Posted on 11/02/2002 8:56:09 AM PST by browardchad
| I am probably going to catch high holy hell for writing this article. But I have to. I have to because nobody is saying this publicly, although a lot of people are thinking it. First of all, every media outlet in the world has been falling all over themselves praising Montgomery County Police Chief Charles Moose. Theoretically, this sniper pair was caught only after vociferous digging, and many man hours of diligent police work, with the help of honest citizens willing to tell the police about any suspicion about anything they may have had. Bull puckey. Law enforcement really didn't have a clue about these guys. Law enforcement at all levels, and in all the jurisdictions where the killings occurred, were an example of sheer incompetence. Police profilers had the shooting pegged as the stereotypical "angry white male", probably either a gun nut, or a man with military training. Later, they turned up two Hispanic males determined to be illegal aliens because someone stated they saw the shooters and they were Hispanic. The Tarot Card thing had some people looking at a possible Special Forces connection, which also turned up empty. And the truck. The white Astro van, or white box truck, which people allegedly saw in the area. When they did dragnets on I-95 looking for these trucks, apparently alleged snipers John Muhammad and John Malvo drove by these guys several times. Meanwhile, innocent citizens with white vehicles were routinely searched, most of them undoubtedly illegally, and if anyone had objected, and tried to assert their constitutional rights, undoubtedly they would have been paraded and slimed before the media as the prime suspect. I would bet the ranch and the dog that if they had stopped me, and I denied them a search, as I most certainly would have, that I would at worst currently be framed as the infamous sniper, and at best, be termed a "person of interest". Be honest. You KNOW this would have happened. Look at the Richard Jewell case. Later on, if you recall, one of the witnesses admitted to lying to the police about most of these clues. Law enforcement didn't figure it out, and wasn't close to figuring it out, until Muhammad himself placed the needed tips in their hands and got them to listen to them. Muhammad wanted to be caught: why? John Allen Muhammad wanted to be caught. In fact, truth be told, he was rather desperate to be caught. He left clue after clue as to his identity. The special DC Sniper Task Force actually HUNG UP on Muhammad numerous times when he tried to give them a clue. He seemed rather impatient that he WASN'T caught, and that the police, the FBI, and the ATF were such a bunch of bumbling boobs. Finally in desperation, he tipped them off to a killing he and his accomplice John Lee Salvo committed in Alabama about a month previous. It was that tip that caught him. The FBI, the ATF, and all the county law enforcement didn't dig up Jimmy Jack Sugar to get this guy this quickly. It may have taken them YEARS to solve this crime if they ever solved it. It took them seventeen years to catch Ted Kaczynski. Why would this sniper effectively turn himself in, and give up, or place himself in a situation were he could be easily identified and taken? For publicity? That's what most killers would do. But I don't think this was the case here. Most serial killers who go this route do a cat and mouse thing with police if they do anything at all. Wayne Williams, John Wayne Gacy, Ted Bundy, the Green River Killer, left very few clues about who they really were to police. The fact that their KILLINGS are on the front page is sufficient publicity enough. It isn't guilt. Guilt only works on passion killings or convenience store robberies. Guys like this don't HAVE any guilt. Was he programmed to do the killings and then self destruct? I have heard this theory posited. And while I am not unconvinced of the possibility, there is a more important motive that is staring me in the face, and if you have any knowledge of Mr. Muhammad's background, should be staring YOU right in the face, too. Helter Skelter Remember the motivation that Charles Manson had for going out and butchering two innocent groups of people neither he nor his disciples even knew? You don't have to guess, because Manson has already told you. He wanted to start what he called "Helter Skelter". He wanted to use the Tate and Labianca killings to inspire a race war between blacks and whites. He used those killings to try and inspire further killings. He wanted to show people "what to do". However, Manson was essentially "talking" to a group of people who were not his people, and whom he had little knowledge of, and had no loyalty to. In fact, Manson hated blacks. He communicated nothing to black people. Well, this is what Muhammad was trying to do. But the exception to Muhammad's vision of "Helter Skelter" was that unlike Manson, Muhammad was trying to talk to people who WERE his people and who did understand his message in the killings. And it frustrated him that the authorities were maybe attributing this to a white guy, and maybe a few were attributing it to Arab terrorism, and not to a black man from the Nation of Islam. If Muhammad was your average everyday common criminal, he would have been giddy with glee that law enforcement was so far off the track. If