appointed attorney, C. Wesley Richards, told the judge Haq "is indicating that it is his desire to enter guilty pleas."

Richards said he wasn't aware before the hearing that Haq intended to plead guilty. At the attorney's request, the rest of the hearing was delayed until Tuesday to give him time to determine whether Haq is competent to enter a guilty plea.

COMPETENT?

Of course he's competent. The guy knew what he was doing. I can understand the need for a lawyer to explain to his client what a guilty plea will mean, but Haq's competence isn't in question.

Haq isn't the victim here. He's a cold-blooded murderer.

Haq is accused of forcing his way into the downtown offices of the Seattle charity and opening fire with a handgun, saying that he was upset about the war in Iraq and U.S. support of Israel.

...The judge Thursday granted a prosecution request to bar Haq from having contact with the survivors of the shooting or volunteers and employees of the Jewish Federation.

Well, I would hope so!

He hates Jews.

In addition to the murder and attempted murder counts, Haq is charged with first-degree kidnapping, involving a teenage girl who was briefly taken hostage; first-degree burglary, for allegedly entering a locked facility to commit a crime; and malicious harassment under the state's hate-crime law.

Look at that list of charges.

But poor Haq is troubled. The poor guy is mentally ill.

We're supposed to feel compassion for him. Yes, forget about his victims, the defenseless, innocent Jewish women that he killed and wounded.

Some volunteers from the Jewish Federation quietly watched the proceedings in the courtroom, which was heavily staffed by security officers. The courthouse has metal detectors at its entrance, but spectators at Haq's hearing had to pass through another metal detector outside the courtroom.

I think that's smart.

Additional security was necessary. I'm sure there's a Haq sympathizer out there that dreamed of opening fire in the courtroom today and killing and wounding more Jews.

It bothers me that this story is not getting nearly the national attention it deserves.

A self-described "angry Muslim" blasted up the Jewish Federation of Greater Seattle and killed a woman.

Can you imagine the kind of press this would be getting if a Jew had committed the same crime at an Islamic center?

There would be rioting and protesting in the streets all over the world. Every aspect of the case would be analyzed. It would be a global obsession.

But because a Jewish woman was murdered in cold blood and five others were wounded, it's a relatively minor story.

Think about it. The Mel Gibson saga has received exponentially more attention than Haq's crimes.

Go figure.