TACOMA, Wash. – Two men wanted for questioning in the D.C.-area sniper case were arrested early this morning at a rest stop near I-70 in the vicinity of Myersville, Md., about 45 miles northwest of the nation's capital, according to news reports.
John Allen Muhammad, 41, and stepson Lee Malvo, 17, were transported to Montgomery County, where the sniper task force is headquartered.
A rifle was found in Muhammad's car, reported WUSA-TV in Washington, D.C.
Neighbors who several years ago lived near Muhammad in Tacoma, Wash., described him last night as the head of a devout Muslim family who was prone to domestic violence, according to Seattle's KOMO-TV.
Federal sources said Muhammad and Malvo were known to speak sympathetically about the men who attacked the United States on Sept. 11, but the officials believe neither man to be associated with the al-Qaida terrorist network, the Seattle Times reported.
In connection with the sniper case, however, the FBI reportedly is searching "Camp Ground Zero USA" in Marion, Ala., a militant Islamic training camp with possible links to al-Qaida. Last night Fox News reported that FBI sources said "they are not at liberty to comment" and cannot confirm or deny their agents are investigating the camp.
WorldNetDaily reported two days after the D.C.-area shootings began Oct. 2 that FBI profilers believed the case fit no regular category and could find no motive other than terrorism. The shootings, which have caused an economic slowdown in the area, started four days after al-Qaida warned the U.S. that it would strike economic targets, WND reported last Thursday. A former CIA operative told WND in a story published Saturday, that the nature of the killings and Pentagon involvement in the probe support the terrorism theory.
In March 1999, Muhammad abducted his children and took them to the Caribbean after separating from his wife earlier that year, KOMO said. The children, a 12-year-old son and two younger daughters, now reportedly are in protective custody in Maryland.
As the focus of the Maryland-based sniper probe moved to the Pacific Northwest yesterday, task force head Charles Moose announced that Muhammad, also known as John Allen Williams, was being sought for information related to the case.
Moose told reporters last night that it should not be assumed that Muhammad "is involved in any of the shootings we are investigating," but is wanted for federal firearms violations and may have information material to the sniper probe.
Muhammad, described as about 6 feet 1 and 180 pounds, was believed to be traveling with a juvenile and considered "armed and dangerous," Moose said.
The Montgomery County, Md., police chief also gave a message to the sniper.
Moose said "our inability to talk has been a concern for us as well as for you," noting several attempts to establish a connection.
"You have indicated that you wanted us to do and say certain things," Moose said in his message to the sniper. "You asked us to say, 'We have caught the sniper like a duck in a noose.' We understand that hearing us say this is important to you."
The solution, Moose said, "remains to call us and get a private toll free number established," or write to a post office box address.
The police chief's references apparently were related to a note found at the site of Saturday's shooting near Richmond, Va., and another at Tuesday's Montgomery County attack both of which included a demand for $10 million.
Seattle's KOMO radio reports that Muhammad is a veteran of the Persian Gulf War.
A former soldier who says he recognized Muhammad in a photo on TV news last night said he served with Muhammad in the Army.
Randy Lyons, of Bothell, Wash., told KING-TV that he knew Muhammad as an "outstanding soldier" who had a "very pretty wife and kids."
Authorities said they also were searching for Muhammad's stepson, John Lee Malvo, a citizen of Jamaica, according to CNN and Fox News.
Fox said the two men are linked to a blue or burgundy 1990 Chevy Caprice with New Jersey license NDA-21Z, which matched the car in which they were found asleep.
Fox News also reported that warrants related to the D.C. case issued yesterday in Montgomery, Ala.
A telephone call from the sniper alerted investigators to look into a Sept. 21 fatal shooting at a liquor store in Montgomery, according to the Seattle Times.
An official said a piece of paper found at the Alabama shooting scene was traced to Malvo, who then was linked to a Tacoma house where he had been living with Muhammad.
Muhammad was based at nearby Fort Lewis, Wash., in 1994-95 and lived in a Tacoma neighborhood where a backyard search for ballistic material was conducted yesterday, according to Peggy Bellows, an editor for the Tacoma News Tribune.
