Article

2008-09-05 -Lurid Crime Tales-

Man arrested near Capitol: IED, rifle, ammunition found in Jeep

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Posted by Steve White 2008-09-05 14:16|| || Front Page|| [5 views ] Top

#1 Schneider said that it wasn't clear what the man intended to do with the cache of weapons.

Has the FBI "ruled out terrorism" yet?

Posted by tu3031 2008-09-05 14:30|| 2008-09-05 14:30|| Front Page Top

#2 The man stopped to ask police for directions near the Capitol building at about 11 a.m. EDT Friday, at the intersection of 2nd and Independence Avenue Southeast, according to Capitol Police spokeswoman Sgt. Kimberly Schneider.
So our boy knows how to build an IED but can't use a Garmin ...

driving by the capitol building is pretty damned confusing, lots of one ways, jersey walls, security blocks, etc. I know garmin catches the one ways (though not if theyre changed for construction or whatever) but not sure if it gets all the other stuff. Just got ours a little while ago and havent taken it by the Capitol lately. It does suggest fairly odd things in other parts of central DC though.

Posted by liberalhawk 2008-09-05 14:53|| 2008-09-05 14:53|| Front Page Top

#3 Just got back from DC. Sorry, but it just ain't that hard to drive there. I'm calling bullshit on this one -- they found him another way and don't want to share exactly how they did it.

Posted by Iblis 2008-09-05 15:25|| 2008-09-05 15:25|| Front Page Top

#4 Rules for Successful Terrorists:
1.) Never ask the police for directions to your target.

Posted by mojo">mojo 2008-09-05 15:30|| 2008-09-05 15:30|| Front Page Top

#5 Schneider said that it wasn't clear what the man intended to do with the cache of weapons.

I dunno, maybe they should just make him an offer.

(What's that old Steve Wright joke about Canadian customs? "Do you have any guns with you?" "I don't know, what sort of guns do you want?")

Posted by Abdominal Snowman 2008-09-05 15:36|| 2008-09-05 15:36|| Front Page Top

#6 I used to live 5 blocks from there (in fact, I was there for 9/11 and the subsequent antrhax decontamination).

The Hill can be confusing for visitors due to construction, one-way streets, poor signage, the grid system origin being so close and discontinuities of some streets. I often provided out of towners with directions. I would always end by telling them to take the metro in the next day. If they seemed smart, I would explain how address numbers worked in DC as well, so they could navigate by them.

Recently I drove in DC with my Nuvi. The software did not work very well and kept telling me to take routes I knew were suboptimal. It's worked fine everywhere else, but L'Enfant's diagonals must not work well with the algorithms.

It is a great city to walk in when it is not 95 and humid.

We'll see what sort of 'IED' he had. Very fishy. Asking cops for help could be an act of over confidence or arrogance and does not automatically mean this was an innocent mistake. Recall Mohammad Atta requested help from the government when he was shopping for a crop duster, etc.

Posted by JAB 2008-09-05 15:45|| 2008-09-05 15:45|| Front Page Top

#7 Well, in that carrying a rifle and ammunition in your car is *legal*, what exactly do they mean by "Improvised Explosive Device"? That could be about anything.

A bottle with gasoline in it? A firecracker? 10 pounds of C-4 wired to three propane tanks? A basement thermonuclear device?

Posted by Anonymoose 2008-09-05 15:50|| 2008-09-05 15:50|| Front Page Top

#8 JAB, couldn't agree more. Spent last Sunday walking to all the monuments. 11 miles later on the pedometer, it was time to pack it in. Think it was only lower 80s... :-)

Posted by IG-88 2008-09-05 15:56|| 2008-09-05 15:56|| Front Page Top

#9 IG-88, Al Gore must have been in town. For DC, 80s is a cold snap.

Posted by Rambler in California 2008-09-05 16:12|| 2008-09-05 16:12|| Front Page Top

#10 Just got back from DC. Sorry, but it just ain't that hard to drive there

perhaps you misunderstood. I didnt say its hard to drive in the capital. I said its hard to drive near the Capitol. IE the building. The blocks right around it, with lots of blocked streets, and as someone said above, the center of the grid system (2nd and D for example, occurs in 4 separate places all a few blocks from each other NW, NE, SW, and SE respectively)

Posted by liberalhawk 2008-09-05 16:52|| 2008-09-05 16:52|| Front Page Top

#11 And his name is?

Posted by Nimble Spemble 2008-09-05 16:56|| 2008-09-05 16:56|| Front Page Top

#12 perhaps you misunderstood

I have a different interpretation of events, not a lack of understanding.

It is possible, after all, for reasonable (and even unreasonable) minds to disagree.

Posted by Iblis 2008-09-05 18:45|| 2008-09-05 18:45|| Front Page Top

#13 #7 Anonymoose, I agree with you. Insufficient information has been presented. I don't know DC's gun laws but a cased rifle (loaded?) would not get you a raised eyebrow in most of the country. So, the question is what do they define as an IED? A propane bottle for your BBQ?

Right now it's just a lot of hyperventilation on the part of the media. TBD.

Posted by tipover 2008-09-05 18:48|| 2008-09-05 18:48|| Front Page Top

#14 I agree with Nimble, a name or brief description would really round out the article and make it worth a damn. Whenever the name/description is missing a wild part of me starts to think it was withheld intentionally so we start to think any protected groups have a bad member or two.

Posted by rjschwarz 2008-09-05 19:21|| 2008-09-05 19:21|| Front Page Top

#15 I bet that his name is Smith or Kowalski.

Posted by Formerly Dan 2008-09-05 19:45|| 2008-09-05 19:45|| Front Page Top

#16 he drove a "typically white" vehicle

/s

Posted by Frank G">Frank G 2008-09-05 20:01|| 2008-09-05 20:01|| Front Page Top

#17 Christopher Shelton Timmons, 27, of Orange, Va., was charged with carrying a deadly weapon and possessing unregistered firearms and ammunition, said Capitol Police spokeswoman Sgt. Kimberly Schneider.

Posted by Nimble Spemble 2008-09-05 20:50|| 2008-09-05 20:50|| Front Page Top

#18 looked like an old (70's-80's) Blazer in the micro-quick vid clip on the local news, so I stand by #16. My stoner college roommate had one

Posted by Frank G">Frank G 2008-09-05 21:00|| 2008-09-05 21:00|| Front Page Top

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