Why Were Authorities So Evasive About the Synagogue Gunman’s Motive?

Actual statements from our president, midday Sunday:

Q    Mr. President, do you know more about the motivations of the person?

THE PRESIDENT:  No, I don’t.  I — there’s speculation, but I’m not going to get into that.  I will — I’m going to have a press conference on Wednesday, and I’ll be happy to go into detail of what I know in detail at that time.

Q    Do you know why he targeted that specific synagogue, Mr. President?

THE PRESIDENT:  Well, no, I don’t.  We don’t have — I don’t think there is sufficient information to know about why he targeted that synagogue or why he insisted on the release of someone who’s been in prison for over 10 years, why he was engaged — why he was using antisemitic and anti-Israeli comments.  I — we just don’t have enough facts.

Biden says the gunman’s motivation was a mystery, and then mentions that he was “using anti-Semitic and anti-Israeli comments.” Call me crazy, but I think the antisemitic and anti-Israeli comments might give a hint as to his motivation!

The hostage-taker called for the release of Aafia Siddiqui, a Pakistani neuroscientist who was found guilty in 2010 of attempting to kill U.S. military officers while in custody in Afghanistan in 2008, a law enforcement official told the Associated Press. Siddiqui was sentenced to 86 years in prison and is currently imprisoned at Carswell Air Force Base, near Fort Worth.

Why on earth did Matthew DeSarno, the special agent in charge of the FBI Dallas Field Office, initially say, “we do believe from our engagement with this subject that he was singularly focused on one issue, and it was not specifically related to the Jewish community. But we are continuing to work to find motive”? (Thankfully the FBI backtracked and issued an updated statement declaring, “this is a terrorism-related matter, in which the Jewish community was targeted, and is being investigated by the Joint Terrorism Task Force.”)

Who, or what, is served by contending that it is impossible to know the true motive of a gunman who attacks a synagogue and takes hostages and demands the release of a convicted al-Qaeda operative? Why is it so vertoben to say “jihadism” or “support for al-Qaeda and Islamist terror groups”? Why were authorities so reluctant to say antisemitism was a motive, as if the gunman had chosen to target a synagogue at random?

Is it that authorities are now so afraid of being accused of inciting anti-Muslim hate crimes that they are reluctant to acknowledge the obvious?

The quickest and easiest way to convince people that the threat of jihadism is much, much worse than they thought is for law-enforcement authorities to appear as though they’re hiding something or afraid to speak the truth.