[Investors Bus Daily] The administration has quietly reversed itself and ruled last summer's mass shooting by a Tennessee Muslim an act of foreign-inspired terrorism, just like in San Bernardino. What took it so long?At the time of the deadly July attack on two U.S. military sites in Chattanooga, it was obvious to everyone but the Islamic apologists in the White House that shooter Mohammad Youssef Abdulazeez was on a terrorist mission.
Armed with high-powered rifles, the Islamic insurgent opened fire, first on a Marine recruiting office and then a nearby Naval base, killing five U.S. soldiers.
Within days, it became clear that Chattanooga was a planned assault by a devout Muslim inspired by Islamic terror groups like the Islamic State and al-Qaida. Abdulazeez had blogged about wanting to become a martyr fighting "jihad for the sake of Allah." He chose the Muslim holy month of Ramadan to fulfill his wish.
Abdulazeez was, like Fort Hood terrorist Maj. Nidal Hasan, inspired by the writings of late al-Qaida leader Anwar Awlaki.
Yet the administration went out of its way not to label Abdulazeez a terrorist or even call what he did an act of terrorism -- which meant that the five servicemen he gunned down wouldn't be eligible for the Purple Heart, and their families would be denied the financial benefits that go along with it.
The families of the Fort Hood victims endured the same injustice after President Obama refused to call the attack an act of terror, instead referring to it as "workplace violence." Under political pressure, federal investigators in Chattanooga described Abdulazeez, ridiculously, as a "homegrown violent extremist." After weeks of investigation, they still couldn't say if what he did was terrorism.
But now, five months later, the Navy has quietly posted a press release announcing that the Muslim who gunned down sailors was indeed a foreign-inspired terrorist, and that his victims will now qualify for Purple Hearts, something we argued for earlier this year.
The statement reversing the administration's earlier ruling that Abdulazeez was just another random mass shooter and not a terrorist was snuck out late Wednesday after news deadlines.
Will the White House press corps force Obama to publicly acknowledge in his own statement that this, too, was Islamic terrorism on his watch?