FBI agents also conducted a search yesterday in Bellingham, Wash., related to two persons of interest in the D.C. sniper case, at least one of whom is "not a U.S. national," according to the mayor of the city in northwestern Washington state.
Agents in Tacoma recovered two shell casings along with a tree stump with bullet holes in the backyard of a fourplex, said KOMO-TV in Seattle.
The material was to be transported by air to Washington, D.C., according to news reports.
Bellingham mayor Mark Asmundson told Seattle's KING-TV that his police department began cooperating yesterday morning with FBI agents interested in two men who were residents of the city, near the Canadian border, in the past year and a half.
One was a student at Bellingham High School and the other was an older man, according to Asmundson.
A KOMO-TV report later confirmed that the student was Malvo.
The two were most recently in Bellingham nine months ago, Asmundson said.
"Being near the border, we've had our share of unusual characters in Bellingham," Asmundson said.
In Tacoma, sources confirmed that the search there was related to the D.C. sniper case, according to KIRO-TV.
Fort Lewis spokesman Lt. Col. Joseph Piek said the FBI had asked for help from the base, KOMO-TV reported.
The backyard search was conducted by consent of the property owner, said FBI spokesperson Melissa Mallon on the scene late yesterday afternoon. Local television news reports said the owner is not a person of interest.
"There is no immediate danger for anybody in this neighborhood," Mallon said. "If there were, we would let people know."
Tacoma mayor Bill Baarsma said in an interview with KING-TV in Seattle that he was called out of a meeting at about 12:30 p.m. yesterday to be met by the FBI.
"It was a day of irony for me, because I was called out of a meeting about how to cope with a terrorist attack," he said.
Last night, Greta Von Sustern reported about that there was a connection to a militia training camp in Alabama and asked Mark Fuhrman what he thought about it. He was really angry and said that he has repeatedly told her that he saw no connection whatsover between the snipers and any white militia group, that race was not factor in the killings. A little while later, Greta mentioned that Fuhrman would not be joining them and said it was too bad. Then she had to hold up the picture of Mohammed. She made no comment, she just held it up.
Doesn't it stand to reason that if it were a Christian, a follower of a peaceful religious leader like Mr. Falwell, it really would be more news worthy than that of a follower of Islam? I would think that would be more unlikely.
Speaking of CNN, this from the Media Research Center:
=====
1) CNN's Judy Woodruff exploited the sniper case this week
to do what she could to advance the gun control cause.
Though the Brady Campaign to Prevent Gun Violence has run TV
ads, since the sniper murders started, against Maryland Republican
gubernatorial candidate Bob Ehrlich, on Wednesday's Inside
Politics Sarah Brady promised Woodruff that "nobody has
capitalized" on the sniper case. Woodruff didn't point out her
group's ads, but maybe that's because Woodruff herself was
capitalizing on the situation to push gun control.
Plugging that interview, Woodruff assumed the sniper killings
would have done more to help the gun control cause: "I will ask
gun control activist Sarah Brady why the sniper spree has not
prompted more politicians to talk up her cause."
Woodruff showed some soundbites from gun rights advocates at
an NRA convention, but she treated Brady as overwhelmed by
"powerful and relentless" forces as she wondered how Brady is able
to "keep going" in the face of such opposition: "Even gun control
advocates say that the political climate has changed, that the gun
rights lobby is so strong and so powerful and so relentless, that
it's hard to make a difference. I mean, how do you keep going in
this situation when even your own advocates are saying the climate
is just not right for this?"
Opening the program on Tuesday, Woodruff gave special
credibility to the pro-gun control Democratic candidate in
Maryland: "Also ahead, Maryland Lieutenant Governor Kathleen
Kennedy Townsend on the sniper spree and the high price she and
her family have paid for gun violence."
Woodruff did ask Townsend about how present gun laws did not
stop the sniper, but she empathized with Townsend: "Everyone is
aware of your family background, the fact that your father was
assassinated by someone using a gun. What does it mean to you
personally, this issue of guns and the availability?" And: "How
important is this to you, I mean, to Kathleen Kennedy Townsend the
person, not the public figure?"
