Washington Sniper - Terrorist Or Informer?

That John Allen Muhammad, nee John Allen Williams and several aliases, was known to the U.S. Government long before the "sniper" shooting spree is fast becoming apparent. There are just too many instances where authorities should have investigated, arrested and prosecuted him. Even the criminal falsification of Muhammad's seventeen-year old companion's immigration status by a Seattle INS official is not a risk bureaucrats ordinarily take without approval or direction from higher sources.

When Muhammad (using the name of Thomas Alan Lee) was arrested in Antigua in March, 2001 for his involvement in providing false i.d. and other documents for entry of illegal aliens into the United States, he was held for two days and then allowed to "just walk out of the police station and disappear." Was the two day delay due to Antiguan authorities communicating with U.S. authorities about Muhammad/Williams/Lee?

Back in the U.S. Muhammad/Williams was detained in Florida when intercepted with forged credentials for at least two false identities. Again he was released without charges being made. Later in Tacoma, he and 17 year-old Malvo were arrested for shoplifting. When he failed to show for his court hearing a bench warrant was issued for his arrest. For some unexplained reason, the warrant was not entered into the FBI national data base.

In March of 2000, Muhammad's ex-wife obtained an "Order of Protection" against him making it illegal for him to own or possess a firearm. Two months later he sold a Bushmaster rifle (similar to the one used in the sniper killings) to a gun shop from which he had earlier purchased it. That is the proof of the weapons violation for which a warrant was issued by a Tacoma magistrate (Monica J. Benton) less than twenty-four hours before Muhammad was arrested on October 24, 2002 (31 months after the violation occurred). Malvo was held as a material witness.

The warrant was supported by an affidavit from BATF agent Craig A. Howe. It was based in part on an interview FBI agents had conducted with Robert Edward Holmes the previous day (Oct. 22nd). Holmes was in the army with Muhammad (then Williams) and said Muhammad had visited him several times in the last six months and shown him an AR-15 rifle.

At least two persons, months before the sniper attacks, reported to the FBI that they suspected Muhammad might be a "sleeper" terrorist. FBI officials say no follow up investigations were done.

It has not been explained how authorities made such a quick connection to Holmes since they were said to have only identified Muhammad as being involved with Malvo on Oct. 21st. It was Malvo's fingerprints on a gun catalogue found at the scene of an attempted robbery and murder in Montgomery, Alabama which were obtained at the earliest on Oct. 20th that led to Malvo. The identification of Malvo led investigators to the Pacific Northwest where they supposedly discovered, for the first time, Malvo's relationship with Muhammad.

Also, no explanation has been offered as to how the Tacoma warrant came to list two aliases for Muhammad in addition to John Williams (Wayne Weeks and Wayne Weekley). The two aliases were not among those known to Antiguan authorities. Perhaps they were the false i.d.'s Muhammad got caught with in Florida. In any event, they likely came from a file being kept on Muhammad/Williams.

Since none of the derogatory information was entered into the FBI national data base, Muhammad and Malvo were not detained the four times they were stopped by police during the sniper spree. But there is another reason black males were not carefully scrutinized in the traffic stops.

One of Montgomery County, Maryland Police Chief Charles Moose's main claims to fame, both in Maryland and in Portland, Oregon when he was police chief there, was reduction of racial profiling of African-Americans and other minorities. As journalist Paul Sperry discloses in his copyrighted article. "Chief Moose Cost Lives" Moose instructed officers to search only vehicles with white male drivers. This according to a BATF agent who was part of the force manning the blockades.

A look into Moose's activities and associations in Portland raises more questions. Moose spent 27 years in the Portland Police Department (the last six as chief). He was appointed chief in 1993 by the leftist mayor of Portland, Vera Katz. This was shortly after earning a masters degree in public administration and a doctorate in urban studies from Portland State University (PSU).

During Moose's studies PSU was (and continues to be) a hotbed of Islamic terrorists and Jihad propaganda. Moose figuratively rubbed shoulders with known and suspected terrorists.during his time there. The situation was so bad that Israel refused to allow students to accept scholarships at PSU fearing for their safety. This according to the dean of the department offering a Ph.D. course in terrorism which Moose took.

