Its been three days now since those horrific events took place in San Bernardino and 14 innocent people were murdered and 21 wounded by a husband and wife team of Sayed Farook and Tafsheen Malik. Understandably, initially the authorities were reluctant to classify this incident as a terrorist attack or call the murderers terrorists. More information was needed, conclusive evidence that would indicate that they were terrorists. The dictionary definition of a terrorist basically runs something like this: "an individual who uses force to demoralize, intimidate, and subjugate others." In other words, someone who uses violence, murder, mayhem, to achieve their goal or make a statement is a terrorist. It doesn't necessarily have to have a political agenda, although most do.
More than two and half years ago, in April of 2013, the Tsarnaev brothers, Tamerlan and Dzhokhor, planted home made bombs during a Boston Marathon thereby killing and injuring scores of innocent people. It didn't take long for the authorities to identify the bombers and also find information about their backgrounds. It was learned that the brothers were originally from Dagestan Republic, a part of Russian Federation. They were Muslims, like the majority of the population in that part of the world, and the older brother in particular was prone to be radical. They were, almost immediately, identified as Muslim radicals, homegrown terrorists, which indeed they were! There was no pussyfooting around the issue, they were who they were. They were home grown Islamic Terrorists!
Now we come to Syed Farook and Tafsheen Malik. They were Muslim, and by all accounts, radical Muslims, although they seem to have hidden their true beliefs from everyone, including their family. But they were nevertheless radical Muslims. Syed traveled to Pakistan and Saudi Arabia twice, where he met and married his wife Tafsheen who was from Pakistan and living in Saudi Arabia at the time. Both Saudi Arabia and Pakistan are hotbeds for Islamic Extremists, i.e., Islamic Terrorists! Think about it, Osama Bin Ladin was a Saudi who was ultimately killed in Pakistan! Pakistan is the sanctuary for Al Qaeda and Taliban! FBI says that Syed's computer and phone records show that he had numerous contacts with Muslims on FBI watch list, those that are known to be ISIS or Al Qaeda sympathizers and supporters. FBI cannot verify, but it is more than likely that both Syed and Tafsheen had face to face meetings with ISIS or Al Qaeda cadre in Saudi Arabia or Pakistan.
At this point, the FBI has pretty much thrown out the idea that it was a "spur of the moment" type of act, something that the local police chief kept saying the first day. As the FBI spokesman said, the amount of ammunition and explosives found on them as well as in their house indicates that they were planning this or something like this for a while. The vehicle that was all shot up, which was their get away car, was rented days ahead and was to be returned that day. So obviously, something was planned for that day! In yesterday's blog I alluded to the fact that Tafsheen was at home, and joined her husband when he returned from the luncheon. But it turns out that she did accompany him to the social gathering, only to return shortly, all dressed in black and shooting everyone in sight.
The day after the incident, both the police and the FBI kept saying that the husband, Syed was "radicalized." But they refused to say that he became a terrorist! Interestingly, they said nothing of Tafsheen's "radicalization!" In my book, if you are a Muslim and a radical and you commit such an act as they did, then you are Islamic Terrorists and it was an act of terrorism! Instead, even today, after three days, FBI and the police refuse to use the word terrorism or identify the culprits as terrorists! Perhaps this evening or tomorrow it will change, who knows?
Obama, apparently refuses to put the blame on Muslim terrorists. Instead, in his first TV appearance after the terrorist attack he talked at great length about changing our gun laws. He seemed more concerned with the fact that people on "no fly" list are still able to purchase firearms if they don't have a criminal record. Well, that is not surprising. Unless the government is willing to take away all rights from these "no fly" list people, how are they going to control that? No doubt FBI and other law enforcement agencies are under orders from the White House not to categorize this massacre as an Islamic Terrorist act.
In my view it doesn't matter if they are home grown or came from the outside. In this case, it was one of each, the husband was home grown and the wife came to America only two years ago! It doesn't matter if they committed this terrible act without receiving specific orders from ISIS, Al Qaeda, or any other terror group. They were Muslim, and they were terrorists by the very fact that the act they committed was an act of terrorism, so, it was an Islamic Terrorist attack, pretty simple.
Yet, our government is struggling with verbiage and refusing to use the word terrorist or Islamic. I wonder if it would help if they were not Muslim? There was no hesitation in calling the Oklahoma City bomber a terrorist, and he was not a Muslim! There was no hesitation in calling the Tsarnaev brothers terrorists, albeit they were called "home grown" although in a strict sense, they were not, since both were born and came from Dagestan. The various bombers and shooters involved in killings at abortion clinics, etc., are identified as "religious right" extremists, home grown terrorists. Why is it so difficult to label this latest terrorist couple?
Obama's administration's reluctance to call this latest incident a terrorist attack is in a way understandable. Considering the amount of criticism that was leveled at the White House for lack of positive reaction to Paris attacks, you can see how Obama is trying to avoid further fall out for lack of action. His strategy is turn this into strictly a domestic, gun related violence, something that is not tied to Islam in anyway! So, he is stumping hard for new gun laws, as if that will stop terror attacks!
The San Bernardino massacre may have indeed been carried out by domestic terrorists with no connection to terror organizations, although I doubt it. But regardless, the husband was a "radicalized" Muslim, and the wife was a Muslim who readily took up arms with her husband to commit mass murder. So, no matter how you cut it, domestic or foreign, they were Islamic Terrorists and it was another Islamic Terrorist attack in America.
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