Wrapping up that segment, over video Charlton Heston holding
up a rifle, Woodruff demanded: "Is this the right picture for NRA
President Charlton Heston to be starring in as the sniper case
plays out?"
During neither her interview with Brady nor Townsend did
Woodruff point out how for four months earlier this year the state
of Maryland, under Lieutenant Governor Townsend who advocates
creating a ballistic database, failed to comply with FBI requests
for background information for potential gun buyers. The
Washington Post reported that. But in interviewing Ehrlich two
weeks earlier, an interview in which she obsessed with how he must
be "on the defensive" on the gun issue, she managed to catch
another Post story and used it to lecture Ehrlich:
"The Washington Post reported that campaigning, I think in
Gaithersburg over the weekend, you ran into a voter who said --
and this is what they quoted him as saying -- 'People are getting
hold of guns, shooting at us.' This person looked at you and said
'why can't you take a position to keep people from getting rifles
and other guns?' What do you say?"
Of course, she never challenged Townsend or Brady with such a
hard-hitting question.
Now, more details about the three Inside Politics interview
sessions, in date order:
> October 9. Woodruff showed an anti-Ehrlich attack ad from
the Brady Campaign to Prevent Gun Violence. The ad's announcer
charged: "Bob Ehrlich is dead wrong. Uzis and AK-47s don't belong
in our neighborhoods. In Congress Bob Ehrlich voted to put
dangerous assault weapons back on our streets."
Woodruff pointed out that the Townsend campaign had not asked
for the ads to be pulled and has not disavowed them before she
showed a taped interview with Republican Ehrlich. Her questions:
-- "These ads that are running now, the Brady Campaign to
Prevent Gun Violence, the point they're making is that you, as
someone who has been a longtime defender of the right to own guns,
should now be on the defensive because of what's happened."
-- "So when they run this ad and they say that you are
somebody who has been on the wrong side of the gun issue, how do
you-"
-- "But you -- but the point -- you just said that they are
running, they're behind in this campaign. But these ads are not
being run not by the Townsend campaign."
Ehrlich: "Well they're her allies, of course, I mean her
allies."
Woodruff: "But your not saying -- your campaign manager has
said -- I'm just going to quote -- he said, 'The lieutenant
governor is hiding behind the skirts of these organizations so she
doesn't look like a meany.' I mean, is that-"
-- "So you don't feel you're on the defensive right now?"
Ehrlich: "Well, you have to take two observations. One is the
issue of gun control as a place out in the campaign. But neither
campaign should, in my view, politicize this tragedy. This is a
serial killer out there trying to change our way of life. And any
campaign, in my view -- I think in the view of many people -- that
seeks to cross that line does it at a very large risk."
Woodruff: "But just to be clear, The Washington Post reported
that campaigning, I think in Gaithersburg over the weekend, you
ran into a voter who said -- and this is what they quoted him as
saying -- 'People are getting hold of guns, shooting at us.' This
person looked at you and said 'why can't you take a position to
keep people from getting rifles and other guns?' What do you say
to-"
Ehrlich: "That person wanted to abolish private ownership of
all weapons, including hunting rifles and all that. That's a
fairly extreme position. My view has been to keep guns out of the
hands of children, anybody with a mental impairment and, of
course, criminals. The fact of it is Maryland has 300 very tough
gun laws. We're the third most violent state in the country. We're
the first in robberies. We have gun problems out of control in
Baltimore city, widely reported. So I would like the focus to be
on strengthening those laws and bringing maybe a different idea
in. Let's focus on why these illegal guns are on the streets,
because obviously, what we have on the books is not working very
well."
Woodruff: "But you did vote against a ban on assault weapons
in the Congress in 1996."
Ehrlich: "That's correct, with regard to a couple of semi-
automatics, as opposed to all the other semiautomatics on the
street. The fact of it is the emphasis -- and it's a real
philosophical divide in the country -- as you know, it played out
in the presidential race, it plays out in a lot of races around
the county. Should we focus on gun control and the guns, or should
we focus on people who should not have the guns and prosecute them
to the fullest extent of the law? The programs that I advocate
bring the full resources of the local, state and federal
government to bear on illegal guns, straw sales, straw sales
through gun shows."
