Suspect left danger signs in Bellingham (FBI had Terror Tip on Sniper Muhammad, October, 2001!)

Bellingham Herald ^ | October 25th, 2002 | John Stark, Aubrey Cohen, & Mary Lane Gallagher

[Sabertooth]

The people at Stuart's Coffee House remember John Allen Muhammad as a quiet chess player who never wanted to be apart from his big, stuffed, heavy U.S. Army duffel bag.

At this point, nobody can prove that the bag Muhammad was lugging around contained the Bushmaster AR-15 rifle that police found in his car when he and 17-year-old John Lee Malvo were arrested at a Maryland rest stop early Thursday. By the end of the day, ballistics tests had tied that weapon to the bloody East Coast sniping spree that left 10 people dead.

[Eva]

It is so unusual for the Bellingham Herald to be on top of a story like this, they are usually too PC to tell the truth.

[null and void]

I'm impressed. It's difficult to get that prompt a response for the police here short of a "shots fired" report.

[Ben Hecks]

Bump for later.

[ibbryn]

Regarding the INS office break-ins: There were several stories last year of government offices in small town in Brussels (or Belguim, I'm iffy on the country but it was one of those tiny countries) being burglarized just for the purpose of stealing immigration forms and stamps. Apparently these small towns are choice targets because the business districts are deserted after business hours but the government offices have all the forms necessary for easy travel.

[VOA]

bump

[Eva]

It's not the police that respond, it's the Border Patrol. We are almost right on the Canadian border. Which is the reason that there is so much activity with illegal aliens.

[Grampa Dave]

Again one of my best friends, that rare creature, a Black conservative's basic basic on all these terrorist activities and those who support is to "FOLLOW THE MONEY!"

Although Muhammad spent time at the homeless shelter, he sometimes flashed a wallet thick with currency, and showed off expensive-looking watches and gold bracelets, Parks said.

At the mission, Archer said, Muhammad would stay for a few days and then leave, saying he was traveling to Denver and New Orleans, among other places. The odd part was that Muhammad was traveling by airplane. Archer learned that when an airline ticket agent called the mission asking for Muhammad.

"At the mission, not many airline agents call and ask for residents," Archer said.

Muhammad's frequent flier status seemed odd to other people. One of them was Greg Grant, a real estate agent in Bellingham who owns and manages an apartment complex about two miles south of Sumas on Highway 9. Last year, Grant said, he would often drive residents of Lighthouse Mission - including Muhammad on several occasions - to the apartments to do yard work and other chores, then back to the mission once the work was done.

Once, Muhammad told Grant that he had to travel a long distance, possibly to Jamaica or the Cayman Islands in the Caribbean, to sign some papers on a land sale, Grant said. Grant said he wondered why Muhammad would fly to do that when the job could be handled by mail.

---

Besides following the money. His trips need to be back tracked to find out who he contacted on these trips. Are their other Black Muslim, Nation of Islam, al Fuqras out there who were in regular contact with Muhammad?

[Guna]

What a fascinating thread this is! I hope that they have a "suicide watch" on the both of them. If they are as implicated as these leads seem to imply, it would not be surprising to hear that Mohammed decided to hang himself - for real, or with a little bit of insider help.

[browardchad]

He used to own some kind of auto shop

Not quite. From this MSNBC story:

In the more affluent neighborhood near Tacoma Mall where Muhammad lived with his wife and three children from 1994 until he moved out in 2000, neighbors said what drew their attention was not gunfire but a constant, annoying lineup of cars on the streets outside Muhammad’s home, where he would repair them. Residents described the neighborhood, home to white and Latino families who settled there during a suburban explosion that attended the opening of the mall about 15 years ago, as closely knit and friendly. Many of the homes are bedecked with U.S. flags, and nearly all sport stickers proclaiming theirs to be a “Drugs/Crime Safe Street Neighborhood!”

But while Muhammad was a quiet man, he was not a quiet presence on Ainsworth Avenue. At times, a half-dozen or more cars would be left in front of his home and in a small street beside it, awaiting his repairs. Neighbors complained to police on occasion and said the parade of cars would temporarily slow, only to resume.

“They were all over the alley, and he always had his head in the hood,” said King, who said police cited one of the vehicles for an expired tag.

Neighbors said that at first, they approached Muhammad and asked if they could hire him to work on their cars. But he always refused, usually saying he did not have his boss’s permission. They said he neither identified the company he worked for nor explained why he needed permission to lend a hand on his time off.

In a response last year to a court filing in which his second wife, Mildred Denice Muhammad, sought a restraining order, Muhammad listed himself as owner and operator of “Express Car/Truck Mechanic Inc.”

Records on file with the Washington secretary of state’s office, however, do not appear to support Muhammad’s claim. The company was actually registered in Mildred Muhammad’s name, and its registration expired in March 1998, more than three years earlier.

[phasma proeliator]

"Apparently the FBI was busy trying to decide which crayon to use. "

Obviously.
not a big surprise either.

L&L

[Eva]

Did you see the link to the Weekly Standard that described the Bellingham financier with links to the Wahhabi Muslim Youth Organization in Falls Church, VA? My guess is that is where Mohammed was getting his money. The organization also has links to the Carribean. I bet that there are links in all the cities that Mohammed visited, including Camden.

[Shermy]

A great article, without the big city media PC filtering. The terrorism angle is definitley a possibility, and this guy might be like a Richard Reid, a low man on the totem pole, used by higher ups. Might have used him in the Caribbbean (he has family in Antigua, I believe) in laudering money or other schemes. DEFINITELY not just some random wacko.

[iranger]

Exactly what I thought when I started reading about this guy. He looks queer to me.

[Miss Marple]

Fascinating. Whose cars was he working on? Was he doing MODIFICATIONS on them? I would like to know more about this business which had an unseen boss (although registered in his wife's name) and never wanted any customers from the neighborhood.

[Eva]

I read on article on one of the other threads, regarding Camp 0 in Alabama, that sounds like there is more to that link than the media is admitting also.

[Grampa Dave]

A great find! However, you have ruined my day. Wahhabis in Northern Virginia.

It is bad enought that there are al Fuqras, Nation of Islams, Black Muslims, Old Black Panthers and the new Black Panthers all over Virginia and the DC metro area, now I find out that there are Wahhabi's there as a legitimate lobby.

[freeperfromnj]

this guy might be like a Richard Reid, a low man on the totem pole, used by higher ups

The No. 2 Al Qaeda recruiter, Sheikh Abdullah Al-Faisal, is of Jamaican origin. I believe he is responsible for recruiting Richard Reid (also Jamaican) out of England. The Brittish tried to send him back to Jamaica.

[iranger]

I thought you qualified for military pension after 10 yrs provided you get an honorable discharge.

[Grampa Dave]

Saber, would you please post all of the key words that tie al Fuqra in America to the international terror Fuqra and the names of the actors in this thread.

That makes it a lot easier on down the road a few weeks or months later to tie all of this in.

Also, as this fiasco unwinds, a lot data will come out. If we have things crossed indexed via the key words, we can match data as more threads like this are posted!

Thanks again to you and Eva for posting this treasure chest of Political Correctness data that was rampant in the FBI and at the local head cop level.

Political Correctness in Law enforcement can kill the innocent and protect the criminals!

[William McKinley]

I think that this was what project TIPS was designed to provide the means to do, but it was shot down over concerns of civil libertarians who thought it would result in people turning into spies on each other.