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Sohn: The FBI finally got a clue

The memorial to the five service members killed in a terror incident on July 16, 2015, is photographed on Monday, Dec. 14, 2015, in Chattanooga, Tenn. The memorial is located in front of the Armed Forces Career Center on Lee Highway next to Highway 153, the scene of the first shots fired in the July attack.
The memorial to the five service members killed in a terror incident on July 16, 2015, is photographed on Monday, Dec. 14, 2015, in Chattanooga, Tenn. The memorial is located in front of the Armed Forces Career Center on Lee Highway next to Highway 153, the scene of the first shots fired in the July attack. The memorial to the five service members killed in a terror incident on July 16, 2015, is photographed on Monday, Dec. 14, 2015, in Chattanooga, Tenn. The memorial is located in front of the Armed Forces Career Center on Lee Highway next to Highway 153, the scene of the first shots fired in the July attack.

By Pam Sohn 4 min read

Federal authorities

decided

finally to level with us about the man who staged shooting rampages against two U.S. military offices here on July 16, killing five servicemen.

Officials with the Federal Bureau of Investigation chose to stop their silly power game of semantics over the attacks that killed Navy Petty Officer Randall Smith, Marine Gunnery Sgt. Thomas Sullivan, Marine Staff Sgt. David Wyatt, Marine Sgt. Carson Holmquist, and Marine Lance Cpl. Squire Wells.

“We’ve investigated Chattanooga from the beginning and we’ve concluded the Chattanooga killer was inspired by a foreign terrorist organization’s propaganda,” FBI Director James Comey told reporters in New York on Wednesday.

As little comfort as there is in the dubious badge of being a pin head on a terror attack map, there is even less gratification in having the FBI stonewall us for five months before telling us something that we already knew in our hearts – something that our former U.S. prosecutor honestly told us on the evening of the shooting when he said it was being investigated as “a case of homegrown domestic terrorism.” Moments later, the FBI walked that case description back to “violent extremist.” It was “too early” to tell more, the FBI spokesman said.