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DC Sniper: Middle Eastern connection
AP reports ^ | Self

Posted on 10/18/2002 8:39:36 PM PDT by jaime1959

The big news today was that VA authorities are filing charges against Matthew Dowdy of Falls Church for making a false statement about the last shooting on Monday night.

ROCKVILLE, Md. (AP) - Virginia authorities on Friday arrested a man accused of misleading investigators in the Washington-area sniper shootings by falsely describing an olive-skinned man and a cream-colored Chevrolet Astro van with a burned-out taillight at the scene of one killing.

Matthew Dowdy, 37, of Falls Church, Va., was arrested by Fairfax County, Va., police Friday afternoon and charged with making a false statement, said police spokeswoman Isabel Benemelis. The charge carries a maximum penalty of six months in jail.

Authorities began doubting his story - what had initially seemed a good break in the frustrating case - after comparing it with accounts from others who saw the fatal shooting of an FBI analyst Monday night in a shopping center parking garage.

http://apnews1.iwon.com/article/20021018/D7MO9QCO0.html

This charge against Dowdy supposedly debunks a possible Middle Eastern connection (olive-skinned man), right?

However, Mr. Dowdy wasn't the only witness to see a man of possible Middle Eastern descent leaving the scene in a white van.

(AP) Robert Young, a Washington construction worker, was among witnesses who returned to the shopping center Tuesday to talk with police. He said he had heard a muffled gunshot and seen a white van Monday night.

Young said as he backed his truck out of his parking spot, a white Astro van with two men inside tried to turn into his lane. He said the driver appeared very agitated to find his way blocked and instead drove by a neighboring restaurant and out of sight.

Young described the driver as a short man of slight build who appeared to be Middle Eastern. "I got a good look at the guy," he said.

The driver "seemed to be excessively irritated because he couldn't pull into my lane," he said. "I thought this fool was going to want to get out of the van and duke or something. But he didn't. He kept on going."

http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&u=/ap/20021016/ap_on_re_us/sniper_shootings_214

So, while Mr. Dowdy may have lied, we have another witness who also saw a Middle Eastern looking man leaving the scene in a white van.

Curious.


TOPICS: News/Current Events; US: District of Columbia; US: Maryland; US: Virginia
KEYWORDS: investigation; middleeastern; sniper
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To: aeronca
A Surveying LEO

.....um.....

.....actually.....

.....(i was trying to show the two-way parking @ the Home Depot).....

.....but i guess A Surveying LEO is pretty cool (kewl).....

21 posted on 10/18/2002 9:38:02 PM PDT by cyberaxe
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To: Common Tator
I agree that anyone who claimed to see the shooter in the Home Depot lot, or leaving in a van from the lot is likely full of it. This because, as you noted, the shooter, as has been his M.O., most likely shot from accross Hwy 50. From that side of the street its an easy escape West or North with right turns to side streets. From within the Home Depot lot, traffic has to go out a one-way frontage road to eastbound Hwy 50 or through the sometimes-crowded parking lot to other exits.
22 posted on 10/18/2002 9:39:10 PM PDT by RodgerD
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To: jaime1959
This charge against Dowdy supposedly debunks a possible Middle Eastern connection (olive-skinned man), right?

No. It only debunks the fact that Dowdy saw anything at all.

It sounds as if Dowdy was taking a guess at the correct answer for the half million dollar reward.

A good guess, IMHO, but still a false statement.

23 posted on 10/18/2002 9:42:31 PM PDT by Polybius
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To: vbmoneyspender; All
There is a major difference between the Nazi SS and the Russian Spetsialnoye Nazranie (Spetsnaz). A major difference that i feel i need not elaborate on. Actually trying to tie the two together is like saying the Delta Force is comparable to the Stasi secret police .....different functions, different affiliations, different everything!

As to why i chose the moniker spetznaz i think i will tell you (since you asked). In 1985 the spetsnaz were sent to rescue Soviet officials who had been kidnapped by the PLO in Beirut (that was the time the PLO had been exiled to Beirut and used it as their base for attacks on Israel, and before Arafat started 'winning' Nobel Peace prizes). The Spetsnaz gave the terrorists 48 hours to release the captives, but when the terrorists refused the spetsnaz kidnapped a couple of the terrorists, kidnapped some of their family members, and chopped off some of their heads and put them in a duffel bag, and then sent the bag to the terrorist chief with a promise of 'further unrestrained action.' The hostages were promptly released and the Soviets were never bothered again ...they could actually walk in Beirut with total impunity!

