Stan C. Weeber
The D.C. Snipers and the Anthrax Scare
Thu Feb 5 15:04:28 2004
192.251.102.149

THE D.C. BELTWAY SNIPERS AND THE ANTHRAX SCARE
Stan C. Weeber, Ph.D.

The trials of John Muhammad and Lee Malvo are over, for now. There are more trials to come, but the government is missing much evidence pointing to Muhammad and Malvo’s involvement in the 2001 anthrax scare.

August, 2001 was one of the worst months of John Muhammad’s life. On the last day of that month, authorities tracked down Muhammad’s three children in Bellingham, Washington schools and returned them to the biological mother, Mildred Green. Green won a bitter custody battle just a few days later, on September 4, 2001, and immediately removed the children to Clinton, Maryland. According to Muhammad’s attorney, legal options were being pursued but the prognosis was grim. Muhammad’s chance of being allowed formal permission to see his children again was virtually nil. Extremely disappointed, he apparently quit working and seemed resigned to a life of homeless shelters, theft, and begging to get things that he needed. Strangely enough, at the homeless shelters, he was frequently on the phone making travel arrangements - odd behavior indeed for a homeless person. I now strongly suspect that Gulf War veteran Muhammad, after the disappointment of losing his children, and after contact with the radical Islamic group al-Fuqra, drifted further downward into a criminal lifestyle that ultimately led to his contact with the individuals responsible for the anthrax attack of 2001. At the very least, Muhammad sympathetically composed or supervised the texts of the deadly anthrax letters and then delivered them to a mail box in Princeton, New Jersey. Additionally, he may have assisted in placing the anthrax in the letters prior to mailing. There are seven reasons why I have taken this position.

The Fort Lewis-Tacoma Connection

John Muhammad worked for the major part of his nine years in the U.S. Army at Fort Lewis Washington, home of the 9th Chemical Battalion. His work as part of the 84th Engineering Company was to provide support to coalition operational and combat units in the field. One of his assignments during the first Gulf War was to destroy bunkers in the desert, some of which were later suspected as storehouses for chemical weapons. Although there is no conclusive evidence that soldiers suffered ill health effects, the Pentagon did acknowledge in 1996 that soldiers from some units, including Muhammad’s, may have been exposed to low levels of chemical agents. There can be little doubt that this assignment aroused Muhammad’s curiosity about biological and chemical weapons. From a personal perspective, he like many others would have wondered about the risks involved in the assignment and what effects the weapons might have if he is exposed to them. Fort Lewis was a place where he might have become acquainted with a scientist who knew something about anthrax and other biotoxins, and was a sophisticated handler of them: so much so that he knew how to handle the substances without being contaminated by them.

Muhammad’s interest in the assignment of destroying the bunkers, and his overall interest in the Gulf War in general, was elevated due to his opposition to fighting against an Islamic nation. His religion was Islam, to which he had converted in 1985. He appeared to have some reservations about the war and let them be known - to such an extent that he was suspected of deliberately setting off an incendiary grenade in a tent occupied by 16 fellow soldiers. Having made his anti-war sentiments well known, Muhammad was in a position to link up with a biological scientist similarly inclined, or through Muslim contacts, with Al Queda or al-Fuqra operatives recruiting in the U.S. at Muslim mosques.

The Al Qaeda-September 11 Connection

Muhammad may have come into contact with the former leader of the Dar-us-Salaam mosque in Seattle who worked as an auto mechanic (as did Mohammad after leaving the Army) in Tacoma, Washington. Semi Osman was arrested in July, 2002 on charges of fraudulently attempting to obtain U.S. citizenship with the intent of supporting international terrorism and possession of a handgun with the serial number removed. He was indicted along with James Ujaama for allegedly trying to set up an Al Qaeda training camp in Bly, Oregon. When Osman’s Tacoma apartment was raided by the FBI in May, 2002, documents detailing how to poison water supplies were discovered. While Muhammad was also an auto mechanic in Tacoma, it is still unclear what mosque he attended or whether he knew this fellow mechanic. Muhammad was listed as a water transport specialist during his time in the Army in addition to metal worker and combat engineer.

