Four Marines Killed in Chattanooga in Possible 'Act of Domestic Terrorism'


Four Marines were killed in a shooting at a Naval Reserve center in Chattanooga, Tennessee, on Thursday morning, a senior defense official said.
The suspected gunman is also dead, Chattanooga Mayor Andy Berke said.
Investigators "have not determined whether it was an act of terrorism or whether it was a criminal act," Ed Reinhold, FBI special agent in charge, told reporters. "We are looking at every possible avenue, whether it was terrorism -- whether it was domestic, international -- or whether it was a simple, criminal act."
U.S. Attorney Bill Killian earlier told reporters that authorities were treating the shooting as an "act of domestic terrorism."
Witnesses said the shootings unfolded at two sites. First, a man sprayed bullets at the glass doors of a military recruiting center at a strip mall on Lee Highway.
From there, the suspected gunman headed to another location more than seven miles away, the Naval Reserve center on Amnicola Highway.
CBS has identified the shooter as Muhammad Youssef Abdulazeez but it hasn't been officially confirmed. Obviously there is a lot more to come.
Update: Here's a regularly updating Associated Press account of the development. Police have "swarmed" the home of the man accused of the shootings and led away two women in handcuffs.
Update II: Here are some more details about the alleged shooter.
Update III: Daily Beast tracked down Abdulazeez's blog, which has only two entries, and where he talked about his religious reasoning.
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Sounds like more workplace violence. Motive unknown.
Damn you nimble fingers.
"your"
And no one mentions Sheldon Richman until -- Underzog|7.17.15 @ 12:15AM
"act of domestic terrorism."
Meaning a criminal act that the state has arbitrarily decided it can wave due process for.
Obama loves Muslims. This murdering Muslim will get all the coddling in the world. After all, it's not like he was a Christian member of the Tea Party.
wow.
Yeah,I thought I had issues...
Obviously there is a lot more to come.
I would be surprised if everything up to this point hasn't been wrong.
Turns out the shooter's name was Mike Smith.
STEVE SMITH DISAVOW ANY CONNECTION.
ONLY GUN OF STEVE SMITH STAND PROUD BETWEEN LEGS!
And he's never been to Chattanooga.
AND I saw him not do it!
Bubbles?
Decent!
But these were highly trained soldiers with guns. Obviously we need fewer guns in society!!1!
/prog
The solution to gun violence is MOAR guns
/con
Well, actually, it is.
There will always be evil people willing to do violence against you. You ought to protect yourself as best you can.
....and of course, since we are surrounded by evil people willing to do violence against us, every able bodied individual should, rationally, carry enough firepower to repel such violence at all times.
I like where this is going.
Me too!
Do you think that free people should be forbidden from defending themselves? How do you think that will make people safer?
Peace Through Superior Firepower!
Military posts are gun free zones, with the exception of military police. So yes, more guns might have saved lives.
This is true, and and makes us military members sitting sucks. Any murderers/ terrorists with two brain cells knows this is true, so it's not as if I'm giving away secrets. I'd like to conceal carry base but can't.
Gun-free Zone for the Irony and the Win.
If it wasn't a gun free zone, there would've been more violence. Duh.
Well, then, we need to declare a murder-free zone! Duh!
But, but, that's "libelous" and "triggering,"
I'm feeling triggered by SQRLSY One.
Expect a subpoena.
I guess Muhammad didn't see the sign.
Well, it looks he shot from outside. The sign says "gun free zone", not "bullet free zone".
Politifact gives you a 1.2 truth rating.
Investigators "have not determined whether it was an act of terrorism or whether it was a criminal act," Ed Reinhold, FBI special agent in charge, told reporters.
It can't be both?
Isn't rectangle:quadrilateral the same as terrorism:criminal?
The magic terrorism word gives the government a raging boner, so I'm going to guess it's terrorism.
We have not been poked by the government's raging boner over this incident yet, so I'll withhold my judgement.
Some acts of terrorism are better than others.
Can this be used?
