[toddst]

Interesting post, which made sense until the last statement where the lady reversed herself:

"This is a person who wants power over the population at large," she said. "They are watching the news . They do a hit and then go home and watch it on TV."

This isn't at all consistent with the organized "terrorist" approach. A cell would be following a plan, regardless of what's reported on TV.

[twntaipan]

Not at all. Terrorists are VERY concerned with press coverage--it amplifies an otherwise isolated event.

[aristeides]

A cell presumably has a leader. That leader can react to the news.

[madrastex]

If this is indeed a terrorist cell, then they are very well prepared and well entrenched. They have a familiarity with escape routes, and safe harbours that would argue years of research, and a resourcefulness to adapt to changing circumstances such as the dropping of dragnets, that frankly are unimaginable for an operative who has been dropped into an area. I therefore believe that this is even more deadly: natives who have been co-opted for the "strusggle"...idealogical zealots, with solid, gut level survival instincts, and a familiarity with local terrain to duck and weave as necessary.

[casinva]

They may be using the news coverage to further their effect, but I do not think they are as "led" by the media reports as some have believed or suggested. Think about how much they were taunted last Friday about not doing anything on the weekends. Why, we had only had one weekend prior to that in which these shootings were happening...How could anyone get a clear picture at that early date that he DID not shoot--NEVER WOULD shoot--anyone on the weekends! Everytime I heard the media and experts reporting last Friday that his pattern was not to hit on the weekends, I expected that we might just see a shooting on the weekend to prove the media wrong. But...Nothing happened on the weekend! If this person (or group as many of us feel it might more likely be) was/were motivated by media reports, we would have seen something happen this past weekend. Those reports apparently did not effect them--I suppose a shooting this weekend did not fit into meeting their needs.