Letter to the Editor: Julia Lutch

This weekend, the special agent in charge of the FBI’s Dallas field office said the synagogue hostage-taker “was singularly focused on one issue, and it was not specifically related to the Jewish community.”

The mind reels. The hostage-taker was heard on live stream demanding the release of the convicted terrorist Aafia Siddiqui, who demanded that jurors in her trial be DNA tested to prove they weren’t Jewish. The FBI actually tried to sell us a narrative in which a hostage-taking at a synagogue during Shabbat services was not specifically related to Jews.

This ridiculous narrative damaged what is left of FBI credibility so seriously that on Monday, January 17, the FBI issued a completely different statement recognizing the obvious: “This is a terrorism-related matter, in which the Jewish community was targeted, and is being investigated by the Joint Terrorism Task Force.”

The FBI has not reported that Malik Akram, the hostage-taker, shot himself. But he is dead, which leaves the FBI as responsible.

There was no need to shoot Akram unless someone didn’t want a trial in which “inconvenient” evidence and testimony would be documented, which would likely be specifically related to the Jewish community. No need to construct a politically required narrative if you conveniently bury the situation.

Julia Lutch, Davis, CA