Sniper

Does my name sound familiar? It may be because you've heard about Shooter, a new film starring Mark Wahlberg as former Marine sniper Bob Lee Swagger. The movie is based on Stephen Hunter's novel, Point of Impact in which Steve, my former Sun colleague and shooting buddy, gave the hero my surname. In fact, it's one of six Hunter novels featuring the character Bob Lee Swagger or his extended family. But let's get a few things straight. I don't look like Mark Wahlberg; I'm much more handsome.

"Time to Hunt," Stephen Hunter. Doubleday. 467 pages. $23.95.For years, Bob Lee Swagger drank to forget his days in "The Land of Bad Things," as he calls Vietnam, the land where he earned a fearsome name for his skill as a sniper, "Bob the Nailer." In "Time to Hunt," Swagger drinks to remember, to remember especially his jungle confrontation with a dreaded rival, "the white sniper," who killed his friend, and put a bullet in Swagger's hip, where it lies lodged, a bad memory.A generation later, in the Idaho fastness where Swagger has fled to forget, the white sniper comes hunting for him and his family.

Alas, there's nothing absolute about the power of "Absolute Power"; it's more of an electrical outage, a wan flicker of a movie that might have been.This one had to go through three more drafts with at least three more writers before it could begin to shape up. Instead, it's a boggle of bad plotting, unmeshed tones, grotesque performances (and some very good ones) and an ending that seems more of a joke than a climax.As good as Ed Harris and Scott Glenn are, and as iconic as Clint Eastwood is, the best performance in the movie is still delivered by Baltimore as Washington.

One of the greatest tragedies in U.S. Navy history is re-visited by Maryland Public Television, while one of Hollywood's biggest epics gets a four-hour screening on cable.* "Sniper" (8 p.m.-10 p.m., WBFF, Channel 45) -- In this 1993 film, Tom Berenger plays a veteran Marine sniper who is teamed with an arrogant Olympic marksman (Billy Zane) in a mission to eliminate a drug lord in Colombia. Fox.* "The John Larroquette Show" (8:30 p.m.-9 p.m., WBAL, Channel 11) -- Mayim Bialik makes a guest appearance in this repeat, playing John's daughter, Rachel.

SARAJEVO, Bosnia-Herzegovina -- Nine people, including four children who had ventured outdoors to play, were killed yesterday in mortar and sniper attacks on a city desperate to free itself from 38 months of Bosnian Serb siege.Six people were killed when a shell slammed into a downtown neighborhood near the central market, which had been crowded earlier in the day with shoppers enjoying a respite from fighting and rainstorms.Among the dead there were three children, including two little girls in summer dresses.

Author Hunter to autograph new novelCover To Cover Bookstore Cafe, in the village of Owen Brown, will present Stephen Hunter, movie critic for The Sun, at 10 a.m. Saturday.The Columbia resident will autograph copies of his new thriller, "Point of Impact."The novel is about a former Marine sniper recruited by an intelligence service to consult on a threat to the president of the United States.Mr. Hunter also wrote "The Day Before Midnight," "The Spanish Gambit," "The Second Saladin," and "The Master Sniper."

VITEZ, Bosnia-Herzegovina -- The Croatian sniper ha become as reliable and insistent as an alarm clock, only he never seems to wind down. He announces each dawn with a gunshot, firing into this town from a pretty green ridge above. Then he keeps at his work until dark, his shots popping throughout the day like bacon in a skillet.The sniper is but a single soldier in the widening war within a war that is pitting Muslims against Croats here in central Bosnia, while both sides keep one arm free for their larger struggle against the Serbs.

Ten police officers were pinned down under sniper fire early today while making a drug arrest in the 1100 block of E. Lombard St.An armored personnel vehicle from Prince George's County Police Department was brought in to help rescue the officers, eight from the city Police Department and two from the city Housing Authority, during a standoff that lasted about five hours and ended about 6 a.m.None of the officers was injured.The vehicle, similar to ones used in the Persian Gulf War last year, was used "just to insure there was a safe evacuation of those officers," police spokesman Sam Ringgold said.

Two people arrested in yesterday's federal assault-team raid on a Baltimore high-rise housing project are being questioned about a sniper incident at the building, where 10 police officers were pinned down and had to be rescued by an armored car.More than two dozen FBI agents and a special weapons team from the U.S. Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms (ATF), assisted by city and Housing Authority police, turned up a .357-caliber Magnum and one .38-caliber and one .22-caliber handgun. Also seized from the Flag House Courts development were nearly 500 caplets of heroin, police said.

VIRGINIA BEACH, Va. -- The right hand trembles, so he has to drink his Pepsi with both hands. Controlling his vision has become maddening. And when he stands, his legs quiver as if he were going to fall to the floor.In another time, Carlos Norman Hathcock II was the ultimate terminator. As a sniper for the U.S. Marine Corps in Vietnam -- when the hands were rock steady, the eyes keen, the legs durable -- he was officially credited with killing 93 North Vietnamese and Viet Cong. No sniper killed more people in the 216-year history of the Marines.

