The storyline was a familiar one. Law enforcement profiling proved to be wrong, nothing more than a fabulous rendering created from inaccurate stereotypes and latent racial biases. Usually such mishaps are the grist for mills of left-leaning editorial pages, but not this time.

We were warned about him. The profilers told us that he assuredly was a man full of rage, almost definitely white. It was also deemed likely that he would have connections to white supremacy. But the Beltway Sniper was not a crazed, lone, white supremacist gunman. John Muhammad (and John Malvo) is undoubtedly crazed, but wasn't lone and isn't white.

However, it appears that he was part of a supremacy movement - a militant spin-off of the Nation of Islam called The Nation of Gods and Earths or, more commonly, The Five Percent.

Although the precise circumstances of the founding of this militant sect are under some controversy, all accounts lead back to one man -Clarence 13X. Much like the more famous radical black "X", Malcolm, the self-proclaimed Clarence 13X broke with the Nation of Islam and began his own organization. The name "Five Percent" refers to the group's belief that five percent of humanity, black humanity, is divine.

13X maintained the controversial racial (some would say racist) theories of the Nation of Islam. But 13X added a Gnostic element of divinization including a mantra that is familiar to anyone who followed the sniper attacks - "I am God."

In the teachings of 13X, the black man was to undertake a strict regimen of self-mastery. Once that enlightened level was attained, he in essence "became God" by controlling his own destiny. (Black women, conversely, attained the level of "earth.")

Recall how relatives in Baton Rouge told reporters that Muhammad, when visiting this past summer, seemed to have Malvo involved in some type of "purification" regimen that included Malvo eating only crackers, honey and vitamins. Did Malvo think himself on his way to becoming a god under Muhammad's tutelage?

Surely such a strange sect must be an aberration in both the black and American Islamic communities?

No.

The Five Percenters were founded in 1964, but by the 1980s the group had spread from its origins in New York to the West Coast. Unlike its white supremacist counterparts which seem relegated to small enclaves in western states, The Nation of Gods and Earths' influence is nation-wide and surprisingly influential in mainstream hip-hop music.

Some say that Clarence 13X's popularity in hip-hop music circles stemmed from his unorthodox preaching style that has been characterized as a "rap." But whatever the reason, 13X's influence has been immense.

The artists who have a Five Percent connection are not the fringe of the rap and hip-hop music industry but instead include some of the industry's most successful and influential acts: Busta Rhymes (star of a new beer advertisement from Miller Lite), the Wu-Tang Clan, Big Daddy Kane, Rakim, Lakim Shabazz and Brand Nubian.

A song by Brand Nubian, a Jamaican reggae/rap group, is of interest in that it uses a shibboleth of the Five Percenters, a shibboleth repeated in a sniper letter. The phrase is "Word is bond." Likewise, Kane, Rakim and Shabazz have all used the Five Percent flag in album cover art as well as writing lyrics that contain elements of the sect's doctrines.

Much of the mainstream media recoil from delving into a story that requires elaborating on numerology or bizarre esoteric teachings (For example: black men are known to be gods because the word Allah is an esoteric acronym of: arm, leg, leg, arm, head). But the media shouldn't shy away from the obvious story, the one which doesn't require a crash course in tarot cards.

The easy story to tell is that the snipers that terrorized the greater Washington, D.C. area were part of a black supremacist sect. This sect has an undetermined connection to the Nation of Islam (just as John Muhammad has an undetermined connection to Louis Farrakhan). The sect also has been influential in the hip-hop music world.

But none of this seems to capture the fancy of television's talking heads.

There is little doubt that if the sniper's profile had played out according to Hoyle's and he had been a white loner with white supremacist ties, the twisted tenets of his particular creed of militant white supremacy would have been explored in depth. Muhammad and Malvo fit the ultimate hot-potato profile: black supremacist Muslim heretics.

To speak of Islam as anything but an unqualified religion of peace is taboo, the topic of black supremacists is nonplus - and the combination of both makes for a news story that will never be fully explored.

C.T. Rossi writes on contemporary politics and culture for the Free Congress Foundation.

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