Muhammad was your average assassin, he wouldn't have cared who ultimately got fingered for these deeds, as long as he got away with them. Even your everyday soldier would not demand recognition, for recognition is not as important as doing the job. The Nation of Islam and what they believe John Allen Muhammad belonged to the Nation of Islam, a religious sect of Islam formerly led by Elijah Muhammad, and currently led by Louis Farrakhan. Farrakhan puts a nice smiley face on it, and often tells the truth about the history of blacks in America. However, his religious belief is racist, as racist as any Christian Identity group. Elijah Muhammad routinely referred to the white race as "Devils", alleging that they were the literal sons of the union between Havah (Eve) and Hannachash, the Serpent (Lucifer, or Satan). He taught that the black man was the Original Man of Genesis. He taught that the black slave in America was from the tribe of Shabbazz.. He also taught that eventually the Black man would be strong enough to assert a demand for his own homeland nation in America. He also taught that the Black man would prevail over whites in a final "Battle of Armagheddon" as he termed it. While certain Black Muslims may have rebuked this teaching, most notably Malcolm X (Malik Al Shabbazz), who was assassinated, probably by the Farrakhan faction, and while there are peaceful offshoots such as the group headed by the son of Elijah Muhammad, Warith Deen Mohammad, and while there are African-American Muslims who are followers of the more mainstream sects like the Sunnis, the Nation of Islam remains essentially an advocate of Black revolution. The NOI is estimated to have 200,000 members. It is the Nation of Islam which is dominant among most blacks in prison. 25% of Blacks in prison are Muslims of some type. The Black Muslims are heavily involved in what you might remember as a name from the 60's. The New Black Panther Party. The original Black Panther Party was a bit marxist in nature. The NEW Black Panther Party, however, is HEAVILY influenced by NOI activists. Moreover, what also needs to be remembered is that for every MEMBER of the Nation of Islam, there are probably three to four SYMPATHIZERS with them, not Muslims, not as disciplined, but definitely brothers. Moreover, Farrakhan is notorious for his alliances with black CHURCHES, and black MINISTERS, and has spoken before many black CHRISTIAN congregations. How violent can the Nation of Islam be? How violent can this group potentially be? Well, they probably shot Malcolm, and he was a brother. Do you think they would not hesitate to shoot non-Muslims or non-blacks? Think about how violent many Black neighborhoods are and how many of these young men have turned this violence upon one another. Then imagine the Crips and the Bloods and all the rest of the "gangstas" uniting to turn the gun on America. You think it can't happen? Many of you have NO IDEA of the depth of the hatred some black people have for America. You see Condie Rice and Colin Powell, and think integration has succeeded and everything's copasetic. You see the many black politicians, the many black people loved in sports, in entertainment, the many black people who really are pretty well off now. Yes, in a large measure, integration has succeeded. There are pockets of white racism here and there but generally they are laughed at. However, for every black person you see integrated and become a full fledged American, there is another black person you all rarely see. Many of these black people haven't been integrated. The biggest reason many of them have not is because they don't want to be integrated. Perhaps the former criminal background of others prevents their integration, as America is a society which lacks forgiveness when it comes to crime. And of these people, Farrakhan commands more loyalty, respect and sympathy than any other man in the country. Many blacks have shunned integration The black people you see integrated into American society wanted to be integrated and accepted into it. The Nation of Islam, however, doesn't WANT integration. They are segregationists of the highest order. And to them, most of YOU are still "Devils". The thing which makes NOI Muslims particularly dangerous is their discipline. They are probably the most disciplined black people in America, and among the most disciplined Muslims in the world. There is a security arm of NOI called the Fruit of Islam, which is one of the best trained militias in the country. Most of these people have been preparing for the day they GET to do what John Muhammad apparently HAS done. The training camp in Alabama frequently by many Black Muslims is reported to be linked to Al Qaeda. The Nation of Islam and foreign influences As for Farrakhan and foreign influences, a few years ago it was discovered that the NOI was being aided in funding by Moammar Khadafi the President of Libya. It is being discovered that foreign Arabs managed to get contributions into a number of Black Democrats, most notably, Cynthia McKinney. If it ever turns up that there is an Al Qaeda connection to the NOI, it wouldn't shock me in the least. Nor would a Palestinian connection shock me. Back to what John Muhammad was trying to do There is not a doubt in my mind that the intent of John Muhammad went far beyond personal aggrandizement or random violence. His