Muhammad's other road to jihad: Analyst suspects he had coaching in his radicalization

Sniper suspect John Muhammad fits a pattern of a disaffected outcast who becomes increasingly radicalized under the influence of Islamism, says a military analyst who writes frequently about terrorism.

"As one traces John Muhammad's life from his conversion to Islam in 1985, to his joining of the moderately militant Nation of Islam, to his deadly shooting spree in October 2002, his steady radicalization becomes readily apparent," writes Weber. "Terrorist profiling dictates that his departure from the Nation of Islam in 1999 would have been followed by his affiliation with an organization more actively militant. It also suggests that initial news reports citing U.S. officials who said there was no evidence of any connection between Muhammad and identified terrorist organizations may have been premature."

Weber points out that Muhammad acquired the 1990 Chevy Caprice that he would modify into his killing platform on the one-year anniversary of the terrorist attacks. He had also expressed sympathy with Sept. 11 terrorists.

"Nor does it seem random chance that his spree started on Oct. 2, the anniversary of the conviction of World Trade Center bombing ringleader Sheikh Omar Abdul Rahman in 1995," Weber writes. "It appears likely that after his separation from the Nation of Islam, which occurred on less than good terms, Muhammad gravitated to an organization at odds with the Nation of Islam and aligned with the Wahhabist sect of Islam associated with al-Qaida, Osama bin Laden and Sheikh Rahman. In America today, one organization fits that bill – al Fuqra."

Al Fuqra was founded by Kashmiri Sheikh Mubarak Ali Gilani. He began preaching at a Muslim mosque in Brooklyn seeking recruits for the Afghan Jihad. He primarily targeted black American converts from the inner city and those with criminal backgrounds, a segment of the population that the cleric apparently saw as prime for melding militant Islam with a deep-seated resentment and disillusionment with Western society.

"The resulting organization, al Fuqra (the impoverished), was formed with a goal of purifying Islam through violence," explains Weber.

Gilani is the man Wall Street Journal reporter Daniel Pearl was to meet when he was abducted last Jan. 23 and murdered. He has a long history of involvement with terrorism.

"The upstate New York town of Hancock serves as the American headquarters for al Fuqra, with at least six major rural communities, jamaats, of 200 to 300 members located in Red House, Va., Tulare County, Calif., Commerce, Ga., York, S.C., Dover, Tenn., and Combermere, Canada," he writes. "Total membership in al Fuqra is believed to be between 1,000-3,000, with smaller jamaats being reported in over 25 locations throughout the United States, Canada and the Caribbean. The communities themselves are primarily walled or fenced-in gatherings of trailers or mobile homes. At least three of the compounds are known to have firing ranges, and the compound in the Sierra Nevada Mountains of California has a fully functional airfield. Surveillance reports of the compounds note that the residents remain in a fluid state and are continuously on the move. For the past several years, law-enforcement authorities observing the Red House, Va., compound have voiced concern that this pattern may be designed to create a series of safe houses in the rural areas of southern Virginia."

According to Weber, Al Fuqra owns two private security companies in Brooklyn that not only provide armed protection for the jamaats, but also compete for government and private security contracts. Between 1980 and 1990, al Fuqra members have been either convicted or suspected in 13 assassinations and 17 firebombings, he says.

"Despite Al Fuqra's continuous history of criminal activity and close association with international terrorist organizations, the group has been able to avoid officially being classified by the U.S. government as a foreign terrorist organization," writes Weber. "Pakistan, unlike the United States, has banned the organization."

"In the wake of John Muhammad's arrest, investigators need to pay special heed to discern any possible links he may have had to al Fuqra," concludes Weber. "The facts are continuing to emerge since Muhammad's arrest on Oct. 24, and they seem to be pointing in that direction."

John Allen Muhammad: A man of many identities

By Cheryl Phillips and Christine Willmsen
Seattle Times staff reporters

John Allen Muhammad

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Officials in Lynnwood wonder if Muhammad shot at police station

Sniper rifle used in killing in Alabama, tests confirm

If authorities and his own friends are correct, suspected sniper John Allen Muhammad:

• Marketed counterfeit passports and stolen credit cards in Tacoma for $3,000 a pop.