A Northern Virginia judge Wednesday set Nov. 10 as the execution date for sniper John Allen Muhammad, whose wave of random shootings terrified the Washington region in 2002. Prince William County Circuit Court Judge Mary Grace O'Brien chose the date during a teleconference with lawyers in the case Wednesday morning, said Jon Sheldon, an attorney for Muhammad. He said Muhammad plans to ask Virginia Gov. Timothy M. Kaine for clemency and to file an appeal with the U.S. Supreme Court. A federal appellate court rejected his latest appeal last month.

Police probe 2 shootings that left five people injured Baltimore police are investigating two separate shootings. One man was shot in the face and another in the foot about 11:30 p.m. Thursday in the 200 block of S. Dallas Court in the Perkins Homes public housing complex in East Baltimore, police said. No further information was available. About an hour later, three men were shot in the 3700 block of Glenmore Ave. in Northeast Baltimore, police said. Officers responding to reports of gunfire found the first victim, 19, with gunshot wounds to his back and foot.

Oct. 3 2002 Five people were shot to death in the Washington area within a 14-hour period, sparking the hunt for the "Beltway Sniper."

A Web site that peddles the personal effects of notorious killers has posted for sale a drawing of Osama bin Laden said to be the work of Lee Boyd Malvo, prompting outrage from the families of victims in the 2002 sniper shootings near Washington. The drawing, a cartoonish, black-and-white sketch on a rumpled sheet of paper, appears to depict bin Laden, a shaggy beard falling down his chest. It was posted April 14 on an eBay-like auction site called "murderauc tion.com" by a seller known only as "Redrum," the word "murder" spelled backward.

Does my name sound familiar? It may be because you've heard about Shooter, a new film starring Mark Wahlberg as former Marine sniper Bob Lee Swagger. The movie is based on Stephen Hunter's novel, Point of Impact in which Steve, my former Sun colleague and shooting buddy, gave the hero my surname. In fact, it's one of six Hunter novels featuring the character Bob Lee Swagger or his extended family. But let's get a few things straight. I don't look like Mark Wahlberg; I'm much more handsome.

BAGHDAD, Iraq -- I worked an the afternoon shift yesterday, so I had a chance to pursue some mundane errands. Instead I wound up on a nightmarish tour of Baghdad. I first went to Mustansiriya University, the site of the tragic explosions last week that claimed the lives of about 70 students and injured scores. I was trying to get some documents for my wife. Upon arriving at the main road leading to the university, I found it blocked by Iraqi security forces. I took an alternate road that snaked through residential areas.

ROCKVILLE -- A tearful Lee Boyd Malvo told a Montgomery County courtroom yesterday that he was ashamed of his role in the sniper rampage that terrorized the Washington area in 2002 and claimed six lives in the suburban county, and that he'll never be able to forgive himself. "I am truly sorry, grieved and ashamed of what I have done to the families and friends" of the six victims, said Malvo, sniffling as he read the names. Circuit Judge James L. Ryan then sentenced Malvo, now 21, to six consecutive life terms in prison, one for each person that he and John Allen Muhammad were convicted of killing in Montgomery County.

SAN DIEGO -- CNN cable news has become "the publicist for an enemy propaganda film" by broadcasting a tape showing an insurgent sniper apparently killing an American soldier, the chairman of the U.S. House Armed Services Committee said yesterday. Rep. Duncan Hunter, a California Republican, called for the Pentagon to oust immediately any CNN reporter embedded with U.S. troops in Iraq. "I think Americans like to think we're all in this together," Hunter said. "The average American Marine or soldier has concluded after seeing that film that CNN is not on their side."

ROCKVILLE -- Attorneys for Washington-area sniper Lee Boyd Malvo, who pleaded guilty yesterday to six murders in Montgomery County, are trying to forge a wide agreement that would have him also admit his role in other 2002 shootings in other states. The deal has the potential to give Malvo what he reportedly wants -- a move from Virginia's Red Onion prison to a federal penitentiary -- if it includes a plea to the fatal shooting in Washington, D.C., to which he and John Allen Muhammad have been linked.

The Virginia prosecutors of snipers Lee Boyd Malvo and John Allen Muhammad say they oppose allowing Malvo to serve his life sentence in a federal prison as part of any far-reaching plea agreement, as has been suggested in recent months. Muhammad, 45, on death row in Virginia for a sniper murder, was convicted in May of six fatal sniper shootings in Montgomery County in 2002. He received six life terms without parole. Malvo, 21, serving multiple life sentences for Virginia sniper shootings, had not spoken publicly about the crimes until Muhammad's trial.