Muhammad, Malvo linked to crimes here (TACOMA )

SEATTLE POST-INTELLIGENCER ^ | October 29, 2002 | MIKE BARBER, LEWIS KAMB AND CANDACE HECKMAN

[twntaipan]

SEATTLE POST-INTELLIGENCER
http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/local/93311_tacoma29.shtml

Muhammad, Malvo linked to crimes here

Police say guns loaned to pair were used in shootings

Tuesday, October 29, 2002

By MIKE BARBER, LEWIS KAMB AND CANDACE HECKMAN
SEATTLE POST-INTELLIGENCER REPORTERS

TACOMA -- Handguns provided by a friend of two men accused of being the D.C. snipers were used to kill a young mother here in February and to blast a synagogue here in May, authorities said last night.

The guns were loaned to John Allen Muhammad by an acquaintance who allowed the former Fort Lewis soldier and his young companion, Lee Boyd Malvo, to stay at his home, authorities said.

Accusations of a link between the two and the Tacoma crimes came as federal agents were still sifting through sales records at a Tacoma gun shop where Muhammad is thought to have obtained a rifle used in at least 11 of the 13 sniper incidents in and around Washington, D.C., in the past three weeks.

Officials in Louisiana, meanwhile, have requested DNA samples from Muhammad and Malvo to check for a connection to a series of killings in the Baton Rouge area, the Baltimore Sun reported last night.

Muhammad, 41, a former Tacoma resident, and Malvo, a 17-year-old Jamaican he called his stepson, have been charged in connection with eight of the Washington-area shootings, and have been charged with murder in a Sept. 21 robbery-homicide in Alabama.

Federal officials yesterday confirmed that Malvo is legally known as Lee Boyd Malvo, but had informally adopted the first name of his partner. Authorities are still unsure about his age, saying he may be 19.

The two were arrested last week as they slept in their car at a Maryland rest stop only hours after federal agents searched a home they frequented in Tacoma and took records from the Bellingham high school Malvo briefly attended.

"The investigation continues at a high level despite the recent arrests of John A. Muhammad and Lee Malvo," said Tacoma police Chief David Brame, speaking at a news conference last night along with Matthew Horace of the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms.

Brame said a Tacoma man who became friends with Muhammad through a mutual interest in firearms contacted police after the two men were arrested last week.

The man, whom he would not identify, said he was concerned because Muhammad had once borrowed his guns. Muhammad and Malvo had stayed at the man's residence between February and April, and lived there full time between May and July, Brame said.

The man, who is not a suspect in any crimes, gave police three handguns and two rifles for testing, Brame said.

The Washington State Crime Lab says one of those guns, a .45-caliber pistol, was used to kill 21-year-old Keenya Nicole Cook on Feb. 16 when she answered the door of her aunt's Tacoma home. Court records place Muhammad in Tacoma last Feb. 12, when he was ticketed for shoplifting.

On Feb. 16, Isa Nichols returned home after running an errand to find her niece's body just inside her open front door. Cook had been shot in the face. Her 6-month-old daughter was found, unharmed, on a diaper changing table.

Cook's mother, Pamala Nichols, 45, said that as soon as she heard that John Muhammad was linked to shooting so many people on the East Coast, she thought he had something to do with her daughter's murder. Police have said they suspected her killer was someone familiar to her.

"I am so happy that they have been able to put a link to all of this. I knew that he didn't like my sister-in-law," Nichols said yesterday.

Isa Nichols, Cook's aunt, was friends with Muhammad's ex-wife, Mildred. Isa Nichols had helped Mildred regain custody of her children last year, after John Muhammad took them in a bitter divorce.

Family members have said that Isa Nichols called police last week after seeing Muhammad's photograph on television.

"We now consider John Allen Muhammad and Lee Malvo as suspects in the Keenya Cook homicide. I have directed that the Keenya Cook homicide receive our highest priority and I have assigned a team of detectives to the case," Brame said.

The second gun, a .44-caliber Magnum, was used to fire two rounds through a window at the Temple Beth El synagogue at 5875 S. 12th St. between May 1 and 4.

