Beltway Sniper Shootings-FR Commentary-Tuesday, Oct. 15

Fox News, CNN, Press Conferences | October 15, 2002 | Fox News, CNN, Press Conferences

[Peach]

To avoid multiple vanity threads regarding any news from press conferences, let's keep a live commentary thread going again today.

Note: This is the graphics-free thread. Graphics can be found under the thread titled "Beltway Sniper Shootings-Graphics Only"

[johnb838]

THe same gun doesn't surprise me as much as the same van.

[Kip Lange]

They go into "lockdown" in the schools; I could see small shopowners with large bay windows considering pulling the drapes tightly shut, I dunno...what do you mean by "barriers"? Not barbed wire, surely? Don't quite follow.

[Peach]

I don't agree with your thinking their MO would have to be to steal rental vans. They don't want to draw attention to themselves doing something so trite as steal a van or money or a gun. They have obtained what they have fairly legally and are trying to live quietly, while planning their diabolical plots.

[johnb838]

may be reluctant post 9/11 to sell a gun to a swarthy type.

RU Kidding? You don't think that it is a swarthy type selling the weapon? Now that DOES sound a bit anthroporacist (new word), i.e. giving credit for scruples where there are probably none.

[OReilly]

Young described the driver as a short man of slight build who appeared to be Mideastern. He said, ``I got a good look at the guy.''

Didn't this guy get the message, "...paints a group or causes people to be misidentified, causes them some hardship, that's the dilemma we want to stay away from."

[johnb838]

VIDEO GAMES DO NOT TEACH YOU TO SHOOT!

[eno_]

Two guns means twice as much chance the person who sold the gun would remember you, or that smuggling the guns into the country would be detected, or that the shill buyer you paid would turn you in. The lower the budget, the less likely an op will attract attention, the longer it can stay dormant, the more ops AQ can afford to mount. They are not in it for one spectacular, they want to fund a winnable terror war against the U.S. Every penny counts.

[Kip Lange]

Yes but when the plot goes off, it usually goes off quickly, efficiently, and with lethal force, is my argument. This is prolonged; different MO, slightly.

[Kip Lange]

VIDEO GAMES DO NOT TEACH YOU TO SHOOT!

I agree with you but turn off your caps lock, c'mon, nobody ever made a good point with all caps. ;-)

[Sacajaweau]

Suggested staked straw bales a while back...easy to construct (8' high), economical and readily removed. I don't know if they'll stop a bullet but think I've seen them used for target practice.

The 8 ft. high is so the sniper doesn't take advantage of them. I'd sprinkle them with pepper also so the guy sneezes if he get near them!!

Sac

[eno_]

Wouldn't the more common usage be "Middle Eastern?" It sounds as if the wire service reporter can barely bring himself to describe someone who might practice the Religion of Peace.

[Kip Lange]

No hiding from the perps. This is the game they want to play? Fine, they play it until LE ends their little spree and they cry 'n' fry. :-)

[Skywalk]

WHOA! Anyone see Haney explaining why he doesn't think it's terrorists?!?!

Says that he has trained Arab militaries and that they are utterly inept, they just can't be trained for that sort of action, that it's not a part of their mindset and culture.

Maybe there is some truth to his experience, but this guy isn't hitting targets from 500 yards, nor is it necessary that a Muslim terrorist be Arab. He/they could be Chechen or Croatian, or one of any number of groups. I also think that despite his assertion about the racial inferiority of Arabs, that they CAN learn to hit 100 yard distant targets.

[Deguello]

"LE was stopping the car before any white van, to block it in. I kept thinking about the drivers of the cars in front, in back"

Glade that you pointed this out. You have to remember that an LEO's primary responsibility is "Officer Safety". The vehicle in front is the LEO's cover...God help the driver caught in a firefight. If that driver tries to move his vehicle out of position, he will be jailed for refusing an offical order from a PO and possibly endangering a PO.

[WillVoteForFood]

Not barbed wire, but rather simply something to take a customer at a self serv gas station for example out of the line of fire. Somebody above mentioned hay bale which is not a bad idea. The intent would not be to necessarily stop a bullet using the barrier but rather take the target out of sight. I would not suggest a barrier that would run the length of a storefront, but something large enough to cover in the direction most exposed to a potential attack. In this way, if attacks were to come from a direction not covered, at least maybe witnesses would know which way to look.

[Kip Lange]

WHOA! Anyone see Haney explaining why he doesn't think it's terrorists?!?!

Saw him; he gave the typical profile (me -- heh :p white and mid-twenties, basically). Didn't know his arse from a hole in the wall, if you ask me, and is just a talking head trying to cash in on a news feeding frenzy (a talking head with an "altered" set of facts).

[OReilly]

Heck, behind a strip mall is perfect. Just drive maybe a 1/4 mile or so, zoom into the back of the big rig trailer...

It jives with the no weekends schedule too. JSTARS could spot that nicely.

[madison10]

Just curious, as I have no kids, but why would gamers necessarily be "teenagers?" They could be in their 20's/30's. There are grown men who are into competition/internet games.

Anyone remember that movie with Andy Griffith where he was "hunting" people?

[areafiftyone]

You have a point. I know a few adults in their 20's and 30's who love video games because of the graphics. I see them in the computer stores buying them all the time.