Muhammad’s business dealings in the U.S. and in Antigua were quite similar to those of the Al Queda terrorists and like-minded terrorist groups. Traditionally terrorist efforts have been aided by the use of bulk cash smuggling, identity theft, credit card fraud, illegal drug and human trafficking, and bank robberies. Al Queda in particular has been known to encourage and instruct terrorist cells in terrorist training camps in Afghanistan in ways they can fund their terrorist activities through various criminal activity. For example, Ahmed Ressam, the Algerian convicted in the plot to place bombs at Los Angeles International Airport, was instructed in these camps to engage in criminal activity such as bank robberies and fraud schemes to fund his terrorist activities. As another example, a terrorist cell based in Spain with ties to Al Qaeda used stolen credit cards in fictitious sales scams and for numerous other purchases for the cell. They kept purchases below amounts where identification would be presented. They also used stolen telephone and credit cards for communications back to Pakistan, Afghanistan, Lebanon, and other countries. Extensive use of false passports and travel documents were used to open bank accounts where money for the Mujahadin movement was sent to and from countries such as Pakistan and Afghanistan.

Muhammad’s behavior mimics that of terrorists trying to raise cash for their operations. Consider the following: according to the criminal complaint filed by federal law enforcement, John Muhammad also goes by John Williams, Wayne Weeks and Wayne Weekly. Investigators say Muhammad almost always traveled under different additional names. A wallet containing several driver’s licenses bearing Muhammad’s likeness but with different names was found in his car. In addition, and more important, Muhammad made or purchased a false birth certificate in order to obtain an Antiguan passport. He is being investigated for doing the same for many Jamaicans wishing to immigrate to the United States. Evidently Muhammad would furnish fraudulent passports and birth certificates for a fee of from $1,000 to $1,500 per person. The illegal aliens would then be furnished with the return portion of a round-trip airline ticket from the U.S. to Antigua. It is unclear where Muhammad learned how to do this, but Al Qaeda training was one way to obtain the necessary skills. The work apparently paid handsomely because Muhammad, with no visible means of support, could afford to send his three children to one of the few private schools on the island of Antigua.

A letter left at the crime scene in Ashland, Virginia demanded officials transfer $10 million to a credit card account stolen from a woman in Flagstaff, Arizona which could be accessed worldwide. Law enforcement has determined that a key component of Al Qaeda’s financial operation involves credit card theft and money laundering. Several suspects have been arrested for trying to raise money for the organization through stolen credit cards, including suspected 20th hijacker Zacarias Moussaoui.

Muhammad’s profits from his illegal ventures disappeared quickly, suggesting that the money went to fund a cause greater than just him or his family. Upon return from Antigua he checked into a homeless shelter. This is a pattern that had occurred earlier in Muhammad’s life: it has been reported that Muhammad’s auto repair shop and a Karate school for Muslim boys he helped found in Tacoma both folded, the profits in both ventures vanishing. One of Muhammad’s customers reported that Muhammad “lost” his car and told him he would get him another one.

Muhammad’s behavior at the Bellingham, Washington homeless shelter where Muhammad and Lee Malvo settled in 2001 raised some eyebrows as well. According to Seattle newspapers, Rev. Al Archer, director of the shelter, said he became suspicious of Muhammad because he was receiving phone calls from travel agents and taking trips to Denver, Salt Lake City, Jamaica, New Orleans and Antigua. “That doesn’t happen a lot in a mission,” Archer said. He said he contacted the FBI about Muhammad in Mid-October, 2001, but never heard back from them.

Seattle newspapers also reported that after the September 11 attacks, Muhammad and Malvo made anti-American statements to neighbors and expressed sympathy with the Islamic extremists who carried out the terrorist attacks. Muhammad told friends that attacks “should have happened a long time ago.” How many times did you hear such sentiments after September 11? This implies that Muhammad might have seen himself as a foot soldier in the jihad or holy war against the United States, and that he took up arms in part to terrorize Americans. Perhaps it is no coincidence that the Beltway shootings began around the time of the first anniversary of the invasion of Afghanistan, when U.S. led forces attacked the Taliban-led government harboring al-Queda operatives and terrorist training camps. Additionally, newspapers reported that Muhammad obtained the license plates for the Caprice suspected in the shootings in Camden, New Jersey exactly one year after the September 11 attacks. The time on the registration papers was 8:52 A.M. They also reported a bomb threat was called into the DMV simultaneously.

The Federal complaint against Muhammad that was filed soon after his capture reveals a list of expensive items found during the search of the Caprice: a military pack containing a GPS (global positioning system), a pair of two-way radios and a Sony laptop computer. Investigators are looking into whom Muhammad and Malvo were e-mailing from their car. FBI Director Robert Mueller confirmed that the so-called 20th hijacker Zacharias Moussaoui researched GPS technology. In addition, newspaper reports indicate that September 11 hijacker Ziad Samir Jarrah purchased a GPS unit in Miami in August of 2001.

