[The information disclosed in this post was discovered below the redacting marks on The Washington Post's copy of the sniper's letter expressing frustration at the lack of communications. The letter was made available as a .pdf file. The Post, however, did not take into consideration the fact that Acrobat builds page files up out of layers, and does not produce a final flat file incuding just what is visible once the document has been fully rendered. You can see the underlying information by zooming into and out of the covered areas. On a slow enough PC, like mine, the original, non-redacted image of the letter shows up before the redacting stripes.

The Post redacted the letter by placing black stripes over text it did not want to publish, but it failed to remove the information fully from the underlying images. Through its incomplete understanding of how this common piece of software functions, the Post violated its promise to JLF and effectively released her name for all the world to see.

This looks like a good item for comp.risks.]

The credit card to which the snipers wanted money transferred was in the name of "Jill Lynn Farrell"? Who the heck is Jill Lynn Farrell? She had an account with Bank of America since 1974, so she should be at least in her mid 40's.

Anywho lists one Jill Farrell in Virginia, none in Maryland and none in Washington.

Lexis/Nexis lists no occurrences of "Jill Lynn Farrell" anywhere in the news file.

Ideas? [Link to sniper letter via QuasiPundit via InstaPundit.]

UPDATE: FORGET IT, my question was already answered. She is a bus driver who had her purse stolen a while back. Too bad the Post didn't really keep her anonymous.

CNN just can't miss an opportunity to demonize the cosmetic characteristics of certain rifles. In the linked article, CNN makes a point of mentioning that

The Chevrolet Caprice used by the sniper suspects was a "killing machine" with two holes in the trunk, one for the rifle, the other for the scope, ...

yet the graphic shows a typically scary looking idealized AR-15 with a carrying handle instead of a scope. If reports are correct, the rifle used in the shooting is a Bushmaster XM-15E2S A3, a weapon that, when equipped with a scope, does not have a carrying handle. I think the graphic portrays a carrying handle solely because that is how most people identify "scarier than normal" rifles, and if the graphic showed an AR with a low-mounted scope instead of the handle it would appear to be little more than a flat-black deer rifle.

Hell, maybe it is the carrying handle that scares the liberals the most, as it reminds them that weapons can be carried, and the carrying handle evokes images of "bearing arms" against an over-reaching state.

On a more technical note, the graphic is also misleading because it shows the form of an AR with full length handguards. The weapon that Muhammed used was of the "shorty" variety, having only a 16" barrel and the smaller, carbine sized handguards as seen in this Yahoo photo, though the description given in the Washington Times article above suggests that the rifle does not have a collapsible stock. Note also how the AR shown has no carrying handle.

Another obese airline passenger update, this one from Canada, eh?

The Canadian Transportation Agency has dismissed the complaint of an obese Calgary woman who argued her size was a disability and that airlines shouldn't make her pay extra for a larger seat. "Being unable to fit in a seat should not be enough evidence of the existence of a disability as many people experience discomfort in the seat," the agency said in a decision released Wednesday.

Calgary law professor Linda McKay-Panos, who described herself in documents as "morbidly obese," launched the process in 1997 after having to pay Air Canada for 1.5 seats because of her size.

Or, of course, it could be that the sniper is the otter and law enforcement is the duck. It's late and I'm cashing out for the night.

Quick summary where next two posts are going. Chief Moose's reading of the "like a duck in a noose" reference, through a quick googling of "duck, noose" lead me to a Cherokee story.

It is the story of a trickster, a boastful rabbit, who attempts to persuade an otter that he is capable of doing any task as well as anyone else. The rabbit attempts to hunt ducks as well as an otter hunts ducks, but after placing a noose over a duck's neck, the rabbit gets carried aloft by the startled duck. The rabbit falls into a tall stump, gets trapped there for a while, and then has to eat its own fur to survive while stuck in the stump. Eventually the rabbit tricks some children (and in some tellings their father) to cut a hole in the side of the stump, convincing the humans that it is a beautiful creature to look upon. Once the hole is created, the rabbit darts to freedom.

