On Oct. 2, 2002 and lasting for 23 days, two men committed some of America’s most heinous murders. After sixteen dead, police finally captured John Allen “Muhammad” Williams and Lee Boyd Malvo. For 23 days the two selected random targets, and from the cover of the trunk of a 1990 Chevrolet Caprice Malvo fired a high-powered rifle while Williams sat behind the steering wheel. Importantly, until their capture, the rampage left U.S. citizens terrified prompting the distinction between murderer and terrorist. While terrorists are murderers, murderers are not necessarily terrorists. However, when a murderer selects random targets to terrorize the citizenry and to halt infrastructure, the murderer is a terrorist.
While it is difficult to say that Williams and Malvo were anything but murderers, the way they operated—shoot, move, and hide—could have even more terrifying consequences if a well funded, highly organized, highly motivated, well trained, and patient terrorist organization infiltrated the United States and used similar operating tactics. A foreign terrorist group could deploy illegals through the vast unprotected U.S.-Canada border. Only 288 people in three two-man hit teams in forty-eight states could be enough to seriously terrorize U.S. citizens and to halt infrastructure. If each team accomplished what Williams and Malvo did in the same amount of time, over 2300 Americans would die in 23 days. While not having the same psychological impact as a 9/11/01, the impact would be, in some ways, even more devious since the terror would continue more like an invasion that sustains insecurity and uncertainty. Such a group would be able to rotate teams into or out of the country before or after law enforcement captured a team. Also, the longer the terrorism succeeded, the likelier the chance of emplaced teams becoming sleepers waiting for activation to perpetrate mass annihilation.
Hopefully nothing like this nightmare scenario will ever occur, but these are scary times. We must be cognizant of our immigration problems and our ability to act responsibly, rapidly, and effectively to threats. For these reasons it is important to review and to put into proper perspective the cold-blooded murders by Williams and Malvo in Oct., 2002.