Patrick Poole:
Yesterday, I was providing live updates here at PJ Media on what was known about the terror attack in New York City that killed 8 people and injured 15:
5 of the people killed in NYC attack were Argentine tourists in town for a 30-year high school reunion, foreign ministry says
H/t @dpoliti pic.twitter.com/cNVahmGwrv— Ernesto Londoño (@londonoe) November 1, 2017
NYC Terror Attack: Four still in critical condition https://t.co/MkLhIN46hb pic.twitter.com/w5khor5ksM
— NorthJersey.com (@northjersey) November 1, 2017
Now, law enforcement sources are telling the media that the attacker, Uzbekistan native Sayfullo Saipov, was previously known to authorities for his direct ties to other terrorism suspects under investigation. This makes the attack yet another case of what I have termed “Known Wolf” terrorism. Virtually every terror attack carried out in the United States in recent years was committed by individuals already known to authorities:
LATEST: NYC terror suspect had come up in prior counter-terror probes as “possible associate," law enforcement officials tell @ABC. pic.twitter.com/fPKY1vLkFf
— ABC News (@ABC) November 1, 2017
ABC News is reporting that Saipov was questioned by Homeland Security in 2015:
The suspected New York City attacker, Sayfullo Saipov, was interviewed in 2015 by federal agents in the Department of Homeland Security Investigations Unit about possible ties to suspected terrorists, but the agents did not have enough evidence to open a case on him, laws enforcement officials tell ABC News.
Saipov’s name and address was listed as a “point of contact” for two different men whose names were entered into the Counterterrorism and Criminal Exploitation Unit’s list after they came to the United States from “threat countries,” one federal official told ABC News.
One of the two men has vanished and is being actively sought by federal agents as a “suspected terrorist.”
Why did the FBI never open a case file when they knew he was directly tied to two terrorism targets? Doesn’t being the point of contact for two terror suspects at least warrant some degree of law enforcement attention?
And, having been questioned by Homeland Security, why wasn’t his Diversity Visa revisited?
ABC news again reports:
Investigators searching Saipov’s online activities have found social media links to people who are or were subjects of terror investigations, sources said; however, it appears that the suspect found ISIS propaganda online and was not part of a terror cell.
Knowing that he was directly tied to two terror suspects, how can law enforcement conclude he was not part of a terror cell?
This is what makes Governor Cuomo’s comments calling Saipov a “lone wolf” yesterday so laughable:
.@NYGovCuomo on 'lone wolf' terrorists: "They're harder to police, they're harder to stop… they're harder to anticipate." pic.twitter.com/pjX8ttCLUA
— FOX Business (@FoxBusiness) November 1, 2017
Lone wolf? How much more “Known Wolf” could Saipov get?
There are now reports that he had a picture of an ISIS flag in the vehicle, as well as statements in Arabic and a pledge of allegiance to the Islamic State: