Rep. Judd Matheny
The murders by Mohammed Youssef Abdulazeez last week in Chattanooga should, sadly, not be a surprise to most of Tennessee’s leadership.
A discernible pattern is emerging and there is no question that Tennessee is not immune. Rather, some terrorism experts believe Tennessee is a target.
A recent article at politico.com makes it clear that select Tennessee youth are targets for jihadists: “Tennessee Is the Capital of American Jihad And it didn’t start last week”.
Our terrorist problem in Tennessee has an added dimension; silence, inertia, or deliberate avoidance by many in our political leadership to the realities of the soft infiltration into Tennessee by individuals and institutions that have documented links to terrorist organizations.
Enough is Enough.
In September 2012, I met with Governor Haslam and others in his office and, based on the knowledge I learned from previous security briefings and from researching the material support bill, I urged them to expedite state efforts to prepare for the possibility of an attack in Tennessee.
In the same meeting, I also warned of possible financial activities in Tennessee that were funding Mid East and Tennessee based jihadist activities. Later I submitted to the governor’s office thoroughly researched and documented data of this. It was, based on my experience as a law enforcement veteran and on my thorough education in Islamic money laundering, more than enough data to warrant an investigation. To my knowledge, as of today no investigation has been undertaken. The data is still as viable as it was three years ago.
After I expressed both concerns, Governor Haslam responded to me that his security agencies informed him that the threat of white supremacists operating in Tennessee far exceeded any threats from Islamic terrorists so he believed that I owed the Muslim community an apology. I didn’t and I don’t. The Chattanooga murders prove me out.
Enough is Enough.
We must immediately begin using the law enforcement tools - both criminal and civil - that we have put into state law specifically to pursue, on a systemic basis, the infrastructure that supports these threats in our state. These bills were passed overwhelmingly by the General Assembly and signed by Governor Haslam.
Based on my law enforcement experience, I well understand the difficulty in finding specific individuals determined to create violence before they execute their plans. But we can and should investigate and prosecute the known and the to-be-discovered sources these individuals use to develop their plans for terrorist violence.
Governor, leadership would have been to start a serious look into Tennessee’s terrorism risk factors and to keep your 2010 campaign promise “that we each have the right guaranteed by our Constitution to keep and bear arms.” Expediting 2nd amendment rights at that time would have probably expanded firearm carry permitting to a broader segment of Tennesseans, possibly including the jihadist victims and the state military. Instead of demonstrating that level of trust in Tennesseans, you stopped, pushed back, or threatened to veto most of the gun bills the General Assembly has presented to you.
Enough is Enough.
If Carlos Bledsoe wasn’t a wake-up call, Mohammed Youssef Abdulazeez certainly is. As one of the primary authors of the two material support laws signed by Governor Haslam, I renew my offer to assist our law enforcement and safety personnel in training in the specifics of the two laws to insure strong and accurate enforcement. I also renew my call that I made to the governor earlier this week in a private letter to reach out to me and other security experts in Tennessee to assist him in developing strategies that make Tennessee a proactive state in addressing terrorism instead of the reactive state we are today.
Enough is Enough.