The analogy here seems obvious to the current situation. The rabbit, (sniper), slipped a noose over a duck and got picked up, (hunted civilians then placed on news all over world), then fell into a deep stump(feels trapped by current dragnet), had to eat its own fur(not sure about this element, not a perfect analogy), then finally escaped through trickery(sniper's dreams of escaping).

UPDATE:So, will the rabbits now sing with their pretty voices and gain their freedom? I wonder if this was a veiled threat to escape, or legal trickery?

Other tellings:

Here, here and here.

The Cherokee version is fairly close, but features Rabbit as the trickster figure. The story begins with an account of how Rabbit tricked Otter into thinking that he could do many of the unique things that Otter could do. Once he decided to catch some ducks the way Otter did, only he took a noose and made a sub-aquatic approach to his prey. "... he came up among the ducks and threw the noose over the head of one and caught it. The duck struggled hard and finally spread its wings and flew up from the water with the Rabbit hanging on to the noose. It flew on and on until at last the Rabbit could not hold on any longer, but had to let go and drop. As it happened, he fell into a tall, hollow sycamore stump without any hole at the bottom to get out from, and there he stayed until he was so hungry that he had to eat his own fur, as the rabbit does ever since when he is starving. After several days, when he was very weak with hunger, he heard children playing outside around the trees. He began to sing:

Cut a door and look at me;
I'm the prettiest thing you ever did see.

The children ran home and told their father, who came and began to cut a hole in tree. As he chopped away the Rabbit inside kept singing, 'Cut it larger, so you can see me better; I'm so pretty.' They made the hole larger, an then the Rabbit told them to stand back so that they could take a good look as he came out. They stood away back, and the Rabbit watched his chance and jumped out and got away."

# posted by The Comedian @ 12:17 AM 0 comments

All grammatical errors as in the version found here.

The Rabit, the Otter, and Duck Hunting.
As told by The Warrior based on James Mooney


The Rabbit was known far and wide for his boastful nature. To hear him tell it, he could do what anyone else could do. He was so good at this that he even was able to convince the Otter that he could catch and eat fish just as
good as him.

Now time went by, and the Otter meet the Rabbit again. Now it just so happen that the Otter was still a bit miffed about the fish. He had a plan to expose the Rabbit. The Otter looked at the Rabbit, and said to him. "You know, I sometimes eat Duck too!" So off to the river they went and found seven ducks, which they every so quietly were able to sneak up on. "You go first", cried the Rabbit, to which the Otter quickly slid into the water. He quickly was able to drag a duck under and return to the Rabbit unseen.

Now the Rabbit had not just been standing around watching. While the Otter was otherwise occupied, he had been striping bark from near by sapling and making himself a noose. He looked at the Otter when he returned and said, "OK, that is great, watch me!", and off he took into the water. Now the Rabbit did not have anywhere near the ability in water that the Otter had. And it was a struggle for him to reach the ducks un-noticed, but he managed to do so and came up among the remaining six ducks. He quickly fastened his noose around the neck of the closest duck. Startled, the duck began to struggle to get away and finally took of on his wings and dragged the Rabbit out of the water after him. Now it was the Rabbits turn to be startled. And boy was he. He held on to the noose and was taken high into the air. Higher and higher he went. All of a sudden, he lost his grip on the noose and down he fell into the middle of a old hollow Sycamore tree with out a hole in the bottom to get out.

Now the Rabbit was in a fix. He stayed in there so long that he had to start eating his own fur, as rabbits still do to this day when the are starved. Then one day, he heard some children playing and he began to sing in a weak little voice. The song he sang went like this. "Cut a hole and see me, I am the prettiest thing you ever did see"

Soon the children had returned with on of the fathers who cut a who so that the Rabbit could get out. He told them to stand back and see, and out he ran and took his leave.

