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Coloring the sniper news
TownHall.com ^ | 10/11/02 | Michelle Malkin

Posted on 10/10/2002 9:18:38 PM PDT by kattracks

MONTGOMERY COUNTY, Md. -- Some profiling experts are convinced that the roving sniper who has terrorized my neighborhood and surrounding communities is a white male.

-- Dr. Michael Welner, a forensic psychiatrist at New York University Medical Center, described the shooter as "white, male, single, 20s-30s . . . (with a) longtime fascination with hunting and shooting."

-- Chris Whitcomb, former FBI hostage rescue team member, told NBC's Katie Couric that "statistically, it's going to be a white male, and it's going to be a young person, young 20s emotionally, but also because that's the age most likely statistically somebody's going to commit a crime like this."

-- Brian Levin, the director of something called the Center for the Study of Hate and Extremism in San Bernardino, Calif., stated confidently that the killer "is kind of a wallpaper white male, a disenfranchised, disrespected man who's getting back at society. That's one of the reasons he's kept his distance from inner D.C., where he might lose his cover."

The media immediately embraced the Angry White Male theory by sensationalizing the cops' questioning over the weekend of one Robert Gene Baker. Newspaper reports described him as "heavily tattooed" and "linked" to "militia and white supremacist" groups. The headlines screamed: "Supremacist Sought in Sniping Spree" and "Neo Nazi Named as Sniper Murders Suspect." But in fact, Baker was never a suspect and had no weapons on him at the time he was taken into custody for an outstanding auto-theft warrant.

The AWM theory remains a plausible one, of course. But it isn't the only one. You won't hear Katie Couric or Peter Jennings talking about it with their conventional-thinking experts, but there is a significant possibility that the sniper and the sniper's support system could be non-white Muslim extremists with ties to Osama bin Laden's al Qaeda network.

Consider: Al Qaeda training videos analyzed by the Army show Middle Eastern terrorists, armed with assault rifles, rehearsing combat scenarios involving ambushes, raids and sniper attacks.

Consider: James Ujaama, a black American Muslim convert, was indicted in August on charges of conspiring to help al Qaeda establish a terrorist training camp on a ranch in southern Oregon. According to one camp attendee, 10 to 15 members of Ujaama's Seattle mosque brought a large arsenal of weapons to the ranch for target practice. "I thought they would only use rifles, but they were pulling out AK-47s, pistols and other assault rifles, enough for everybody and then some," the camp attendee told the Seattle Post-Intelligencer. Drills included both close-range and long-range shooting.

And consider: Just before the killings in the Washington, D.C., area began, federal authorities arrested members of a suspected terrorist cell in Portland. Their cache of weapons included semi-automatic pistols, a Chinese SKS 7.62 assault rifle, a 12-gauge Remington 870 shotgun, and a 30.06 rifle with scope, which they shot off at a private quarry in Washougal, Wash. According to Skamania County Deputy Sheriff Mark Mercer, the alleged cell members held target practice shortly after the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks.

An unindicted co-conspirator of the terrorist cell, Lebanese-born Ali Khaled Steitiye, was arrested in Portland last October after attempting to buy an assault rifle illegally. Federal agents found several weapons and 1,000 rounds of .22-caliber ammunition in his home (the same caliber used by the D.C.-area sniper), a calendar with Sept. 11 circled in red, and evidence suggesting a link to the terrorist organization Hamas.

One of Steitiye's alleged shooting buddies, accused Portland terrorist cell member and black Muslim convert Jeffrey Leon Battle, joined the U.S. Army Reserve in 2000 and was assigned to a military engineering unit in Oregon. He was discharged for desertion, but had already received basic Army training -- including instruction in firearms and ordnance use. The federal terrorism indictment against him charges that Battle joined the Army "in order to receive training in U.S. military tactics and weapons which he intended to use against the U.S. and in support of al Qaeda and the Taliban."

Many in the mainstream media are convinced that a "wallpaper white male" is responsible for the D.C. area sniper killings. But the faces of evil come in every color. We must be prepared for all possibilities, not just the ones that play into reporters' preconceived notions about hunters, soldiers, tattoos and guns.

Contact Michelle Malkin | Read her biography

©2002 Creators Syndicate, Inc.



TOPICS: Culture/Society; Editorial; News/Current Events; US: District of Columbia; US: Maryland; US: Virginia
KEYWORDS: banglist
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To: MissAmericanPie
Heard anything about the Antrax killer lately?


Dr Rihab Rashida Taha

Nah. Couldn't be the one. Doesn't fit the FBI profile. Not an American, and got an extra X chromosome to boot!

41 posted on 10/11/2002 12:07:24 AM PDT by cynwoody
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To: Sabertooth
but there is a significant possibility that the sniper and the sniper's support system could be non-white Muslim extremists with ties to Osama bin Laden's al Qaeda network

Whatever happened to the original reports of 2 hispanic or middle eastern males leaving the scene in a white "step van"?

Great graphics on Michelle, the she-lion.

42 posted on 10/11/2002 5:09:11 AM PDT by BOBTHENAILER
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To: kattracks
Chinese SKS 7.62 assault rifle,

Huh? SKS is a fun little carbine, but an assault rifle it isn't.

1,000 rounds of .22-caliber ammunition in his home (the same caliber used by the D.C.-area sniper)

.22 is not the same as .223! I think Michelle needs a bit of real life firearms training. Any volunteers?

43 posted on 10/11/2002 5:20:01 AM PDT by ArrogantBustard
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To: motexva
You make it sound so good, I hate to disagree . . .

