Posted on 10/14/2002 2:44:20 AM PDT by MadIvan
Intelligence experts in Washington are increasingly concerned that the gunman known as the "psycho-sniper" could be a terrorist with links to Islamic terror groups.
From the evidence gathered so far, which includes a handwritten note by the gunman, investigators think English may not be his first language.
The shootings, which have left eight dead in fewer than 12 days, coincided with a warning that Osama bin Laden's al Qaeda network is planning new attacks. The FBI warned last Wednesday that supporters of Bin Laden were "targeting key sectors of the US economy" and has long suspected that a number of "sleeper" cells are still active.
The latest victim, on Friday morning, was father-of-six Kenneth Bridges, gunned down at a petrol station in Fredericksburg.
Investigators are troubled by the gunman's behaviour, in particular his habit of selecting targets at random. Recent reports suggest he may have a female accomplice and drives a large white van.
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If this is the work of islamic terrorists, the thinking may be as follows...
So far, not one of the victims is islamic, even though there are a great many of them in the DC/Maryland area.
In the latest shooting, the perp apparently shot from outside the van and hit the head. So much for that theory.
IMHO, we are not going to know until the perps are caught. Then it will seem obvious.
Yep. Right now, all bets are off.
You said they seemed to you the spec ops. Here are some more reasons to think so:
In the face of a HUGE LEA response, the attacks continue. This is a mission - an assignment, not an obsession.
There is a strange balance of operating in such as way as to get away, yet doing so in an environment where the first mistake will probably be the shooter's last. EVENTUALLY the shooter knows they will be caught, and they will continue to kill right up to that moment - it's a slow-motion suicide mission.
The LAX shooter turned out to have Islamist links. Not all terror will be sudden, large-scale killing.
Another strange combination: Strict discipline and evident training - as if for a secret op - but applied to killing innocent civilians. This is the hallmark of Al Quaida. They take the kind of training the CIA or Spetsnaz would give the locals in some hotspot and have turned it toward the purpose of terrorizing the West (Not just us, but France, U.K., Australia, etc.).
And, of course, the target area.
So, like I said, it could turn out to be a competent and/or lucky lone nut, but it is more and more likely to be an individual or small group terrorist cell.
Oh boy I think I have egg on my face. When I said I thought it was a terrorist sleeper cell, I had been given to understand that the ranges they were shooting at exceeded two hundred meters, three hundred even four hundred meters. Thats what was being dessiminated on some news shows. Today I see a former DELTA sniper going over the evidence and he suggests these aren't military trained shooters given that the shortest range is FIFTY METERS and the longest is 100 meters.....sheeeeesh when my daughter was TEN she could shoot a 5.56 mm and hit you in the head. Now she's 21 and much better, lol.
The DELTA guy opines that these are the acts of military wannabes probably in their early 20's. Well organized and well planned, with extensive recon taking place...possibly even rehersals. I think I have to agree. At this time I would characterize this event as another Colombine; but covering more terrain.
I hope they take these idiots out and I maintain now more than ever that given a range of fifty meters, it is well possible that a lawfully ARMED citizen can make the difference and save the day!
Robert Young, a DC construction worker was at the Home Depot area at the time of the shooting and told investigators he saw the shooter(s). He said he was pulling out and inadvertently blocked two men in a white Astrovan. They were very agitated and sped around him. Here's what he told the authorities: THE MEN WERE MIDDLE EASTERN!!!!!!
I opined this over a week ago on the Dear Mr. Policeman thread.
Considering the firepower available to a fire team, squad, platoon to company sized unit which is man portable and even more sustained by the self contained load of a vehicle trunk or pickup trunk,...it's not unreasonable for the law of averages to allow such a massacre of 100 or so inncent people every 3 months to year and a slaughter of some 1000 or so in our society every 1-10 years. When I say a 'law of averages' it is simply based upon a convolution of factors such as common technology available within a society, the possibility of 1-10 possible murderers in every million of population, and the total flux of transient population.
To some extent, the only factor inhibiting such a calamity is similar to comparing Lebanon of 30 yrs ago to the Lebanon of today.
It seems as though if a certain threshold is broken within modern society, this flood of terror might become unleashed. In our case, not from necessarily any one particular grouping of ideologies.
Unlike Lebanon, the US has fashioned an acceptance of a multitude of diverse extreme groups, any of which might engage in such a lunatic campaign simply by some queer quirk in events and their personality.
Within the purview of Non-governmental organizations and other groups with isolated agendas, many a refuge exists for a handful to several hundred extremists who could feed such a frenzy.
I'm not suggesting some paranoid chaotic obsession, but rather observing what social factors seem to exist in unstable societies versus those elements seemingly stable within our own. Without sincere belief in God, I see nothing really preventing such a chaotic situation other than perhaps the status quo.
If that should change too frequently, and I suspect this is the tide bin Laden is hoping to unleash, except around the globe focused on militant Muslim belief, could surge irreversibly.
If 10 out of a hundred NGOs fostered 5-10 suicidal lunatics to garner political attention by commiting terror as an act to oppose 'establishment', does anybody sincerely believe Jesse Jackson would have the ethics to oppose those acts, ....or would he convolute the terror and media attention to serve a personal agenda?
Would the 2 Congressmen who ventured to Iraq and voice their support of Iraq over Bush have the intestinal fortitude to state unequivacably their disdain for terror, or would they merge their limelight into acquiescent search for militant support?
How many socialist democrats would simply unite in a search for peace ....at the expense of all Constitutional freedom....provided only they could rule?
If this occured,....would there be enough patriots of the Constitution left with level heads to discern, act in defense where necessary, and attack when wise for our system to win?
I suspect things aren't this bad,...but it wouldn't surprise me if a handful of idiots who think the Clintons were their cup of tea, wouldn't be stupid enough to promote and engage in such planning and action.
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