Woodruff: "But are those fine points that are hard to get
across at a time like this when there is high emotion in the state
of Maryland?"
> Tuesday, October 22. At the top of the show Woodruff
trumpeted: "Also ahead, Maryland Lieutenant Governor Kathleen
Kennedy Townsend on the sniper spree and the high price she and
her family have paid for gun violence."
Townsend: "It's very tough to grow up without a father and
it's been very tough on members of my family. So I am very clear
that we have got to make sure that we have common sense gun laws."
Setting up the subsequent segment Woodruff reminded viewers of
how Townsend is "a member of a family devastated more than once by
gun violence."
Woodruff's largely empathetic questions to Townsend delivered
during an interview taped outdoors, starting after a soundbite of
Townsend declaring how "I believe that we should have a ban on
assault weapons, that we should have a ban on Saturday night
specials, that ballistic testing can be very helpful to law
enforcement, and my opponent has not voted that way and not
supported it."
-- "He says the focus should be on keeping guns out of the
hands of people who do terrible things like what's going on now,
rather than keeping guns out of everybody's hand."
-- "Everyone is aware of your family background, the fact that
your father was assassinated by someone using a gun. What does it
mean to you personally, this issue of guns and the availability?
What does it-"
-- "But he and others would point out Maryland has some of the
strictest gun laws in the country, and you still have something
horrible like what's going on now."
-- "Finally, how important is this to you, I mean, to Kathleen
Kennedy Townsend the person, not the public figure?"
Plugging an upcoming segment, Woodruff scolded, over video of
Heston holding up a rifle: "There's much more ahead on the sniper
investigation and on the political fallout from the killings. Is
this the right picture for NRA President Charlton Heston to be
starring in as the sniper case plays out? We'll check in on a
tight House race in Maryland where some voters may be too scared
to attend campaign rallies or perhaps even to go to the polls on
election day."
Woodruff failed to raise with Townsend Maryland's refusal to
cooperate with current laws which mandate state contribution of
information to a national database. An October 16 Washington Post
story by Craig Whitlock began:
Hundreds of people with criminal records in Maryland may have been
allowed to purchase guns illegally this year because the state
temporarily stopped conducting background checks for the FBI,
state and federal officials disclosed yesterday.
Maryland's state archivists notified the FBI in March that they
would no longer perform criminal background checks of people who
had applied to buy firearms because budget cuts had left the
agency shorthanded, documents show.
The problem was not resolved until July, when state and federal
officials agreed to provide about $45,000 to the state archives to
pay the cost of conducting the checks.
It was unclear yesterday how many background checks were not
completed during the four-month period, though officials said the
state archives normally would have received about 400 to 500
requests from the FBI during that time.
Virtually all cases referred to the archives involved applicants
with some sort of criminal history that federal authorities were
seeking to clarify through old state records. Authorities said
they did not know how many people were able to purchase guns
improperly because of the lapse....
END of Excerpt
That story is online at:
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A32403-2002Oct15.html
> Wednesday, October 23. Woodruff plugged the upcoming
segment: "Dueling voices in the gun debate are still ahead. I will
ask gun control activist Sarah Brady why the sniper spree has not
prompted more politicians to talk up her cause. And we'll hear the
NRA's rallying cry."
Governor Scott McCallum (R-WS): "When they try to take the
guns, they'll fail. When they try to take our ammunition, they'll
fail."
Woodruff began the subsequent segment with some soundbites
from attendees at an NRA rally in Wisconsin. After a clip of NRA
Executive Vice President Wayne LaPierre, Woodruff acknowledgd:
"For NRA members who attended that event, the sniper
shootings, which now dominate national headlines, provided a
chance to defend gun ownership and to argue that more guns in the
hands of citizens means a safer society."
Woman: "One nut doesn't spoil the whole basket, let's face it.
You've got one guy out there that his mind is gone or he wouldn't
be killing innocent people. It's not the instrument. It is the
person behind the instrument."
Second woman: "I have a right to protect myself and if
somebody's gonna attack me, I need to protect myself in any way I
can. And if it's having a gun, then it's having a gun."
