D.C. KILLERS: TERRORIST CELL?

New York Post ^ | 10/18/02 | CALEB CARR

[kattracks]

October 18, 2002 -- A NON-STOP frenzy of psychological profiling has been gushing out of televisions, newspapers, and magazines since the start of the "Sniper Killings" in the suburbs of Washington, D.C., earlier this month, producing in almost every case a rather too pat portrait of a killer (or perhaps two) who are white, in their 20s or early 30s, have military experience, enjoy exercising the god-like power of life and death, and are alienated from society.

[henbane]

The school parking lot would be directly under the "g" in "Arlington," and the HD would be directly across the yellow/grey street from that.

Thanks for the orientation from someone actually on the scene.

Doubtful the mosque would attract attention to itself--but always the possibility of militant Islamic "sleepers" swimming in friendly waters.

[AmericanInTokyo]

"Dear Law Enforcement Infidels,

"Marrhaba! Shughlak Taman! I am a terrorist. This is me training in a tape the filthy keffirs obtained, showing our one-shot, one-kill urban tactics in an alQaeda camp in Afghanistan near Khost. (Yeah, you smacked us good in 1998 under your Clinton for our attack on your 'Cole', but we are still standing).

Note, infidels, my eagle eye and steady arm even though the vehicle is moving. Teamwork. Timing. It's all in the teamwork and timing. And, of course, the skillful getaway, too.

But please do not profile because that might be what you unbelieving dogs call 'politically incorrect' and may bring about our capture even more quickly, thus resulting in fewer deaths. Please sandbag information from the general public because you are willing to give up a few more infidel whites and blacks and hispanics and female and men and little schoolboys to murder than suffer the inconvenience of some anti-Islam graffiti on mosques and other anti-diversity 'hate crimes', in the DC area. Kowayes, Allahu Ahkbar"

/sarcastic parody

[justshutupandtakeit]

Thanks. It was hard to believe he could have hit the kid twice.

[WestCoastGal]

There was a report this morning that a "tip" was called in and police responded to a neighhood of the Home Depot on Sunday night where a box truck was parked that had never been there before. The police apparently didn't follow up on it. Then Monday night came the shooting.

Another question I have is about the so called witness that gave false information. Could this be the scenario from all the shootings as a diversion to confuse the police? And, who was the witness at Home Depot? They interviewed one guy that night on the news who obviously had a mid-eastern accent.

Also, even though he gave olive skinned description to suspect which has now been discounted, others from the first shootings gave the same description. "Hispanic or Middle Eastern.

[angkor]

I've done an overlay on antivenom's photos, and hopefully we'll be able to post them sometime this evening.

[livius]

LOL! Folks on the subway (well, if you take the #1/9 on the Upper West Side) just about faint when the NYP is opened, regardless of the headline!

[livius]

For non-New Yorkers: the #1 subway line goes through "Lberal Central," where ugly hog Jerrold Nadler is Congressman. Opening the New York Post (NYP) in an Upper West SideSide train immediately makes all of your neighbors shrink back in fear and horror. Well, except for the ones reading "El Diario."

[angkor]

I hadn't heard about the Sunday night tip. It would be fruitful to know where the truck was supposed to have been parked.

At this stage it looks to me as if the snippets of "witness reports" we are informed of are worthless. The real witness reports are being kept under wraps.

I was unfortunately around for a completely different crime event many (30+) years ago (OK, I spent my teens in Laurel MD and was in the shopping center when George Wallace was shot, only about 50 feet away).

People get excited, memories are blurred, adrenaline is running, and there seriously is a lot of trauma and general chaos, people want to talk with someone to get the chaos out of their minds, and that would usually mean to reporters and the police.

I can understand why someone would pass along anything they see (or imagined they saw) as being "relevant", because you want to be as helpful as possible. But I cannot understand why anyone would fabricate a story from whole cloth. Honestly, it doesn't compute. It's almost perverse.

[Wolfstar]

Me too, plus I'm tired of all the useless speculation. The host of a program will ask a question only the killer knows the answer to, such as: "So, what do you think the sniper had for breakfast." And the equally moronic "expert" will actually give some psychobabble answer! Anything to fill time and keep these high-ratings stories going. The formula was born during the OJ Simpson fiasco and has just been rolling along ever since.

[Wolfstar]

Have y'all noticed the preferred profile of the anthrax killer is also some angry white dude who's a member of the vast right wing conspiracy?

[Steely Tom]

I'm afraid I don't see why you would call this kind of terrorism is "so stupid". One of the stated goals of AQ is to disrupt the American economy. Suppressing the public's willingness to go out (by shooting people randomly, including at gas stations, malls, and store parking lots), for even a moderate percentage of the people, would have such an effect.