acts went far beyond acting out a personal fantasy as a mujahideen killing infidels. His acts were not the acts of a precise assassin targeting specific people. My sincere belief is, that given his training, what Muhammad wanted to do was leave a blueprint for every Black Muslim, maybe Blacks in general, to follow. He wanted to show you how easy it is to target America, and Americans, for terror. He probably picked suburban Maryland and Virginia because so many people there work for the United States government or are connected to it in some way. This was John Allen Muhammad's precursor to his own version of "Helter Skelter". He could not do that with the police and the media fantasizing that this sniper was some redneck angry white guy who was a gun nut and probably a Republican and an NRA member. This is why he was so anxious to have police establish precisely who he was. I suppose he could have followed Eric Rudolph into obscurity in the wilderness if only the police would recognize WHO he was, and WHY he was doing what he was doing. But getting out the message of who he was, and why he was doing this was far more important than his freedom, which he could have protected at any time by getting out of Dodge. And you know what. I don't think the police still get it. I don't think the media still get it. But Muhammad's target audience? They got it. They got it loud and clear. And probably other would be terrorists, foreign and domestic, against the American government also got it. And that message? That one man with a gun can do a lot of damage to the status quo. That many men with guns could bring down the status quo. But why did Muhammad shoot blacks? Do any of you have any familiarity with the beliefs of white racists, like the Aryan Nations groups, and the Christian Identity groups? Yes, they hate dark-skinned minorities. They hate Jews. But they also hate another group even worse than they hate Jews and minorities. They call those people "race traitors". They are whites who have associated themselves with minorities, defended minorities, befriended minorities, and sometimes even married minorities. They hate those people much, much more vociferously than the people they are supposed to really hate. Now shift back to Muhammad and the NOI. They have their own "race traitor" concept, too. Malcolm X called such people "The House Negro". (And yes, I am substituting "Negro" for the other word he really said.) How did he know he wasn't shooting another Black Muslim? Because usually Muslims tend to have a distinctive dress and manner about them. The other blacks in Washington could have been seen by Muhammad as just another bunch of "House Negroes". No excuses I am not saying that grave injustices have not been done to black people in America. Being a part of my ancestry, I know as well as anyone what blacks have historically suffered in the United States. I won't discuss here what solutions to these injustices I believe have merit and which are without logic and sense. But the fact of the matter is, nobody's going to discuss righting wrongs their ancestors may or may not have done when there is a literal and figurative "gun to their heads". I am gravely concerned about John Muhammad's likely vision becoming reality. And I am gravely concerned about the response to any such internal war on Americans. It's not a pretty scenario, for anyone. White, black or any other color. And numerically, I know darn well that a war that any side bases on race, or on religion, will invariably get a lot of black people killed, and get a lot of American Muslims killed, even if they didn't sympathize with any of its proponents. I would never suggest that anyone has no right to believe what they believe. I am not suggesting that any individual or any group has no right to self defense, no right to arms, or no right to a preemptive strike. Neither am I suggesting that anyone hate or distrust anyone else for reason of race or religion. I am certainly not suggesting that any American's constitutional rights be curtailed. But that notwithstanding, I feel it is foolish to not prepare for things which may come. Sometimes we get a harbinger of things which are likely coming in our future. A harbinger to come? I believe the DC Sniper killings were one of those harbingers, and it is a lesson we ignore at our own peril. A lesson that our children are not really safe after all. A lesson that we cannot unilaterally disarm ourselves and think others will respect that. A lesson that the police and the FBI cannot, after all, protect us. A lesson that not everyone loves America, not even many born here. And a lesson that we need to be ever vigilant against potential enemies, not only enemies from half a world away, but enemies which may be in our own midst. Helter Skelter can be brought to our door at any time. Liz Michael has formed a committee to run for the U. S. Senate from Arizona in 2004. |
Muhammad converted to Islam while he was in the Army, and was doctrinaire in some regards, Green said. He encouraged his wife to wear a veil and became upset when she got a short haircut, even though it made her look younger. He expressed a strong racial nationalism - he affectionately addressed Green as "black man" - disliked whites and spoke against those who didn't belong to the Nation of Islam, as he and his wife did, Green said.
