Word: snipering
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Over the buzz of misinformation, anxiety and outright lies, the army of investigators working the sniper case still managed to invent new ways to pursue the clues left intact last week. It was an exercise in data management and stamina, with extra points for creativity...
This diligence is interrupted by the occasional lunatic or false positive. Several people have called claiming to be the sniper, and police have traced each one, only to find a jokester at the other end. And a Virginia man who had offered the best witness description yet has been charged with giving false information. More than 70,000 calls have poured into the tip line, generating 14,487 leads. But most callers leave general suggestions or rants. Police have tracked down men who match the killer's profile, but they have turned out to have alibis...
...lack of progress inflated theories of a terrorist connection. Al-Qaeda suspects in Guantanamo and Belgium have been questioned, spurring a vague warning for U.S. Senators to watch their backs on the golf course. Says a counterterrorism official: "Al-Qaeda videotapes have shown them training in sniper tactics. Is it possible? Absolutely." Still, insists another intelligence official, "there's no reason to believe that it is al-Qaeda at this point...
...awards for showing up rather than for singular acts of soldiering, although the exception was his Army Achievement Medal. (Officials have not yet explained what he had done to merit the latter.) But one area in which Muhammad shone was his marksmanship. Although he was never trained as a sniper, Muhammad's Marksmanship Badge carried an "expert" rating - earned by the ability to hit 36 out of 40 targets at distances ranging from 25 to 300 meters. He was also designated a hand-grenade specialist...
John Allen Muhammad - or Williams, as he was known during his 17 years in the military - was no standout soldier, nor a trained sniper. But he was a crack shot. After a day in which Montgomery County Police determined that a rifle found in Muhammad's car was the weapon used in 11 out of 14 sniper shootings that have terrorized the Washington, D.C. area over the past month, a source close to the Maryland investigation offered TIME some insights into the suspect's military career...