BY
This is the quality of analysis that we have at the highest
levels of the FBI and other agencies. No wonder we are in the fix we’re in.
“CNN Analyst Unsure
If Mass Shooter Muhammad Youssef Abdulazeez’s Name is Muslim,” by Matthew
Balan, Newsbusters, July 16,
2015:
On Thursday’s The Lead, CNN analyst
Tom Fuentes was unwilling to conclude that the perpetrator of a mass shooting
against servicemen in Chattanooga, Tennessee was Muslim. John Berman asked the
former FBI assistant director, “Now that we have the name [Muhammad Youssef
Abdulazeez], the key questions are what?” Fuentes replied, “I know…what the
name sounds like, but we
don’t know that it’s a Muslim name. We know it’s an Arabic name.
We don’t know what this individual was believing in, and that’s what they’re
going to be trying to determine.” [video below]
Minutes earlier,
Berman brought on Juliette Kayyem, a former assistant secretary of homeland
security, and made a much more conclusive statement: “I got to state the obvious
here…this is a Muslim name, Muhammad Youssef Abdulazeez.”
Kayyem, who is of Lebanese Christian descent, confirmed that this was the case,
and provided some background:
JOHN BERMAN: I want
to bring in our security analysts: Juliette Kayyem, a homeland security
analyst; former Massachusetts homeland security advisor; and federal homeland
security advisor – Harry Houck, former cop, security advisor to us as well –
CNN analyst. I got to state the obvious here: this is a name – this is a Muslim
name, Muhammad Youssef Abdulazeez-
JULIETTE KAYYEM,
FORMER ASST. SECY., DEPT. OF HOMELAND SECURITY: Yes–
BERMAN: Does that
change the nature of this investigation?
KAYYEM: Well, change
– we just don’t know where it began, so ‘change’ is a strong word. It does,
obviously, make people concerned – both about other domestic ties – are there
others that he was affiliated with? And then, of course international ones….