Search Operation Mobilizing the Military Scout Plane

While 9 were killed and 2 were injured by the indiscriminate assassinations, which put the US capitol Washington and surroundings into fear, the mental panic situations of the people are spreading.

While this has been happening, it was known that Linda Franklin, who were shot to death at the parking lot of a house-ware chain at Paul`s Church in Fairfax County, Virginia on the 14th (local time), was a female agent in charge of analyzing intelligence at the FBI Headquarters in Washington. The American media reported that, however, since she was in charge of things that are not related to terror, the criminal might not select her as a target on purpose.

▽Help of the military

The Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld decided to provide equipment including military scout planes by the request of the FBI on the 15th.

The New York Times reported on the 16th that the scout plane provided by the Department of Defense is the DHC7, which is used to wiretap the communication of the North Korean Army and pursuit its movement in the Korean Peninsular by America, and it would patrol the skies over the Washington area. This all-purpose scout plane equipped with 4 turbo propeller engines has a special sensor that can provide high-resolution visual images.

The Department of Defense originally considered putting the Predator unmanned scout plane, which was used in the military operations in Afghanistan, and the P3 Orion patrol plane of the Navy, but they decided to use the DHC7 due to their judgment that the DHC7 had better information gathering capabilities and the look of it was similar to civilian planes, so it was not easily distinguishable.

This scout plane can sense the flash of the gun that the criminal uses and accurately chase the criminal`s vehicle near the spot of incidents through communications with the land, so it is expected to be a big help to capture the criminal.

In America, it is not allowed to mobilize the military to the local investigation by the Posse Comitatus Act created in 1878. However, the Department of Defense said they just provided equipment and did not involved in the investigation because the FBI agents were on board to this scout plane, collected information, and sent it to the land.

▽Profile of the criminal and the motive of the crime

The police expedites the investigation due to a testimony of witnesses, who say they saw a white van that the criminal was in at the spot of the incident in Paul`s Church on the 14th. The American media reported that there was a testimony that the person in the car seemed to an Arabian or a Hispanic according to the tone of his skin.

However, most of the investigation experts are excluding the chance of terror raised by few people saying there is a fat chance that this incident was done not by a foreigner but by an American. If this is a terror, there must be an organization or an individual claiming that they did, or a political motive for the crime, but this murder crime has a different pattern than that.

▽The aftermath of the crime

The State of Maryland, where the first assassination took place on the 2nd, decided on the 15th to prohibit outdoor sports, shooting, and hunting for a while for people in Montgomery and Prince George counties. It is s management to reduce the misconceived reports due to gunshots.

Although the `self-service,` which drivers pump by themselves, is generalized in America, the `full-service,` which an attendant of a gas station pumps the gas for extra charge, is largely increased in Washington area. The customers in shopping malls were largely decreased as well.

Ki-Heung Han eligius@donga.com