• Smuggled Antiguans and other immigrants into the U.S., including the mother of Lee Boyd Malvo, the 17-year-old accused of being Muhammad's accomplice in the sniper case.

• Possessed 22 different identities (he had several fake IDs in his wallet when arrested in Maryland).

• Provided "army training" to some of those to whom he supplied new identities.

"There is very good evidence showing that he was a very good forger of U.S. documents," said John Fuller, a member of the Antiguan task force investigating Muhammad's activities on the Caribbean island. "I think he used good American technology, Adobe Photoshop."

Interviews with Antiguan officials and with friends of Muhammad's here and in the Caribbean paint a picture of an intense, almost reckless operator, a man who bounced from having rolls of cash and taking international flights to sleeping at homeless shelters.

His activities came to the attention of law-enforcement officials in the United States and in Antigua, but Muhammad managed to continue on his way. In April 2001, for instance, he was caught in Miami with fake identification while accompanying two Jamaican women without proper papers. Authorities let him go and an investigation was dropped.

His alleged human smuggling and fake-ID business could explain some of the more puzzling aspects of his life: how a man without a job had money for travel and why Una James and her son Malvo came into his orbit.

Selling identities

Craig Hack, 41, a Tacoma mechanic, agreed this week to discuss his dealings with Muhammad. He first talked to Muhammad seven months ago about buying a passport, visa, international driver's license and credit cards for $3,000, Hack said.

Lee Boyd Malvo

Hack hoped to use the documents from Muhammad to get a clean slate and enable him to drive freely throughout the United States. Hack had served almost 13 months in jail over the past two years for being a habitual offender. The offenses: driving violations, including driving with his license suspended.

"John said that if the cops stop you, they can't mess with you," Hack said. "It will even wipe out child support (records)."

Muhammad pulled out a Bank of Argentina credit card and an out-of-state driver's license from his pocket and showed it to him, Hack said. "He said 'If you want to burn credit with it you can. You can rent merchandise with it and dump it.' "

They agreed to a $1,500 down payment and then, three to four weeks later, when the documents arrived, a final $1,500 payment, Hack said.

Hack started to save money and planned on giving Muhammad his birth certificate and passport photos.

"He guaranteed it would work 100 percent," Hack said. "He was a middleman, a broker."

Hack continued to save money for the false documents until last Thursday — when Muhammad was arrested for the sniper shootings around Washington, D.C.

Family in Antigua

In Antigua, Muhammad shared a house in 2000 with Kithlyn Ned, a mechanic. Ned said Muhammad did not try to conceal his activities. Ned said he once saw Muhammad with five Antiguan passports in his hand.

"It's not one passport, it's not two passports, it's a lot of passports," Ned said in an Antiguan radio interview reviewed by The Times.

Ned said Muhammad used as many as 22 different identities. He helped James, Malvo's mother, enter the U.S., Ned said.

Muhammad and his three children from his second marriage shared a house with Ned. Muhammad's former wife, Mildred, has said he abducted them. Malvo also stayed with them part of the time, Ned said.

Malvo and Muhammad slept on the floor in two sleeping bags. The three younger children shared a single bed in a small room. At one point, Muhammad left his children and wasn't seen for three weeks, Ned said. Another woman living at the house had to care for them.

Ned said that Muhammad would arrange for people to fly to Antigua from the United States and other countries. Other people would use the return legs on those tickets to enter the U.S. with fake documents, Ned said.

Meanwhile, the people who had flown in would participate in some type of training with Muhammad, a Gulf War veteran, and would fly out later, when more people flew in on new tickets.

Other times, Ned said, Muhammad funded the fake documentation of others so they could attend training.

Asked by The Seattle Times in a telephone interview what type of training Muhammad provided, Ned said, "something like army training." But he said he never witnessed Muhammad do any training.

Fuller, the Antiguan investigator, said the task force has not linked Muhammad to any military training on the small island.

In addition, the task force has discovered only one instance of an Antiguan passport that was forged — the one that Muhammad used for himself and obtained in July 2000, Fuller said.

Ned said he complained twice to Antiguan officials about the fake-passport operation but was told there was no problem.

