Terrorist attacks in Virginia and Michigan
There were two terrorist attacks today in the US. One was at Old Dominion University in Norfolk, Virginia. The shooter killed one person and injured two, and is dead himself.
I feel fairly confident in calling it a terrorist attack rather than “merely” a school shooting because the shooter has been identified as Mohamed Bailor Jalloh, 36. And guess what? He was convicted in 2016 of ISIS ties:
In 2016, he was arrested for attempting to provide material support to ISIS, according to public court documents. He allegedly attempted to help procure weapons intended to be used in what he anticipated was going to be an attack in the U.S., the complaint said at the time. The complaint also alleged that he attempted to provide funds to individuals hoping to join ISIS.
He pleaded guilty to attempting to provide material support to a designated foreign terrorist organization and was sentenced to 11 years in prison. He was released in 2024, according to the Department of Justice.
Although he didn’t serve the full eleven years, it seems he served close to eight years. Even eleven would not have been enough, however – although it’s hard to see how he could have been sentenced to more than that, because it was just an attempt. He is a US citizen; you can find a lot more information here. He apparently was radicalized by listening to recorded sermons of al Qaeda’s Anwar al-Awlaki, and then [emphasis mine]:
Following service in the National Guard, Jalloh traveled to Africa, where he stayed between July 2015 and January 2016. While in Nigeria, according to FBI investigators, Jalloh first established contact with an ISIS operative who later introduced Jalloh to the CHS [Confidential Human Source].* Jalloh told the CHS in April 2016 that he wished to carry out a domestic attack similar to the Fort Hood shootings carried out by Nidal Hasan in 2009.* Jalloh also allegedly spoke about targeting an unidentified person who had organized several “Draw Muhammad” cartoon contests.*
In May 2016, the CHS introduced Jalloh to an undercover FBI agent posing as an ISIS member.* During conversations on an unidentified mobile messaging service, Jalloh allegedly told the agent that it was best to plan an attack during the Islamic holy month of Ramadan. He allegedly believed such violent operations were “100 percent the right thing to do,” and he prayed to Allah to make him a martyr.* Jalloh allegedly gave the agent $500, believing it would reach ISIS’s coffers.*
On July 1, 2016, Jalloh entered the Blue Ridge Arsenal gun store and firing range in Chantilly, Virginia. According to security footage and the store’s owner, Jalloh allegedly tried to purchase a Bushmaster AR-15, but did not have adequate identification.* Jalloh returned the following day and purchased a Stag Arms 5.56 caliber assault rifle.* The FBI arrested him on July 3 and charged him with attempting to provide material support to ISIS. Jalloh pled guilty on October 27, 2016.* He was sentenced to 11 years in prison on February 10, 2017. In a letter to the court, alloh reportedly renounced ISIS and its “superficial and dishonest interpretation of Islam.”*
That renunciation was almost certainly bogus and/or temporary. Note how Jalloh seems to have now followed his original plan: an attack on military people – such as the Fort Hood attacker’s victims – during Ramadan. It’s Ramadan right now. The “military people” part was fulfilled because of this:
The victims have not been identified. Two of them are members of the school’s ROTC program, NBC affiliate WAVY of Portsmouth, Virginia, reported.
“We can confirm that two members of the university ROTC program were shot and were taken to a local hospital to treat their injuries,” the U.S. Army Cadet Command told the station in a statement.
Officials said Jalloh allegedly targeted an ROTC class and was a former member of the Army National Guard.
That’s followed by “a motive in the shooting is unclear.” That seems extremely absurd at this point.
The day’s second attack involved a perp – also now deceased but as yet unidentified – who rammed a car into a synagogue in West Bloomfield Township, Michigan. Fortunately, no one but the perp was killed in this one, mainly because there were security officers on the scene who opened fire. The perp fired back and wounded one guard, and eight first responders are also being treated.
It’s not totally clear whether they killed him, he killed himself, or he died in a car fire.
We await word on his identity. Could be a jihadi, or could be just the usual Jew-hater on left or right. So many possibilities!
I doubt these attacks were coordinated with each other. There’s a lot of chaos and violence as well as incitement these days, all of which act as releasers for those inclined to attack. There’s certainly also the possibility of higher-up organization. However, I’d expect the latter to feature larger attacks.
A name certainly would held in the car ramming/ bomb event.
The first Muhammad, one might think after that background one might not be allowed in the country. But saw to the Auto-Pen administration he was welcome with open arms
Skip:
The Norfolk shooter was a citizen. He could not be deported if he was born here. If he was naturalized – and this article indicates he was – he could be deported if he committed fraud to become a citizen.
“… he could be deported if he committed fraud to become a citizen.”
EMPHASIS on the word “could.” The fraudulent US Citizen Ilhan Omar, so long as she sits in Congress, cannot be deported. It seems.
3-2-1 – Its all Trump’s fault. He doesn’t care about US Citizens
That is the line the Dems are taking. Bat S C, and demented, Evil. Shall I go on?
SHIREHOME:
Of course they say that. That’s what they say about everything.
The deceased victim in Virginia was a retired military man, the Army ROTC instructor. ROTC students overwhelmed the shooter, who was stabbed to death, thus stopping the attack.
Bill Melugin, Fox News, says the car in the Michigan attack is registered to a naturalized immigrant from Lebanon, living in Dearborn. The chances this was a Muslim jihadi are high; Melugin won’t give the name until they are able to confirm the registered owner was the driver. The body was badly burned and it will take a while for confirmed identification.
https://x.com/BillMelugin_/status/2032194350944567742?s=20
Kate:
From Dearborn. Shocked, unexpected, but the media finds it a mystery what the motive might be. (sarc). Maybe Raschida Tlaib and Liar Tuck can find out, after decrying Islamophobia and victimization of Muslims by Christian Zionists and Jews.
om
Why was this unexpected? Muslims in that area have been making those noises for years. As soon as they became more populous the gloves are off. This has been happening for 1500 years.
om was being sarcastic.