Another goal would be to instill a sense of helplessness in the populace by demonstrating that the government cannot protect the people (the fallacy of this belief notwithstanding - but that's a second amendment issue). From all reports, there is certainly such a feeling growing in the hearts and minds of many DC area residents, if not the nation.

Good points. The reason I said I thought it would be stupid is because of what I think of as the "gain factor" (for want of a better term). By this I mean the amount of "good effect" (from AQ's point of view) in comparison to the amount of "bad effect." What I mean is that for each increment of disruption of our economy or of our sense of security/helplessness, these sniper incidents cause a huge increase in the amount of anger and and committment on the part of the population. For example, it seems to me clear that AQ is in a de facto alliance with the Democrats. The Democrats are in many practical ways carrying AQ's water; I'm not arguing here that the Dems are actually in an alliance with AQ, mearly that the goals of of the Democrats are in many practical ways (being against tighter immigration controls, being against military action in the ME, being against "racial profiling" and other law enforcement actions that would tend to focus resources directly on the threat) aligned with those of the AQ.

These sniper attacks have the effect of strongly helping the GOP get its message out, and they cause a net supression of the Democrats message. They are going to undercut Democrat's core support from their base, and this is not helpful to the goals of the AQ.

If the AQ and the brains behind the AQ understood history, they would have learned from the British example during the Nazi air attacks against London that this sort of psychological attacks -- trying to "demoralize" a population by inflicting painful tragedy on some subset of the population -- only serves to stiffen the resolve of the population by unifying it and focussing its attention and will. The AQ apparantly have no real appreciation of the enormous size of the United States, and the degree to which its population and wealth are dispersed over a huge area. I don't care how many cells they have in our country, they cannot kill or even instill daily fear in more than a tiny minority (say 10%) of the population, and long before the percentage reached that level their would be a huge reaction, resulting in the expulsion or internment of many many ME immigrants, the roll-up of their financial networks, etc. etc.

There are other examples of the "gain factor" problem I could cite, but I've already rambled on too long.

Anyway, this is only one of the reasons I think it would be stupid. Another is that it is, in effect, walking up to a heavily armed professional killer and peeing on his shoes, or spitting in his face, whatever. You are only giving him an excuse to do what he already really wants to do, which is stomp the crap out of you.

(steely)

[aristeides]

$500,000 reward.

[Wolfstar]

Can you imagine the disruption and fear brought to our country if these evil people launched multi- city terror?

We are extraordinarily fortunate that this has not occurred. It's the one line, so far, that terrorist organizations have not crossed. They seem to prefer the guerrila-style, hit-and-run type of warfare.

[finnman69]

LOL, I happen to be smack in the heart of the People's Republic of the Upper West Side and take the 1 and 9 train. Funny thing is these dummies can't help but starte at the Post when they see it.

[Destro]

The purpose of so terrorizing the nation's capital? To steal the initiative: To force all other news, including and perhaps especially the possibility of war with Iraq, off the air waves and the front pages, and thus ensure that terror rather than war is the main story once again.

I read this in the hard copy of the NYPost and the above paragraph cought my eye. No one on this thread has commented. Just who would not want the Iraqi war debate off the medias radar? Who is Mr. Carr implicating? al-Qaeda? Why would al-Qaeda want Iraq off the news? If not al-Qaeda who then?

[Destro]

The purpose of so terrorizing the nation's capital? To steal the initiative: To force all other news, including and perhaps especially the possibility of war with Iraq, off the air waves and the front pages, and thus ensure that terror rather than war is the main story once again.

I read this in the hard copy of the NYPost and the above paragraph cought my eye. No one on this thread has commented. Just who would not want the Iraqi war debate off the medias radar? Who is Mr. Carr implicating? al-Qaeda? Why would al-Qaeda want Iraq off the news? If not al-Qaeda who then?

[Destro]

The purpose of so terrorizing the nation's capital? To steal the initiative: To force all other news, including and perhaps especially the possibility of war with Iraq, off the air waves and the front pages, and thus ensure that terror rather than war is the main story once again.

I read this in the hard copy of the NYPost and the above paragraph cought my eye. No one on this thread has commented. Just who would not want the Iraqi war debate off the medias radar? Who is Mr. Carr implicating? al-Qaeda? Why would al-Qaeda want Iraq off the news? If not al-Qaeda who then?

[Destro]

Sorry about that:

My line should read: Just who would not want the Iraqi war debate off the media radar?

[antivenom]

AGREED...he didn't WILL 2 bullets to merely maim...it is a coincidence that has been turned into a FACT based on a coinky dink....