His business ventures included more than just the training and fake documents. He traded in batteries, CDs, and medical and army supplies, Ned said.

Muhammad also helped Malvo's mother obtain documents to go to the U.S., Ned said. Malvo stayed with Muhammad after he'd gotten into some trouble elsewhere, Ned said in the radio interview.

In another case, Ned said, Muhammad helped a girl return from Puerto Rico, where she was caught with fake papers.

On Tuesday, two FBI agents arrived in Antigua to investigate Muhammad's activities and are working with local authorities, Fuller said. FBI agent John Groesher, reached by telephone in Antigua yesterday, said he was sorry that he couldn't comment on the case. "But I give you points for tracking me down."

Seattle Times staff reporters Susan Kelleher, David Heath and Steve Miletich contributed to this story.

Copyright © 2002 The Seattle Times Company

Officials in Lynnwood wonder if Muhammad shot at police station

By Jennifer Sullivan and Lynn Thompson
Times Snohomish County bureau

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Lynnwood police have contacted the FBI to see whether John Allen Muhammad, who briefly worked for the city, could have been the person responsible for firing two gunshots at the police station on April 16, 2000.

Deputy Police Chief Karen Manser said yesterday officials want to know if Muhammad, one of two men accused of killing 10 people during a rash of East Coast sniper shootings, shot at their building after his contract with the city was not renewed.

But according to Muhammad's Pierce County divorce file, Muhammad was not in the country when the Lynnwood shooting took place. Muhammad fled to Antigua with his children in late March 2000 and didn't return until June 2000. Muhammad contracted with the city of Lynnwood from October 1998 to October 1999 to do on-site vehicle oil changes and to service city vehicles. Manser described Muhammad as a messy worker, saying he spilled oil in the parking lot.

"He seemed real ambitious, but didn't appear to take direction well," said Larry Benfield, who was the city's operations manager during the time of Muhammad's employment.

Benfield said Muhammad would frequently not show up when he said he would or would reschedule his shift. When he notified Muhammad that he was being terminated, Benfield said, Muhammad "got real upset."

Muhammad didn't return the master set of keys he had to the Police Department's squad cars. When he didn't respond to two certified letters, a Lynnwood police sergeant showed up at Muhammad's Tacoma house in December 1999.

Manser said Muhammad appeared angry at the visit but promised that the keys were already in the mail. The keys showed up at Lynnwood City Hall two days after the sergeant was sent to his house.

Manser said the department never heard from Muhammad again.

Jennifer Sullivan: 425-783-0604 or jensullivan@seattletimes.com.

Sniper rifle used in killing in Alabama, tests confirm

By Allan Lengel
The Washington Post

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In Local: John Allen Muhammad is a man of many identities

WASHINGTON — The rifle used in the Washington, D.C.-area sniper shootings has been linked to last month's Alabama killing that led investigators to the suspects, Montgomery Police Chief John Wilson said, citing newly available ballistics tests.
Police originally thought a .22-caliber handgun was used in the shooting at a state-run liquor store in Montgomery.

Wilson said witnesses saw John Muhammad, 41, and Lee Boyd Malvo, 17, the two suspects in the sniper shootings, at the scene of the Montgomery shooting. But they said Muhammad had a handgun and Malvo was holding a magazine — and neither appeared to have a rifle, Wilson said.

That, Wilson said, has led him to suspect that a third person possibly fired the Bushmaster XM-15 rifle that authorities found in Muhammad's blue 1990 Chevrolet Caprice last week.

"It's frustrating. Just at the time you figure it out, it grows another leg," he said.

Law-enforcement sources said they have found no evidence to suggest that a third person was involved in the Washington, D.C.-area sniper shootings, but investigators have not ruled out the possibility.

Muhammad and Malvo are charged with capital murder in the shootings that killed 10 people and wounded three others this month in seven jurisdictions in Maryland, Washington, D.C., and Virginia.

Prosecutors in Montgomery County, Md., and Prince William, Spotsylvania and Hanover counties in Virginia have charged the pair. In addition, Muhammad has been charged in a 20-count complaint in U.S. District Court in Greenbelt, Md. If convicted, he faces the death penalty in federal court, Maryland and Virginia.

