If today’s murder of American soldiers in Frankfurt had occurred in the United States, within ten minutes of the first news report, a Homeland Security spokescreature would have reassured the public with this statement:
“This incident had no connection with terrorism.”
This is what always happens. DHS supplies its press officers with little cards that have the words pre-printed on them, so they can be kept handy when news of the latest Islamic bloodbath comes down the wire.
And, true to form, the German security services chimed in with their own version of the same lines, right on cue:
The German news agency DAPD quoted Rhein, the security minister who rushed to the scene of the shooting, as saying there were no indications of a terrorist attack.
Well, of course there was no terrorism. If “Allahu akhbar!” and thirteen dead at Ft. Hood didn’t amount to terrorism, how could this one be terrorism?
And, yes, Allahu you-know-what was prominent in Frankfurt today. According to no less an authority than The New York Times:
A man whose office is near the site of the shooting, speaking on condition of anonymity to protect his business, said witnesses told him that before opening fire the gunman shouted “God is great” in Arabic. Mr. Füllhardt said he could not confirm such reports.
The customary phrase (“Allahu akhbar”) does not actually mean “God is great”, but “God is greatest”. But we’ll let that pass.
ABC News has a slightly different angle:
When he opened fire, the gunman shouted “Allah Akbar,” according to sources. He fired nine times, killing two and critically wounding two others before the gun jammed and he was subdued by other passengers. While being wrestled into submission, the suspect shouted either “Jihad Jihad” or “Allah Akbar,” sources said.
In other words, if the gun hadn’t jammed, even more people would have been killed in this not-a-terrorist attack.
So if it wasn’t terrorism, what was it?
- If you’re Angela Merkel, it was a “terrible event”.
- If you’re Bajram Rexhepi, Interior Minister of Kosovo, it was “a devastating and a tragic event”.
- And if you’re Barack Obama, you’ll “spare no effort” in investigating the slayings.
I have only one thing to add to all this: The killer was a deranged loner.
Oh, and also a member of a tiny minority of extremists.
And besides, what he did has nothing to do with the real Islam.
Not only that, what about the Crusades?
The shooter’s name is Arif Uka, an Albanian of Kosovar descent who was born in Germany. And according to his uncle — who still lives in Kosovo — Mr. Uka is a “devout Muslim”:
MITROVICA, Kosovo — The gunman suspected of killing U.S. airmen outside Frankfurt airport is a German-born devout Muslim who works at the airport, according his uncle.
In an interview with The Associated Press in Kosovo, 70-year-old Rexhep Uka said the suspected gunman — Arid Uka — was born and raised in Germany after his parents moved there from Kosovo about 40 years ago.
The uncle says Arid is a pious Muslim whose grandfather was a religious leader at a mosque in the village of Zhabar, near Mitrovica, Kosovo.
Murat Uka, who identified himself as the alleged shooter’s father, says the only thing he knew about his son was that he hadn’t turned up at work on Wednesday.
The Frankfurt airport refused to comment on whether the suspect worked there.
[…]
In Washington, President Barack Obama promised to “spare no effort” in investigating the slayings.
The attack came as the bus sat outside the airport’s Terminal 2, according to Frankfurt police spokesman Manfred Fuellhardt. The bus driver and a passenger were killed, one person suffered serious wounds and another light injuries, he said.
The attacker and U.S. military personnel apparently had an altercation in front of the bus just before the man started shooting, Fuellhardt said. The attacker also briefly entered the bus, and was apprehended by police when he tried to escape.
The U.S. has drastically reduced its forces in Germany over the last decade, but still has some 50,000 troops stationed here. It operates several major facilities in the Frankfurt region, including the Ramstein Air Base, which is often used as a logistical hub for operations in Afghanistan and Iraq.
U.S. Air Force Europe spokeswoman Maj. Beverly Mock said all four victims were airmen. They were based in Britain, a U.S. Air Force spokesman for the Lakenheath airfield in eastern England said.
Lakenheath is home to the 48th Fighter Wing, the only F-15 fighter wing in Europe. It employs some 4,500 active-duty military members, as well as 2,000 British and U.S. civilians.
In Berlin, German Chancellor Angela Merkel expressed sympathy for the victims and their families and pledged that Germany would do everything in its power to investigate the crime.
“It is a terrible event,” she said.
The German news agency DAPD quoted Rhein, the security minister who rushed to the scene of the shooting, as saying there were no indications of a terrorist attack.
There was only one official who dared to use the T-word (nobody used the I-word) to refer to the attack, Congressman Patrick Meehan (R-Pa.):
Still, a member of the U.S. House Homeland Security Committee, Rep. Patrick Meehan, said in Washington that it looked like a terrorist attack. The chairman of the subcommittee that focuses on terrorism and intelligence added he did not have all the facts yet and was still being briefed.
And government officials in Kosovo are mystified and perplexed:
Kosovo Interior Minister Bajram Rexhepi identified the suspect as Arif Uka, a Kosovo citizen from the northern town of Mitrovica.
“This is a devastating and a tragic event,” Rexhepi said. “We are trying to find out whether this was something that was organized or what was the nature of the attack.”
The bus was transporting a Security Forces team assigned to RAF Lakenheath, U.K., from the airport to Ramstein. They were on their way to support overseas military operations.
As Muslim terrorist attacks scale up — which they inevitably must — I’ll be interested to see how long it will be before the “no connection to terrorism” mantra falters. The U.S. government will probably stick with it long after the bodies really begin to pile up.
If we caught Osama bin Laden with his finger poised over a big red button labeled “Nuclear Bomb”, we might — just might — call it “a terrorist incident”.
But not before then. And it would still have nothing to do with the real Islam.
Hat tips: Andy Bostom and Vlad Tepes.
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