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D.C. Snipers
Introduction
Terrorism is defined as a clearly planned use of violence to scare the population of a nation, region or the whole world into political, ideological or religious revolution. It usually involves use of arms or even biological weapons. Since September 11, 2001 terrorist attacks on the twin towers terrorism has become a very sensitive issue that has been attended to by the administrations. Both former president Bush and the current president Obama reiterated their commitment in ensuring that terrorism is plucked out completely not only from the United States but also out of the whole world. Bush emphasized a goal to destroy terrorism through every means that included bringing the terrorists to the book and even killing them if necessary. Other very important ways bush targeted in the war against terrorism was the destruction of their infrastructure and resource base not to mention the allies of the terrorists. Fight against terrorism did not begin with Bushes administration, previous regimes such as Ronald Reagan’s shifted the focus of the administration from Human rights to fight of terrorism throughout the world.

September 2002 was just an ordinary day for most of the resident of Maryland and Virginia until something went terribly wrong. Two local terrorists as they would be known from then on, launched an attack outside the Margellina’s Restaurant in Clinton. The shooting that went on for some time stopped after a while and in its wake, ten dead bodies and six wounded people. Muhammad Allen and Lee Malvo were identified as the terrorist who carried out the attack. Lee Malvo who is of Jamaican decent was believed to be an accomplice of Muhammad was nabbed when he dropped a magazine with his finger prints all over it. They lived together with Muhammad and that was one of the pieces the investigations used to find the truth of their involvement in the terrorism activity. Apart from the ten deaths that occurred in Maryland, there are more victims that are still linked to the terror duo in the life they lived by the gun terrifying innocent citizens.

These attacks were considered terror in nature because Muhammad always had admired Osama Bin Laden, the greatest terrorist in the present world besides endorsing the September 11 attacks on the United States and also approving Al Qaeda. One witness of Malvo, Muhammad’s accomplice said that Muhammad poisoned the young mind of Malvo that the terrorism act and the extortion that was planned was to start off a new nation of only black young people in Canada. Prosecutors believed that this was part of a wider scheme to extort over ten million dollars from the state administration. Muhammad’s dramatic past was a pointer towards what he was capable of doing and actually did on that day he killed ten people. He was divorced two times and even tried to kill the second divorced wife because he wanted to have the custody of his children who were now under the wife. The restraining order imposed on him did not work as he violated them. Muhammad was charged with terrorism, murder and collusion to use an illegal firearm that had the sentence of death penalty. According to Virginia’s statutes, Muhammad was convicted of terrorism because of the antiterrorism statute which had also a capital sentence to its tag.

The two men were believed to have been driven basically by the urge to terrorize the nation since even the wider plan of extortion had the objectives of carrying out further attacks. Shocking testimony by Lee Malvo brought to the fore how Muhammad’s objective in Phase one of their meticulously planned attacks was to kill six white men per month. It was not easy though according to Malvo due to the heavy traffic that caused lack of clear shot in their marked locations. They had marked locations in D.C to carry out the shooting so that it would make it easy for their moving around after every attack. In the second phase of the well planned attacks they were to move to Baltimore where they were to kill a pregnant woman, kill a policeman in Baltimore and then at the police’s funeral, blow up explosives to kill many more officers in the funeral. This phase in Malvo’s testimony was never rolled out but came close to being implemented.

The final phase was to take place immediately after the second phase which included extortion millions of dollars from the local and the states government after which it would be used to roll out a wider plot of moving up north into Canada, recruiting along the way young orphan boys with no guardians. Muhammad was meant to be the father figure of the boys as he was of Malvo where he would train them in Canada to carry out attacks. He would then deploy them to the rest of the United States to do more shootings and ensure the continuity of the terror they were keen to spread all over the nation. With all these shocking revelations, one would say that they were just terrorists who were bitter at something else no one knows what. Despite teenager Malvo’s testimony, Muhammad maintained that he was innocent until the day he faced his execution.

Just as in many security crises, the government through the police went on swiftly to apprehend the killers who were found sleeping in a car on October 24, 2002. A tipoff from one Ron Lantz helped the police arrive there in time to arrest the suspects. A series of ballistics tests and was also able to find 130 witnesses and over 400 evidence pieces that pointed towards Muhammad and Malvo’s involvement helped prove that they indeed were the D.C. Snipers.. They also found out that Muhammad who was cleverer did not do most of the killings by himself but rather ordered Malvo to do the shooting hence most of the evidences had Malvo’s finger prints. As much as Muhammad’s defense pleaded with the court to drop the case because there was no direct evidence linking him to the shootings, the amount of evidences that linked him with Malvo and as Malvo’s mentor could not let him off the hook (Henry, 2006). No one had testified against him. In the Virginia court where Muhammad was convicted of murder, conspiracy to commit murder, terrorism, homicide with intent to terrorize the public and also authorities and even illegal use of firearm, the jury unanimously agreed to sentence the suspect to death.

Summary
D.C. Snipers became as infamous in the history of America as they did the unthinkable, taking out lives with sniper shots. A concrete motive is yet to be established but what can be read roughly from their actions and plans as was testified by Malvo was that Muhammad was just angry at Americans and was committing his life to causing systematic terrorism by recruiting the young boys and sending them out to carry out similar attacks. Malvo who was a teenager was a victim of influence and perhaps intimidation with a promise of a future, a future that did not come. He was taken advantage of by Muhammad by being used just as a trigger-man. New life in Canada promised by Muhammad was paradise enough to prompt his thirst for blood. Evidences presented in court could not be too much even if the defense put up a spirited fight to let Muhammad off the hook. The position of the United States is very clear on terrorism, fight it no matter the resources that will be needed until it is eradiated completely. This does not mean only in the Nation but worldwide, that is why the United States is very active in antiterrorism campaign for instance the presence of her troops in Afghanistan and Pakistan and Iraq (Eric, 2008). President Obama’s approach to war on terror has not gone down well with some American but it is important as he says that the Muslim world needs to be reached out to quell the animosity which is one of the major causes of terrorism in the world. This does not mean in any way that he condones terrorism.

Conclusion
In a world very vulnerable to terrorism, the United States has a military force second to none and on normal circumstances, should not worry but there is a big cause for worrying in that the animosity of many nations against America is doubling. This is not something you can conquer with military power. Dialogue and compromise is the way to go for America to ever realize the dream of living in a terrorism free world. As it has been recently happening in the nation, there are tendencies of domestic terrorism hence undermining the gains that have been made in the fight. The case of the DC snipers is just an example that should have turn off the alarms and help America find a way of dealing with the in-house issues first. Muhammad was executed in November 2009, is it a victory or just one of the many cases to come.

References Eric, M. (2008). Home Grown Terror, the Monster Within. Columbia University Press

Henry, P. (2006, August 4). D.C. Snipers as Guilty as they would be. The Star (Minneapolis, MN), p. 8.