Sikh Temple Investigated As Domestic Terrorism, Ft. Hood Shooting Is Still Just “Work Place Violence”

Image Credit: Mike De Sisti/Journal Sentinal

They’ve identified the shooter in the Sikh temple shooting in Oak Creek, Wisconsin. From Fox News:

CUDAHY, Wis. – The man authorities say killed six in a Milwaukee-area Sikh temple before police shot him was a heavily-tattooed, 40-year-old ex-Army soldier, sources told Fox News, but what triggered his rampage remains unclear.

Sources identified the dead suspect as Wade Michael Page, who was at one time attached to the Fort Bragg Army installation in North Carolina. Local authorities have scheduled a 10 a.m. press conference, where more details may emerge about Page and what the FBI is treating as an act of domestic terrorism in the temple, in the Milwaukee suburb of Oak Creek. Six people were killed and four wounded, including a police officer, before the man being identified as Page was shot dead by a police officer.

Satwant Kaleka, president of the temple, was one of those killed. Sources told Fox News he attempted to tackle the suspect as he sprayed gunfire inside the temple

Last night the L.A. Times reoorted:

Tattoos on the body of the slain Sikh temple gunman and certain biographical details led the FBI to treat the attack at a Milwaukee-area temple as an act of domestic terrorism, officials said Sunday.

Stacy McCain gathered up a collection of local reports showing what was known (and not known) about the deceased subject. For the most part it turned out to be pretty accurate.

It’s safe to say at this point that the shooter doesn’t appear to be an extremist, but rather a somewhat down on his luck ex-military guy in his early 40’s who just broke up with his girlfriend.

Now we may find out the perpetrator here was some sort of white supremacist or skinhead, but I’m operating from the position that the more we learn about the shooter the more troubled he’s going to sound. Given all that, let’s compare with this:

Sen. Susan Collins on Wednesday blasted the Defense Department for classifying the Fort Hood massacre as workplace violence and suggested political correctness is being placed above the security of the nation’s Armed Forces at home.

During a joint session of the Senate and House Homeland Security Committee on Wednesday, the Maine Republican referenced a letter from the Defense Department depicting the Fort Hood shootings as workplace violence. She criticized the Obama administration for failing to identify the threat as radical Islam.

“The documents attached illustrate how the Department is dealing with the threat of violent Islamist extremism in the context of a broader threat of workplace violence,” read the letter, which was obtained by Fox News.

Thirteen people were killed and dozens more wounded at Fort Hood in 2009, and the number of alleged plots targeting the military has grown significantly since then. Lawmakers said there have been 33 plots against the U.S. military since Sept. 11, 2001, and 70 percent of those threats have been since mid-2009. Major Nidal Hasan, a former Army psychiatrist, who is being held for the attacks, allegedly was inspired by radical U.S.-born cleric Anwar al-Awlaki, who was killed in a U.S. drone strike in Yemen in late September. The two men exchanged as many as 20 emails, according to U.S. officials, and Awlaki declared Hasan a hero.

The chairman of the Senate Homeland Security Committee, Connecticut independent Sen. Joe Lieberman, said the military has become a “direct target of violent Islamist extremism” within the United States.

“The stark reality is that the American service member is increasingly in the terrorists’ scope and not just overseas in a traditional war setting,” Lieberman told Fox News before the start of Wednesday’s hearing.

Everyone except the Obama administration knows that Nidal Hasan was (and is) a terrorist.

The case in Oak Creek, Wisconsin, while tragic, just doesn’t seem like terrorism.

Update: Wade Michael Page was a member of a racist skinhead band, according to the Southern Poverty Law Center. More on that at Huffington Post.