That's what I came here to say. Most acts of terrorism are also criminal acts. And if a criminal act is done with the primary intent of terrorizing people, then it's terrorism.
Pretty sure any people shot up are terrorized.
I would imagine so. But I think that the intent of the shootings has to be primarily to terrorize for it to be specifically terrorism.
Investigators "have not determined whether it was an act of terrorism or whether it was a criminal act,"
What's the difference?
If he gets a trial or not.
Seems unlikely, what with him being dead and all.
Better he should say "if one gets a trial or not."
I don't se how it fails the criminal act unless the gunman was acting in self-defense. Although, that's for a jury to determine.
Terrorism is when your motive is to change a government policy.
That's why Roof was not a terrorist.
authorities were treating the shooting as an "act of domestic terrorism."
"See, we were right. Domestic terrorism is much more of a concern than ISIS."
Funny, lot fewer McVeighs and Rudolphs involved in these domestic terrorism events these days.
Possible? It seems fairly cut and dry.
To be fair, we don't know why he did it.
He could have been screaming "Allahu akbar!" during the shooting or "What's the frequency, Kenneth!" Yes, the former is perhaps more likely, but it's not like there's a shortage of schizophrenics out there in the world.
We'll see soon enough if this turns out to be genuine.
Is reasonable dead for everyone else? I can't believe I have to type out anchor tags manually. What is this, 2008?
Is reasonable dead for everyone else?
Works for me.
So is it terrorism if someone paints 'death to infidels' on an overpass, or is it just graffiti? What if they believe Allah will grant them 72 Virginia Slims for robbing a liquor store?
Depends on how terrified the liquor store clerk is.
I don't know, how many people died from inhaling the spray paint fumes?
Considering that the owner and cashier are probably Pakistani, it's just intrasectarian violence.
REM obsessed schizos can be terrorists too.
He also could have been screaming 'Admiral Akbar'. Many Muslims are upset about the upcoming Star Wars film.
Oh, MSNBC! Never change, you crazy kids....
I guaran-fucking-tee you this is a white guy. Because Tennessee.
Astounding logic.
Yeah. Things like this almost never happen in TN. So it must be a local redneck. Never mind that such people tend to be big fans of the military.
That is right. It is likely some evil white southerner bitter about the taking down of the confederate flag.
Shit, I'm an angry, bitter white guy, and I've only killed two, three people tops so far over my angst at the Confederate flag debacle.
Well, the existence of the confederate flag is known to be the immediate cause of 73% of all violence and racism.
Nah, it was espys set him off.
And remember, kids, when an arab guy does something violent like this he's white, when he is a victim of something he's brown. Now, I'm making an assumption on ethnicity based on name. He could well be the whitest most anglo white boy ever.
Arabs do come in a wide range of skin tones. Though I think you are correct in the flexibility of some people's perceptions of their color.
I believe as far as race goes, they would be "white" as well.
As I understand it "Arab" refers to a linguistic and cultural group that contains people of various races. There are plenty of Arab Algerians, for example, who you wouldn't really call white.
Everyone knows, islam is a race.
Yeesh
Yes, my favorite prog retort..."disliking Islam is rrrrrrracist!!" Nevermind all those people of all lineages who subscribe to the ideology. I'm pretty sure I've seen people of European descent who fight for ISIS...oh and women too.
Ya know, it is quite puzzling how shooters are very seldom the kind of people that the woman describes in that post.
It's always some Muslim fuckwad, some suburban white kid, or a black ghetto person.
Never really see a redneck out shooting people up yet they are always the reason given for wanting to ban guns.
It's almost as if they're bigoted toward rednecks or something but since they are lefties I know that's impossible. They are full of love for all of God's creatures....right?
wouldnt you consider someone like Tim McVeigh to be of the raccoon ingesting persuasion?
Religion of peace.
MSNBC, in a few hours:
"How responsible is Rand Paul for this act of domestic terrorism? Our panelists discuss..."
