I am still hung up on the truck. I have had several people tell me that it is the ideal escape vehicle et.al. but, I remain skeptical. How 'bout this scenario.... several "hits" with the vehicle being a large white box van. then, a "hit" that has the police come running. There, parked in a strategic position is the van. PD goes on the offensive, surrounds the van, SWAT creeps up on it, and BANG! it was a trap. the truck is packed with ANFO and the SWAT tem is vaporized. Backup officers are stunned by the blast (think flash-bang) and Abdul the sniper opens up on them from a concealed position and a few more brave souls get killed. Abdul and Suliman run to the Camaro they have 'jacked, and make their getaway.
Sound far-fetched? Hardly. Part of terrorism is to instill fear into the populace that they aren't safe. That the "powers-that-be" cannot protect them. What better way then to demonstrate this than to effectively remove the "best and brightest" (which is generally the criteria for SWAT) of local law enforcement. If they are lucky maybe the FBI wold have a couple of HRT types there and then all the better.
You all have to understand that the shooter, if he is an AQ terrorist (and my bets are that he is), has already attained "legend" status among the AQ. He has killed kafir and eluded the police. At this point, even if he is killed, he will be an admired martyr for all AQ to aspire to. Honestly, I fully expect a "copy-cat" affair to start in another city any time. I say copy cat, because law-enforcement is ill-equipped to pursue these affairs as true terrorist actions. So, they have to use their training and tools in a manner that they are familiar with. I.e. a "spree" killer. If another cell starts excuting kafir it will be touted as a "copy-cat" and not the next phase of a calculated terror plan.
In my opinion THAT is the soft spot that America has in dealing with these guys. We (America) will continue to rationalize these actions against a metric that we can understand (i.e. a whack-job, mentally unstable, emotionally disturbed INDIVIDUAL as opposed to an organized group) then, once it is established that this is indeed an organized effort, then there will be the overall denial (How could this happen here?) then the witch-hunt (who knew and when?) all the time, we will be trying (and initially failing, as in Maryland now) to exterminate the threat.
The sooner we recognize that it is a broad threat and take steps to mitigate the threat, we will have dead people littering the streets. Get used to it. It is only beginning.
God knows, I want to be wrong, but, those of you that have been on FR for more than a day know that my track record is unfortuneatly pretty good. I have been right more than I have been wrong. Thats not to say that I havn't been wrong, but as far as I can see, and I am first to admit that I base my opinion and observations on an extremely narrow fact-set and I do not profess to have some "inside souce" for information. I am just going on my gut instincts. That being said, I want to be wrong, but facts seem to indicate otherwise.
I return to the mists of "lurk"
Vaya con 'dios mi Freepers
Semper Fi