The Salt Lake City Murders: A Jihad?

 by Dave Gaubatz  

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The Salt Lake City murders highlight a deep and dangerous problem we face in America.

This article is being written on behalf of the victims of the Trolley Square murders perpetrated by Sulejman Talovic, a Bosnian immigrant who went on a shooting rampage at a Salt Lake City shopping mall on February 12, 2007. The FBI and mainstream media have all but ruled out the murders had any link to terrorism. My research has revealed the FBI set the investigation to reach this conclusion from the beginning. It is no national secret that the FBI inserts itself into any criminal act that looks as though it will gain national attention. My sources suggest that the Salt Lake City Police Department (SLCPD) relied on the FBI at the outset to provide them with guidance on how to conduct an investigation that may have ties to terrorism. From that point, things have not proceeded in a professional manner.

The first mistake the FBI made was not insisting the computer of Sulejman Talovic be seized. This, despite the fact that there is ample evidence Talovic was savvy with computers.  To take the computer days later simply means the evidence could have been tampered with and lost forever. (Update: Now we're told by the SLCPD that the 18-year-old had no computer. Are we to believe he had no access to one anywhere?) The FBI’s second mistake was to pre-judge the results of the investigation and to quickly inform the mainstream media that terrorism did not appear to be the motivating factor in Talovic’s killing spree.  This in spite of the fact that this young man who apparently had few friends and no computer got his hands on weapons prohibited to an 18-year-old without his family's knowledge.

The truth is that this investigation has not been properly focused from its onset. Members of the SLCPD have informed me there are so many different law enforcement agencies involved that no one knows what the others are doing. My sources inform me that the FBI does not want to even suggest this may be linked to terrorism because it may alarm and upset the general public, creating “bad feelings and hostilities” toward the Muslim population.  This may happen and I do not advocate reactionary violence against anyone, but the people of Utah and America can no longer hide under their safety blanket and continue discarding possible links to terrorism.

In a recent essay at the online journal Frontpagemag.com, Robert Spencer details a list of individual criminal acts over the past year by Muslims, some of whom were self-described Islamic warriors:

– On January 31, Ismail Yassin Mohamed, 22, stole a car in Minneapolis. He went on a rampage, ramming the stolen car into other cars and then stealing a van and continuing to ram other cars, injuring one person. His father told officials that Mohamed was suffering from mental problems; his mother added he had been depressed and hadn’t been taking his medication. During his rampage, Mohamed repeatedly yelled, “Die, die, die, kill, kill, kill,” and when asked why he did all this, he replied, “Allah made me do it.”

– Omeed Aziz Popal, a Muslim from Afghanistan, who killed one person and injured fourteen during a murderous drive through San Francisco city streets in August 2006, during which he targeted people on crosswalks and sidewalks, identified himself as a terrorist after his rampage, according to Rob Roth of San Francisco’s KTVU. Later the murders were ascribed to Popal’s mental problems, and to stress arising from his impending arranged marriage.

– On July 28, 2006, a Muslim named Naveed Afzal Haq forced his way into the Jewish Federation of Greater Seattle. Once inside, Haq announced, “I’m a Muslim American; I’m angry at Israel,” and then began shooting, killing one woman and injuring five more. FBI assistant special agent David Gomez stated: “We believe . . . it’s a lone individual acting out his antagonism. There’s nothing to indicate that it’s terrorism-related. But we're monitoring the entire situation.”

– In March 2006, a twenty-two-year-old Iranian student named Mohammed Reza Taheri-azar drove an SUV onto the campus of the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, deliberately trying to kill people and succeeding in injuring nine. After the incident, he seemed singularly pleased with himself, smiling and waving to crowds after a court appearance on Monday, at which he explained that he was “thankful for the opportunity to spread the will of Allah.” Officials here again dismissed the possibility of terrorism, even after Taheri-azar wrote a series of letters to the UNC campus newspaper detailing the Qur’anic justification for warfare against unbelievers, and explaining why he believed his attacks were justified from an Islamic perspective.

Doing its part for a PC investigation, the FBI is leaking information suggesting Talovic may have been using drugs for mental health problems, suggesting that drug abuse or mental health complications were the cause of his violent acts, thus ruling out a terrorism link. If the FBI truly believes this, it is another indicator the FBI has poorly trained agents working counter-terrorism and we have major security issues and concerns not being met by the ones in charge of dealing with them.

Of course Talovic was most likely using either prescribed or illegal narcotics of some type. Anyone who has ever studied the tactics of terror groups, specifically Al-Qaeda, understands people who have vulnerabilities are the ones recruited to carry out terror attacks on their behalf. Similarly, Palestinian suicide bombers are invariably young men with a whole host of problems and in some cases young girls suffering severe emotional trauma who have been ostracized by their families due to some honor code violation. People who are on narcotics or with mental health problems are very vulnerable to being recruited by Jihadists “controllers.”