The murder victim at ODU was a retired Lt. Col., veteran of several campaigns overseas against Islamists, only to be killed at home by an Islamist. RIP.
https://x.com/greg_price11/status/2032235907269513698?s=20
I’ve posted this update.
Thank you Kate, I keep forgetting to use the (sarc) often enough.
Thank you Kate. I don’t have a good sarcasm detector. I live in SW Michigan.
@neo: [Jalloh] apparently was radicalized by listening to recorded sermons of al Qaeda’s Anwar al-Awlaki…
Who was such a bad Muslim actor that even Obama thought it best to drone him.
___________________________________
Anwar al-‘Awlaqi … was an American-Yemeni Islamic cleric and lecturer. He was assassinated in Yemen in 2011 by a U.S. drone strike ordered by President Barack Obama. Al-Awlaki was the first U.S. citizen to be targeted and assassinated by a U.S. government drone strike. Al-Awlaki, a dual citizen of the U.S. and Yemen, was a key organizer for the Islamist militant group al-Qaeda.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anwar_al-Awlaki
___________________________________
His wiki page shows he was charismatic and connected to all sorts of bad, nasty people.
This is 3 fairly recently with Allah Hoodie shooter.
These, so far, have been what look like “lone wolf” attacks: random disaffected individuals acting independently.
I wouldn’t rule out that they may be part of a larger whole, but even as just “disaffected individuals” they’re providing testing of the attack surface which may be useful to anyone who is planning some sort of action, whether that action is only other “random disaffected individuals” or some coordinated group effort.
I went to grad school at the University of Michigan, when Hamtramck was still Polish, and Dearborn’s Arab population was still mostly Christian (though at that point, barely; many families had moved out to Farmington Hills and other northern suburbs of Detroit.).
But I was at U of M during the time when the children and grandchildren of the Christian Arabs who fled to Dearborn forgot exactly why it was they fled: They welcomed the descendants of the people who had persecuted their parents and grandparents. I shook my head. I took a lot of classes in the Near Eastern Studies department. In classes with the woke Christian Arabs, they were antagonistic (at best) towards Jews and Israelis, and very palsy with the Moslem Arabs.
(My parents had lived in Detroit in the 1950’s and they knew some Syrians and Lebanese Christians from Dearborn — and it was pretty much ALL Christian back then — who told them what they had experienced in their former homelands that caused them to flee. My parents shared those stories with me. But apparently, the Syrian and Lebanese Christians didn’t share it with their children and grandchildren.)
I wonder how those now middle-aged Christians feel now.
Lee Also: I grew up in that area. There’s a large Chaldean (Catholic, Aramaic-speaking) community there. They seemed like good people. As you say, there wasn’t much of a Muslim presence, but that has obviously changed in the last 30-40 years.
Cavendish wrote: “I wouldn’t rule out that they may be part of a larger whole …”
I would say that they definitely are part of a larger whole, and that whole is called Islam.
These attacks were likely not centrally coordinated, but Muslim leaders like Al-Awlaki call for such freelance jihadist attacks. Or as Bin Laden put it in its famous fatwa:
_______________________________
Jihad Against Jews and Crusaders
World Islamic Front Statement
23 February 1998
On that basis, and in compliance with Allah’s order, we issue the following fatwa to all Muslims:
The ruling to kill the Americans and their allies — civilians and military — is an individual duty for every Muslim who can do it in any country in which it is possible to do it, in order to liberate the al-Aqsa Mosque and the holy mosque [Mecca] from their grip, and in order for their armies to move out of all the lands of Islam, defeated and unable to threaten any Muslim.
This is in accordance with the words of Almighty Allah, “and fight the pagans all together as they fight you all together,” and “fight them until there is no more tumult or oppression, and there prevail justice and faith in Allah.”
–Osama Bin laden, “Jihad Against Jews and Crusaders”
https://irp.fas.org/world/para/docs/980223-fatwa.htm
I had a Jewish MD friend who took a hospital position in Dearborn 30 years ago. He was pretty Jewish, kept Kosher. He was pretty unhappy as a Doc in Dearborn–too many ardent Muslims– and eventually fled to Chicago. An outstanding physician.
The day cannot come too soon, that it is recognized Islam is an ideology, a false religion which strives to oppress the unbelievers. And what will happen then ?
known wolves like aulaqi who still ‘inspires’ some 15 years after his droning, the list of those he was a muse to, are probably as large as qutb himself, it was said, he was allowed to read ‘milestones’ in the Sanaa prison, where he was a guest, I dubbed the place ‘the Palace of Fear’ in my book, as I deconstructed the cargo bomb plot, that arose out of Yemen, and how that might have been uncovered,(it has been wrappe in a wilderness of mirrors) and who might have burnt the asset, it was Al Quds Brennan who showed a high sympathy for Shia as well as Sunni militants his memoir deprived of security clearance tidbits was dry as dishwater,
The fellow from Dearborn, Ghazaleh,(sic) was naturalized in this country, in the tail end of the Obama era, when the likes of Brennan were at the top of the power pyramid in this country, he thought there was such a thing as Moderate Hezbollah, Dearborn as noted is a known enclave of Shia radicalism, some of whom were empowered by the Iraq intervention