Once, Green accompanied the couple to a mosque with another black man whose white wife was barred from entering. "I told [Muhammad] in the car that was b--- and he told me not to curse," Green recalled.
Liz Michael's theory of why Muhammad wanted to get caught makes sense.
But why did Muhammad not make his agenda clear while the shootings were going on? Even now, after being caught, one can speculate on his message, but it's still just speculation. Why didn't he spell it out if this was his purpose?
I do agree that the snipers let themselves be caught, but I don't think this provides an adequate explanation.
By the way, as the tag-line says, Liz Michael is running a campaign for the U.S. Senate in Arizona, but let's just say that she's the opposite of a mainstream candidate.
I agree with your assessment of the danger of al Fuqra, but lack of clear identification with a known terrorist group has become the escape hatch for the FBI, the media, and everyone else that wants to hide their head in the sand of political correctness, and ignore NOI and the various violent splinter groups spawned by it.
Muhammad does not need to be a card-carrying member of any group to get his message out: it's there, loud and clear.
And remember, al Fuqra, unbelievably, hasn't even been classified as a terrorist group by the DOJ as yet -- so if they do find a connection, they can still issue the standard mantra of "no known connection to a terrorist group."
Examples:
The article talks about "police profilers." I didn't hear a single "profile" from any official agency. Everything was either "consultants," who explicitly said they had no clue as to what police were actually thinking or looking at, or "sources," who told us, anonymously, what police were thinking. Neither is any evidence as to POLICE incompetence.
As to the "Illegal aliens." They were not stopped just becasue they were Hispanic. The police were staking out a phone booth (they may have been incompetent not to get there a couple of minutes earlier -- I dunno) -- and the aliens were the people who showed up to use the phone.
As to the lying witness at the Home Depot -- the cops did figure that out pretty quick -- based on the in-store cameras that showed the witness inside when he said he was outside. As to the White Van/Truck -- that's what a number of witnesses said they "saw in the vicinity" (maybe they did -- the shooters just weren't in it!), and you can imagine the conspiracy minded if the police had "hushed up" their stories.
On balance -- I think the cops did OK -- not great, because the shooters would not have been caught so soon if they had not scattereed some clues, but when they had the clues, LE got an ID and connecting evidence pretty quick. B- to B+ grade.
I think he did make it clear. He left notes all over the place - the contents of which have not been revealed. The tarot cards, for example, supposedly contained more than the fragmentary messages revealed to the press, but even those fragments contained enough information so that any police agency would have realized they were dealing with Black Muslim Five Percenters. They used certain stock phrases used by this group, for example.
Actually, I think the money demand - which seems to have come later - only arose because it seemed to be the only way that Muhammed could get them to take him seriously and assemble "enough" clues to be unable to deny the evidence. Remember, Moose and the others seem to have wanted this person, from the very start, to be neither black nor Muslim, and I think this was crucial in slowing down the apprehension of the pair. If their whole purpose was publicity, it must have been pretty frustrating! If it weren't such a deadly serious thing that had destroyed so many lives, it would almost be comical.