Man: "There's only one thing that can stop a madman with a
gun, and that's the arrival of many more guns. That's what
happened in Columbine. There were two madmen running around with
guns and what finally stopped them? The police arrived with a lot
more guns. The answer to the gun problem is putting guns in the
hands of responsible citizens, not taking it away from them."
Woodruff picked up: "Well, it's fair to say the sniper
shootings have energized advocates on both sides of the gun
debate. There are, of course, those who don't agree with groups
like the NRA. Among the most outspoken is gun control advocate
Sarah Brady, the wife of former White House Press Secretary James
Brady. Of course, he was shot back in 1981. Earlier I spoke with
Mrs. Brady. I started by asking her about the gun control laws
already on the books in Maryland and if gun control really helps
prevent violence."
Brady: "Of course gun control helps. It's not a panacea and it
won't stop all guns -- shootings or gun violence, but it does
help. Since the Brady Law and the assault weapon ban were passed,
gun violence has gone down by 27 percent nationwide...."
-- Woodruff lamented: "But when you talk to people who follow
the politics of this, even gun control advocates say that the
political climate has changed, that the gun rights lobby is so
strong and so powerful and so relentless, that it's hard to make a
difference. I mean, how do you keep going in this situation when
even your own advocates are saying the climate is just not right
for this?"
-- Woodruff's only other question: "These terrible sniper
killings, shootings in the Washington area, have they in a way
helped candidates like Kathleen Kennedy Townsend?"
Brady insisted: "Well, it's a shame to ever think that anybody
would want to capitalize -- and nobody has capitalized on this. It
has brought it to the fore. Of course, everybody is thinking about
guns again, and they should because nationwide, not just what's,
this terrible thing that's happening in our area, but nationwide,
gun violence is a big issue. And I don't think there's been any
capitalization on the issue..."
Except by Brady and Woodruff.
Having retired from the Air Force a few years ago...I was kinda surprised of the growth of Muslims in the military. In 1977, there were probably less than 50 in the entire service. By 2000, I bet there up to 1000 Muslims. One has to wonder if this will lead to a problem involving trust.
You seem to miss the fact that Islam has no New Testament that overrides all that Old Testament "kill the non-believer" stuff. There aren't significant percentages of Christians in the Christian Identity-type groups. You can't say that about Islam. There aren't significant numbers of Muslims trying to stop their crazed breathren. Most Christians would turn in a Christian Identity movement person who had committed a crime in a heartbeat.
Comparing the two as you have is an apples vs. oranges situation. One of these is not like the other. One of these creeds, as practiced in the world today, is evil.
Period.
The media is already hot on the same angle you mentioned last. It's killing them it's not the white/right tribe.
I don't think the public is gonna buy the subterfuge. The usual suspects will buy it all right because they can't handle the truth.
The truth being that we have homegrown Islamists here that are black, latino, and yes even a few white boys, who buy into Islamic fanaticism as surely as if they were born Wahabbists.
Folk's eyes are gonna be wide open to this no matter how hard the media and PC Leos work to dispel that. Black Americans in particular will know this. I have no doubt that many decent non-Muslim Blacks here will keep a sharper eye on these "Religion of Peace" nuts in their midst.
Re: Your Biblical quotes. I don't believe there are millions of Christians and Jews using these passages to justify mass murder. ACTIONS ARE WHAT MATTER. (And spare me the reference to the centuries-past Crusades, or the moral equivalency in Israel v Palestinians, where the Israelis are just trying to survive and the Palestinians want to drive them off the face of the earth).
Almost anyone who completed basic training in the Army or Marines could have hit the targets at that close range.
Let's see. The Mohammedan who shot up the El Al ticket counter wasn't an Al-Qaeda member. The Mohammedans who blew up the WTC were Al Qaeda. And the Mohammedan snipers were not affiliated with Al Qaeda. Hmmm... What do they all have in common?
Actually, this looks like more of a FALLING DOWN (The movie with Michael Douglas) kinda situation than a terrorist. Seems like this guy's life was out of control. It's kind of a textbook example.