Beltway Sniper Shootings-FR Commentary-Sunday, Oct. 13

Fox News, CNN, Press Conferences | October 13, 2002 | Fox News, CNN, Press Conferences

[Sacajaweau]

I'm not discounting, in fact, I'd put "college students" real high on my list, except...everyone "thinks" they are going home for the weekend, but actually, they're going to their safe harbor to rest, eat, sleep, gas up the car (perhaps change vehicles), re-examine next week's scenario and make any necessary changes.

Don't forget, at the end of each week, Friday, the hit is near Fredericksburg.

Sac

[Merovingian]

hmmm...missed that..of course that piece of paper with directions could have been dropped by someone else! As it really makes little sense in the entire context... Who knows..

[berkeleybeej]

Use some common sense, people.

That's asking an awful lot for some of our folks. :-)

[texasbluebell]

I'm finding that the indictment on the NY cell is sealed and having trouble (but not looking real hard) finding news on the weapons that were picked up.

Well, here are 2 references to what was picked up with the Lackawanna group:

How police caught up with the 9/11 mastermind

America, FBI agents raided several locations on Friday in the Buffalo suburb of Lackawanna, New York. They arrested five Americans of Yemeni descent and removed what appeared to be two AK-47 rifles.

FBI: U.S. High Schoolers Became bin Ladenites

While in training, the eight Lackawanna men allegedly received "instruction on firearms," including the use of sniper rifles, assault rifles and explosives. The criminal complaint states that Derwish was observed receiving more advanced training in heavy artillery...Investigators, he said, had found two guns and a telescopic sight at al-Bakri’s home.

[OReilly]

'America's Most Wanted' has been the instrument of apprehension of many more 'bad guys' than Moose has on his belt. They are not shy, or PC, about releasing pictures or descriptions of the 'bad guys'. Only after guys like Moose have failed, do the police release pictures and profiles of the 'bad guys'. It is an ego, macho, 'protect and serve' thing..

[OReilly]

Just so the media get's their fair share of criticism... has anyone noticed that the media reported and are still reporting, rear door damage to the Box van, or rear taillight damage... rather than rear bumper damage to the box van. How about ladders on the Chevy Astro Van rather than a metal brake with handles on the ladder racks? A Shotgun being used instead of a rifle, in Manassas.

[Pete]

This morning I had idea about how maybe the public could help solve these crimes. There are hundreds of webcams around the DC/Maryland/VA area - some of them streaming video. I thought that if we could get a whole bunch of volunteers to monitor the webcams, we could compile any sitings of suspect vehicles. Right now, that would be a white box truck. I know there are thousands of these vehicles and it is a long shot, but I feel like I, we, have to do something.

To that end, I went ahead and set up a website that allows volunteers to register sitings by recording vehicle type, date, time and place along with any description into a database. This database will only be available to law enforcement either retrospectively but also hopefully in real-time. I am still working on that functionality.

The site is still in Beta but I hope to go live as soon as possible. I am looking for a few FREEPERS to test drive it to work out any bugs and get suggestions for improvements. The site is called sniperwatch.com. I registered the domain name today and it will likely be on the Domain Name Server system in the next day or two. Until then, the site can be accessed at the following URL.

http://207.99.96.100/index.html

If you are interested in testing the Beta site, please respond to this post. I will contact the selected testers through Freep mail. If you end up not being one of the testers, you can still check out the site but please don't sign up yet since it is still in Beta. Testers will go to the site and create a userid and post sample sitings. After the Beta test, I will be deleting the test userids and sitings from the database. Also, if you have suggestions/comments, post back here or contact me through freep mail. The email link on the site is not yet functional.

Again, I know this is a long shot but even if there is only a remote possibility it could help, I have to do it.

[Pete]

My #287 post is now its own thread here.

http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/news/768619/posts

[SteveH]

It would be nice if someone local could look closely into shooting #8 (Fredricksburg crafts store parking lot; unidentified woman wounded, not killed). I am guessing the intent was to kill as usual. The woman has been released from the hospital and this sounds like the least serious of the shootings that found their mark at all. I would imagine that studying this shooting could tell more about the sniper(s). The physical layout of the #8 shooting could be analyzed to see if there is some difference between that layout and the others, for example.

There seem to be about three major hypotheses: (1) Arab terrorists; (2) local blue collar redneck crazies; and (3) local student redneck crazies. A little bit more info might permit disqualifying one or the other.

Conjectures (no better than anyone elses at this point): The more distance between the shooter and the scene, the safer the shooter is. The sites ring the greater DC area and the shootings happened during rush hour, so it seems possible that the shooter is based inside the greater DC area and getaway-- commutes back to central home base from the sites, against traffic. If he/she/they were going with traffic, the getaways would be slow and risk getting caught in traffic (classic example, traffic accident). For this to work the shooter would have to be driving some extremely common vehicle, the better to escape undetected and be more difficult to screen for. They are likely to be driving now the most common types of small mobile vehicles (bar none) in the local area-- 2 and 4 door sedans, 2 door PUs, and jeeps... but focusing on vehicles (hatchbacks, PUs, jeeps, etc.) with ability to shoot directly out the rear...

I don't think they are workers with a business "in the loop." It seems like overkill just to do some simple sniping. Same could be accomplished with anonymous imported types from outside the area with less ties, IDs, money, etc. required and a couple of motel rooms or apartments. Having a business involved seems contrary to the notion of a leaderless activated but relatively untraceable (to top leadership) cell. Anonymity is an advantage. Composure and emotional detachment from potential victims. Don't have to interface with them immediately before / after shootings, lack of composure, bragging, differences in emotional outlook, etc. potentially arousing suspicion. These last considerations make foreign terrorism still somewhat most likely hypothesis IMO.

[Freedom2specul8]

I am very impressed..I pinged everyone to your new thread!

[Thisiswhoweare]

I have kept up with these threads as, I lived in Manassas a year ago for four years. Found it to be laid back. Now live outside Richmond, also a bedroom community. That having been said,the real thing we're dealing with is several things.

1. The majority of people that live in the areas of the shootings, either work for the gov't or are connected in some way.

2. The tarot card IMO, was placed there to get authorities going in the wrong direction.

OBL's video mentioned America will not feel safe until there is a change in the way we treat the palestinian people.

3. Today, FNC had a blip on a letter Bush sent Sharon, saying that Sharon didn't hold up his end in the treatment of the pali's.

4. The enormous bombing's and other violent acts have all been taking place while this sniper(s) have taken the weekend off here. It's as if they're taking turns.

5. President Bush has been pushing congress to pass the terrorist insurance bill. My husband told me that insurance companies won't pay out to the victims families if the officials determine it's terroism. He said there's a clause in all life insurance policies that says, act of terrorism /act of war and you are not covered. But, act of "murder" by a crazy nutjob...

There are too many things that point to this being a terroristic attack. But, we will probably never be told.

Protect yourseves and remember, he/she/they haven't hit the same place twice.

[bigunreal]

Exactly. If this very conspicuous vehicle is indeed what the shooter(s) are using, what is taking the authorities so long to find it? This is a large and uncommon vehicle that stands out like a sore thumb. How then do we explain the clean escapes? How can they not have quickly surveyed DMV records to considerably narrow down the list of potential suspects? Instead, they appear to be holding pointless press conferences and stopping every white minivan in the D.C. metropolitan area. I hate to call them Keystone Kops, but....

[R. Scott]

A picture of a white Astro with ladder rack will be out soon.

[John Jamieson]

Man with AR-15 and white box truck being questioned by FBI (FoxNews).