The ignored Jihad.

ITEM: What were the snipers' motives in the attacks that left 10 people dead in the Washington, D. C., area in the fall of 2002? At the trial of Lee Boyd Malvo in Virginia, the Washington Post for December 16, 2003 echoed the prosecution: "In his closing statement, Fairfax County Commonwealth's Attorney Robert F. Horan Jr. told the jury that [FBI analyst Linda] Franklin's murder was a "willful, deliberate, premeditated killing.' ... [Horan] said it was easy to understand a murder when the motive was revenge or the result of a passionate dispute. But he said the randomness of the sniper murders made the crimes 'foul and mean.' The murders were committed for one reason, he told the jury, to extort money from the government."

BETWEEN THE LINES: Perhaps extortion was one aim of the snipers who terrorized the nation's capital. But racial hatred and Islamic fanaticism were also deeply involved, though the mass media took little notice. Can you imagine if the murderers had been white racists who called themselves Christians and raged against blacks or Muslims? There would have been wall-to-wall analysis of the "hate crimes."

The prosecution, however, did not focus on racial hatred as a motive, despite the fact that that is what the evidence indicated, as seen in exhibits introduced by Lee Malvo's defense. A jailhouse message from Malvo said the "white man is the devil." He wrote, "This is a race war." Hundreds of Malvo's drawings were introduced; some depict heroic poses of Osama bin Laden (labeled "Prophet"), Louis Farrakhan of the Nation of Islam, Black Muslim Malcolm X, Libyan dictator Muammar Qaddafi ("The Liberator"), and former Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein ("The Protector"). Another drawing of Malvo and sniper partner John Muhammad says, "We will kill them all. Jihad."

A defense psychologist indicated that the purpose for the killing spree was to incite a racial revolution over the "continued oppression of black people," then to establish a utopian black colony in Canada.

While the sniper victims were of varied races, Malvo told a jailer that was part of the shooters' design, since it helped to mask their motives and avoid capture.

Racist motives: The "white man is the devil," convicted sniper Lee Boyd Malvo wrote in a jailhouse message. Prosecutors ignored the evidence that Malvo's motives for killing 10 people were racist.

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