And i think it is time the US used similar hard core tactics against the islamic jehadists (i am not saying chopping off heads but something to tell those kooks we are not joking).

Now, that i have answered your question on my moniker, may we get back to pertinent discussion? Unless now you want to know the reason for my calling myself SpetZnaz with a 'Z' instead of the usual spelling SpetSnaz!

24 posted on 10/18/2002 9:46:04 PM PDT by spetznaz
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To: cyberaxe
".....(i was trying to show the two-way parking @ the Home Depot).....

I gotcha there; still pretty cool to see that LE is trained to map crime scenes with some precision. (Either that or the local surveyor got a complementary shirt from the PD for working after "dark-thirty").

25 posted on 10/18/2002 9:47:26 PM PDT by aeronca
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To: aeronca
.....lol.....

.....those new CSI guys.....

.....have all kinds of kewl goodies nowadaze.....

.....(or a trunk full of LE shirts! ;-).....

26 posted on 10/18/2002 9:51:02 PM PDT by cyberaxe
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To: spetznaz
I would very much like for you to elaborate on the difference between the SS and the Soviet Union's special forces. They were both shock troops that thuggish regimes used to terrorize people. I must admit that I am not aware of Spetznaz being assigned prison guard duty in the Soviet Union's gulag system, but aside from that, I see NO difference between the Spetznaz and the SS.
27 posted on 10/18/2002 9:51:43 PM PDT by vbmoneyspender
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To: cyberaxe
Well, things are well in GA--hope the same for South Carolina--it's Zzzzzzzzzzz time.
28 posted on 10/18/2002 9:55:27 PM PDT by aeronca
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To: jaime1959
First ya check out the friends of your enemies, then your friends.

jamie1945
29 posted on 10/18/2002 9:56:21 PM PDT by John Jamieson
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To: The KG9 Kid; Cicero
Two Hispanics Sought In DC Area Killings (from Oct. 4)
30 posted on 10/18/2002 9:58:40 PM PDT by Shermy
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To: spetznaz
You make sense to me.

I also think it is ridiculous to think the gubmint is covering up anyone because he might be a muslim terrorist.

I personally don't think it is a "real" terrorist because it isn't big enough... So far this guy has gone through a few dollars worth of ammunition within a few mile radius in one part of the country. Someone on minimum wage could fund a bigger operation than this that could freak out a whole country... not just a few counties. I am a betting chick, and I think this guy is a lone nut job, whatever his creed turns out to be.
31 posted on 10/18/2002 9:58:45 PM PDT by HairOfTheDog
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To: Common Tator
Are you sure those lanes are one way? I've been to that Home Depot before, and I don't recall that. Also, the spot across Route 50 where they think the shot was fired from is just a matter of speculation. While it does offer an very good view of the parking deck, there is no direct evidence of a shot comming from there, and it is not an ideal location: the bushes that are there are not thick enough to offer much consealment and it is right beside a number of garden apartments.
32 posted on 10/18/2002 10:01:51 PM PDT by PUGACHEV
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To: HairOfTheDog
Dulles Airport seems to be popular with I personally don't think it is a "real" terrorist because it isn't big enough... So far this guy has gone through a few dollars worth of ammunition within a few mile radius in one part of the country.

Terrorist....Remember 911?.....If the bullet casing in Truck at Dulles Airport pans out....coincidence?

9:39 a.m.: An American Airlines Flight 77,(11x7=77) high-jacked from Dulles International Airport outside of Washington, was flown into the Pentagon. The flight had 58 passengers, four flight attendants and two pilots aboard. American Airlines said the jet, a 757, had been scheduled to leave Dulles at 8:10 a.m.

33 posted on 10/18/2002 10:01:56 PM PDT by FootBall
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To: vbmoneyspender
Ok, since you asked nicely. The SS were by nature shock troops, but they were also used for certain activities that served to terrorize people. They were the dogs of war for the Nazi command and were quite some brutes.

