Is it all a diversion?

NewsMax ^ | October 18, 2002 | John Le Boutillier

[Yohec]

Is It All a Diversion?

John LeBoutillier

Friday, Oct. 18, 2002

As the D.C. Sniper Case grips the nation, that may be the exact intent.

What if, say, this 'sniper' is actually a Sniper Team indeed sent from the Middle East – either from Saddam or Osama?

And what, skeptics ask, would be the point?

Here is the point: With each new shooting – and subsequent ratcheted-up news coverage – the pressure on law enforcement is increased to stop the killing. So, after 12 shootings, we even have the unprecedented spectacle of the U.S. military being used to investigate a domestic crime. Not to mention the involvement of ATF and every local police force surrounding Washington, D.C.

Yes, D.C. and its suburbs are virtually paralyzed with fear. But the government is still functioning. Plans to hit Baghdad proceed unabated. So the terrorists – if that is who is doing this – have not been able to stop our government's work – at least not yet.

But yesterday's chilling testimony from CIA Director George Tenet fits into this scenario. He said that the threat from al Qaeda has never been as high as it is today – and it is similar to the months just before 9/11. The Bali, Yemen and Kuwaiti attacks of recent days are mere precursors of a bigger attack.

So, here is what may be going on – right in front of our eyes: the D.C. Sniper(s) are a mere diversion! Their job is to so focus the D.C. authorities and other law enforcement – including the military – on hunting down the elusive killer that they miss a much worse event happening right under their noses.

What if one night – after carefully building the suspense to an unprecedented degree – the sniper hits again and then allows a car chase à la OJ's white Bronco. As he hightails it all over suburban Maryland or Virginia – with cops galore and TV trucks tailing him while the entire nation is riveted to their TV screens to finally see who the killer is – another Saddam/al Qaeda team quietly unloads a 'footlocker' nuke from a private yacht which just cruised into the Potomac, drives it in a small SUV and parks it on Pennsylvania Avenue equidistant between the White House and the Capitol building?

And what if they then detonate it – thus completing the total mission of 9/11?

They get the companion 'picture' to the World Trade Center they always wanted: our symbols of freedom – the beautiful White House and Capitol – smoldering piles of radioactive rubble.

This may be the real plan behind these D.C.-area sniper murders.

Let us hope our usually slow-to-figure-things-out intelligence services are being especially careful these days.

[Yohec]

Could this be a plausible scenario? It reads like a Tom Clancy novel.

[lexington minuteman 1775]

Anything is plausible.The only thing we know about today is Tom Clancy novels can be played out in real life and are no longer fiction.We have certainly lost our innocence.

[rintense]

This sounds more like 'True Lies' to me. Where's Arnold when you need him?

[backhoe]

The wife is about to take over the computer, so no time to hunt links- but SADM's ( small atomic demolitions munitions ) are indeed nasty ( think of Hoover Dam... ) but need souping up on a routine basis to stay hot- try a web search, you'll be surprised!

[Kerberos]

"Could this be a plausible scenario? It reads like a Tom Clancy novel."

If 9/11 should have taught us anything it should be that when dealing with these people it is prudent to think the unthinkable.

[RaceBannon]

What if one night – after carefully building the suspense to an unprecedented degree – the sniper hits again and then allows a car chase à la OJ's white Bronco. As he hightails it all over suburban Maryland or Virginia – with cops galore and TV trucks tailing him while the entire nation is riveted to their TV screens to finally see who the killer is – another Saddam/al Qaeda team quietly unloads a 'footlocker' nuke from a private yacht which just cruised into the Potomac, drives it in a small SUV and parks it on Pennsylvania Avenue equidistant between the White House and the Capitol building?

Because they could do this without the scenario and be just as effetive. The only gain might be to detonate it in that snipers van in front of the cameras and kill all the cops with it, all on camera.

[greencow]

I've been saying this since the shootings started - my husband and my neighbors don't share my point of view one bit. But I think this is very likely what's happening...

[FReethesheeples]

The government law enfrocement & intelligence services have proven themselves hopelessly bureaucratic and inept.

In fairness, however, they have a BIG area to cover.