The family of Talovic stated someone must have gotten to him. Has the FBI told the people of Utah that Arabic websites have continuous chatter from Al-Qaeda supporters living in Salt Lake City, Utah? I know because I monitor these sites. Are there Bosnian Muslims with anti-U.S. views? Do you doubt it?

During my years of studying Islam there are few Muslims who disagree with Dr. Muhammad al’Mahdi’s definition of an Islamic State and the goal of Islam to create a Worldwide Islamic State:

It is not difficult to define an Islamic State.  An Islamic State is one which opts to conduct its affairs in accordance with the revealed guidance of Islam, which accepts the sovereignty of God and the supremacy of His Law in all matters, and devotes its efforts and resources to ensuring the existence of a right society living in accordance with the Will of God. Due to the unique geo-political circumstances of today’s world, so dominated by a lone superpower such as the world has never seen, which uses that power to impose Godless secular materialism upon all of world society, it is not the moment for any individual nation to make the attempt to become a true Islamic State.  The only possibility for a future world, living rightly according to the Will of Allah, may be the creation of a Worldwide Islamic State.

To understand how millions of Muslims want to achieve this goal read the book by Dr. al’Mahdi, entitled Creation of A Worldwide Islamic State. I would also suggest that the FBI and all Americans visit the Islamic website, www.islamic-world.net. A quote from this site:

The non-Muslim world, as they decide how best to act against those they accuse of aiding, abetting, or carrying out acts of criminal violence or terrorism, must never ignore the fact that Islam does undeniably place high and binding obligation upon every Muslim to come to the aid of their innocent brothers and sisters anywhere in the world if they are attacked. We do not think sufficient evidence has so far been presented to feel sure that Osama bin Laden is responsible for the tragic deaths of thousands in America.

In other words, any government or non-Muslim who dares to take action against al Qaeda or any other Muslim group is today warned that the Muslim world will view that as an unprovoked attack on all Muslims everywhere as the one Umma or Muslim People and one can assume that Muslims worldwide will seek retribution. The threat, as we know having witnessed the violence following the silly Danish cartoons, the murder and violence following the Pope's remarks in Germany, and the facts underlying the train bombing trial beginning in Spain, is no empty one. In Europe, the Jihadists have successfully determined the outcome of elections.

The mainstream media of course aids and abets this modern Jihad. If you read any of the accounts in the media, you can see them visibly straining not to mention Islam and Jihad.

Finally, a personal note. Some have questioned my objectives and my credibility. My objectives are straightforward. I do not want Americans to live as Israelis live each and every day. They wake up with the thoughts of terrorists striking them, they go to work with these thoughts, and they fear for their children every day. They live surrounded by their avowed enemies and they are effectively frozen in inaction. I do not want the children of America to live in fear of terrorism. Given my education, training, and almost 25 years of service in the US Air Force and most recently as a civilian federal agent in the Air Force Office of Special Investigations (OSI) as a counter-terrorism expert, I am convinced we face a most daunting task: To fight the war against Islam oversees while we protect ourselves from the Jihad within.

That task is made all the more difficult because we live in a time and in a world which refuses to believe a threat exists. And, for those who believe some inchoate threat of “terrorism” exists, they refuse to understand that the threat is Islam and that includes the Jihadists who live among us in America praising the First Amendment and condemning “racial profiling” and NSA surveillance programs. These Jihadists know how to use the courts as both an offensive weapon and a defensive shield.

As to my critics' suggestion that I lack credibility, I can only allow my service record to speak for itself. While much of that record is not available to the public given my 15+ years with a top secret plus clearance and the classified nature of my work, enough of my resume is “public” to allow a fair mind to judge. But most importantly, a fair minded person will assess the facts before him.

When the FBI tells us that the only way we can learn of the Salt Lake City Muslim’s murderous intentions is to find a “suicide note” or other writing of this sort, you know something is amiss. Can it be that the vaunted investigative skills of the FBI have no way to trace Talovic’s communications? Recreate emails? Find out whom he befriended in the last several weeks? How he bought the weapons? There can be no doubt the FBI is doing all or some of this. But the fact that they are busy spinning the investigation in advance of its conclusion is telling.

At the end of the day we might indeed determine that nothing more than a deranged mind snapped. But the early PC spin by the authorities would lead anyone to wonder if the final result is not pre-ordained.

Terrorism, War on Terror

Read more articles by Dave Gaubatz