Posted on 10/18/2002 1:14:51 AM PDT by kattracks
Edited on 05/26/2004 5:09:36 PM PDT by Jim Robinson. [history]
October 18, 2002 -- A NON-STOP frenzy of psychological profiling has been gushing out of televisions, newspapers, and magazines since the start of the "Sniper Killings" in the suburbs of Washington, D.C., earlier this month, producing in almost every case a rather too pat portrait of a killer (or perhaps two) who are white, in their 20s or early 30s, have military experience, enjoy exercising the god-like power of life and death, and are alienated from society.
(Excerpt) Read more at nypost.com ...
These "experts" are adept at bounching between Fox News and CNN programs - snake oil peddlers would have felt akin to these folks.
I'd rather watch the leemers snuggle up to one another rather than listen to the inane babblings of these "experts".
Nope. Sheesh, everyone knows it's a white ex-military gun-nut.
I agree you for the most part.
I have to say, however, that I just find the possibility that the DC attacks are moslem terrorism to be hard to believe. Not that it couldn't be the case, but it would be so stupid on their part. It strains credulity to imagine that the people behind Al Queda or the Waqf or whatever it is could be this assinine.
If it turns out that the DC shootings have been perpetrated by foreign terrorists under instructions from abroad, there will IMHO be huge consequences. For immigration policy, for second-amendment considerations (as you alluded to), for political correctness, for the entire edifice of modern-day liberalism and the liberal "hive." The power of the UN, of the opinions of other countries (like the EU, for example) will be even more diminished in force than they are now.
If our enemies are really this stupid, my fear of them will actually decrease. Not that they can't do horrible, lamentable damage to us, killing many innocent individuals and causeing much pain and heartache to individual Americans and their families.
But a "frank" world war would be the cause of many times more individual tragedy, and that is (again IMHO) what we are in now, or soon will be. The North Korea revelations bring us that much closer to the day when nuclear fire will again smite human civilization, and the next time the targets may not be some distant enemy of ours. I don't think it has sunk in to many in our country how serious this situation is, how much of a challenge to our way of life we face.
(steely)
Otherwise known as the US Military ?
You can't have it both ways.
Live by the sword, ...
BUMP
I haven't even watched Fox during the day now for about a week, I guess. I'm not going to sit and listen to some idiot insult my intelligence. I have the TV on with the sound muted (in case of breaking--real, breaking--news) and am thoroughly enjoying my CDs. At night, I mostly listen to conservative talk radio.
The killings began just before the one-year anniversary of the American invasion of Afghanistan . . . [and coincide with] recent attacks in Kuwait, Yemen, and Bali. . .
. . . it has been trumpeted that the locations of the shootings have been "random" - but of course they have not.
. . . we must now look beyond this somewhat obvious theory [of a serial killer/white angry militant], with its horribly comfortable familiarity, to the even more terrifying possibility that a new kind enemy is conducting an unprecedented kind of campaign within our borders
And as many have pointed out, there have been 9 killed out of 11 hit. Now a long, unexplainable, lull.....coincidence? I think not. Excellent article and analysis.
What if the "sniper" is some nut who wanted to kill one specific person, but knew that he would be an immediate suspect if that person were murdered? Now, his victim is just one of many and the police are not looking for motives for each inividual killing.
I said some nut.
He didn't. The 13 year-old just barely survived. It wasn't as if he shot the other two in the leg. The 9/11 thing is coincidence. (Although I do believe this to be a terrorist operation.)
I rebuff this symbolism theory of "9 killed, 11 shootings". What if the other two had died? What if only 8 of the 11 died? Would there have been shootings between the Seven Corners hit Mon. night and now?
foreverfree
The death of the target is not the intent. The death of the targeted victim is merely the vehicle used to instill fear and panic in the rest of us. Whether freelance or state-sponsored, this is the very essence of terrorism.
They are, but they weren't.
Linda worked for the National Infrastructure Protection Center, which mainly deals with cybercrime. It is relatively speaking an obscure geek-type technical role, and to my understanding she was not an agent.
This is a very important article!
Thank you Caleb Carr and The New York Post!
This is better comment than CNN and ALL the T.V. PC trash!
Hats Off to The New York Post and Mr. Caleb Carr!
Thanks,.....for keeping a free print press with open/intelligent perspectives before the American public!!
PRINT IT!...................................BTTT
This is not necessarily true. Terrorist are cunning (like animals), and for most of them the object is to commit the crime and not be caught! The 9/11 attacks set a new standard, mode of operation for airline hijackings by using the hijacked plane as a weapon. Who's to say that the terrorists haven't changed the way they carry out sniper attacks as well?
Think she might have been working on this project: U.S. Pinpoints Top Al Qaeda Financiers ? One of the articles about Franklin's murder just happened to mention that the FBI is involved in this project.
There were still plenty of LE officials and officers around, as well as news trucks.
Interesting is that the school on the opposite (westbound) side of Rt. 50 seems to have become an area of LE interest. This is a Fairfax County public school exactly opposite the HD, with a large parking lot and a grassy hill. The entire area of the hill was surrounded with Crime Scene tape. Many of you may have seen the news video yesterday of police cadets searching a parking lot area. That is the school parking lot.
The interesting thing about this lot is that it affords a direct line-of-sight into the 5th inside lane of the HD parking lot (I believe that's where the shooting took place), as well as a direct, unobstructed line-of-sight to the main entrance/exit of the store.
