Posted on 10/18/2002 12:50:00 AM PDT by kattracks
Edited on 05/26/2004 5:09:36 PM PDT by Jim Robinson. [history]
October 18, 2002 -- A lying witness misled investigators in the Beltway sniper case, casting doubt on just what is known about the shadowy shooter or shooters, cops said yesterday.
A witness who claimed he saw the psycho who gunned down the last victim and then watched him flee in a cream-colored van may be charged with perjury or filing a false statement, authorities said.
(Excerpt) Read more at nypost.com ...
Maybe they're right not to. Stuff like this seems to flush out crackpots and people who are hallucinating.
If the cops ever get a clear picture of the perp(s), then yes. But based on this incident, they're probably wise to hold their cards to close their vests.
Could he have been a plant to purposely give our LEOs some false leads?
Also,there's a possibility he's just another OBL admirer that saw a chance to monkeywrench any decent leads on the spur of the moment to help out any terrorists trying to avoid capture.
There are perhaps 100,000 "white vans" in the D.C. metropolian area. However, if an armed citizen saw the get-away vehicle and managed to put a couple of bullet holes in the back of it, then there would be exactly one "white van with bullet holes in the back of it." THAT is something that even the Keystone Kops could find.
I'm not talking about the armed citizen being a good enough shot in an emergency to kill or wound the sniper. Nor even to disable the white van with a shot through the engine block, or through the tires. I'm only talking about good enough to put a bullet into the van, and to report immediately to the searching police where on that van the bullet hole is.
It is the low-tech equivalent of what the Air Force and ground Artillary do in the military. It's called "marking" or "painting" the target. This is an obvious suggestion which might work, and would also drive the gun control nuts crazy. The very idea of using a citizen's gun to stop a criminal is anathema to them.
Congressman Billybob
That scenario sounds a little too Soviet Union/X-Files to me. I suppose it's possible our government could take the 'we have everything under control, but sorry we aren't at liberty to give the general public any of the details, they're classified' approach. But, that doesn't seem like it will fly for very long.
With 9 dead and 2 wounded, the families of the victims and the general public will start to demand answers.
If this is who we think it is (al-Qaida), it stands to reason that their entire operation is as sophisticated as their method for choosing locations, human targets and escape routes.
It seems highly likely that they would have established an operational security procedure (rigidly scheduled contacts, passwords, codewords, conversational tells, etc.) which would ensure the survival of the rest of their team.
Conversely, it isn't likely a team like this is going to make a whole lot of rookie mistakes.
I doubt they'd give a second thought to anyone that didn't follow those procedures. We already know that anyone and everyone's expendable to them.
If some of the snipers have been caught, I'm more of a mind to believe that their identities would be hidden to prevent the public from assigning blame for their being here in the first place. Especially with an election right around the corner.
Yes. I'm not sure what the requirements are in D.C. for someone to have that "right" (unfortunately, political connections come immediately to mind), but if some already have that "right", we should be using them.
What do they mean "maybe"? It's about time that twisted POS's like this do some serious jailtime to atone for the damage to society they cause. Maybe that'll deter other pieces of attention-craving-garbage from pulling another goose chase like this. If these losers really need attention, maybe a public flogging would do the trick.
I think the best way to confront this attack is to prevent the killers from escaping the scene and that will take using instant communication with all drivers in an area. I think we should reactivate the cold war era civil defense horn alarm systems that can be instantly sounded and drivers are alerted to tune to a civil defense radio frequency and listen for instructions. I believe these horns were sounded from fire stations throughout the city and could be heard everywhere. Drivers could be told to stop in place (like the air stop on 9-11). Police on motorcycles could then go after those who continue moving or investigate stopped vehicles.
I believe they do things or withhold information now for the global good. The benefit or detriment to the American people is a small part of the 'big picture' our leaders think they see.
What more than likely happened is the cops ran the name given to them, got a hit as a guy with a record, went to his address , and its either not the same guy, or the address was phoney.
Which still begs the question; one guy, on the eleventh shooting, turns out to be a liar. So all witnesses prior to this are now discounted?
Something smells big time, on how this whole investigation is being handled.IMHO.
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