Beltway Sniper Shootings-FR Commentary-Wednesday, Oct. 16

Fox News, CNN, Press Conferences | October 16, 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.

[Peach]

Heard last night on Fox and CNN that police have surveillance tape from one of the shootings last week and the shooting Monday night. At least one of the tapes shows two vehicles at a gas station just prior to the gas station shooting - the vehicles were an Astrovan and a white box truck. It's pretty commonly accepted that there is a team of at least two shooters in two vehicles, and a possibility that each vehicle contains two people - making a total of a team of four.

[Sacajaweau]

What happened to the abandoned box truck that they found near Sousa bridge?

Sac

[Peach]

Only heard that it didn't pan out as related to the sniper shootings. Could be mis-information, because the only vehicle I've heard identified with Monday's shooting was an Astrovan.

[TomGuy]

I posted this theory several days ago:

---

Consider this:

If these sniper deaths are al-qaeda/ME terrorist related,
Atta and his thugs moved in groups of 4 or 5.

If this is an activated cell, it may consist of 4 or 5 persons. What if.....

2 occupy a white van. No weapons, no sinister elements inside. They are, however, in contact with a second vehicle. White van gets to the proximity of the next sniper shooting. Immediately after the shooting, the white van speeds off, intent on being seen--because it contains no weapons, no residue, nothing to appear sinister. It is the decoy.

2nd vehicle is occupied by 2, probably 3. 1, the driver, is the front lookout. 3 is the backside lookout. 2 is the sniper. They plant themselves at their next geographic target. They coordinate with white van.

Both vehicles wait and watch until #2, the sniper, tags a victim. White van moves into place--to make the obvious/overt speed-away.

Sniper's two cohort lookouts indicate the all-clear. The shot rings out. The white van is ordered to "go". 2nd vehicle slinks off on a side road to get away, while APB's are looking for a white van seen speeding away from the scene.

[Peach]

Absolutely the theory I'm going with. One car "speeds" away to attract attention, the vehicle with the shooter in it drives slowly away. The "attract attention" vehicle naturally does not have anything in it to link to the shootings, in the event they are pulled over. This is a bigger operation than some kids who watch video games, as has been opined here. It's a bigger operation than just a few nuts. It's either domestic terrorism with olive-skinned men or it's AQ. I vote for AQ.

[tomkat]

i've begun to see the logic in that scenario over the last couple of days.

however, in keeping with KISS, it's as likely the van driver is alone,
and the second (shooter) vehicle need only have a driver/lookout w/shooter in back.

besides being psychotic goathumpers, everything i've read says these guys are some cheap bastards.
employers' costs being what they are, payroll's easier to cope with when you're only paying three v five ...

[areafiftyone]

Could be. If this is ME terrorists we need to do a major purge in this country or it will happen again in another state.

[areafiftyone]

You know I was going with the Home Grown nutjob but now that I hear all this evidence I am now leaning heavily towards ME people who have decided to act on their own and create terror. Maybe taking a page from our history of serial/sniper killers knowing what terror it instills in us and also making it seem like it is the typical homegrown white nutjob to throw us off. But now that there are witnesses that throws their game plan off. Fox just announced that there is a sniper movie that is supposed to come out from Hollywierd but they are holding off until they get these nuts.

[aristeides]

There is a worldnetdaily story today that the feds have supressed a middle easteren terrorist link to avoid panic in DC.

Avoid panic, or avoid a backlash against Middle Easterners?

[Peach]

Hollyweird showing sensitivity - it's like being in an alternate universe. It could still be a few homegrown nuts - but it's so organized that I rather doubt it.

[aristeides]

That witness Young said it was Middle Easterners. He's a construction worker. That means he works with Hispanics, and can recognize them.

[aristeides]

Could you coordinate an attack like that without radio communications? I imagine such comms can be monitored, and jammed.

[areafiftyone]

Both. People tend to panic when they think of ME terrorists right now after 9/11 and they don't want them backlashing against the government saying they are inept and can't get rid of our own terror cells. This is perfect fodder for the anti-war crowd - in otherwords, we want to go to war and we can't even get rid of our own terror cells yada yada yada.

[looney tune]

evidence I am now leaning heavily towards ME people who have decided to act on their own and create terror.

Why not an AQ cell operating here in the USA?

[Route66]

That article is worth a read.

No way to confirm sources, but it does talk about a lot of the same things we have been speculating on here.

http://www.worldnetdaily.com/news/article.asp?ARTICLE_ID=29298

[Sacajaweau]

That's a good point..adding to that a construction worker is probably a good observer.

Was there construction going on at the plaza?? Jumping out of a truck seems "unusual" and perhaps they couldn't get to their "planned" position.

Sac

[areafiftyone]

I don't know. They are not the only terrorists you know. It could be an entirely new ME terrorist cell popping up. But then again it could be AQ. I am not ruling them out. It was just a theory.

[tomkat]

the shooter's driver/lookout leans against the car havin' a smoke, taps the roof when all's clear.
the van driver, knowing the target area beforehand, merely waits for a body to drop.

(butted in, sorry)  

[DugwayDuke]

Got to worldnetdaily and read the article, it's on the front page and easy to find. They said "avoid panic".

Expanding upon my theory about wanting to be seen in order to send a message. We may have seen the last of this cell. They may disappear into a safe house or mosque. They might be debriefed or make some video tapes for the faithful.

Bin Laden is known for making economic attacks. We could see a lull with a major outbreak of similar activities in time for the christmas shopping season.

One more thought. If these guys did want to send a message that they were middleeastern terrrorists, then it follows that the PC attitude of not wanting to call this terrorism may have only extended the activities of this cell costing additional lives.

[tomkat]

ps:

don't rule out indonesians.
the falls church area has a large 'oriental' demographic ...