And of course, if it weren't such a serious thing with regards to the future. I still wonder about the "duck in the noose" remark -
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Manson didn't butcher anybody. A bunch of runamok kids under the leadership of Tex Watson went off and did it by themselves. They came back and one of the girls came to Manson ans said, "Guess what we did?" Manson's reply was, "You got me thrown in the jailhouse is what you did."
Normal people tend to look for logical actions by those who commit atrocious acts under the influence of religious zeal or intense hatred, since murder of strangers is in complete contradiction to our well-ordered world, and threatens, by its random nature -- to undermine the very fabric of society.
How many times did you hear so-called "experts," many of them former FBI agents, proclaim that the sniper was not a terrorist, since a terrorist would claim responsibility? This assumption is completely bogus, as evidenced by the FBI's own case files, as far back as 1990.
When Egyptian El-Sayyid Nosair assassinated Meir Kahane in November of 1990, the FBI insisted on the “lone nut” theory; and Nosair never offered a rationale for the shooting during his criminal trial in New York; in fact, he was not even convicted of murder, only of lesser charges. But in a notebook belonging to Nosair (who was also linked to the bombing of a gay bar in Greenwich Village and the attempted assassination of Mikhail Gorbachev the same year) he called for the “breaking and destruction of the enemies of Allah. And this is by means of destroying exploding, the structure of their civilized pillars such as the touristic infrastructure which they are proud of and their high world buildings which they are proud of and their statues which they endear and the buildings which gather their head[s,] their leaders, and without any announcement for our responsibility of Muslims for what had been done.”
Michaels is obviously a libertarian, as you imply, but while I don’t agree with some of her beliefs, I think she may be right on target with this theory.
No, he didn't: but he was the(stomach-turning) inspiration of the loonies who did:
From The Crime Library
Another facet of Charlie, although not nearly as important to him as his music, was his philosophy. To a large extent, this "philosophy" was a con, something he dreamed up to impress his followers, but he probably believed some of it.
The core of this philosophy was a kind of Armageddon. Charlie preached that the black man was going to rise up and start killing the whites and turn the cities in to an inferno of racial revenge. The black man would win this war, but wouldn’t be able to hang onto the power he seized because of innate inferiority.
In 1968, Charlie was forecasting racial war when all of a sudden the Beatles released their White Album, which had the song "Helter Skelter." The lyrics fit Charlie’s theory to a tee: "Look out helter skelter helter skelter helter skelter/She’s coming down fast/ Yes she is/Yes she is." Now, the racial Armageddon had a name. It was Helter Skelter.
Helter Skelter would begin, according to one of Charlie’s devotees, "with the black man going into white people’s homes and ripping off the white people, physically destroying them,. A couple of spades from Watts would come up into the Bel Air and Beverly Hills district…and just really wipe some people out, just cutting bodies up and smearing blood and writing things on the wall in blood…all kinds of super-atrocious crimes that would really make the white man mad…until there was open revolution in the streets, until they finally won and took over. Then the black man would assume the white man’s karma. He would then be the establishment…"
Charlie and the Family would survive this racial holocaust because they would be hiding in the desert safe from the turmoil of the cities. He pulled from the Book of Revelations, the concept of a "bottomless pit," the entrance of which, according to Charlie, was a cave underneath Death Valley that led down to a city of gold. This paradise was where Charlie and his Family were going to wait out this war. Afterwards, when the black man failed at keeping power, Charlie’s Family, which they estimated would have multiplied to 144,000 by that time, would then take over from the black man and rule the cities.
"It will be our world then," Charlie told his followers. "There would be no one else, except for us and the black servants. He, Charles Willis Manson, the fifth angel, Jesus Christ, would then rule the world. The other four angels were the Beatles.
How did this hokey philosophy result in the blood bath at the Tate and LaBianca houses? Well, Charlie the Prophet had already forecast that the murders would start in the summer of 1969, but as the summer went on, it looked as though the "prophet" was wrong. "The only thing blackie knows is what whitey has told him," he said to one of his followers just before the murders. "I’m going to have to show him how to do it."
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