Terrorism in Seattle: White House Dodges Crucial Question

At yesterday’s White House Press briefing Les Kinsolving asked a question that many are asking themselves:

Last Friday a Muslim American denouncing Jews and Israel took a 13 year old girl hostage at the Jewish federation center in Seattle and shot 6 women 1 of them dead, yet the FBI and other law enforcement authorities refuse to call this terrorism.  The president says we’re in a war on terrorism.  Can you or the president better define terrorism so that the American people can understand just who or what it is we’re fighting?

Snow replied:

Les, I hate to use the murder of innocents as an attempt to make a debating point about it and I’m not going to do it.

Debating point?  In dodging the question the White House missed an opportunity to provide much needed clarity about the enemy America faces in its war with Militant Islam.

Video: You can watch the footage of the exchange by entering “rtsp://video.c-span.org/60days/whpb080206.rm” in your web browser and forwarding to the 21:11 mark.

From Cox and Forkum: