Beltway snipers exposed as Muslim terrorists

The time-table of the Beltway killings indicates Muhammad’s ties to ul-Fuqra and other Islamic terrorist groups. He acquired the 1990 Chevy Caprice that he would modify into his killing platform on the first anniversary of 9/11, and killed his first victim – - James Martin, 55 – - on October 2, the anniversary of the conviction of World Trade Center bombing ringleader Sheikh Omar Abdul Rahman. Martin, a systems analyst for the National Ocean and Atmospheric Administration, was shot in the back and killed in the parking lot of a supermarket in Glenmont, Maryland.[1] The attacks came to an end on October 24, when Muhammad and Lee Boyd Malvo, his teenage jihadi associate, were found sleeping in their blue 1990 Chevy Caprice, at a rest-stop near Myersville, Maryland. In the backseat was a Bushmaster XM-15 semiautomatic with a red-dot sight that had been adjusted for ranges between 50 to 100 yards. During the days and weeks that followed, the national media made no mention of “Islam,” “Muslim,” or “terrorism.” They rather presented the Muhammad as “an ex-soldier,” “a former, Army combat engineer,” and “a Gulf War veteran who was an expert Army marksman,” and Malvo, an illegal alien from Jamaica, as either as a misguided youth or clueless dupe. Such portraits were in keeping with the following dictate from Nihad Awad, Executive Director of the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR). “Police reports indicate the suspects acted alone, based on their own motivations. There is no indication that this case is related to Islam or Muslims. We therefore ask journalists and media commentators to avoid speculation based on stereotyping or prejudice. The American Muslim community should not be held accountable for the alleged criminal actions of what appear to be troubled and deranged individuals.”[2] Chicago Sun-Times columnist Richard Roeper railed against conservative commentators such as Mark Steyn, who had taken note of Muhammad’s Islamic faith and his anti-American sentiments. Roeper also ridiculed National Review columnist James Robbins for observing that the sniper was acting like “a jihadist warrior” by concluding: ” . . . an awful lot of conservatives really, really wanted the snipers to be terrorists. But they were wrong. I’ll say that because they never will.”[3] The Chicago reporter, as it turns out, was the one who was wrong and failed to admit it. This became clear when John Allen Muhammad persisted in making such statements as, “America got what it deserved on 9/11.”[4] Despite his years of service in the US Army, Muhammad refused to acknowledge that he was an American, proclaiming instead that he was a Muslim and a servant of Allah. By upholding this position, he followed the lead of other African Americans who had converted to Islam. After breaking from the Nation of Islam, Malcolm X proclaimed, “I’m not an American.” Jamil Al-Amin, once known as H. Rap Brown and now in prison for murdering a policeman, said, “When we begin to look critically at the Constitution of the United States . . . we see that in its main essence it is diametrically opposed to what Allah has commanded.” Mahmoud Abdul-Rauf, a National Basketball Association player, refused to stand during the playing of the national anthem on the grounds that the American flag is a “symbol of oppression, of tyranny.”[5] Even more telling were the jailhouse doodling of Lee Boyd Malvo, Muhammad’s 17 year-old sidekick and lover. The violent drawings, replete with anti-American and anti-Semitic comments, showed him to be every bit as blood-thirsty as any 9/11 hijacker or Palestinian suicide bomber. Malvo’s portfolio contained these sketches:

• A detailed depiction of the White House in crosshairs of the scope of a rifle with this caption: “You will weep and moan & MORN. You will bleed to death, little by little. Your life belongs to Allah. He will deliver you to us.” To the side of the White House, another caption says, “Sept. 11 we will ensure will look like a picnic to you.”
• A self portrait of Malvo peering through the scope of a rifle while exclaiming, “Allah Akbar” and the following attempt at poetry: “Many more will have to suffer/Many more will have to die/Don’t ask me why.”
• An etching of Malvo and Muhammad together with the words: “We will kill them all. Jihad.”
• A sketch of Osama bin Laden with the caption: “Servant of Allah.”
• An image of the World Trade Center with a jet flying into it and this caption: “You were warned.”
• Drawings of such Islamic luminaries as Saddam Hussein, and Muammar Qaddafi along with this ditty: “Our minarets are our bayonets/Our mosques are our baracks (sic)/Our believers are our soldiers.”