One bullet lodged in the ark, which holds the Torah, the sacred writings of Judaism. No one was in or near the synagogue when the shots were fired.

The ATF has been actively investigating the crime since it occurred, Brame said.

"We're as surprised as anybody would be," Rabbi Mark Glickman said last night. Glickman said he and his congregation had thought the shots were a random shooting because there were no threats associated with them.

"At the time we were just glad the Torah scrolls didn't get damaged," he said.

The revelation that the shot may have come from a weapon wielded by Muhammad, and may have been deliberately aimed at the ark in the holiest room in the synagogue, is disturbing not just to the congregation but to many Jews, said Brian Goldberg, executive director of the Anti-Defamation League Northwest chapter.

"Unfortunately, that synagogue has been the victim of a lot of hate crimes lately," he said.

Still, worshippers haven't been so scared that they quit coming, said Lenny Reisberg, president of the Temple Beth El board of trustees.

"We're a pretty resolute group of people," he said.

The Tacoma crimes are the only ones in Western Washington linked to the two D.C. sniper suspects, although state and local authorities are still reviewing unsolved murder cases statewide to see whether either the men or their method of operation matches anything on file.

The state attorney general's Homicide Investigation Tracking System, a unit of retired detectives with access to nearly 8,000 unsolved slayings, began looking into the case almost immediately, said Gary Larson, spokesman for Attorney General Christine Gregoire.

Larson said yesterday there was no new information about the review. Local authorities, however, said Muhammad has not been linked to any other unsolved homicides.

Federal agents continued their efforts to show how the .223 Bushmaster assault rifle used in the East Coast slayings came into Muhammad's possession. Though the rifle was found in the car where Muhammad and Malvo were sleeping, investigators have yet to find a record of its sale.

Federal agents believe Muhammad bought the weapon at Bull's Eye Shooter Supply, a large Tacoma gun shop. But the shop owner, Brian Borgelt, has been unable to locate records that would show who bought it, authorities said.

Borgelt said yesterday that he still has the box that the rifle was shipped in from the manufacturer in June, and ATF agents were back at the shop for a third straight day yesterday, trying to find a sale record.

Borgelt's store has been under investigation by the bureau for several years. Agents said that two years ago they audited Bull's Eye and could not find sales records for 150 guns. Gun dealers are required to keep records of all purchases and sales.

Borgelt confirmed yesterday that his store had been audited, but said such audits were not unusual.

"If we had prior violations that exceeded the industry standard, we would not be in business," he said.

Because of a large number of guns Borgelt could not account for in that audit, and because they were finding that a large number of guns used in crimes were being traced back to his store, ATF agents said they wanted to take action against him. But, the agents said, the ATF operates under tight restrictions and has been very slow to move against dealers suspected of violating the law.

Normally, several ATF agents said, the bureau's regulatory division will not take action until a gun dealer has been indicted or convicted on a criminal charge.

In fact, one former senior ATF official said, "I don't know of any dealer ever losing his license without being indicted by law enforcement."

Other federal agents are also trying to piece together the trail of Muhammad and Malvo, to determine whether they might have committed other crimes and to find out how they may have supported themselves.

Over the weekend, Washington, D.C., police Chief Charles Ramsey said police were reviewing a number of bank robberies, according to news reports -- including one in which the description of a robber resembled one of the men.

"We're looking at some robberies," Ramsey told The Washington Post. "They had to eat somehow."

Seattle FBI spokeswoman Robbie Burroughs yesterday said no links to bank robberies in the Northwest have been found.

In Bellingham, several people who knew Muhammad have come forward to say that they reported suspicious or bizarre behavior to police within the last year, well before the East Coast crime spree.

Although those who made the reports believe they weren't followed up appropriately, Bellingham police and federal authorities said there's no way they could have predicted such a bizarre crime spree.

Bellingham police followed up on all three reports made to them regarding Muhammad and alerted federal authorities to two of them, said Dac Jamison, Bellingham's chief of detectives. But there was no proof Muhammad had committed a crime or was about to commit one, or was carrying a weapon illegally, he said.

"If we realized they were snipers, would we have done anything differently? Obviously we would have," Jamison said.