1. NOBODY simply 'snaps' and becomes an efficient serial assassin, complete w/ shooting skills.

2. These leftists nutjobs don't have the fortitude for this 'close-up' work -- That's why they bomb.

3. 'Mooslems' M.O. = Terror thru' random violence, with DC and NYC already established as target areas. They're working in DC's bedroom communities . . .

4. I don't see anything 'weird' about this. Every move they make is dictated by two simple objectives; Maximizing effect, and minimizing the odds of getting caught . . .

That sensitive individual you're describing went directly from jail -- to kicking his dog . . .

44 posted on 10/11/2002 7:02:55 AM PDT by Crowcreek
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To: Sabertooth
Thanks, Saber ! This could be anything. I'll be glad when they nab this jerk. He shot another one this morning. Sheesh !


45 posted on 10/11/2002 9:30:45 AM PDT by MeekOneGOP
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To: Sabertooth
bttt
46 posted on 10/11/2002 10:46:59 AM PDT by Marine Inspector
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To: Born on the Storm King
...the greatest sniper in history (#of kills) was the Soviet army female Svetlana Akhnmatova at the Battle of Stalingrad.

No. The top female Soviet military sniper of the Great Patriotic War was Soviet Naval Landing force sniper Lyudmilla Pavlichenko, the first citizen of the USSR to be entertained in the White House, with 300+ kills, usually given as 309.

The top military sniper of all time was Finnish target competitor Simo Hayha, with 515 recorded kills during the 4-month invasion of Finland from November 1939 to February, 1940. This was even more of an achievement considering that it took place during a brutal winter near the Arctic Circle, where daylight lasted for but 4-5 hours per day, though some of Hayha's hits were made at night as Soviet troops tried to warm themselves around open fires.

The all-time most prolific sniper was probably the American shooter Lew Wetzel, whose family had been killed by Indians, and in return, Wetzel, known to his foes as *the wind of Death* spent the rest of his life eliminating them wherever he encountered them, primarily with his .32 caliber flintlock Pennsylvania rifle, but also utilizing other novelties. He is believed to have killed well over a thousand.

Additional details of the top riflemen from the various nations and different conflicts can be found *here*.

-archy-/-


47 posted on 10/11/2002 11:21:55 AM PDT by archy
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To: Crowcreek
Don't ever apologize for disagreeing or questioning. That's what forums like this are for!

You raise valid objections to my theory, let me try to question them in return -

1. NOBODY simply 'snaps' and becomes an efficient serial assassin, complete w/ shooting skills.

You're right - spree and serial killers don't "snap" and become hyper efficient killing machines. They snap and start to kill. The person doing this killing is either "self-taught" or with military training. Probably disturned from youth, whatever knowledge he has is incidental to the killing. If he didn't snipe, he'd make a bomb, or show up with a gun at a restaurant and start spraying. His skill or experience with a long gun is incidental to his desire to kill. That desire festered within him for years, until there was some event that snapped him. Lost his job, lost his spouse, got in a fight with a friend, maybe even just got cut off in traffic. Or, if my theory is correct, got really pissed about something that happened at the lefto demonstrations in DC Last week.

2. These leftists nutjobs don't have the fortitude for this 'close-up' work -- That's why they bomb.

But - it's not close up work. He kills from a distance, apparently at such a distance that he can abscond quickly, leaving very little trace of himself.

3. 'Mooslems' M.O. = Terror thru' random violence, with DC and NYC already established as target areas. They're working in DC's bedroom communities . . .

That's a good point - but think of it in a different way. The people who live in those bedroom communities are the federal employees, bureaucrats, politician staffers, etc. who have "ruined our environment and sold the country out to the big corporations." But I really don't think that that's the motivation, the killer is inspired by what his victims are doing or where they are when they kill him, and not in the big picture suburb sense - more in the locational sense.

4. I don't see anything 'weird' about this. Every move they make is dictated by two simple objectives; Maximizing effect, and minimizing the odds of getting caught . . .

Not much to disagree with there - the killer clearly is looking for impact, and doesn't want to get caught. But why does he seek that impact? How has he justified these crimes in his mind (serial killers usually do, all but a few don't like to admit they're monsters), and what makes him choose the victims he chooses?

And there's been another shooting at a gas station, I wonder when someone will connect those dots? I'll admit, the gas station could indicate an Islamoterror angle. But what about the shootings at the chain stores? What about the kid?

48 posted on 10/11/2002 11:48:33 AM PDT by motexva
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To: motexva
Cold-blooded leftist greenie killer? OK - It's a stretch for me, but possible, I guess.

Say, is there some kind of pool in progress for these theories ??

49 posted on 10/11/2002 1:25:31 PM PDT by Crowcreek
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To: *bang_list
bang!
50 posted on 10/13/2002 2:28:55 PM PDT by Tailgunner Joe
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To: motexva
Federal employees, soccer moms (and even young teen schoolkids) are traditionally leftists to begin with. So having a leftist target others of the same political wing seems a stretch, although almost everything else does at this time too. More traditional targets of leftists could be right wing politicians (ok, very few in DC area if any), corporate executives, rednecks, uniformed military, policepeople, etc.
51 posted on 10/14/2002 5:52:41 PM PDT by SteveH
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To: kattracks; JohnHuang2; LouD; ChasingFletch; Black Agnes; Billthedrill; philetus; Ajnin; junta; ...
This column, written 2 weeks ago, was prescient.
52 posted on 10/24/2002 1:30:17 AM PDT by Clinton Is Scum
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