Saturday, September 27, 2014

Keystone Kops versus Quran

Why doesn’t it make us feel better that the FBI have been called in to investigate the motives of the jihadist who beheaded his coworker in Moore, Oklahoma?

Police in Oklahoma said on Friday that they have asked the Federal Bureau of Investigation for assistance after determining that a man who allegedly attacked co-workers after being fired the previous day beheaded one of his victims and, according to some employees, earlier tried to convert colleagues to Islam.

So far, the FBI hasn't found any connection between the suspect and any terrorist groups, a law enforcement official said. But agents aren't finished probing the suspect's background and are still looking into his contacts and any potential travel. (“FBI Called in to Help Investigate Beheading in Oklahoma”).

The FBI rarely finds connections lone-wolf jihadists and terrorist groups largely because the agency has forbidden itself to draw connections between Islam, itself, and jihadist violence. That’s been the situation since 2001,

when fifty-seven Muslim organizations wrote to John Brennan, who was then the Homeland Security Advisor and is now the head of the CIA, demanding that they fire [Robert] Spencer and other trainers who “spoke about Islam in connection with terrorism" and that they cleanse all counter-terrorism training material of any mention of Islam and jihad. (“Spencer: Obama Administration Scrubbed Jihad and Islam from Counterterrorism Manuals”).

Trying to figure out what’s behind jihadist terrorism when you’re forbidden to recognize the violence in Islam is like trying to diagram sentences while forbidden to even imagine such things as subjects, predicates, and direct objects.  So now special agents are looking into Nolen’s travel, when he never needed to leave the country at all.  And if they can’t find proof that Nolen  traveled to the Middle East and physically sat at the feet of designated terror masterminds, or had  a paid receipt for dues to Al Qaeda or Al Shabab, the feds have to conclude the suspect has no “connection” to terrorism. This is why when the entire country knew within days that the Boston Marathon bombers were motivated by radical Islamist doctrines, weeks later the FBI and other PC cops remained unable

to connect them to a foreign terrorist organization” and had to keep chipping away at theirformal intelligence assessment on the factors that moved the Tsarnaevs toward hard-line Islamist views, and whether there was a single development or tipping point in their alleged turn to violence.  (“Tsarnaev brothers not yet linked to foreign terror groups officials say).

In Nolen’s case, there was a single development tipping point that turned him into a savage murderer: when he converted to Islam. According to the Daily Mail, “[t]he FBI is now investigating Nolen's recent conversion to Islam to determine whether it was connected to the attack,” but how successful will they be when connections like that are off-limits either through sanitized training, or craven obedience to PC standards?

It never occurs to these geniuses that an ideological or spiritual adherence to a set of beliefs can create a “connection” between individuals and groups all over the world who may never meet. The venal lawyer who taught my trial prep class had never met his hero, Mao, but I knew the lawyer was still a Red. I’ve never met a Pope, but I’m still a papist. I largely support the Holy Father’s views, I occasionally contribute to his causes, pray for his intentions, yet have never had any personal contacts with the Vatican.  Are the Holy Father and I connected? Of course we are.

It’s a spiritual thing.  But that’s something that, from Waco to Ft. Hood to Boston to Oklahoma, our G-Men have never been able to understand.

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