Having lived in the area for a number of years, I'm pretty certain that the school parking lot is completely unlit at night, as is the area immediately surrounding it. It is dark as dark can be. Also, the entrance into the lot is a mere 15 feet from the entrance ramp onto Rt. 50. I can't imagine it would take more than 10 seconds to exit from a shooting position in the lot onto westbound Rt. 50, which is not an interstate but certainly a high-speed (45-50 MPH) state road.
From the lot (it's not taped off as a crime scene), I then took a closer at the access road on the opposite side of the Rt. 50, just on the outside of the HD parking lot. This is the only spot where witnesses could realistically have ID'd suspects, vehicles, or anything else (as I said, the school parking lot would have been pitch black, and is 100 yards across the road, no one in the HD parking lot could possibly have seen anything whatsoever from that distance).
If in that access road, it looked as if the shooter might in fact have needed to exit their vehicle in order to aim into the 5th lane of the HD parking lot. Also, there's a small rise/hill, and they may have actually needed to walk up that rise perhaps 5 to 10 feet.
So the bottom line is that the access road just outside the Home Depot lot seems a very bad choice, and not consistent with previous shootings which have been in the 100 yard range according to news reports.
The conclusion from this is that the school parking lot on westbound Rt. 50 provided the ideal line-of-sight into the HD parking lot, is in cover of complete darkness, and provided immediate egress onto Rt. 50. On the other hand, the access road just outside the HD parking lot is well-lit, seems inconvenient from a positioning point-of-view, and has relatively tricky egress routes.
Bottom line: because of the darkness and distance, the school lot would have provided no witness opportunities, whereas a shooter on the HD access road would have been completely exposed and provided many witness sightings.
It seems to me inconceivable that the shooter would have broken so severely from established pattern to use the HD access road, and entirely consistent that he/they would have used the school parking lot.
Finally, I did speak with several other locals who were observing just as I was. Everyone without exception believed the shooter had used the school parking lot, and they had thought so since the moment they first heard of the shooting on the news. Standing there on the scene, there was no doubt in anyone's mind that their initial and imnmediate impression had been correct: the shot was taken from the school.
If that is true, none of the "witness accounts" make a lot of sense, because the shooter was 100+ yards away, in pitch black darkness, and within 10 feet of three separate egress choices. He/they would have been gone within 30 seconds.
My previous thinking on this was dictated by the purported "witness acounts". Having now looked at the scene, and with at least one account being entirely dismissed, I'd say that they're all quite suspect if not entirely wrong.
2) NIPC in the entirety is supposed to be placed under Homeland Security.
3) She could have been working anything relating to cybercrime, as NIPC is a part of the FBI. That could include Nigerian bank frauds, cyber-extortion, hacking attempts into banks, or offshore gambling frauds. Literally, it could have been anything.
that is exactly what i thought when i heard of the shooting as well. That school was my polling place when i lived over there and the lot is always deserted, and you are correct, completely unlit.
Sadly, I don't share your optimism on a U.S. reaction to a terrorist cell being responsible for the sniper killings. The first thing the sheeple will be told is not to profile nor discriminate against our fellow citizens who appear Mideastern.
Secondly, the government will do absolutely NOTHING to close the borders; remember, 3000 deaths and two massive edifices were terminated and the borders are still open.
As an addenum, my brother does work out in Gainesville, and knows the Sunoco where the Manassas shooting took place.
He drove by several days ago and did some observing.
I don't know that area very well, but he said there is a Petco (?) and a Bob Evans restaurant directly across the street (Rt. 234?) from the Sunoco. He drove up to the restaurant and noted that between those two buildings is a driveway providing a perfect line-of-sight into the Sunoco. Since that shooting was at 9:30PM, he thought it would be quite dark in the driveway.
So it looks as if the shooters have a consistent MO, and they select their position very carefully.
What boggles my mind is that the police have this information from ballistics evidence (that is, the line-of-sight, shooting direction and probably distance) and they say nothing about it to the public.
Seems to me they should be warning to public to report any strange sightings of vehicles pulling into darkened across the street from shopping centers, gas stations, etc.
Why? Because the leaders of the country and many of the people so STRONGLY want things to be the way 'they used to be', they cannot embrace change or consider the unthinkable. It is almost as if they fiercely WANT it to NOT be terrorism, but that has no effect upon the objective actions of a terrorist cell committed to our destruction.
It is a good case study in human discomfort with 'Change' and propensity for 'Denial'.
In fact, "The United States of Denial" might be a more fitting title now.
So did I!
Believe not the self censored media or sandbagging officials, believe your own gut and eyes and logical, reasoning brain!
Thanks angkor.
Thanks for sharing your inspection of the scene of the crime with us angkor.
Actually, they did not.
My wife and I sat from 10PM until 2AM watching the live news coverage.
Several times, there were live shots broadcast from the school parking lot, which was being used by the newsies to park their crew vehicles. I clearly recall one shot being a drive from one end of the lot to another, the camera was pointed at the opposite mall parking lot, but you could see newsvan after newsvan parked in the school's lot. Other live shots from the mall itself - acorss the street - were pointed at the school lot, and this confirmed that 10 or more newsvans had setup in the school lot.
There was no obvious LE presence at any time that I recall, except for the one instance where the LE with bloodhound dashed all the way from the mall, across Rt. 50, to the school lot.
Me too--know what did it for me? FNC Alyson Camerota's info-segment yesterday of her awkwardly wielding an AR-15 at a local Firing Range...it's just a fill in for the absence of news and facts.
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