When I first heard the "diversion" scenario three days ago, I shrugged it off;

now I am not at all sure it isn't just possible, but plausible:

LOOK AT THE PATTERN ENCIRCLING (of encirclement) WASHINGTON, D.C.

THE SNIPER(S) HAVE DRWN A PERFECT CIRCLE AROUND D.C., while not going into D.C. itself.

Do the "slow ones" in intelligence and law enforcement get this?

Possibly this pattern of avoiding D.C. proper and encircling it with killings, is just a sign that the sniper(s) live in D.C. and/or the very numerous hidden cameras in D.C. streets (traffic lights, etc.) are a deterrent.

[mict42]

Speaking of what ifs, I've always thought that the possibility was there that the sniper,snipers were setting up just the descriptions that would totally throw off investigators. The sniper sets up his line of site to an area where there will probably always be one human target or another at anytime. He waits for a white van to drive by or stop at a nearby intersection an then fixes on the currently available target and fires. Witnesses looking around will see the most commonly described vehicle, the white van or white truck. It's all been a set up. Perp drives away unnoticed.

[bulldogs]

This, or something like this is right on the mark on what is likely to happen. Just listen to the media. They are whining about how devistating this is to the Washington area economy. The Terrorists are laughing at us. They can't wait to do something big. This sniper is a set up for sure. Or if it isn't a sniper terrorist, they have given them a real good idea. Close the borders, start deportation NOW!

[Tacis]

I think you are way off!

UBL would not use a sniper or any other demonstarion of terrorist capability BEFORE THE ELECTION. It would only stregthen Bush position and tend to work toward the election of Republicans in Congress. The congressional dems who support UBL would have asked him to do noting to negatively effect their chances and, in return, pledged their contiuning support for anti-Americanism, e.g., "wait for the UN," "we don't have enough info," or "we brought this on ourselves."

The bad guys don't need a diversion to land a small nuke, they could bring thousands of them across the Mexican border and no one would ever know because President Fox and his military and drug lord friends and supporters have been moving dope and illegals north for years with little fear of being caught. Ship what you want to Cuba and Fidelito will arrange to have it delivered in Mexico and include the bribes in his fees.

I believe there is a connection. The sniper is propbably the same guy who killed those 6 or 7 Israeli soldiers. He is a former SAS guy or former IRA assassin and is long gone now, back on his way to South Africa or Lebanon, where he lives.

[templar]

The only gain might be to detonate it in that snipers van in front of the cameras and kill all the cops with it, all on camera.

When talking nukes, of any size, you won't have a camera in range to watch a captiure of terrorists that will record it. You would simply see the screen go blank as the camera, camera man, camera vehicles, and surrounding environment are vaporized. It would look more like the camera just shut off.

[slimer]

This is a great! As if the terrorists don't already have enough wicked schemes of their own, here we have the news media providing them with even more ideas.

Might as well publish maps and drawings detailing the operation for them. Hell, why don't we just nuke ourselves and get it over with?

[bulldogs]

Excellent analysis.

[capt. norm]

Can't rule anything out at this point. The more creative thinking we can accumulate, the better.

It's not a "tin-foil hat" situation as this one will require a little imagination to solve.

It doesn't fit well with any of the standard scenarios. The perp seems to be somewhat intelligent, but still stupid enough to believe that he will be the first of his type to avoid capture and punishment even though history shows that it never happens that way.

Everyone makes mistakes, and when this piece of filth does, it will bring about his capture and his tour through the justice system.

Johnny Cochran will probably be preparing his pitch to champion the cause of this "poor abused serial killer".

[widgysoft]

this was posted on usenet. 10-16-02

The attacks are drawing further away from the beltway, stetching
police resources ever thinner.

This cat and mouse game is intended to draw attention away from the primary objective: Setting off a nuke in D.C.

The police, FBI and now the military are running all over the D.C. area looking for vans and snipers.