Rand Paul? I say Trump caused this
We should all wait until the crisis actor interviews are shown to us on CNN before we decide what happened.
OK, looking at the picture. I see a sign of some sort on the right door, just above the handle. It appears to be one of those something banned signs. Guns? Anyone have a link to a better picture?
It is workplace violence you racist tea bagger bastards. Nothing to see here.
Better to use your lizard brain in these situations, eh John?
Last time a lunatic killed a bunch of soldiers on U.S soil that is what the government called it. Why is this different? If it is a Muslim who did this, expect the President to be on TV tonight explaining how this event highlights the dangers of right wing terrorism and expressing his sincere apologies to Muslims everywhere.
Don't forget the breathless news stories detailing the "backlash" against "innocent" Muslims nationwide.
Yes. Some drunk will get his ass kicked after mistakenly attacking a Siehk and the story will change to covering the national epidemic of hate crimes.
Sorry, Mom. You shouldn't wrap your head like that when you wash your hair.
Or maybe we wait until we have some verified details before we lose our shit either way.
And since balance and pot stirring is my objective of the day...to counter your shot at Obama, I'm guessing that there are no bleach-blond heads exploding about this issue on Fox News right now, correct?
I don't watch Fox News. So I couldn't tell you. And Obama did call it workplace violence. That is not a shot. It is the truth. Too bad if you don't like it.
I won't fault the President for his word play..it's his job not to stoke the fires, lest some equally fucked up person decide it's his job to shoot up a mosque in retaliation.
Yes lying and screwing the victims out is always the smart policy. How honorable of him.
So you're saying that the victim's families deserved some gubmt cheese? And by denying them the status of 'victims of terrorism', they didn't qualify for said cheese.
the horror
Maybe the victims deserve some respect? Naaaaah.
Just say something cute, like your retarded idol.
Respect == Government $....I see.
Hey, if the Dems and Repubs are gonna call it a war on terror, then treat all the injured soldiers the same.
Yes lying and screwing the victims out is always the smart policy. How honorable of him.
That really doesn't happen. And Obama is a very evil man with a pro Muslim, anti Christina agenda. Though you are free to employ all the cognitive dissonance at your disposal on the subject.
FFS....Too easy. Pass.
How is it a shot at Obama when Obama was the one who made that comment about work place violence? Can you provide evidence regarding your shot at fox news?
What Obama should have done see...is taken his Koran out of his left pocket, where he keeps it close to his heart...and then if'n he were a true American, he woulda thrown it out over the White House press room, quickly pulled out his sidearm and shot that fucker full a holes faster than I can say Muslim, Commie, Socialist, Kenyan! He woulda then renounce his Muslim faith right then and there and sworn his love for apple pie and Jesus!
You're dumber than tony.
Just stirring the pot today...this soup has coagulated into a gluey mixture of team red slop. I remember when John used to be referred to as "Red Tony" around here, now he's a mainstream H&R Freedom Lover.
Yup
Eric, care to answer the reasonable question that was calmly and civilly posed to you? Are you going to do anything but deflect and prevaricate?
No I cannot provide evidence that the Bleach Blonds at Fox News heads are exploding. You got me cornered.
Go for the throat.
So, to be clear, your response to someone bringing up a...let's say controversial statement that Obama actually made about a similar situation on camera is to insinuate that someone on Fox News might be upset about what appears to be an act of domestic terrorism? Does this mean you support the President's characterization or not? Or are you denying it ever happened? I don't watch Fox News so I neither know nor care whether a news reader is hysterical, but I do pay attention to things our elected leaders say, so I'm curious as to your response. I'm particularly curious as to why you think it's relevant.
Etric were you as equally balanced when the Confederate flag killed those people in the church ?
I wouldn't bet money on it.
No balance needed! Clearly a confederate flag came to life, grabbed a gun and shot all those unfortunate black folks. Then it hatched an elaborate plan to frame that kid for it.
Because CNN anchors are awesome right Eric?
http://freebeacon.com/national.....d-popular/
Wait, she's more of a sandy blond instead of bleached. You go Carol.
