Like the Al-Quaeda cell in Buffalo, Muhammed was sometimes unexplainably flush and would take mysterious airline flights, even though he lived in homeless shelters.

[b]Lighthouse Mission director warned FBI about Muhammad[/b]

John Stark, Aubrey Cohen and Mary Lane Gallagher, The Bellingham Herald

The people at Stuart's Coffee House remember John Allen Muhammad as a quiet chess player who never wanted to be apart from his big, stuffed, heavy U.S. Army duffel bag.

At this point, nobody can prove that the bag Muhammad was lugging around contained the Bushmaster AR-15 rifle that police found in his car when he and 17-year-old John Lee Malvo were arrested at a Maryland rest stop early Thursday. By the end of the day, ballistics tests had tied that weapon to the bloody East Coast sniping spree that left 10 people dead.

But federal court records filed in Seattle indicate that Muhammad owned the weapon in question in May 2000, well before he and Malvo arrived in Bellingham.

The Rev. Al Archer, director of the Lighthouse Mission where Muhammad lived off and on for months, remembers him as a guy who made a good first impression - too good.

"On the surface he was squeaky clean," Archer said. "He was almost too good to believe. I kind of quit believing."

After he got to know Muhammad better, Archer grew so suspicious of his odd behavior that he suspected him of being part of a terrorist organization, and he called the FBI. But that was in October 2001, in the aftershock of the World Trade Center massacre, and Archer doesn't think he got the feds' attention.

"I felt they probably threw the note in the trash," he said.

Mystery bag

At Stuart's, 1302 Bay St., suspicions were never aroused to that extent. Quirky people are hardly a novelty there, employees said.

Nobody ever got a peek inside Muhammad's duffel bag, but singer Hannah Parks, who often performs at Stuart's, said it seemed a lot heavier than it would have been if it only contained clothes. She also thought it sometimes made a metallic sound when Muhammad moved it around.

Mark Wendover and Ellie Savage, who work nights at Stuart's, said Muhammad wanted to take the duffel into the restroom with him, even though that's against the rules because of management's concerns about drug dealing. That didn't deter Muhammad.

"He snuck it into the back bathroom where we couldn't see it," Wendover said.

[b]Although Muhammad spent time at the homeless shelter, he sometimes flashed a wallet thick with currency, and showed off expensive-looking watches and gold bracelets, Parks said. [/b]

At the mission, Archer said, Muhammad would stay for a few days and then leave, saying he was traveling to Denver and New Orleans, among other places. The odd part was that Muhammad was traveling by airplane. Archer learned that when an airline ticket agent called the mission asking for Muhammad.

"At the mission, not many airline agents call and ask for residents," Archer said.

Muhammad's frequent flier status seemed odd to other people. One of them was Greg Grant, a real estate agent in Bellingham who owns and manages an apartment complex about two miles south of Sumas on Highway 9. Last year, Grant said, he would often drive residents of Lighthouse Mission - including Muhammad on several occasions - to the apartments to do yard work and other chores, then back to the mission once the work was done.

Once, Muhammad told Grant that he had to travel a long distance, possibly to Jamaica or the Cayman Islands in the Caribbean, to sign some papers on a land sale, Grant said. Grant said he wondered why Muhammad would fly to do that when the job could be handled by mail.

In the post 9-11 climate, Archer felt it was worth a call to the FBI.

[b]"I felt like he was part of an organization. I felt like he had some connection with terrorists. ... I said he's got connections somewhere with somebody who's got money," Archer remembered telling the FBI. [/b]

He also contacted Bellingham police with his concerns.

"We both agreed there was something not right, but there was nothing they could nail him with," Archer said.

Archer said he can't help but wonder what would have happened if his concerns had been taken more seriously.

"I always figured we would read about John in the news," he said. "He was involved in something. He wasn't just an average, ordinary guy. ... If he had been stopped at that time, a lot of people would be alive who are not."

[url]http://news.bellinghamherald.com/stories/20021025/TopStories/115316.shtml[/url]

My bet is this info will be ignored,lost and forgotten by the media and politicians.
We all know this was Islamic Terrorism,
there must be more to come.
Lebrew

 

The FBI just finished with locking up an AL-Qaeda cell in the area he is from.

He was probably the one who didn't get caught, and went "random" without the rest of his cell.

At the mission, Archer said, Muhammad would stay for a few days and then leave, saying he was traveling to Denver and New Orleans, among other places. The odd part was that Muhammad was traveling by airplane. Archer learned that when an airline ticket agent called the mission asking for Muhammad.

"At the mission, not many airline agents call and ask for residents," Archer said.

Muhammad's frequent flier status seemed odd to other people.
One of them was Greg Grant, a real estate agent in Bellingham who owns and manages an apartment complex about two miles south of Sumas on Highway 9. Last year
, Grant said, he would often drive residents of Lighthouse Mission - including Muhammad on several occasions - to the apartments to do yard work and other chores, then back to the mission once the work was done.

Once, Muhammad told Grant that he had to travel a long distance, possibly to Jamaica or the Cayman Islands in the Caribbean, to sign some papers on a land sale,

Grant said. Grant said he wondered why Muhammad would fly to do that when the job could be handled by mail.
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Well there is a pretty good chance that the guy who runs the misson sees lots of homeless people and has  a resonably good feel for who is legit and who isnt..

.Mohammeds traveling is NOT consistent with somebody getting wellfare or even VA comp...(since he never got treated for anything due to active duty he isnt getting service connected comp money.)

The real estate agent is correct...about the papers and the flying..as is the mission director..
.
Paranoia...hardly sounds like it...sounds more like suspicion/conclusions that any reasonable person would come to...

The govt has warned citizens and asked us to be on the lookout for just such behavior..so how is this paranoid?...

WE ARE AT WAR....these people are doing exactly what the prez asked them to...

They werent ratting on their neighbors because they didnt like his dog barking or the way he revved his Harley..

.They had some legit suspicions...that had they been taken serioiusly...well we wouldnt be looking at all the media crap we are now...would we?...

At last report Muhammad and his bitch were not talking to the authorities.

I mean NOT talking. Not asking them for anything. Not even talking to their court appointed attorneys.

How many serial killers in the past have been able to avoid shooting their mouths off in custody?

I think all your points are good, defcon.  I'm not saying Muhammed should have been busted a year ago for having lots of cash and bling-bling even though homeless.

What I am saying is, it has turned out the killer was a Muslim, just like I suspected.  I thought the killer might be al-qaeda, now it looks like Muhammed was in Nation of Islam.

However, these revalations in the Bellingham newspaper artcle seems similar to the six American citizens of Yemeni descent who were busted, at least the flights out of the country and the large amounts of cash. I'm just saying it looks like I may not have been wrong about Al-Qaeda involvement or financing.

At worst, he is an Al-Qaeda member, and this was a planned attack, or a response to the breakup of his cell.

At best, he is an AL-Qaeda sympathizer.