Posted on 10/27/2002 4:55:59 AM PST by quidnunc
As I wrote in this space last week, "I bet my assistant a hundred bucks that the sniper would turn out to be a Middle Eastern terrorist." I had a similar bet with my wife. I've no desire to profit from the murder of innocents, so I'll be donating my winnings to a worthy cause, like the Pentagon R&D budget. But so far my assistant's taking it better than my spouse. "Technically, our bet was that he'd be an Islamic terrorist," she said. "He's Islamic, and he's terrorizing people. That's good enough for me." My wife, on the other hand, insists it doesn't count unless he's got an official membership card in al-Qaida.
That's not the way these fellows work, which, to give them the barest fig leaf of an excuse, may be why all those legions of TV experts clung to the approved "angry white male loner" cliches right up to the moment of arrest. But there's a difference between a reluctance to leap to conclusions and a bizarre determination to leap away from the facts. There's been something very weird about the networks' insistence on busing in armies of "psychological profilers" whose areas of alleged expertise might as well have been on Planet Zongo for all they had to do with what was going on in Maryland and Virginia. Regardless of whodunit, it was very obvious what he'd dun: The killer didn't kill blondes, he didn't kill fetching young men he picked up in bars, he didn't kill lonely spinsters from the personal ads. He killed Americans — male and female, young and old, black and white.
Now whose profile does that fit?
But the penny drops exceedingly slow. It turned out police were looking for a Muslim convert. A Muslim convert who last year had discarded the name "Williams" and adopted a new identity as "Muhammad." A Muslim convert called Muhammad who in the wake of Sept. 11 had expressed anti-American sentiments. Could even the most expert psychological profiler make sense of such confusing, contradictory clues? Apparently not. Even though the crime and the accused are a pretty good match, the network criminologists profess themselves perplexed by the apparent lack of motive, as if we'll shortly discover that Mr. Muhammad had been denied a promotion at Home Depot or he'd been abused as a child.
Radical Islamism is a highly decentralized operation. There's a fair degree of organized cooperation: for example, National Review's Michael Ledeen reports that the Indonesian group that killed hundreds in Bali used bombs delivered by Hezbollah operatives, who'd been trained by Iran's Revolutionary Guards. But there's also a lot of rinky-dink freelance terrorism by people who hold no rank or serial number — fellows like the Egyptian immigrant who chose to celebrate the Fourth of July by going to LAX and opening fire. After four months of insisting they've no idea why a radical Muslim male would observe America's national holiday by going Jew-killing, the FBI has cautiously decided to characterize the incident as "possible terrorism."
-snip-
(Excerpt) Read more at suntimes.com ...
Interesting that the media treats the facts of this sniper story as they do revelations of democrat crimes, the most recent being the voter fraud scandals in South Dakota, for example.
If they don't talk about certain unpleasant details it can't be true in their pea-brains.
I know. The lead headline on CNN International when they were caught changed from "John Muhammad, 41 year old black man arrested" to "Former soldier, gun enthusiast apprehended."
Pathetic. Joseph Goebbels would be proud.
Muhammed spent a month in Antigua trying to get a passport. He stayed at a place called Pineapple Beach, at $379 a night. That's $11,000 just for lodging.
Where does a guy who drives a 1990 POS and sleeps in his car get 15K to blow on a trip like that?
And what did he need the passport for?
I'm about sick of the establishment covering up the LAX shootings, the shoebombing of Flight 587, and this now as "not terrorism related."
Classic Steyn.
This guy is just too perceptive for words. He is like a laser beam.
Get yourselves over and read this! He's so good.
Yeah. And Thursday or Friday I heard that he (Muhammad) was able to purchase the gun because he "lied" on the Background Form (he checked the "NO" box about weapon injunctions) and slipped past the national database check.
BTW, where did this unemployed drifter living in a homeless shelter get the money? Must have found it during his frequent flights out of Tacoma during this period.
Probably from pro terrorist organizations. But we will hang a couple of bank robberies on him, to explain that away. - Tom
And what did he need the passport for?
He had set himself up in the Fake Passports For Sale bidness. Before he hastily left Antigua (The heat was on when he approached an honest gubmint worker there, a rarity in itself) he was selling them, and a return stubs of round trip tickets originating in the States, for $1000 to $1500 each.
Link to this info, please?
Thanks.
"There's a difference between a reluctance to leap to conclusions and a bizarre determination to leap away from the facts."A very astute observation by the brilliant, clever, and very astute Mark Styne.--Mark Styne
This is an example of the dangerous confusion characteristic of "Liberals".
Certainly one of the main qualities of ascendancy--perhaps the main quality--is singlemindedness of purpose. Clarity is characteristic of ascendancy. Confusion is characteristic of decadence.
"Liberalism"--the dangerous, suicidal decadence that has infected Europe and North America--has confused and paralysed much of the intelligentsia and threatens to destroy Western Civilization and deliver the world to Islamic theocracy with the horrifying shariah as international law.
The confusion of leaping to conclusions with leaping away from facts is just one example of the confused thinking of "Liberals".
Often they confuse their thinking intentionally.
Sometimes they are partially aware.
Sometimes it's denial.
Often they provoke confusion and obscure the truth as a matter of strategy.
But "Liberalism" abhors truth and clarity. It must. Truth and clarity will destroy it.
Can't quote it right now. But it was an article posted this morning on Free Republic. Will try to find it bak.
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