CONNECTING THE BELTWAY DOTS I

In the early morning hours of Thursday October 24, 2002 John Allen Muhammad and 17 year-old John Lee Malvo were taken into custody at a Interstate 70 rest stop outside of Frederick, Maryland and Montgomery County, Maryland officials announced that the reign of terror gripping the Beltway communities of Maryland and Virginia was over. But was it? The authorities need to connect the dots. Some of them have been made public but others are just dimly seen at the margins of the published reports of law enforcement’s activities in the afternoon hours of October 23. I am going to try to connect some of the dots and see what emerges.

40 year-old John Alan Williams was born and grew up in Baton Rouge, Louisiana. He joined the U.S. Army and spent 15 years in the service ending his army career short of retirement at Fort Lewis, Washington. He served in the Gulf War and left the service in 1994. About 17 years ago he was converted to the Islamic religion and by 2000 had become known for rabid anti-Americanism. In 2001 he legally changed his name to John Alan Muhammad. He is African-American.

37 year old African-American James Thompson was born in Denver, Colorado and moved to the Seattle area when he was a child. He too converted to Islam and was a member of the now defunct Dar as Salaam mosque. He changed his name to James Ujaama. Ujaama made a name for himself as a community activist and entrepreneur trying several ventures and self publishing several books. Arrested as a material witness in the investigation of terrorism in a raid in Denver in July of 2002 he was quickly transferred the Federal lockup in Alexandria, Virginia. On August 24th he was indicted by the Federal Grand Jury sitting in Seattle.

The charges against Ujaama involved his work setting up Web-Sites for Al Qaeda operatives in England and attempting to set up a training camp at the Rule ranch outside of Bly, Oregon in the fall of 1999. During that period several American Muslims from the Seattle area traveled to the ranch to engage in firearms training and horseback riding. According to the Seattle Post-Intelligencer two Al Qaeda members named Kassir and Aswat stayed in Seattle during February 2000 conducting firearms and “urban terrorism” training.

Ujaama had traveled to London and became acquainted with Abu Howza, a Yemeni Imam who was wanted in connection with terrorism charged in his home country. Using the name Abu Samaya he developed websites for Howza and for Sulayman Bilal Zain-ul-abidin, who was trying to promote terrorist training including firearms and urban tactical training at an Alabama facility called Ground Zero USA operated by British national Mark D. Yates. That facility was searched Wednesday afternoon as part of the Sniper investigation.

http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/attack/82035_abuhamza09.shtml
http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/local/84729_ujaama29.shtml

Carol Williams of Baton Rouge and Muhammad, then known as John Alan Williams, were divorced in 1985, about the time that Williams left the Louisiana National Guard to volunteer for active duty in the Army. Carol Williams said that it was about that time that he had converted to Islam. In July of this year Muhammad and Malvo visited Muhammad’s first wife and her family. It was the first time that the family had any knowledge of Malvo who Muhammad introduced as his son. This is about the time that Ujaama was taken into custody as a material witness in the terrorism investigation.

When apprehended Muhammad and Malvo were sleeping in a 1900 Chevrolet Caprice registered to Muhammad at a Camden, New Jersey apartment. At this writing there is no information available as to when the automobile was registered in New Jersey. It is known that on October 8th police officers in Baltimore, Maryland found Muhammad sleeping in the car and became suspicious when his driver’s license was from Washington but the car was registered in New Jersey.

It appears that on September 21st the pair was in Montgomery, Alabama where two employees of a State operated liquor store were shot as they were locking up. Malvo’s fingerprint was allegedly found at the scene. Ground Zero USA is located near Montgomery in rural Perry County. Local police sources told CNN that Federal authorities had searched the firearms and urban tactics facility in connection with the sniper case though the local FBI office denied any interest in Ground Zero.
http://www.cnn.com/2002/US/South/10/24/sniper.shootings/index.html

These dots, these isolated facts may represent nothing more than coincidence or they may suggest that there is more than geography linking Muhammad and Ujaama. That the Beltway Snipers’ attacks were in the vicinity of the Arlington Federal lockup where Ujaama is being held may be only chance or it may be that it was part of a design. It is appealing to write the Beltway snipers off as a disaffected personality and an impressionable youth but that does not explain the motive behind the effective campaign of terror successfully carried on in the shadow of the National Capitol. I hope that someone is looking at the dots this time.