Police suppress terrorism angle

WorldNetDaily ^ | October, 16, 2002 | Paul Sperry

[scripter]

WASHINGTON – Several witnesses to the Beltway sniper shootings over the past two weeks have described suspects resembling Middle-Eastern men, but authorities have played down the Islamic terrorism angle to avoid mass "panic" in the area, an ATF official told WorldNetDaily.

"That angle is actually being looked at, and the FBI has the lead on it," said the official, who is working with the sniper-murders task force based in Maryland's Montgomery County, where the first five shootings took place.

"None of this has been overlooked. There's an awful lot that they're not allowing out," he said. "But the issue really is, as it was with the nuclear (terrorism) stuff, that they do not want public panic."

The Bush administration fears parents might pull their children from schools if police speculate about a terrorist connection, he says. And federal employees might skip work, effectively shutting down the government.

Also, tourists would likely cancel travel plans, dealing another blow to the area's already soft economy, says the official, who wished to go unnamed.

That said, the task force won't likely release a composite sketch of suspects – alternately described by witnesses, law-enforcement lookouts and police-scanner chatter as "Hispanic," "Middle-Eastern," "olive-skinned" and "dark-skinned" – until all other suspects are ruled out.

Two white males apprehended separately in the manhunt, based on tips, have been questioned and released. While they were in custody or under watch, the shootings continued. Police say the men, both from Maryland, are not suspects.

Montgomery County Police Chief Charles Moose, who is leading the multi-jurisdictional investigation, Tuesday said the task force has at least a "partial" description of suspects who he suggested are minorities.

But he elected not to release the information, explaining it might "paint some group."

Since Oct. 2, the sniper or snipers have cut down 11 people in Washington and five surrounding counties with single shots to the head or torso. Nine have died. All were shot with a rifle or rifles that chamber a .223 round, such as an AR-15 or hunting rifle.

Prince Georges Police Department Detective Paula Pascarella, who is part of the task force, told WorldNetDaily on Friday that authorities are investigating the possibility of teams of snipers using more than one .223-caliber rifle and traveling in more than one white vehicle.

Moose told reporters at Tuesday's press conference that there are "numerous vehicles they could be using."

The task force has released composite graphics of a white box truck witnesses described leaving the scene of one or more of the Maryland shootings. On Tuesday, it released composite graphics of two models of white cargo vans with roof racks that witnesses reported seeing fleeing the last two shootings in Virginia.

Federal authorities interviewed by WorldNetDaily say the sniper shootings are more sophisticated than first thought, and have the earmarks of an al-Qaida operation.

• For one, the shootings are unbelievably brazen, like the Sept. 11 attacks. Eyewitnesses in both the Home Depot shooting in Falls Church, Va., and Exxon station shooting in Fredericksburg, Va., told authorities they saw a sniper taking aim and shooting from outside the reported getaway van, WorldNetDaily has learned.

• The snipers, like the Sept. 11 hijackers, seem highly disciplined and under control. They've stayed away from the District of Columbia, where security is tight and Potomac bridges make escape risky. They take one shot, aiming at the head or heart, and flee the scene. A man shot at a Manassas, Va., Sunoco station, for example, was felled by a bullet that entered the upper left part of his back. They appear to have pre-selected their targets to spread the greatest fear in the nation's capital. Victims range in age (13 to 72), race and sex. Message: No one is safe – not even under a covered parking lot amid other shoppers, as they proved in the Home Depot assault.

• They strike at day and at night – but not on weekends, ostensibly to breed panic among workers commuting into Washington Monday through Friday from the five bedroom communities where they've hit. It's as if the snipers are "on a mission to shut down" the nation's capital, observed one law-enforcement official. And it may be working: Many federal employees, including some at the Pentagon, have requested they be allowed to telecommute to work part of the week until the shootings stop, WorldNetDaily has learned.

• By using common white delivery trucks and/or vans, snipers have spread law enforcement thin. Dragnets that have shut down major arteries in and out of the capital have proved fruitless. Some 200 detectives in the Washington area are working around the clock on the case. The FBI Terrorism Task Force has assigned agents. So have Maryland and Virginia state police. The Secret Service also is helping with the investigation, as WorldNetDaily first reported Oct 4. Next: The Pentagon, which is expected to help with aerial surveillance.

• Snipers have managed to terrify America's capital with just 11 strategic shots. Homecoming football games and SAT tests have been canceled. Drivers are afraid to pump gas. Shoppers brave enough to go out walk briskly across parking lots in zig-zag patterns. Schools are in indefinite "lock-down," meaning kids can't go outside for recess until the snipers are caught.

• The shootings took place alongside a resurgence in al-Qaida terrorism. Successful smaller-scale attacks against Americans and other Westerners in Yemen, Kuwait and Indonesia were apparently praised in a letter penned by Osama bin Laden himself, who appears to have reemerged defiantly from the shadows.

"These shootings are in line with cheap, low-level terrorism designed to disrupt commerce and law enforcement, and to lower morale," the ATF official summed up.

Al-Qaida training videos recovered by U.S. forces in Afghanistan demonstrate small-scale attacks such as drive-by shootings and assassinations, as WorldNetDaily first reported. The al-Qaida cell recently busted in Oregon was uncovered after local police spotted operatives shooting targets with assault rifles.

Other developments:

• Surveillance-and-detection teams in unmarked cars have been deployed to watch for snipers at locations and intersections around Washington that have been profiled as possible targets.

• Authorities now suspect the so-called tarot card left near a Maryland school-shooting scene is more a "red herring" than a break in the case. Police still have not made the document public.

