Speaking at a press conference in New York Wednesday afternoon, FBI Director James Comey said Abdulazeez was inspired by terrorist organization propaganda.
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Comey said Islamic State has perfected the use of social media, and Twitter in particular, to contact potential followers in the United States and elsewhere.
His remarks came amid heightened concerns over national security, particularly in the wake of the IS-inspired attack in San Bernardino, California, and the 13 November terror attacks in Paris. Comey confirmed the gunman, Mohammod Youssuf Abdulazeez, was inspired by terrorist propaganda.
Squire K. Wells, Staff Sgt. David Wyatt and Sgt. Carson Holmquist were killed at Navy Operational Support Center Chattanooga on July 16, and Navy Logistics Specialist 2nd Class Randall Smith died July 18 from wounds sustained during the shooting.
Three others, including a sailor and a police officer, were wounded. Police killed Abdulazeez in a gunfight.
“Twitter works as a way to sell books, as a way to promote movies, and it works as a way to crowdsource terrorism – to sell murder”, Comey said. “This poses enormous challenges for all of us in law enforcement and counterterrorism”.
The FBI has termed the Hixson man who killed five military personnel in Chattanooga in a shooting rampage as a “homegrown violent extremist”. “We’ve investigated it from the beginning as a terrorist case”. “If somebody sees a change, or turn of behavior that is out of line, say something”, Comey said, referring to instances in which it was discovered that family, friends and neighbors ignored signs of radicalization.
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Unlike Al-Qaeda, which was more centralized and focused on major acts of terrorism, IS has “has become the leader in global jihad by this crowdsourcing of terrorism” through social media platforms, the Federal Bureau of Investigation chief said. “The situation we face is the most unsafe people to us that we are tracking disappear to us when they are in the the cusp of the most risky manifestation of their radicalization”.