But using the term "workplace violence" for this kind of domestic terrorism gives allows us to not connect terrorist acts committed by Muslims to radical Islam. We can also arbitrarily delay the process of compensation for victims for no apparent reason. That's all we want now.
It's a good thing Bill Clinton ordered marines to stop carrying loaded weapons unless specifically authorized according to their mission/watch, and Bush and Obama have kept that order in place.
Soldiers can't be trusted with weapons unless guarding the Top Men.
That was H.W., actually. Not Clinton.
Someone needs to call up MSNBC and pretend to be a Tennessee police spokesman. Then proceed to tell them the perfect story they want to hear about the suspect being white, male, wearing Confederate garb, and carrying a manifesto praising Trump and condemning gay marriage and Bruce Jenner. They would eat it up. It would be the perfect trolling operation.
I've been commenting here a long time, and reading for longer.
And that is one of the best ideas I've ever heard, regardless of how much you and I agree or not on run-of-the-mill issues.
*woman with voice shaking in terror*
"All I remember is seeing...seeing the white, fish-belly skin, the flash of Duck Dynasty shirt...oh God! *breaks down sobbing uncontrollably*
you know it would work. There's no way they can help themselves. It would be a Pavlovian response.
This WOULD be a good idea, except that, even after the truth came out, many people would conveniently only remember the false trolling story told to MSNBC. Progressives and swing voters would believe some confederate red neck did this for all of eternity.
Sadly that is probably the truth.
"Hands up, don't shoot!"
"Kennedy was killed by redneck Texan Birchers!"
I would prefer that in the interest of political correctness you refer to her as the Mademoiselle K Jenner.
I almost would watch some TV today if I thought this type of trolling was possible.
If the shooter is indeed Muslim -
"SHIT the right wingers are going to use this occasion to fan the flames of Islamophobia #notallmuslims"
If the shooter turns out to be a white guy
"F the NRA, gun control now, find the source of his hate"
GBA
if it is a Muslim and. don't know that it was. The very same people who are convinced the Confederate flag was responsible for what happened in Charleston will absolutely insist that this incident has no larger meaning and it will be off the front pages within 24 hours.
Very few people remember that the same thing happened in Little Rock in 2009. Muslim convert shot up a military recruitment place in a strip mall, killed one soldier and injured another.
Yup and the media largely ignored it.
Yeah, wait a minute. How is it that a flag or even a picture of a flag can cause white people to go kookoobananas racist and kill black churchgoers but an entire system of belief cited by terrorists as their sole inspiration has absolutely no influence whatsoever? I mean, most Muslims aren't terrorists, that's true; most Southerners aren't racist, and most Confederates didn't own slaves.
You see, it goes like this: If you fought for a cause that was overall bad, but you were a good and honorable person, that doesn't matter because the cause you supported was bad. That is of course that you supported the cause in the first place and didn't fight under their banner for different reasons, but that doesn't matter, you're still a bad person.
I mean come on are you trying to tell me that Heinz Guderian and Erwin Rommel were decent, honorable men that hated Nazis but loved Germany? Are you trying to tell me that Lee freed his slaves and originally wanted to live in peace until he was called on to fight for Virginia which he loved more than the U.S., and he was an honorable man?
You're crazy, every situation is black and white you see, supported the Confederacy you say, well you're just a flaming racist that wanted to kill all the little black babies....ahem...Margaret Sanger....feminist hero....ahem.
What if it was a militant, Christian, black, midget lesbian?
Then chances are they are just angry at TLC not giving them a reality show. So we can blame TLC.
Sometimes I am really happy not to have cable TV.
Then "it" becomes martyr for the differently abled. Sort of like how Chris Dorner was an avenging angel for the mentally challenged.
Fuck.
Time to let Marines carry while on duty.
I thought their job was to be armed when you can't trust the Navy to be.
+1000
I read this was a drive by shooting (I could be wrong), so armed marines might not have made difference.