While they look the other way, another vehicle, say a purple Mercedes with a 2Meg data store in the trunk slips quietly across the Potomac into the Capitol Mall area and ....

http://groups.google.com/groups?hl=en&lr=&ie=UTF-8&oe=UTF-8&safe=off&selm=ep3qqu0ukjec1ntcbbjt98o2felc7ellr4%404ax.com

[wharfrat]

I think the way the arab terrorists are depicted in this movie reflects the way they really are. Certainly they are not the sharpest tacks in the box but unfortunately they do sometime get lucky if there is such a thing as luck. These raghead dufuses are not to be discounted; we just need to be vigilant and keep them off balance and hound them to the pit of Hell; and slam the lid on them.By not allowing them to congregate and plot and scheme undeterred we might be able to prevent a lot of potential trouble headed our way.

As a final act we must temporarilly close all our borders until we can be fully assured we have the situation under control. This is not the first time this has been suggested and it won't be the last from this writer! America is too large and expansive a country to assume wrongly that we have this issue addressed properly. The factoid of the matter is we still at this point don't know how many we are dealing with! This will take time to do as you well know but at the very least we can start a new and comprehensive let in policy that is tied directly to our badly needed Homeland Security policies. Then we can weed out and isolate and kill all those we find who do not voluntarily turn themselves in. This will rightly identify them as hostile terror cells operating clandestinely in our country!

To actually prevent every planned attack would be nice but in reality all we can hope to accomplish is to reduce the severity of those that actually happen! War is the closest thing to Hell a person or country will experience and we are at WAR! Since I am a Zero Tolerance Warrior of the Republic of America USA its put up or shut up time!

[joesnuffy]

Nobody has a clue but everybodys got a theory

[Clifdo]

Somewhat off the subject but check out the World Net Daily article today entitled: "Has Killer sent 9-11 message?" Very interesting, and if true, pretty clever too!!!

[Chapita]

Everybody has a theory! Yeah!

Funny how people don't realize that we've known for years about some "suitcase nukes" that are missing from the old Soviet Union and rumored to be inside this country already.

What rational person would not think that this is a threat that has not long been considered? And no counter-measures, huh?

[Chapita]

I've even heard that we have some "nuclear demolition packs" floating around the world with some techs. They only worry that the timers are actually instantaneous triggers [wipes all fingerprints clean].

[FormerLurker]

Could this be a plausible scenario? It reads like a Tom Clancy novel.

Anything is possible, including a vast portion of the Middle East being turned into glass..

[Thumper1960]

If so, what do Muslims love dearest? What is it they cherish the most? Certainly not family. Certainly not freedom, life and liberty. Those things, those ideals we most hold dear are alien to these terrorist activists.

The thought of Washington, D.C. becoming a smoldering pile of radioactive waste is frightening to most of the nation's sheeple. Would the knowledge and sight of a radioactive, smoldering Mecca, Medina and Dome of the Rock be as frightening to Muslims?

Perhaps. Perhaps that is what a retaliatory strike should accomplish. In addition to the wholesale destruction of all things Islamic.

Adherents included.

[KillTime]

They hit us with the best they had on 9/11.
They do not have and will not get nukes.
The sniper is just a crafty albiet damn lucky punk not having been caught already.
No connection to terriorists, no end game in mind, just a killer. Probably 2 of them taking turns, each egging the other on. And that's it.

[Cicero]

Diversion? No. More likely a trial run, as others have speculated. It worked very well, and the law proved powerless, so when they are ready they'll do it again in many places at the same time. The only plausible counter to such an attack would be to round up all the Muslim illegals, students on visas, and other visitors and ship them out of the country, and keep a close eye on Muslim citizens.

As for Tenet's statement, I doubt whether he knows anything more than anyone else. There has been a run of terrorist incidents around the world recently, and he wants to cover his *ss. Then if there is another major attack, he can say "I told you so!"

But his warning is worthless without more detail. We don't know what the CIA may know, but its record under Tenet so far has been dismal. I think he's just covering himself. He's been very good at that.

[sit-rep]

Do nukes, however small is capacity, give off an energy signature to be picked up by satellite?

Although I don't really care for this kind of idea being "given" to the enemy, it is indeed plausible. If, it does happend, would this suitcase nuke be picked up by arial equipment?

SR

[DB]

It is starting to cause significant economic damage. There is no reason for anyone to claim responsibility because their goal is to kill and hurt us economically, not take credit for it or make demands.

