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.

[spodefly]

Our PC Uber Alles goobermint is afraid we might take it out on our neighbors from the Religion of Peace. But lying to us just increases the chance that folks will turn vigilante, believing that the govt will not even tell them the truth, much less protect them.

Exactly. I have no intention of going out and stirring up trouble with someone just because they are Muslim. Most folks don't. They may vent while safely sitting behind a keyboard, but that is a far cry from picking up the weapons and hitting the streets.

It is really the loss of that confidence in government that will be the end of us. We all know they have run things into the ground, that the fed gets more and more bloated every year, that we are having this multicultural/diversity/PC crap shoved down our throats, while many of us pay huge taxes, and struggle to run businesses that keep people employed. We have seen the corruption and the infidelity of our elected representatives.

Throw into that mix a deliberate disinformation campaign by DC, and it is all over for us. Any trust that remains will die. And that will mean that Bin Laden was right ... we got too soft, too fat, and too twisted, and we let our culture die.

Bush had better recognize that we are at the tipping point as a nation. Maybe he does. But as a test of our will and of our readiness for what may come, this sniper deal in DC is not exactly inspriring confidence.

[Nam Vet]

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

I'm sure glad Portland got rid of this bigoted idiot. When he first moved here the Real Estate people got his number. He is a bigoted P.C. A**hole.

Nam Vet

[meadsjn]

The Myth of Posse Comitatus
Major Craig T. Trebilcock, U.S. Army Reserve
October 2000

Check out this date.

[aristeides]

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.

So, to avoid tipping off the public that it's terrorism, the government is still avoiding a tactic that could save lives.

[grania]

The real story though, is that incidents like the DC/MD/VA Shooter is an embarrassing reality to the open borders, unlimited immigration crowd that Bush, his dad and Clinton represent.

The problem is there is a shooter out there, and we don't even know if it's a home-grown psycho or a foreigner. If they had done what they should've with the borders and non-citizens in the country after 911, more of the country's resources could've been spent on domestic security.

That's why I dislike trying to solve terrorism issues by shooting things up in the Middle East. It just doesn't make us safer at home. The priorities are out of order.

[glock rocks]

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.

yup. gotta prove it isn't a bunch of cracker rednecks first. dying for diversity – next time on oprah.

diversity is racism in drag

[7thson]

I was listening to WMAL last night - which, by the way, is an excellent news station and far better than WTOP - and Chris Chor (sp) had Bill Gertz on - the excellent reporter from the Washington Times. When pressed about terrorists taking credit, he stated that al Quada (sp) has a history of not taking credit for its actions.

O'Rielly's smugness really got to me yesterday. He dismissed out of hand that it is terrorism. Sometimes he is good and sometimes his smugness overrides what should be common sense.

[Publius6961]

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

Sure, let's keep worshiping at the altar of political correctness...
After all, the price is only another life now and then... no biggie.

We can join the other well-known historical savages on the continent with our peculiar version of human sacrifice.

Mustn't "paint" any group. Even if they are hiding in the paint barrel.
We have become a nation of idiots.

[Vigilantcitizen]

"When the bring their BS down to Georgia, they are in for a surprise. And it will get ugly fast for anyone that doesn't stand up and declare in no uncertain terms which side they are on."

I hate to tell you this FRiend, but they are already here.

[7thson]

I would put my faith in the American people. I would get on television and explain the situation to them and explain why the US needs to do what it is doing. The vast majority of Americans will be behind him. Hell, not even WW II saw everyone get on the same bus. You do not have to curtail the liberties we have. Explain to them that the borders are being shut down to prevent people from coming in. Recommend that people should not travel outside the US but they can if they want. Put the onus on the American families. If they want to take their kids out of school to protect them they can. Explain to them all the good things that Western civilization has to offer and contrast it with Islam and the Middle East.

[Publius6961]

I'll have to dig out my posts from Sept 2001...

My observation then was that if the mass murder remained unanswered, we would see a lot more of it, and ultimately lose due to three things:

Indifference to illegal immigration.

The mindless, asinine embrace of "Multiculturalism".

And Political Correctness.

We seem to be on track...

[Publius6961]

President Bush: Super Genius.

Well, that deserves the idiotic comment prize of the thread so far.

Presidents come and go... but the buraucracy lives forever.

How do you deal with the bottom of the gene pool, on permanent welfare and masquerading as government employees?

Millions of them...

[Lion's Cub]

I expect the bombings to start between now and Christmas

So do I, though I think they'll wait for colder weather. I would not be surprised to see machine gun attacks in malls, either.

[Publius6961]

Yeah...
That is my main preoccupation too; drugs.

Let me go see if I can find any and sound really profound.

[Lion's Cub]

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

This is what I thought after the first road shutdown was done.

But another poster mentioned on another thread that he suspected these guys were driving into a semi parked near the scene, and I think this is the most likely explanation. They drive into the semi and the semi goes unhindered right through any road blocks.

Of course, the big showdown is going to come when the cops figure this out and start inspecting these rigs. Whether these guys just open up with machine guns and take off on motorcycles, or whether they just detonate everything around them, I don't know.

Let's hope the overhead surveillance is able to identify the right truck, if that's how they're doing it. At least then it could be more or less isolated.

[jeremiah]

The Democrat Senate, and the media, would never let you do it (Seal borders, deport illegals)

The President could whip up a frenzy of support for this goal, or better yet, in the days following 9/11, it would have been like taking drugs across our Southern border.

[6ppc]

Snipers have managed to terrify America's capital with just 11 strategic shots.

I wonder if the FBI can spell DIVERSION. I don't remember the exact number, but last night Fox said there were a huge number (4000?) of LEOs including FBI working the case. Perfect opportunity to stage another big attack.

[Bella]

ping

[B4Ranch]

Socialist Society loves diversity! Socialist Society loves the fact that our American culture is not far away from permanent dissolution. Socialist Society loves the fact 7500 illegal immigrants come into America EVERYDAY!