• A depiction of with these words from the Qu’ran (”Surah 2:190″): “Fight in the cause of Allah those who fight you and slay them wherever ye catch them.”[6]

During the trial, reports surfaced that the snipers might have holed up within ul-Fuqra paramilitary compounds in southern Virginia during their breaks in the killing spree and that they may have established an affiliation with the radical Dar al-Hijrah in Falls Church, Virginia, a place which sheltered at least two of the 9/11 operatives[7]. The murder of Jeffrey Hopper, their last victim, occurred within blocks of the mosque, and yet federal and state investigators failed to visit the imam and other Dar al-Hijrah officials to inquire about the appearance of Muhammad and Malvo at jumah (Friday prayer services) and the possible ties of the snipers to other Islamic groups in the area. This oversight is mind-boggling when one becomes aware that members of this Falls Church house of worship have sent raise millions for Islamic terrorist organizations throughout the world.[8] Finally word was leaked that Muhammad, although a man with no means, traveled to Canada, the Caribbean, and cities throughout the country to meet with fellow jihadis. No account was provided of the source of funding for these trips or of Muhammad’s possible ties to al Qaeda. The failure of the U.S. Justice Department to connect the dots remains particularly jarring, since the beltway murders occurred four days after Ayman al-Zawahiri, bin Laden’s second in command, released a tape to warn of attacks that would help to bring about “the destruction of the American economy.”[9] The Beltway killings certainly complied with the pattern of previous al-Qaeda attacks. They were committed against “soft targets” by agents operating from an atomized cell. Bin Laden had threatened retribution for civilians killed in Afghanistan, Iraq, and the Palestinian Authority. He specifically said that al Qaeda would exact revenge for the killing of women and children. In conjunction with the Islamic principle of parity (“an eye for an eye”), this segment of the population became fair game for the snipers. Moreover, the random killings accomplished another major objection of bin Laden and company. In their targeting, their frequency, and their location, the killings served to spread fear and disrupt the normal flow of life. “The cumulative effect of the shootings has been an economic slowdown in the local area,” noted Ivian C. Smith, a former FBI agent.[10] While the rampage continued, retailers reported a precipitous drop in sales that produced a loss in revenue of $1 – $2 billion. The incident gave support to Zawahiri’s premise that you didn’t need a bomb or a plane, let alone a squadron of highly trained commandos, to strike fear at the very heart of America. The sole requirements were a couple of converts to Islam and a gun.

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[1] John Allen Muhammad v. the State of Maryland, Court of Special Appeals, Baltimore, Maryland, November 5, 2007. [2] Nihad Awad, quoted in “Muslims Pleased by Arrests, Caution against Speculation,” Islam Online, October 25, 2002, [3] Richard Roeper, quoted in Michelle Malkin’s “Lee Malvo, Muslim Hatemonger,” Vdare, December 10, 2002, [4] Daniel Pipes, “The Beltway Snipers’ Motives.” [5] Ibid. [6] Michelle Malkin, “Lee Malvo, Muslim Hatemonger.” [7] Jerry Seper and Steve Miller, “Accused Snipers May Be Followers,” Washington Times, November 13, 2002. [8] Paul Sperry, Infiltration: How Muslim Spies and Subversives Have Penetrated Washington (New York: Nelson Current, 2005), pp. 110-118. [9] Paul Sperry, “Another Al-Qaida Sleeper Cell Awakens,” World Net Daily, October 18, 2002, [10] Paul Sperry, “Another Al-Qaida Sleeper Cell Awakens,” World Net Daily, October 18, 2002,