The U.S. military were also introduced into the operation, deploying surveillance aircraft in Washington skies around the clock. The Montgomery Council cops and the FBI requested the military assistance as a way of getting around the provisions of the Posse Comitatus Act, which bars the armed forces from participating in domestic police matters.

Two days before the arrests, cops in Maryland’s Montgomery County sealed off major sections of the Capital Beltway during the morning rush hour. Tens of thousands of people were stalled in traffic for hours, including children stuck on school buses. Idling cars ran out of gas and workers were hours late for their jobs.

This was the fifth time in two weeks that police had blocked major thoroughfares in the area. At some of the checkpoints cops with guns drawn stopped virtually every vehicle, while at others they halted only those driven by men. Many drivers were ordered at gunpoint to open their trunks. The traffic snarls were made worse after a number of radio and TV stations agreed to police requests not to broadcast the location of checkpoints or suggest other travel routes.

In addition to local and state police departments, more than 1,500 police from federal agencies joined this operation. They included 600 or more from each of the FBI and the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms (ATF), 100 from the U.S. Marshals Service, 70 from the Drug Enforcement Administration, and 50 from the Secret Service. The CIA also participated in the manhunt, deploying agents with bomb-sniffing dogs for use at traffic stops.

According to media reports, the ATF arrested a number of individuals it claimed possessed guns illegally, although none of them were suspected of having any connection to the killings. At the initial roadblocks, police stopped anyone driving a white van in the area from Washington, D.C. to as far north as Ashland, Virginia, more than 90 miles away. In some cases, drivers were pulled out of their vehicles, handcuffed, and interrogated. The focus on white vans was later dropped.

Ken Willis, the executive director of the Virginia chapter of the American Civil Liberties Union, said that while police can pull cars over under current laws, they are not supposed to conduct searches unless they first get the drivers’ permission.

On October 24 police in Maryland arrested John Allen Muhammad, 41, and John Lee Malvo, 17, and charged them with six "sniper" slayings in Montgomery County. Both face prosecution for other deaths in Virginia, Washington, D.C., and Alabama.

Federal officials and authorities in all areas except Washington immediately said that they would aim for the death penalty for Muhammad. Laws in Maryland and at the federal level would forbid the execution of Malvo, but Virginia and Alabama allow the death penalty for people of 16 years of age. Police interrogators are reportedly pressing Malvo to testify against the older man, who is being held in a maximum security prison in Baltimore.

"The overriding concern among federal officials is to ensure their legal options include the death penalty," reported the Associated Press.

Government officials have also attempted to link the case and their massive manhunt with the "war on terror." The October 26 New York Times reported that "law enforcement officials" said that "they are trying to determine whether anti-American attitudes, inspired by last year’s attacks on September 11, may have played a part in the shootings."

In another development, the CIA announced an expansion of its operations within the United States, placing agents with nearly all of the FBI’s 56 terrorism task forces in cities across the country. In the mid-1980s the agency maintained nearly 35 domestic field stations, but the number was reduced over the ensuing decade. Since September 11, 2001, the CIA has been reopening its domestic offices, bringing the number currently in operation close to 30.  
 
 
Front page (for this issue) | Home | Text-version home