• They also view the Michaels crafts store connection as nothing more than a coincidence. Michaels stores are located in shopping centers, such as the Seven Corners Shopping Center in Falls Church, where the Home Depot is also located. The snipers are targeting high-traffic areas such as shopping centers.

• The task force did not get a good license plate number for the sniper van used in the Home Depot attack. "We have a lot of numbers," said the ATF official. "That's the problem."

• FBI agents are upset Moose is still running the investigation, and think the FBI should take over.

  "There have been more shootings outside Montgomery County than inside his jurisdiction," said an FBI veteran. "Yet he's still in charge."

  He called Moose's performance so far "disquieting."

• Authorities aren't sure anymore that the snipers are escaping shooting scenes on highways. They may be stationed locally and then draw back to nearby hideouts, which may explain how they've managed to slip dragnets.

• It's unlikely the administration will authorize National Guardsmen to help with roadblocks and other aspects of the investigation, because that would "tip the hand" that it's terrorism and spook citizens, the ATF official confided.

[Demidog]

Where shall we send all the children?

If I lived in that area, I'd keep them close and wouldn't entrust their care with NEA-employed communists.

[patriciaruth]

Do we know the truth yet? What would you say if you were President of the United States at this point? "It might be a terrorist, run for your lives?"

Check the speech to the joint session of Congress back in September, 2001. The President was very blunt about the war as he saw it then and the dangers we would be facing.

[Eva]

The cover up has nothing to do with panic, it has to do with admitting that the Daschle Democrats did not bring the Homeland Security Bill to a vote, so we have no Homeland Security Task Force to handle the investigation, as well as the fact that a domestic terror attack with lend more credence to the Bush war on terrorism. Remember, the left has alot riding on, "It's the economy, Stupid." If they admitted that we have a new form of terrorism threatening us, one month before the election, it would be all over for the Democrats.

[patriciaruth]

If I lived in that area, I'd keep them close and wouldn't entrust their care with NEA-employed communists.

No matter where anyone lives, this is true. Bump for homeschooling!

[Demidog]

In 1980, Reagan made a speech about the Drug war too. Have we won yet?

[patriciaruth]

patriciaruth: He has been reported to be carrying a ChiCom version of the AK-74.

Demidog: And Elvis has been reported to be living in Fresno.

Common, dawg, you were ridiculing me. Let's move on and bash NEA communists instead of each other.

[patriciaruth]

We haven't won the war against murderers and thieves and rapists yet either. Should we stop fighting and make it legal?

[patriciaruth]

admitting that the Daschle Democrats did not bring the Homeland Security Bill to a vote, so we have no Homeland Security Task Force to handle the investigation,

So you think that the Dems and not the Bush administration is putting the pressure on the media not to start screaming "terrorist!"

[seeker41]

I'm not affliated with the anti's, never have been.

[Future Useless Eater]

FBI agents are upset Moose is still running the investigation, and think the FBI should take over.

I would rather an incompetent Moose run it, than an incompetent FBI.

• Isn't that the same Ruby Ridge, Waco coverup, Clinton political spy organization?
• Is there any chance it has turned around yet into a lean, mean, shi'ite kicking machine?
• Isn't it more likely that since the FBI reports to G.W. that every day where the case goes unsolved would cause a 2-point slide in G.W's approvals?

[Kevin Curry]

The blunt truth is, if the suspect were fair-skinned and of apparent European ethnicity, a police sketch would have been made widely available days ago.

[spodefly]

They know more than they are telling us, at least according to the source referenced above. Also, there is a cognitive dissonance in how this sniper scenario is working itself out versus the information (and lack of info) that we are getting. I would speculate that this is worse than having them be totally frank with us as to what they think and know.

The goal is not to induce panic, but instead to perform the 'common defenses' function of the government, and do so with some alacrity, to trust us to handle the info they have. Instead we are getting 'moosed' with pictures of white vans, and trickles of disinfo that does nothing to inspire confidence. This lack of confidence in what the government knows and what they tell us is as damaging as the terrorism itself.

[motexva]

Please guys, if you want to argue about the drug war there's probably about a million other threads you could do it on.

[seeker41]

If they admitted that we have a new form of terrorism threatening us, one month before the election, it would be all over for the Democrats.

One can only wish for such a thing, the dims being ridden out of town on a rail.

[ImaGraftedBranch]

Not only that, their should be they're (no, the people aren't stoopid.)

[Demidog]

I'm not affliated with the anti's, never have been.

Right. So my defense of FR against those cretins was bad and I am still using the same tactics acccording to you but you're NOT and never have been affiliated with the anti-freepers. OK.

[Demidog]

I'm not arguing about the drug war. Hope that helps.

[Demidog]

We haven't won the war against murderers and thieves and rapists yet either.

We don't have a war on those.

[Meem the Scream]

I have a theory about the sketch of the shooter/s. First, why is it taking so long? It seems Moose has been promising it for days, yet surely if the public's help is wanted, they'd get the sketch out ASAP, like they've done in every case – cases of lesser magnitude – I can recall. I mean, that's always a top priority, is't it?

Now… I think the preponderance of eyewitness descriptions is pointing to a "swarthy"- or "olive-skinned"-type male, or males. And I think Chief Moose is stalling on releasing the composite drawing because “he” (people telling him what to say) is afraid that everyone with a gun is going to target ME-appearing people. I think that they're hoping they'll capture the killer before public demands sketch, and that once perp is in custody, there won't be as much revenge taken.

They're playing both ends agains the middle, though.