According to Jamison:

• In June, an FBI agent drove to Bellingham to check out a report taken from Harjeet Singh after Bellingham police had arrested Singh in a domestic dispute.

Singh told authorities that months earlier, when Muhammad and Malvo were drifting through Bellingham, Muhammad had shown him a blueprint for a silencer for a gun and had railed about killing police officers and shooting gasoline tanker trucks to make them explode.

Citing a law enforcement source, The Associated Press said the FBI did not try to interview Muhammad, concluding the silencer issue was a matter for the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms and threats against police were a local matter.

• On Nov. 30, 2001, Kristine Sagor told police she drove Muhammad to a gunsmith in Ferndale to see about shortening the barrel of a rifle and attaching a silencer. The gunsmith refused the job as illegal.

In another instance, the Rev. Al Archer, director of Light House Missions in Bellingham, said he contacted the FBI about Muhammad in mid-October 2001. Bellingham police said they never saw the complaint.

Archer said he never heard back from the FBI. The country was on high alert for terrorist attacks and the FBI and other federal agencies were overwhelmed with tips.

Archer said he was suspicious of Muhammad because he was living in a homeless shelter but was receiving phone calls from travel agents and taking trips to Jamaica, New Orleans and possibly Antigua.

"That doesn't happen a lot in a mission," he said.

---

P-I reporters Chris McGann, Sam Skolnik and Hector Castro contributed to this report. P-I reporter Mike Barber can be reached at 206-448-8018 or mikebarber@seattlepi.com

© 1998-2002 Seattle Post-Intelligencer

[John Jamieson]

Items in the car:

2 shooting mittens
Green military "Alice" pack containing a GPS
2 - 2 way transceiver radios
Sony laptop
2 boxes of Winchester .338 cartridges
Pair of bolt cutters
Wallet with three different ID's for Muhammed

[Sacajaweau]

Thanks John!!

We've been waiting for that.

3 different ID's!! (That makes him a "model" terrorist).

[John Jamieson]

See new list at new thread 12:44CST.

[oldcomputerguy]

Well the laptop fits in with one of the items stolen
from the INS office in Washington.

[Sabertooth]

With all three weekends indicating a southern direction safe house, where were they??

One place to look is Red House, Virginia.

There are a lot of Baptist churches along rural Virginia's Route 615, just south of Appomattox-"where America reunited," as the county welcome sign puts it-but there's only one Sheikh Gilani Lane… near the tiny crossroads hamlet of Red House, is believed to serve as an al Fuqra base.

Red House, VA. Is about a 4 mile drive to Washington. DC.

Al Fuqra — which means "the impoverished" in Arabic — was founded in 1980 when Sheikh Mubarak Ali Gilani traveled from Pakistan to an African-American mosque in Brooklyn. On this and subsequent trips, the charismatic sheikh helped create al Fuqra, which is said to have between 1,000 and 3,000 members nationwide. It is not aligned with a more prominent and homegrown black Muslim group, the Nation of Islam, and in fact it has serious theological differences with Louis Farrakhan's flock. And it may pose a much greater threat to civil society.

About two dozen families live at the 44-acre compound near Red House, but al Fuqra is headquartered in Hancock, N.Y., and maintains extensive ties to Gilani in Lahore…
A Junior al Qaeda . . .

There's also a Maryland location I'd check out...

Masjid Jamaat al-Muslimeen, located at 4624 York Road, Baltimore, MD.

They're expressed support and raised money for the bloody government of the Sudan, as well as cop-killing former Black Panther Imam Jamil al-Amin (aka H. Rap Brown).

Jamaat al-Muslimeen is very active in the Caribbean, having attempted a nearly successful coup in Trinidad (1990).

Post here to the thread if you'd like to be on or off the Sniper Muhammad ping list.

[Sabertooth]

If I remember correctly, Reid's flight was destined for Miami but at some point I read that he told the "Visa inspector folks", that his eventual destination was the islands (to see relatives???). I'll have to find that article because it is perhaps important.

