Posted on 10/24/2002 6:00:09 AM PDT by kingfish45n
newscourt.com - Authorities are investigating into possible ties between John Muhammad, John Lee Malvo and a training camp reportedly linked to Islamic terrorists in Marion, Alabama. European law enforcement officials believe Muslims were using the camp to prepare for a holy war, according to a July 25 2002, report by ABC NEWS.
An investigation by Britain's Scotland Yard led to the discovery of "Camp Ground Zero," in Alabama. Bullet-riddled school buses and police cars with mannequin targets were scattered around the grounds. Inside a large warehouse were shot-up mannequins, in domestic settings, with blood-like stains on them.
Ground Zero's operators - also British - offered world-class training in automatic weapons and urban warfare, supposedly to fight terrorism. Marion police became suspicious of the use of buses and police cars as targets, but the camp owners refused to comment on the matter in July.
"In the United States, it is not illegal for anyone to receive military training, high-grade military training," said Rohan Gunaratna, author of Inside Al Qaeda. We know of a number of cases where Islamic terrorists came and trained in this country in the early 1990s. It is likely that this scale of training is still continuing," Gunaratna said.
The most radical of London's Islamic clerics, Abu Hamza, told ABCNEWS in a July 2002 phone call that America's laws make paramilitary training easy, "like a picnic."
British intelligence officials told ABC NEWS they were examining ties between Hamza, who is said to have recruited alleged "20th hijacker" Zacarias Moussaoui, and Zain-ul-Albidin.
The pressing question for police is whether there is a connection between the camp, John Muhammad and John Malvo.
The credit card that Muhammad allegedly used as a transfer account for the $10 million demanded in ransom by the D.C. snipers belonged to a woman who was killed in a liquor store robbery in Marion, Ala., last month. Police also report that Malvo's DNA was found at the scene of that robbery and murder.
Talk about selective perception. I was watching MSNBC last night when they first announced the names. It was "John Mohammed". They went with that name for a good fifteen minutes before they ever mentioned his former name, John Allen Williams. It was just a minute before Moose came on that they finally started giving both names. I think you may have been watching Fox too much. Good old Rita kept saying that Alabama was next door to Maryland. What a fool.
Well how many hundreds or thousands have visited his shooting range in the past year or two? And who says he used either of his names when he was there. Also it may be that he has never been there.
I was especially intrigued when he discussed the evidence in the liquor store shooting, that they had plenty. It must include eye witness ID, because he said the victim who lived has been very very helpful. He won't go on record about having fingerprints that could be matched up to these two now in Maryland custody, but it seems safe to assume he has them.
Oh gawd, I'm signing off MSNBC...cant' take Rick Sanchez.
Just a comment...I do not buy into the notion some are espousing here, that the national media is upset the guys in custody aren't right wing whacko nutcase white guys. I don't buy that at all. Oh, the national media is walking the tightrope not to be politically incorrect...as per usual, the national media wouldn't want to offend blacks, Jamacians, or American "peace loving" Moslems.
But at some point in time, the media will self-flagellate about how wrong their talking head experts were, how their coverage was over the top, and how wrong predictions and profiles were.
Imus will never let Bo Dietel forget it if his tv appearances were way wrong.....but I'm hoping somebody, someday, plays back every stupid, self-serving pronouncement made by Cliff Van Zandt. That "former FBI" gasshole makes my skin crawl.
How in the world could it NOT be terror related?
Cordially,
Don't know whether Williams/Mohammed was ever at the camp. However, I'm not really predisposed to believe everything said by the guy who owns Camp Ground Zero.
If the so-called "Nation of Islam" hasn't already been classified as a terrorist organization, now might be a good time to add it to the list.
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