Was it only few months ago that a fanatic tried to kill people that Mohammed cartoon contest?
Less than 2 years ago somebody shot up the DC Naval Yard while unarmed Marines were locked in a building.
http://www.cnn.com/2015/07/16/.....index.html
A muslim? Activate the memory hole!
"A muslim?"
Let's not jump to conclusions. It's just as likely he's a right wing christian fundamenalist kkk tea party rethuglican.
Fucking millenials.
The shooter's real name? Sum Ting Wong.
Lacist!!!!
My thoughts go out to all the victims and their families.
That said, how many "lone wolf attacks" will it take before we start shooting the pack?
As many as they want to have between now and January 2-,2017.
Perhaps I misunderstand, but are you suggesting that we should start killing people who have not threatened or harmed anyone directly? I'll stick with the occasional terroristic murder, thanks.
No, no by all means no. That would go against the NAP. I meant all the ones threatening us, I take threats seriously and will act accordingly. (unless it is hyperbole about a woodchipper)
OK, that's good. You never know these days.
But what's "the pack"? Are you saying the govt should go harder after ISIS?
That was what got me going. It's pretty vague. Especially with these attacks that don't seem to have a lot of central organization behind them, even when done in the name of "ISIS" or whatever.
He ain't a "lone wolf" until all his associations and communications are known
How many "lone wolf attacks" until we allow universal open carry?
Yup. Gun-free zone. Check out the zoomed in shots here:
http://www.thegatewaypundit.co.....one-video/
The bullet hole right below the sign is a nice touch.
So what flag do the twitters hashtagban for this? oh, right. Sorry. Just a workplace incident.
The ISIS Dildo Flag. Duh.
Which one of you asshats uploaded another youtube video? When are you going to learn?
We can stop comenting on this subject now because there can be no better comment than this one. Nice Very nice.
+72 virgins that haven't been touched by Warty or Crusty
Note the "No Gun" sign on the door. Another gun-free zone murder.
I avoid gun-free zones like the plague. I've got a family, man, I wanna live!
Ant Schumer keeps piling up those dead bodies. She needs to apologize to some liberal to make it right.
Is this dual promotion for Ant-Man and Trainwreck?
It's not a promotion for my android thats for sure.
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Well, the shooters name is Muhammed. So rest assured that regardless of the facts to be discovered, Obama and his admin. will not call it terrorism.
I would like the crescent moon to be banned and any public display of it also banned. It is clear that this symbol is teaching young men to become murderous psychopaths and we must remove this symbol for the sake of the children and the Chinese-Irish transsexual midgets that are being triggered by this trigger squeezer.
If we ban all the symbols we don't like, then nothing bad that we don't like will happen. This crescent moon obviously has very dangerous persuasive powers.
Conveniently, South Carolina already has some experience removing flags, so dropping their state flag ( a crescent moon and a palm tree? really?? ) should be old hat now.
I wonder if this was payback for the Iran deal. ISIS hates themselves some Shia.
Cops have killed 600 people so far this year, dozens of them unarmed, but THIS is a big story.
This cannot be emphasized enough. Statistically speaking, the average American remains in much more danger of being killed by a law enforcement officer than by a terrorist. If people reacted to police misconduct the way they react to Islamic terrorism there would be a ban on uniforms and police wouldn't be armed with so much as a switch.
How about Marines? Are they more likely to be killed by a cop?
Yes.
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jose_Guerena_shooting
No snark, real question: is there any estimation how many of those killed presented a viable threat to the police?
I haven't been able to find reliable data that would allow you to make the distinction. Part of the reason is because police departments are intentionally vague when it comes to reporting stuff like police misconduct, and part of the reason is because it's so subjective. I'm sure there are a lot of "good shoots" where the cop in question kills someone in defense of his or her life or the life of another, but because a lot of "bad shoots" wind up with the perpetrator as the only witness it's difficult to separate the two, if you see what I mean.
Any word on what kind of firearm was used and where this shitbag obtained it?
