Posted on 10/11/2002 12:24:35 AM PDT by Nogbad
Excerpts from an interview with Clark Staten of emergency.com
on the Batchelor Alexander program WABC
"The sniper clearly has received escape and evasion training.
There could be two teams.
This is a first.
Most people who are knowledgeable about this case will admit this is a unique case.
We are seeing an op here that doesn't have a precedent.
In American history we never have had such a crime.
And the other time that happened was the anthrax case.
Son of Sam doesn't work with this one.
The only motive I can think of is to cause fear in the community.
I can't help but wonder this just isn't a diversion
and we're going to have a big one somewhere.
Think about the anthrax situation and the World Trade Center
the comparison is obvious,
you have the real major significant terrorist event
and then you have the diversion.
In this case the shootings are a potential diversion.
I don't want to go too far down the road of speculation,
but certainly this is taking a vast amount of resources of our investigators, and FBI and analysts
away from looking in other directions."
I don't think the guys hunting the sniper are the same guys hunting/attempting to detect Al-qaeda- NSC/CIA/FBI vs local law enforcement (oh, and secret service)
I'm convinced that this sniper team is acting directly, or in sympathy with al queda. The fact that a team of two people are involved is telling. It's random victims. Poor gramatical messages. ESL at best. Target location among DC area.
Can you say terrorists?
all the best.
On the scale:
Lone native gunman, Son of Sam type, TO Foreign Terrorists
I put myself at about 4.5.
I would put myself higher, except for that weird Tarot card.
Seems a bit incongruous for a moslem terrorist.
It would be like putting a cigar and washing powder in an anthrax letter.
I do not have a strong opinion either way. The main argument against this being al-Qaeda is that similar shootings haven't occurred elsewhere.
However, it is having the sort of effect that Islamic terrorists would want (creating generalized fear and, I would guess, slowing the local economy significantly). Moreover, the Secret Service is involved for some reason that hasn't been revealed.
As for the tarot card and note, I don't think it adds much one way or the other. Assuming it isn't a hoax or disinformation, it's consistent with either a domestic nut who snapped or with al-Qaeda.
In spite of what some people have said, the note doesn't seem inconsistent with al-Qaeda to me. "Dear Policeman" sounds foreign perhaps, and "I am God" could well mean something like "I am the hand of God." [The use of the word "God" when writing in English is quite common among Muslims, perhaps more common than the use of the Arabic word "Allah" in the midst of a passage in English.] So I wouldn't assume that the note rules out Islamic terrorism, even though it seems to imply that. (It could also be an American sympathizer in the vein of Padilla.)
As for why an Islamic terrorist would leave a Tarot card, I have no idea. Why would they leave a cigar, an empty tobacco can, and a detergent box (if they, in fact, did send the Jennifer Lopez letter to AMI)?
But maybe it really has nothing to do with al-Qaeda, and is just a domestic nut, perhaps involved in the occult and Satanism and the like.
I agree with this assessment completely.
At the link above I theorized a Dominican, Haitian, or other Caribbean person. Okie01 and Da_Shrimp added possibilities of a English-Speaking Caribbean person, or a Brit. A little discussion of the movie "Live and Let Die" too. I didn't dismiss the Qaida possibility though.
My profile arose from the tarot card, and the language written on it. However some "expert" mentioned that there was previous to the school shooting "expert" chatter in the media the day before mentioning, like, "this man thinks he's God" - so maybe the tarot card wasn't a kind of original view into the shooters mind.
If it's a terrorist, I doubt it is some Richard Reid type. Someone more like Atta, whose insanity is more "stable."
Also, the person knows that area around Maryland and Virginia. Might use backroads to use for escape, not highways.
1. Lone Domestic Nut.
10. Terrorist gang.
I believe what the guy's trying to get at is not that there haven't been serial killers before, but that there hasn't been one so skilled at hiding his/her intentions, and that's what makes it unique.
Has the killer avoided killing Blacks because he/she doesn't want to appear racist? Has the killer killed only one Black to hide the fact that it is racially motivated? Does the killer have inside knowledge of how law enforcement operates, and knows how to stay ten steps ahead? We've heard a lot of speculation about an ex-military type (not so much the skill required, as the discipline and stealth required), but I haven't heard much speculation about an ex-FBI, ex-CIA, or other LE type.
Yes, when I agreed with your assessment, that's the scale I understood you were using. (Except that I wouldn't say "lone" domestic nut, since it seems likely that there's a team of two.)
On my scale, 2/10 stands for a team of two
(domestic nuts)
Correction: today's victim was Black; that makes two of eight, to my knowledge. Perhaps the monster(s) is evening out the racial mix, lest LE get stuck on that.
Red
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.