[Long Cut]

I keep coming back to this...you have to look at the BIG PICTURE sometimes. Look at the last 30 days or so:

1. Two separate cells of AQ'ers captured, with evidence indicating similar attacks planned;

2. U.S. Marines attacked, TWICE in two days by AQ'ers;

3. French tanker attacked, COLE-style;

4. Finnish (Helsinki) bombing;

5. Bali Massacre;

And all of this as the U.S. ramps up to destroy Saddam Hussein.

Amid all of this, an EXTRAORDINARILY good sniper, skilled in exfiltration as well as shooting, begins operating in the Maryland/Virginia/DC area. He/they violate or ignore all known serial killer/mass killer profiles.

Think about it...this is part of a wider, worldwide effort. At the very least, this possibility should be examined and dealt with. The old FBI "profiling" methods, while excellent and time-proven to work well (if not foolproof), do NOT take the prospect of a terrorist attack (military-style, organized, supported) into account.

Full disclosure, I am NOT a military sniper, I only shoot recreationally, and I'm only an Enlisted E-6 in the Navy, so I could be wrong on all of the above. It all, however, seems too well timed to be anything other than an organized, coordinated attack on targets of oppurtunity worldwide.

Am I totally offbase? We ARE at war, after all. The enemy could be expected to strike at us again, in his own way, no?

[Dog]

Did you see that thread yesterday about one of our counter-terrorism experts getting killed in a small plane accident in Aussie land???

[Sacajaweau]

Add to that, the recent tapes of UBL and that other creep that was talking about "codes" and Atta and the two cells that were taken down.

That's a lot of News coverage and a lot of possible "Go" signals.

Notice that there was no hit on the 8th, the day the decision was being made on the NY cell bail issue.

Sac

[Lion's Cub]

I don't believe you are off at all.

Most of the minds here are still fighting in the past. They haven't made the paradigm shift yet.

It's sort of like the British who insisted on staying in formation because that's the way it was always done. I have every confidence, though, that this shift will be made as more Americans begin to grasp the concept.

[JulieRNR21]

The Big Picture you describe makes a lot of sense to me!

My guess is that the LE, FBI, etc. won't discuss the possibility for fear of panicing the already jittery population!

They say; 'No group has claimed responsibility'....as if that was a requirement....there are thousands of AQ trained agents lurking among us who could undertake such a 'sniper campaign' on their own.