Bush era TERRORIST and "sniper" John Allen Muhammad executed ~ CNN

[mzmolly]

Jarratt, Virginia (CNN) -- Washington-area sniper John Allen Muhammad was executed Tuesday by lethal injection, a Virginia prisons spokesman said.

The mastermind behind the Washington-area sniper attacks of 2002 that terrorized the nation's capital was declared dead at 9:11 p.m. ET, said Larry Traylor, director of communications for the Virginia Department of Corrections.

"There were no complications; Mr. Mohammad was asked if he wished to make a last statement," Traylor told reporters outside the the Greenville Correctional Center. "He did not acknowledge this or make a last statement whatsoever."

In fact, Mohammad, 48, said nothing from the time he entered the death chamber accompanied by guards at 8:58 p.m., Traylor said.

"After he was placed on the gurney and strapped down, he was very emotionless," Traylor said.

More at > http://www.cnn.com/2009/CRIME/11/10/virginia.sniper.execution/index.html">CNN

My purpose for posting this (beyond the fact that this is a current event) is ~ IF the Fort Hood shooter is considered a "terrorist" so is this man. He killed five people in 2002 from what I recall? All civilians.

[onehandle]

1. Man, that Bush guy sure sucked at protecting us from terrorists.

Glad that's over.

[mzmolly]

2. Yes

he did. Of course, I considered him a terrorist, but that's another thread. *ehem*

[EFerrari]

6. Have there been as many acts of terrorism under any other president?

I don't think so. US History buffs? :shrug:

[The_Casual_Observer]

3. That whole episode in history was tragic. John Allen Muhammad

was crazy,a mistake, there are lots of mistakes.

[mzmolly]

4. As is the Fort Hood Shooter

I presume?

:(

[lynne]

5. He was a terrorist. He gut-shot a kid going to school! Killed 10, wounded 3 -

- others in the VA/DC/MD region, also involved in Alabama murder and suspected of Washington State murder. He TERRORIZED an entire region for over 3 weeks. I know, I lived through that nightmare. Yes, he was a terrorist in all aspects of the word.

[mzmolly]

7. I agree.

However, the RW doesn't appear to think you have a valid point.

[lynne]

8. I've not had my ear to the news but heard the right considers the Ft. Hood shooter a terrorist -

- Which of them was nutty enough to think that the D.C. Sniper wasn't a terrorist? That's totally illogical.

[mzmolly]

9. "Bush kept us safe" vs. "Obama had a terrorist attack on his watch"

is the RW mantra.

[HughBeaumont]

10. RW? Some on DU didn't think he was a terrorist.

Which is an absolute falsehood, of course; J.A.M. was very much a domestic terrorist. I have a stake in this because one of his first victims was shot about half a mile from where my sister lives. Now is someone going to tell her, at the time fresh off a kidney donation and with a baby boy, how John and Lee WEREN'T terrorists?

[HiFructosePronSyrup]

13. What was his political motive?

Seems more of a mass murderer and extortionist than a terrorist.

[mzmolly]

18. He said he was in a Jihadi mission.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Allen_Muhammad

[HiFructosePronSyrup]

21. "based on drawings by malvo"

:shrug:

[mzmolly]

22. Yep.

An artist as well as a "terrorist," it seems. ;)

[HiFructosePronSyrup]

23. So when asked why they're terrorists...

your basic answer boils down to "they're muslim."

[mzmolly]

24. Look, let me make this clear again. My OP is a SNARKY/SARCASTIC

RESPONSE to the Faux News/Lieberman talking point that the Fort Hood sniper was a "terrorist" thus Obama is not protecting us from terrorism. The same people suggest that Bush kept us safe from said terrorism. The man who was recently executed, as noted in my OP, killed Americans on Bush's watch. This man was said to be interested in assisting in a mass Jihad against the US, which means Bush did NOT keep us safe from terror. Get it?

Sorry I was so unclear.

Rachel Maddow did a show last night expressing frustration with the R/W attempt to label the Fort Hood shootings as terrorism for political purposes. My essential suggestion is that two can play that game.

Hope I made some sense?

