Two young soldiers who just completed basic training were volunteering at a local recruiting office in Little Rock, Arkansas, on June 1 when they were shot. Private Quinton Ezeagwula is recovering and Private William Long was killed. Our prayers are with Private Long’s family and friends for his loss and with Private Ezeagwula and his family and friends for a speedy recovery.
The alleged gunman’s name is Abdul Hakim Mujahid Muhammad (formerly known as Carlos Bledsoe) and he had a significant amount of fire power in his car along with a substantial amount of ammunition. He was already under investigation by the FBI Joint Terrorism Task Force after returning to the U.S. after being jailed in Yemen for using a fake Somali passport.
Rachel Maddow interviews former FBI counter-terrorism and counter-intelligence specialist David Cid:
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Many questions remain, such as how does someone under investigation by an elite FBI task force get so much hardware, and was he working alone.
This domestic terrorist attack is very similar to the murder of Dr. George Tiller. It was motivated by religious extremism and the idea that it’s okay to kill people who don’t share your views.
The difference? Muhammad is a Muslim and is being called a home-grown terrorist and something needs to be done about stopping people like him who come from radical Mosques. Roeder is a Christian who is associated with a known radical anti-abortion group, Operation Rescue. These Christian radical anti-abortion groups are known and have been known for decades to incite and commit violence, including murder, against other Americans because they disagree with those other Americans’ beliefs. In other words, they commit domestic terrorism.
Either way, they are all home-grown terrorists, except the anti-abortion movement operates in the open, in full view of law enforcement. If Muslim anti-American terrorists tried that, we would catch them instead of ignoring them.
When are we going to see the violent anti-abortion movement as the same sort of domestic terrorism as we see Muhammad, McVeigh, Nichols and the Unibomber? Roeder is the same as these guys.
The ultimate question is how do we stop this kind of violence and protect our civil liberties and privacy at the same time?
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Civil Rights and Justice, domestic terrorism, Little Rock Arkansas, William Long murder
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