Tuesday, January 18, 2022
Jewish leaders call FBI comments on Texas hostages ‘insulting’
Jewish leaders ripped the FBI on Monday and said the bureau "got it wrong" when they said the terrorist who took hostages at a Texas synagogue didn't make demands that were "specifically related to the Jewish community," reports said.
FBI Special Agent in Charge Matt DeSarno made the comments late Saturday when addressing reporters after four people, including a rabbi, were taken hostage at Congregation Beth Israel in Colleyville by British national Malik Faisal Akram.
DeSarno noted that Akram was specifically focused on Aafia Siddiqui, a Pakistani neuroscientist who was convicted in Manhattan federal court in 2010 of trying to kill US authorities in Afghanistan, and his primary demand was her immediate release from prison.
"We do believe from our engagement with this subject that he was singularly focused on one issue, and it was not specifically related to the Jewish community. But we are continuing to work to find [the] motive," DeSarno said.
Kenneth Marcus, founder and chairman of the Louis D. Brandeis Center for Human Rights Under Law, said "the FBI got it wrong" and the attack was "obviously a matter of anti-Semitism."
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