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James: Fighting terror with terror

Investigators with the FBI work the scene of the July, 16 shooting at the Armed Forces Career Center on Lee Highway on Saturday, July 18, 2015, in Chattanooga, Tenn. U.S. Navy Petty Officer Randall Smith died Saturday from wounds sustained when gunman Mohammad Youssef Abdulazeez shot and killed four U.S. Marines and wounded two others and a Chattanooga police officer at the Naval Operational Support Center on Amnicola Highway shortly after firing into the Armed Forces Career Center. Investigators with the FBI work the scene of the July, 16 shooting at the Armed Forces Career Center on Lee Highway on Saturday, July 18, 2015, in Chattanooga, Tenn. U.S. Navy Petty Officer Randall Smith died Saturday from wounds sustained when gunman Mohammad Youssef Abdulazeez shot and killed four U.S. Marines and wounded two others and a Chattanooga police officer at the Naval Operational Support Center on Amnicola Highway shortly after firing into the Armed Forces Career Center.

By Stuart James July 23, 2015 18 min read

Some folks in Chattanooga seem to want you to think terrorism is defined in one word: Abdulazeez.

But let’s examine that thought.

“There is no indication he [Mohammed Youssef Abdulazeez] was inspired by anyone other than himself,” said FBI agent Ed Reinhold on the Chattanooga shootings last week that killed five military servicemen. Reinhold is a professional in the investigation of criminal acts.

Still, there seems to be a different local political view – at least among local conservatives.

“When an act of this magnitude takes place – a gunman going to two sites, opening fire, creating havoc, carnage, death at the level that he did – I deem that an act of terrorism,” U.S. Rep. Chuck Fleischmann, R-Chattanooga, said. “So those are my words.”