(John Ransom, Headline USA) Critics are pillorying the FBI for misleading statements that initially failed to tie the motive in the Texas synagogue hostage incident over the weekend to anti-Semitism and Islamic terrorism.
“The FBI was ripped on social media for the statement that the hostage-taker had no direct demands related to the Jewish community,” said Fox News.
A statement at a press conference by the FBI after the hostage-taker was shot and killed initially tried to put distance between the rounding up of Jewish hostages and any act tied to terror or anti-Semitism.
“We do believe from our engaging with this subject that he was singularly focused on one issue, and it was not specifically related to the Jewish community,” said the FBI special agent in charge, according to CNN Wire.
Authorities identified the man as Malik Faisal Akram, a Pakistani British national, who was demanding the release of a terrorist in jail known as “Lady Al Qaeda”.
“Malik Faisal Akram, 44, held the victims captive Saturday while demanding the release of Aafia Siddiqui, a Pakistani neuroscientist with suspected ties to al Qaeda who’s serving time at a federal prison in Texas, authorities said,” said the New York Post.
Akram reportedly flew into the U.S. after New Year’s eve from the U.K. and had been staying in New York.
Just a coincidence that he targeted a house of worship used by this one particular religious minority, a coincidence that seems to happen an awful lot throughout history https://t.co/gsh0GNvlqm
— Gregg Carlstrom (@glcarlstrom) January 16, 2022
“Just a coincidence that he targeted a house of worship used by this one particular religious minority,” Gregg Carlstrom, a Mideast correspondent for the Economist said ironically via Twitter about the FBI’s non-motive, “a coincidence that seems to happen an awful lot throughout history.”
President Joe Biden initially echoed the FBI in trying to carefully craft comments to stay away from terrorism and anti-Semitism as motives for the incident.
“I don’t think there is sufficient information to know why he targeted that synagogue, why he insisted on the release of someone who’s been in prison for over 10 years… why he was using anti-Semitic and anti-Israeli comments…we just don’t have all the facts,” said Biden, unconsciously owning the deception by mentioning anti-Semitic comments from the hostage-taker, according to Gateway Pundit.
The FBI later walked back its statement, telling the Washington Post via that the incident specifically targeted Jewish people and is being investigated by the Joint Terrorism Task Force.
“This is a terrorism-related matter, in which the Jewish community was targeted, and is being investigated by the Joint Terrorism Task Force,” the FBI told the Post.
The terrorist’s family is blaming the incident on “mental health issues” by Akram, according to the New York Post.