(Reid) had a ticket for a round trip to Miami and then to Antigua, and told officers that he intended to visit his family on the West Indian island. He had no luggage and was carrying only a small backpack containing a magazine, a Walkman, Arab music cassettes and verses from the Koran. He said he had clothes and belongings in the Caribbean. The ticket had been paid for in cash at a travel agency in Paris.
Who is the Shoe Bomber?

Also, there is a lot of John Muhamma/Antigua info on these threads:

Suspect in sniper shootings lived in Antigua, while boasting of being CIA agent

Antiguan neighbor says sniper suspect touted aim (JOHN ALLEN MUHAMMAD)

Focus on Antigua Passport (John Allen Muhammad)

Sniper suspect sold fake passports, ran immigration scam

Man Arrested In Sniper Case Attended School in Fort Myers (Pic of House)

[aristeides]

If the second ex-wife is still in Clinton, that's nowhere near the scenes of the shootings in Montgomery County. It's not that far from the scene of the shooting in Bowie (sole shooting in Prince George's County).

[browardchad]

Fox reporting on Federal arraignment of Muhammad and Malvo. Documents list contents of car include a SONY laptop computer and a GPS. Remember the laptop stolen from the Seattle INS office in June of this year?

[Fred Mertz]

The laptop and GPS are each worth more than the car ($250). What does that tell you?

[Abar]

Yes.

The stolen forms and stamps to me indicate the motive.

Were it a simple theft, only the gun, ammo, and laptop would have been taken.

(broken record time) The fbi/ins/etc. are criminally incompetent in my opinion.

If the true nature and scope of the islamic terror threat here in the Puget Sound Region were known, the people would demand competent and forceful action.

Inept, incompetent federal agencies are doing their damnedest to prevent this from happening.

Slowly, painfully, the people are coming to realize how bad things are and that these aren't 'isolated incidents'.

FreeRepublic is a G-dsend in this respect.

[Abar]

I think there's a lot we'll be learning in the days, months, and years ahead...

[Abar]

The gps and laptop combo is terrifying.

There's wireless internet access at the Horseshoe cafe three blocks away from Stuart's cafe.

[Abar]

I'm more concerned about fellow black muslim terrorists james ujaama & his brother mustafa. Their terrorist mosque is/was only seven blocks from muhammad's terrorist nation of islam 'mosque' - in the heart of Seattle's black community.

Federal authorities have alleged that Ujaama/Thompson/Bilal delivered laptop computers to the Taliban in Afghanistan before the U.S. invasion last fall, and that he possessed documents about poisoning America's water supply (reportedly confiscated from his Denver residence this week). Based on interrogations of Guantanamo Bay detainees, federal agents also believe Ujaama played a role in scouting out a jihad training camp in Bly, Ore.

Read Michelle Malkin's article here and how black Seattle politicians back these terrorists, calling them positive community influences.

http://www.capitalismmagazine.com/2002/august/mm_ujaama.htm

[John Jamieson]

THEY'RE STOLEN?

[Fred Mertz]

Actually, I think those items, the GPS and laptop were provided by the cell.

I doubt they were stolen, but they could have been.

[John Jamieson]

I think they came from the INS office. I wonder if they guys were driving around with INS ID and uniforms, they'd have to be "undercover" in that car.

I also doubt that they knew how to use either of those things.....we'll see.

[Grampa Dave]

She still lives in Clinton, but is she connected with the apartment in question in Montgomery Cty where the shootings took place and the poor bus driver was disemboweled with the bullet that hit him?

Sometimes these ex wives are abettors to these clymers.

[Grampa Dave]

Thanks!

Wallet with three different ID's for Muhammed.

So are these drivers licenses?

If they are driver's licenses, what state did they come from. What DMV in what city? Did a Nation of Islam zealot working at that DMV enable John Muhammad to get those licenses?

Final question if they are driver's licenses, why did the Nation of Islam, Demon Serial Killer, pick those 3 states to have driver's licenses?

[aristeides]

Didn't Semi Osman (the Naval Reservist being held on suspicion of terrorist activities) both live in Tacoma and head a mosque in Seattle? Could he be a link between the two cities? By the way, was the mosque that Mohammad attended Semi Osman's mosque?

[aristeides]

By the way, I believe Semi Osman is known to be associated with the Ujaamas.