Juvenile proceedings in federal court are secret, so it is unclear whether Malvo also has been charged by U.S. officials.

The Alabama shooting was key for investigators in tying Muhammad and Malvo to the Washington, D.C.-area cases. Callers claiming to be the snipers telephoned police and a Hanover County priest and, in an effort to be taken seriously, referred to the shooting in Montgomery. Malvo had left a fingerprint at the scene of that killing, according to court papers.

Wilson said investigators assumed they were looking for a .22-caliber handgun in the Sept. 21 shooting because no one saw a "long gun." The liquor-store manager, Claudine Parker, was killed, and clerk Kellie Adams was seriously wounded.

But Wilson said an official from the federal Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms (ATF) informed him of the new ballistics tests — which contradicted one last week that found no ties to the sniper rifle. The ATF told him yesterday that original tests were performed before agents had possession of the rifle.

He said James Cavanaugh, special agent in charge of the ATF in Alabama and Tennessee, told him that ballistics examiners were able to get a more complete picture after examining a bullet test-fired from the sniper weapon. Cavanaugh, through a spokeswoman, declined comment.

Three federal law-enforcement officials confirmed the new ballistics tests.

Wilson noted, however, that authorities have not found the bullet that wounded Adams, so he left open the possibility that two guns were used at the liquor store.

"We haven't ruled out a third person or another gun," Wilson said.

Investigators will conduct more tests and re-examine the shooting scene. He said investigators would renew their search for the bullet that injured Adams.

"This now allows us to go back and revisit the whole thing, go to the woods, do things we didn't do before," Wilson said. "We're now dealing with a different set of facts."

Copyright © 2002 The Seattle Times Company

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Sniper suspect had reportedly threatened wife
Former brother-in-law says Muhammad was hurt by divorce, loss of kids

By Alec MacGillis and James Hagengruber
Sun Staff
Originally published October 31, 2002

BILLINGS, Mont. - Near the nation's capital, investigators are still puzzling out why two men would come all the way across the country to start shooting innocent people.

But sitting in a bar in this town at the foot of the Rockies this week, as a freak fall snowstorm swirled outside, Charles Green believed he knew the answer.

Green is convinced that John Allen Muhammad, one of two suspects in the sniper attacks, went to the Washington area with a clear purpose in mind: to seek out, terrorize and eventually harm Green's sister, Mildred, Muhammad's ex-wife who moved from Washington state to Clinton, Md., last year with their three children.

"He was going to kill everyone in my family. He loved the kids, and when he couldn't see the kids anymore ... " Green trailed off. "There's no doubt Mildred was going to be the next hit."

As investigators and the public look for a possible motive for this month's sniper shootings, Muhammad's relationship with his ex-wife and their three children is a pivotal unknown. The Prince George's County home of his children and former wife is Muhammad's only clear tie to the Washington area, and those who knew him in recent years said he was deeply upset about their having left him.

Mildred Muhammad has gone into seclusion, as have her children, her sister and her brother-in-law, with whom she had been living in Clinton.

Green, 40, broke the family's silence in a two-hour interview over sodas at Billings' sole martini bar late Tuesday night. Tracked down as he came through Billings on his way from Tacoma, Wash., to the East Coast, Green provided perspective from the family who knew Muhammad best, and feared him the most.

Green confirmed what has been said by Muhammad's former divorce attorney, by his Washington state acquaintances, and by his children's former teachers in Antigua. Muhammad, he said, was deeply attached to the three children, and having them taken away from him last year angered him more than anything in the world.

The children are Salena, 10, to whom Muhammad was especially close; Talibah, 9; and John Jr., 12, nicknamed "Little Soldier" by his father, Green said.

The attachment extended beyond the kids, Green said. After the couple's divorce in 2000, Muhammad remained incensed that he had lost his wife, even though he had not always been faithful to her, her brother said.

Green, a part-time truck driver who lived with his sister and brother-in-law for a while in Tacoma, recalled accompanying Muhammad to collect payment for car mechanic work he had done - payment that Green says sometimes took the form of sexual favors from women.

"Once he stopped at a house and said, "I'll be right back. I just got to get paid," Green says. After two hours, he returned disheveled and smelling of perfume, Green recalls.