[sweetloukillbot]

20. Wasn't he involved in a shooting in AZ as well?

Don't remember if the victim was killed, but I remember someone being sniped on a Tucson golf course as well.

[JonQ]

11. I thought he was considered a terrorist

I guess they didn't use the word in that article but wasn't that the general consensus?

[mzmolly]

16. Faux News would disagree.

Thus, my post.

My post is simply a sarcastic response to the ridiculous assertion that Bush kept us safe from "terrorism" while Obama supposedly allowed the Fort Hood Terrorist to attack "merika." Either both men are considered "terrorists" or neither of them are.

[Zodiak]

12. Why is this guy a terrorist?

He shot people at random...this I know.

People were scared.

He had one accomplice, correct?


I fail to see what political motivation there was for his acts, nor do I see any kind of organization with a political agenda that he represents.

Just because someone killed and scares people does not make him a terrorist. Only the legal definition of terrorism does that. There just simply is no emotional content to the charge of terrorism, so I find it interesting how people on this thread want to call him a terrorist just because people died and the community was scared.

Under those circumstances, Son of Sam was a terrorist.

So tell me exactly WHY this guy was a terrorist that does not rely 100% on how scared people were or a body count.

Here is what wiki said about the motive:

"Investigators and the prosecution at trial suggested that Muhammad intended to kill his ex-wife Mildred, who had estranged him from his children. According to this theory, she would appear to be just another random victim of the snipers. Muhammad frequented the neighborhood where she lived during the attacks, and some of the incidents occurred nearby. Additionally, he had earlier made threats against her. Mildred herself made the claim that she was his intended target. However Judge LeRoy Millette, Jr. prevented prosecutors from presenting that theory during the trial, saying that a link had not been firmly established.

While imprisoned, Malvo wrote a number of erratic diatribes about what he termed "jihad" against the United States.<20> "I have been accused on my mission. Allah knows I'm gonna suffer now", he wrote.<20> Because his rants and drawings featured not only such figures as Osama Bin Laden and Saddam Hussein, but also characters from the film series The Matrix, these musings were dismissed as immaterial.<20> Some investigators reportedly said they had all but eliminated terrorist ties or political ideologies as a motive.<21><22><23> Nonetheless, in at least one of the ensuing murder trials, a Virginia court found Muhammad guilty of killing "pursuant to the direction or order" of terrorism.<24>

At the 2006 trial of Muhammad, Malvo testified that the aim of the killing spree was to kidnap children for the purpose of extorting money from the government and to "set up a camp to train children how to terrorize cities",<25> with the ultimate goal being to "shut things down" across the United States.<26>"

Seems to me that the "terrorism" angle never really was a well-founded one. The Virginia court ruled such, but the article said there is no basis for it, and I tend to agree with it.

[mzmolly]

14. In my OP I said - "IF the Fort Hood shooter is considered a "terrorist" so is this man."

My point is that we can't have one standard for the Fort Hood shooter, and another for a man who did actually have an accomplice and considered himself on a Jihadi mission.

"John Allen Muhammad (December 31, 1960 – November 10, 2009) was a spree killer from the United States. With his younger partner, Lee Boyd Malvo, he carried out the 2002 Beltway sniper attacks, killing at least 10 people. Muhammad and Malvo were arrested in connection with the attacks on October 24, 2002, following tips from alert citizens. Born John Allen Williams, Muhammad joined the Nation of Islam in 1987 and later changed his surname to Muhammad.<1> Drawings by Malvo describe the murders as part of a "jihad" (Arabic for "struggle in the way of God").<2> At Muhammad's trial, the prosecutor claimed that the rampage was part of a plot to kill his ex-wife and regain custody of his children, but the judge ruled that there was insufficient evidence to support this argument.<3>

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Allen_Muhammad

[Dreamer Tatum]

15. Ummm...is it controversial to call both of them terrorists? nt

[mzmolly]

17. Think Faux News and Joe LIEberman's recent talking points,

and then you'll understand my post a bit better. ;)

[mzmolly]

19. CORRECTION TO MY OP - He is said to have killed 10 people

not 5.