So i read a story from nbc that the shooter used a automatic weapon. Now this may turn out to be false, because the media almost always gets the details wrong, but i wanna see if the gun grabbers will try to spin this favorably for themselves if he really did. And i wonder where he got?
On my local news, it was a "high powered weapon" which of course to reporters mean any firearm that fires bullets that can penetrate flesh
Maybe it was one of those .9 millimeter handguns.... Perhaps a Luger P08?.
(I meant to say "Ruger P08" in reference to that same error made by a local newspaper story about a gang shooting. We need that damn edit button.)
Gosh, if only the shooter was given a degree in something like electrical engineering and was handed a job---especially a good job, none of this would have ever happened.
ISIS has been promoting attacks during Ramadan. (Remember that quaint time in 2001 when the media wanted us to pause fighting during Ramadan...anyways.)
They have done a lot of Ramadan attacks - Kuwait, Saudi, Tunisia, America, and France.
and what sucks about this to me, is that I have a lot of Muslim friends on facebook, and they are celebrating Ramadan, but if Ramadan becomes associated as "that time of year when we get the crazy attacks" that would really suck.
It would like if Christmas was known as the time Christians crazies bombed mosques and schools.
Being hungry all day makes some people grumpy.
Better start handing out Snickers at sundown during Ramadan.
"Authorities identified the gunman as Kuwait-born Muhammad Youssef Abdulazeez, 24, of Hixson, Tennessee, though the spelling of his first name was in dispute, with federal officials and records giving at least four variations."
Everybody move along, no Islam to see here, folks.
Salon's only story on the shooting - some comment on 'wingnuts' who made a comment on immigrants.
Meanwhile, there are two Charleston stories and two on Trump above it. They even buried the story.
Four dead marines doesn't matter, huh.
This must of been them teabaggers. Teabaggers, they always blaming their violence on the religion of peace.
We too mean to them Moslims. We need to give them interest free loans and safe places like everyone else gets, no wonder they so mad. Imad too.
Free Sharia Zones
http://www.imef.marines.mil/Po...../04-06.pdf
This is an old policy, but I imagine at some point the Gaurdian Angel program will be expanded in CONUS for more than just big events. With that beings said, I'm pro 2A, but I cringe thinking about some of my Marines carrying in garrison. Hell, some of them make me nervous deployed with weapons.
I imagine many of you would be shocked how little sustainment training most units get with small arms unless they are in a work-up cycle. There just isn't enough time when your doing SAPR, EO, and DV training as your primary focus most of the year. (Sarcasm ... Sorta)
Obama's appeasement of Iran is responsible for this. Islam regards appeasement by kaffirum as weakness and moves to rub the cowardly kaffir's face in it. This is something the antisemites and the self hating Jews at Reason Magazine will never understand. You Rhomites are so transfixed at the sight of Muslims killing Jews that it never occurs to you clowns that your heads are on the Muslim chopping block, too. I guess hatred of Jews trumps all -- even concern for one's own survival (this includes sick self haters such as Sheldon Richman, too).
"There's no need to fear. Underzog is here."
The Jewish Defense League Marching Song
Yay! Another mass shooting by a deranged asshole. These mass shootings are totally random. Given the number of nuts in the U.S. We can't possibly predict or prevent this type of mass shooting by enacting gun control laws. More guns equal less crime because if everyone had a concealed phaser set on kill we could just blast away the bad guys in a public gunfight. Yeah, that will work. I didn't read far enough into the CNN article to figure out whether this Muslim moron was killed by a right-winger with a shotgun or a tea partier with a Colt 45. If you guys figure it out let me know.
People that vote to elect people as representatives that want to outlaw guns in their communities are the true fascists. The 2nd amendment is the greatest and most well-written document in the history of man and if you think that electoral democracy should trump the awkward phrasing of 18th century slavers, well, you should probably just move to North Korea and move in with the rest of the fascists.
JPFO begs to differ with you. Jews who like guns? What will they think of next?
DNFTT