[Objective Reality]

I can almost guarantee you what Moose meant by "electronically," and I'll bet $100 it doesn't have anything to do with any wire transfer to Yemen or anything other of the sort.

It means, the sniper told them "Go and get yourself a shortwave transciever, tune it to this number on the dial, and sit there until I start talking. At that point, I'll ask you a series of questions, the answers to which are in this note. When you answer them correctly, I'll provide a routing number to a Swiss bank account. You'll transfer X amount of money into that account. Then you'll never hear from me again. Got it? Thanks."

See "Proof of Life," starring my favorite famous conservative, Russel Crowe, for where I came up with this theory.

The "we're unable to do that" translates roughly into "um, our resident FBI / NSA consultants said we can't do that, since you could be transmitting from anywhere on earth and we can't triangulate it, so we can't trace it, so why not call this insta-trace 800 number instead?"

Unwise move on the part of the police. Somebody else will probably get shot because of it. It's like a hostage situation, where a hostage gets executed every time a demand is refused - only the hostages consist of the citizens of three states.

I've ranged from a lone-nut theory, to an Islamic terrorist theory, to now a master-assassin theory. This guy's probably either one of our own assassins gone Ronin, a Serb or Russian assassin, or some professional sniper graduate of the School of The Americas (Columbian or Peruvian come to mind). With this much heat, it'd be damn near impossible to disassemble a rifle within seconds, and walk away with it, without being seen - unless you've been thoroughly trained to do so.

[CharacterCounts]

Unwise move on the part of the police. Somebody else will probably get shot because of it. It's like a hostage situation, where a hostage gets executed every time a demand is refused - only the hostages consist of the citizens of three states.

Are you suggesting they meet his demands?

[steve86]

I still don't understand what Moose meant when he said we can't communicate telepathically.

[lelio]

The only flaw I see in your theory (and I too have gravitated back and forth like you) is this line:
I'll provide a routing number to a Swiss bank account.
Unforunately a "swiss bank account" is now pure fiction. The Swiss aren't letting people in that easy any more, especially for terrorists. Course if you're a "legit" politician it might be different, but for your average Joe it wouldn't be.
Plus we would be all over the Swiss, or whereever he goes, to tell us who it is.
I can't see how the sniper would get a monetary ransom. I'm thinking he wants something done.

[Minutemen]

Your theory on the wire transfer is about as interesting as any other . But what makes C.O.P. Moose believe the sniper would be gullible enough to fall for his "call me back at this(tapped) phone number? or, How 'bout if we set you up with a P.O. box?? A 5 year old kid wouldn't fall for that.