The Spetsnaz (spetsialnoye nazranie) are the Russian special forces that are akin to the SAS and Delta force. Their purpose is the carrying out of duties ranging from special combat operations (in which they are like the SEALS in tactic), or to carry out elite hostage-rescue/terrorist elimination situations like the one in 1985 when they made those Beirut terrorists to never bother another Ruskie official to date (in which case they are similar to the US Delta Force and the Israel's Sayeret Matkal).

And they are the only unit in the Russian military that has not faced spending cuts when other units and departments had to go without money for years! And the best of the best of the Spetsnaz (the Spetsgruppa Alfa) are some of the best special operatives in the world. Among the best.

However as i said before comparing the Spetsnaz to the SS is like comparing the SEALS to the Stasi secret police.

Now, any other question? I have answered you as to why i chose my name .....and now i have answered why the Spetsnaz is inherently different from the SS. What is your next inquiry?

34 posted on 10/18/2002 10:02:28 PM PDT by spetznaz
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To: aeronca
.....thanx, glad to know all's well to the south.....

.....things will be better round here.....

.....just as soon as my parents get back down here.....

.....they've gone up to FUMA .....

.....to visit our son and bring him home for the weekend.....

.....(way too close to all the craziness 8-(.....

35 posted on 10/18/2002 10:02:41 PM PDT by cyberaxe
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To: demlosers
Jack POT!!!!

What is this about?

The economy is not rebounding because people don't believe we're safe.

The feds did every thing possible to make us feel warm and fuzzy by making it harder to go thu security WITHOUT IMPROVING SAFTEY.

I will not make my whole family EXTINCT in 1 flight because of a goverment focused on fuzzy feelings and not cold logic cold of protecting its citizens.

We are not polling numbers for their retirement programs. They are all a bunch of Marie Attionettes!
36 posted on 10/18/2002 10:11:07 PM PDT by kennyboy509
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To: FootBall
Is this a numerology thing for you?

Yes, I remember 911. I have been at an airport parking lot with a whole gun, not just a casing, although there may be a casing in my truck too.

But lets run with it.... Is what a coincidence? That the perp, if it was him, flew out of one of the major airports nearest to the locale where the shootings have happened? I would think it would be more notable if he was found to have flown out of LAX.

37 posted on 10/18/2002 10:15:14 PM PDT by HairOfTheDog
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To: spetznaz
First of all, Spetsnaz didn't carry out that operation in Beirut - the KGB did. See Link 1 See Link 2. Second of all, comparing Spetsnaz to American special forces is ludicrous and is a bit like comparing the Soviet Army to the U.S. Army, or like comparing the gulag system to the U.S.'s prison system. You candy-coat the Soviet Union's forces all you want, but the Soviet forces, including Spetsnaz, were responsible for the greatest mass murder of people in human history. I don't think that is something that anyone should be proud of.
38 posted on 10/18/2002 10:18:48 PM PDT by vbmoneyspender
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To: vbmoneyspender
Interesting!

If you read on the records of Russian special forces activities you will notice that the Beirut incident is attributed to them. The links you provided said 'KGB assasins' which i find to be rather amorphous. Anyways that is the first reference i have seen that does not directly attribute that even to the spetsnaz. All others (even western accounts of special forces activity for the last half century) clearly attribute the mission to the spetsnaz.

As my comparing them to the American special forces what i said is they are akin to them. In that their missions are a mix of the Delta Force mission objective and the Navy Seals mission objective. Saying a corvette is like a lamborghini does not mean a corvette has the same abilities as a lamborghini! I actually think Delta force is better than Spetsnaz, but spetsnaz is in the same job description.

39 posted on 10/18/2002 10:32:12 PM PDT by spetznaz
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To: jaime1959
Two days ago on Fox News I heard that a total of five witnesses at two seperate murder scenes had claimed that the person or persons in the white vehicle appeared to be olive complected, possibly Hispanic or Middle Eastern in appearance.

So, now we can reduce that number of witnesses to four.

It doesn't change anything.

40 posted on 10/18/2002 10:37:18 PM PDT by goody2shooz
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