The website of Operation Rescue possibly released a statement condemning the assassination of Dr. George Tiller before the news was actually broken nationally. This suspicious timing brings up many questions.
The Operation Rescue website has been down for most of the day. Probably because of traffic, though I suppose they could have brought it down themselves. Perhaps because hosting a page called "Tiller Watch" might bring some unwanted scrutiny or scrubbing.
However, a simple Google cache of their main page shows that they released a statement on the assassination remarkably close to the actual event itself.
From Operation Rescue, caught by Google Cache at May 31, 2009 16:48:37 GMT.
Operation Rescue Denounces The Killing of Abortionist Tiller
May 31st, 2009
Wichita, KS – It has been learned today that George Tiller was shot and killed while entering his church on Sunday morning, May 31.
Operation Rescue releases the following statement:
We are shocked at this morning’s disturbing news that Mr. Tiller was gunned down. Operation Rescue has worked for years through peaceful, legal means, and through the proper channels to see him brought to justice. We denounce vigilantism and the cowardly act that took place this morning. We pray for Mr. Tiller’s family that they will find comfort and healing that can only be found in Jesus Christ.
May 31, 2009 16:48:37 GMT is 10:48 11:48 Central Time.
Dr. Tiller was shot, according to KAKE-TV, Wichita, KS, at 10:03 Central. Minutes later he was pronounced dead by paramedics. Let's say it took the paramedics five minutes to get the call, get in their ambulance, get to the scene, try to revive Dr. Tiller, and finally pronounce him dead -- five minutes seems like a stretch -- I would guess that would take more like ten to fifteen minutes, but it's the information that is available at the moment.
Assuming then that it took just five minutes then it would take Operation Rescue just 40 minutes to get the news from somewhere, type up their denunciation, and have it magically cached by Google.
One and half hours later the news is broken nationally -- ABC News.com breaks it at 12:49 Central, TPM about 45 minutes earlier than that, Drudge is hours late to the game, DailyKos main page hosts an article at 2:22 Central.
But the point is that one and half to two hours one-half hour to one hour before I understand that it became national news Operation Rescue has written a a statement condemning the action, and has it on their site long enough for Google to cache it.
Yes, Google may cache Operation Rescue many times a day, perhaps hundreds of times a day, but there still has to be a delay between the posting and the caching.
Is any of that even possible? Maybe. Is it all totally innocuous and completely innocent and shame on me for me asking these really hard questions of poor whiddle Operation Rescue? Yeah, maybe it is totally innocuous and completely innocent. But suspicious? Yes.
Does it rise to the level of "serious questions" that Operation Rescue needs to answer. Perhaps to the FBI?
Well, seeing as how the killer allegedly had a post-it with the Operation Rescue phone number on it, then, well, lemme think here for a second. Yeah. It does.
Questions that I have:
When was the OR statement actually issued?
Did the statement come from a local chapter or the national office?
What was the turnaround time on writing the OR statement?
When was the news first broken nationally? Who broke the news?
Was OR called before the news was broken?
Was there any contact between the killer and OR either before or after the killing?
Why has their site been down all day?
What, if anything, have they deleted from their website today?
How much time elapsed from the issuance of the statement to the Google Cache?
I find their statement timing suspicious and until I have answers for the above questions I will still say that it is suspicious.