I've heard intelligent commentators say it couldn't be terrorist because they hadn't made any demands. They just don't get it… They want us dead. They want us economically destroyed. They don't need or want to make demands and/or credit. These guys already forgot 9-11. No one made demands or took credit for that either... We are at war and this is the way they are fighting it! Wake up America!

[debg]

whatever...

if this is not islamic terrorism, surely they have learned the lesson! the beltway killings have shown that all terrorists have to do is replicate this across a number of cities around the holidays to further weaken the economy and divide the populace.

they don't need to nuke or use chem/bio weapons against us to divide us and world opinion...at this time. all they need is the threat while they are in the process of attempting to weaken us, threatening and violating our allies if they side with us, labeling us as nazi-like killers and race oppressors, all the while recruiting our criminal and activists classes and planting islamic immigrants.

it's not just us: they are targeting the world on all levels: legal, economic, social, religious. their tactics are tailored to the regions but their message is constant: convert to islam or die.

[RaceBannon]

I understand that, but that would be dramatic enough.

[Fiddlstix]

Bump

[Squantos]

An example of border security was recently "outed for the nooooze" per se......a semi load of rebar from mexico set off the radiation monitors in El Paso. After searching and finding nothing the rebar was discovered to be contaminated . It seems the smelter or forge where the steel was cast had somehow dumped a cesium source into the melting pot that poured the rebar.

That is how sensitive the sensors are at the entry points.

Now with a gazillion miles of shoreline and unprotected land routes and not being suprised by much lately I would say yes, a suitcase can be entered into the CONUS with no problem at all.

If such information is picked up through intel then assests are available to seek it out but they can't be all places at all times with the sensitive gear needed to detect and locate such a device. But if a general area is known then yes. Tools are available to find it quickly and render it safe.

A good analogy would be something like a criminal trying to break in your front door to shoot you and having to call 911 for help.........ya have to wait till the proper tools and person skilled in their use to arrive to capture and or kill the criminal. Pretty much the same case with smuggled WMD IMO and experience. Key being someone had to tell 911........

In other words two people can only keep a secret if one of em is dead so intelligence snoops should know something to alert the search teams to a specific area. If not then all things are possible, good or bad.

Stay Safe and hope your doing well Sit-Rep !

[adam stevens]

BUMP!

[ladyinred]

The only thing we know about today is Tom Clancy novels can be played out in real life and are no longer fiction.We have certainly lost our innocence.

That's for sure. That is the only Clancy novel I ever read, and it nearly came true, the one with the entire government being wiped out. I can't recall the name of it, as I am not a Clancy fan.

[aristeides]

I just heard on the radio that a man was found last night shot dead in the middle of the government district in D.C., on Constitution Ave. next to the Labor Department. I think I heard that the police found the body at 3:40 AM. That's the middle of the night, but you'd think in that district it would not be possible to murder somebody unobserved at any time. I wonder what the real story is. The radio report seemed to think it was unrelated to the sniper, but I do wonder.

[aristeides]

FYI.

[foreverfree]

bump

[M. T. Cicero II]

If it does happen, what choice do we have but to nuke about 14 Isalm cities. I can furnish the list and push the button if the government needs a volunteer!

If this were to happen and the government not retaliate, I would move to France.

[foreverfree]

while not going into D.C. itself.Wasn't one of the hits on Georgia Av., one block inside the District from the MD line?

foreverfree

[Milwaukee_Guy]

"the one with the entire government being wiped out. I can't recall the name of it, as I am not a Clancy fan."

1994's "Debt of Honor"

"...Nearly three hundred tons of aircraft and fuel struck the east face of the building at a speed of three hundred knots. The aircraft diintegrated on impact. No less fragile than a bird, its speed and mass had already fragmented the columns outside the walls..."

The same scenario was also played out in Dale Brown's 1994 "Storming Heaven".

[ladyinred]

Thanks! That's it! I'll have to read the other book you mentioned, is it good?

[calenel]

"if this is not islamic terrorism, surely they have learned the lesson! the beltway killings have shown that all terrorists have to do is replicate this across a number of cities around the holidays to further weaken the economy and divide the populace."

I know how to save christmas...

Buy everyone on your list a GUN!