The New Jersey-Virginia-al-Fuqra Connection

John Muhammad was quite familiar with the I-95 corridor, and especially central New Jersey. We know that he had to drive this route to track down Mildred Green in the D.C. suburb of Clinton, Maryland, in September 2001, and may have had some familiarity with the area from earlier travels. By the time he was searching for Ms. Green in the D.C. area, he was unemployed and basically without resources. One technique Muhammad apparently used to raise cash was to show up at Mosques and seek assistance in the form of a cash gift or leads on where to find temporary work. In these situations he no doubt made use of any contacts he had made in the Antiguan smuggling operations. Moreover, in the course of one of these interactions, I believe that he made contacts of sufficient depth that the “rescuers” of Muhammad felt that Muhammad could be used in an anthrax plot.

The zip code 08852, which appears in the return addresses on the Daschle and Leahy anthrax letters is for the town of Monmouth Junction, New Jersey. It turns out there is a relatively large Islamic Mosque located in Monmouth Junction. It is called the Islamic Society of Central Jersey. If Muhammad was seeking funds or assistance, this was lucrative territory. The Mosque is located on U.S. Route 1 in the Zip Code 08852. It has over 700 members and serves the relatively large population of Islamic believers in the geographical area between Princeton and Rutgers University. Though there is no Greendale School in New Jersey, there is a Greenbrook School which is less than 5 miles away from the Islamic Society of Central Jersey. The return addresses on two of the anthrax letters mailed from Princeton, New Jersey read: “4th Grade, Greendale School, Franklin Park, New Jersey, 08852.”

In an apparent quest for funds, Muhammad had contact with a mosque in Virginia that was also frequented by at least two of the terrorists who crashed into the World Trade Center. Not far from there is a training camp run by al-Fuqra, a Wahhabi Islam group sympathetic to the goals of Osama Bin Laden. The camp had been under surveillance prior to September 11 and later three members of the compound were arrested for illegal arms purchases. There is concern that Muhammad and Malvo may have stayed at the compound during a lull in the shootings from October 20th to 21st. The compounds owners, also known as Jamaat-al-Fuqra, seek to purify Islam through violence, and are committed to waging holy war against the United States. Members - often Black Muslim converts recruited out of prison - have purchased isolated rural compounds in North America (such as the one in Virginia) to live communally, practice their faith and insulate themselves from Western culture. Fuqra members have attacked a variety of targets that they view as enemies of Islam, including Muslims they regard as heretics and Hindus. Attacks during the 1980s included 13 slayings and 17 fire bombings in the United States and Canada. Wall Street Journal reporter Daniel Pearl was on his way to meet their leader, Sheik Mubarik Ali Shah Gilani, when he was kidnapped and later killed and beheaded.

Muhammad’s Downward Spiral

According to writer Christian Weber, Muhammad’s life appears to follow the model of John Walker Lindh, Richard Reid and Jose Padilla: men exposed to Islamism who become disenchanted with the movement’s pace and progress and who take the road to jihad. As one traces 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. 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.

That was the case with Muhammad. 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 al-Queda, Osama bin Laden, and Sheikh Omar Abdul Rahman: al-Fuqra. We’ve already discussed Muhammad’s possible ties to al-Fuqra and can note additionally that the D.C. Beltway shooting spree began October 2, which was the anniversary of the conviction of WTC bombing ringleader Sheikh Rahman’s conviction for the 1993 World Trade Center bombing. Several anthrax letters were postmarked on the weekly anniversaries of the 9-11 attack.

Muhammad and Malvo spiralled even further down, if that is possible. At Malvo’s trial, a Jamaican social worker testified that the duo were going to try to “save the world.” They were going to take the $10 million extorted from the government to start a training camp for 70 young people who would be trained to be “super-people.” They would be given training and equipment, and then sent out into the world to bring “justice.”

Why such a radical change and why the downward spiral? Elements within the Muslim community such as Lindh, Reid, Padilla and Muhammad, who became disenchanted with the movement’s conventional means (elections, proselytizing) try to intensify and reinvigorate the jihad through terrorism. Adherents of this path are motivated by the belief that moderate Muslim leaders have lost the moral authority and vision to achieve victory and that they are the true defenders of Islam. Muhammad would eventually spin even further downward, joining up with a NOI offshoot called The Five Percent Movement, which disavows al

• Re: The Five Percent Movement / DC Sniper Iraq Connection — RESEARCHER, Thu Feb 5 15:30