"I said, 'My sister's going to leave you someday.' [He] replied, 'When she do, all hell is going to break loose.'"

Muhammad's public defender is so far declining to comment on the sniper case or answer questions from the media.

It remains unclear whether Muhammad tried to see his children or ex-wife during the past month, when 10 people were killed and three injured in Maryland, Virginia and Washington. Several neighbors on their block of Quiet Brook Lane in Clinton now recall seeing Muhammad's blue 1990 Chevrolet Caprice on the street on several occasions in recent weeks.

Lamont Windsor, who lives in a cluster of town houses next to the group containing Mildred Muhammad's home, said he saw a blue Caprice one evening a few weeks ago as he was driving home from work. The car was parked near the entrance to the parking lot for the town house where Mildred Muhammad was living, Windsor said.

But Green, who said he speaks with his sister once or twice a week, said she had not seen or talked to her former husband.

Green believes that Muhammad, if he was the shooter, intended the attacks to terrorize his former wife - regardless of whether she knew he was responsible for them. Green also suspects that Muhammad hoped to use the killings of random victims as a way to cover an eventual shooting of his ex-wife in Prince George's County.

Others who know Muhammad share the view that Mildred Muhammad eventually might have been a target. Carol Williams, Muhammad's first wife, said in a CNN interview Tuesday that she believed "he was in Maryland for his second wife" and "would have come on around" to kill her. Williams, of Baton Rouge, La., said she herself might have been at risk.

Green pointed out that Muhammad is now a suspect in the February killing of a Tacoma woman who had a link to the Muhammads' custody dispute. The victim is the niece of Muhammad's former accountant, who sided with Mildred Muhammad in the divorce and helped her win custody of the children.

Green recalled a comment he said Muhammad made to his sister two years ago, just before abducting the three children and taking them to Antigua. The four lived on the island for more than a year before returning to Washington, and it was in Antigua that Muhammad is believed to have met Lee Boyd Malvo, 17, his co-defendant in the sniper attacks.

"Before [Muhammad] took the kids, he said, 'If you ever leave me, I'll kill you and the kids.' I can recall him saying that plain as day. I was there," Green said.

In the divorce papers she filed in 1999, Mildred Muhammad said she feared her husband, who could make a "weapon out of anything," but did not specify acts of abuse.

In 1997, Green said, his sister started telling him that Muhammad was "getting violent" with her. The only instance of abuse Green witnessed was an occasion when Muhammad pushed his wife through a screen door, Green said.

What Green saw more of was the general disintegration of the couple's marriage. In the early years of their union, the two would rise at 4:30 a.m. for Muslim prayers, often holding hands as they prayed. Later on, when Green's sister learned about her husband's infidelities, she made him sleep in the living room.

Muhammad, meanwhile, was worried that his wife was unfaithful and sometimes recorded their conversations, Green said.

The last time Green recalls seeing Muhammad - whom he now refers to simply as a "knucklehead" - was in Tacoma in March 2000, shortly after his sister obtained a restraining order against Muhammad. The couple went into the family's garage to talk and quickly started arguing. Days later, Muhammad took the children to Antigua.

After retrieving her children last year, Mildred Muhammad moved in with her sister, Adele Moses, and her sister's husband, Chester. She has worked as a secretary for the Department of Justice in Washington, and at Southern Maryland Medical Center. The kids attend public schools in Prince George's.

Green and his sister grew up a few blocks away from Muhammad (then known as John Williams) in "The Field," a tough part of Baton Rouge, La. Green recalled how disciplined Muhammad became when he joined ROTC in high school, how he wore his uniform every day and bragged about his target shooting skills. After he returned from the Persian Gulf war, Green recalled, he seemed more aggressive. "He talked about taking guys down from a distance, [about how] it was legal for him" to do that.

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.

To this day, Green refuses to call his former brother-in-law by his adopted Muslim name, saying he hasn't earned it.

"I don't mind calling Muhammad Ali that name because he lives his religion," he said. "But John Williams is John Williams."

James Hagengruber is a reporter for The Billings Gazette.

Sun staff writers Jonathan D. Rockoff, Dennis O'Brien and Laura Sullivan contributed to this article.

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