I've come across rumors that the shooter might be an (part?)American-Indian. If the moccasin fits.

President Bush's high-tech backdrops are back and they still creep me out.

Could this be the missing French marksman?

I'm sure that this has been brought up in the past few weeks, but wasn't the sniper in Navy Seals called "God"?

And I thought I was cynical.

The Baltimore Sun offers all sorts of good details on the sniper related events of yesterday. It is reporting that the hard to understand message is due to the message to police being delivered via a pre-recorded tape played from a pay phone.[Link via Unqualified Offerings.]

There's something darkly funny about a DC media-introspective piece being titled "I Love Gridlock!" on yet another day in DC where the traffic is screwed all to hell by the events of a media hyper-sensationalized serial shooter.

More random thoughts:

On Sunday night, when Chief Moose first made his cryptic announcement about having the shooter call police at the number he gave them my first thought was that the shooter dropped a cell phone off at one of the shootings. My wife's theory was that the shooter provided the phone number to a voice mail box, along with the access code, providing a virtual dead-drop. I expanded this theory to include free-mail voice mail boxes, as offered by several web-companies, and many personals ads. In addition to offering anonymous/pseudonymous set-up, such systems offer the advantage of having many phone calls coming into a central number, providing cover for the sniper's call, before being split out to individual mailboxes.

Given the MCPD's latest announcement about garbled audio, I am liking her theory more and more.

UPDATE: My wife adds the following, "Message may have been hard to understand due to a bad recording, or DUE TO A THICK FOREIGN ACCENT from a shooter whose first language is not english."

It's been a long time, but I must again visit the topic of flying fatties. This time, however, the trouble isn't with the hurt feelings of some flying fatty, but with real physical damage caused to a woman shoved under her obese seatmate for an eleven hour tour of hell under a fatty.

Virgin Atlantic has paid a woman passenger £13,000 (US$20,289) compensation, after she was squashed by an obese person who sat next to her on a transatlantic flight.

Barbara Hewson, from Swansea, south Wales, suffered injuries including a blood clot in her chest, torn leg muscles and acute sciatica and remains in pain two years on.

The obese passenger had only been able to fit into her seat by raising the arm rest, which meant her body parts weighed down on Mrs Hewson.

Tips for flying fatties from NAAFA, which explicity recommend raising the armrest to screw your seatmate.

[From More Room Throughout Coach ]

Taking a page from the Jim Toricelli handbook, Amtrak has decided to withdraw its service guarantee program after it was unable to meet target customer service goals over the last two years.

The AP is reporting that a SWAT team has a white van surrounded in the Richmond Area (headline here, but linked story has different title, no more info. Of course, SWAT teams surrounding white vans has gotten to be a regular sighting in the DC area, so this might me another false alarm, but I hope it is the real thing.

Well, winter is coming early to the North this year.

Perhaps the sniper is just heading south for the winter. (And yes, I am aware of the "duck" joke/pun possibility using the crouch/water fowl meanings of the word in the context of a sniper heading south for the winter.)

Might the DC shooter be a bicycle biathlete.

Police were also investigating the possibility the shooter may have used a bicycle and toted his weapon in a backpack to and from the scene, a law-enforcement official at the scene said on condition of anonymity.

See also this post at FR.

My friend's daughter and another girl were jogging about 3 miles away from where the woman was shot at Home Depot in Fairfax. A bicycle rider with a rifle stock sticking out of his backpack passed them by. They stopped cold and stared at him. They called police and gave a full description. Shortly after the woman was shot. This could well be the guy and that means the police can create a full description.

A 16" barrel AR-15's longest dimension is just under 26" when broken into upper and lower assemblies. A Thompson Contender pistol (or carbine) is quite a bit smaller than that.

It could just be me, but I think that Reuters left a few K's out of this designer's name.