Moose had a number of confrontations with whites during his tenure and was disciplined four times while an officer. As chief he also had to offer an apology to a white sales clerk he had insulted. As chief he virtually reversed the racial profiling problem into one of profiling whites to the exclusion of blacks. Some white officers claimed they were being discriminated against.

Mayor Katz also created some controversy of her own. At a large "social" function she publicly embraced a known drug dealer. At the function.she had barred police from being present with their weapons. She claimed she could do that because it was a "private" party although $50,000 in taxpayers' money had been spent for the entertainment.

This year Mayor Katz refused to allow her police department to participate in the questioning of middle eastern non-citizens as requested by federal authorities. On October 4th of this year, three would be terrorists were arrested in Portland. They had gone to Pakistan and attempted (unsuccessfully) to join al Qaeda and the Taliban in fighting U.S. forces. One of them, Patrice Lumumba Ford, had worked as an intern in Mayor Katz' office in 1998 and 1999 during Chief Moose's tenure.

One coincidence not reported in the major media is that Moose and John Muhammad/Williams both served in the Oregon National guard at the same time for approximately a year. However their reporting stations were about a mile apart and there is no known indication that the two ever met.

In 1999, Moose was chosen to be Police Chief at Montgomery County, Maryland, at least partially on the recommendation of Attorney General Janet Reno. The NAACP had charged the county with egregious racial profiling and Moose was brought in to correct the situation.

So what are we to make of John Muhammad/William's seeming immunity from prosecution in his many brushes with the law in fraudulent documents, shoplifting and a federal firearms violation. There are several explanations that could explain most (but not all) of what we now know.

Muhammad may have been an FBI informer or CIA "asset." That would have resulted in his name being flagged for no action by local law enforcement and other government agencies, i.e. the INS, Customs, BATF and others if he was detained for an apparent crime.

Alternatively he may actually be a terrorist with connections in the FBI and CIA as he bragged to people in Antigua. He also could be a double agent with ties to an organized terrorist group.

It seems obvious that the government knew a lot about him before the "tips" started coming in which allegedly resulted in his capture. Those tips are the most incomprehensible part of the whole scenario if they actually came from Muhammad and Malvo.

If the anonymous phone calls we are told resulted in the identification of Muhammad and Malvo as sniper suspects were from someone else, that implies that the two are being framed.

The only physical evidence against the duo is the rifle allegedly found in their car with only Malvo's fingerprints on it. Early reports on the radio and television and in a NYT article by Jayson Blair quoted police as saying no weapons were found in the car. After the car was loaded into a closed truck and taken to the BATF laboratory in Rockville, Maryland, the rifle reportedly was found.

But what about the fingerprints? First, it is curious that Malvo's were the only prints on the rifle. That implies that the rifle had been wiped clean of prints fairly recently. Could the fingerprints have been planted on the rifle (and the catalogue in Alabama)?

In the magazine "Justice Denied" in a discussion of fingerprinting, the following appears. "Transference of actual prints made by real fingers, from one location to another by means of sticky tape, is one possibility, with techniques long known to law enforcement officers."

Most would be unwilling to accept that the government would plant evidence in such a high profile case. However, we do know that (in the past) the FBI laboratory has fabricated evidence and lied in court about evidence. This was proved conclusively by Fredrick Whitehurst, a FBI lab supervisor whistleblower. The FBI has lied at least seventy times to the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court to obtain search warrants. Both the FBI and BATF lied to the Army in the Waco tragedy to obtain tanks and in the Ruby Ridge killings lied to their own superiors and the Congress.

Which of these possible scenarios is most likely? You be the judge.

Permission is granted to reproduce this article in its entirety.

* - The author is a free lance writer based in Romulus, Michigan. He is a former newspaper editor and investigative reporter, a retired customs administrator and accountant, and a student of history and the U.S. Constitution.

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