House Terrorism Report Leaves Out Charleston Shooting

Last week, Dylann Roof walked into the Emanuel African Methodist Episcopal Church in Charleston, S.C., sat for an hour, and then pulled out a gun and methodically killed nine black parishioners. According to a new House Homeland Security Committee report, this is not an act of terror.

The committee’s chairman, Rep. Mike McCaul (R-Texas), released the report late last week documenting terrorist plots and attacks against the United States and Western targets so far this year. He included the June 18 arrest  — a day after the Charleston shooting — of Samuel Rahamin Topaz, from New Jersey, who was charged with planning to travel to Syria to join the Islamic State. He also lists a string of arrests and incidents related to the terrorist group.

The Charleston attack isn’t included in McCaul’s list. Roof wasn’t inspired by the Islamic State; a website he owned showed that he was motivated by racial hatred.

McCaul’s office didn’t return a request for comment on why Roof was left out of the report.

Roof’s actions have fueled a debate over how the United States defines what is a terrorist act. Some, including Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.), have suggested that Roof was mentally unstable; he didn’t call him a terrorist. However, others, including GOP presidential contender Rick Santorum, have labeled the massacre an act of terror.

“I don’t think there’s any question when someone comes into a church for the reasons of racism and hate that they’re trying to terrorize people,” Santorum said Sunday. “I mean I don’t think there’s any question that this is an act of terrorism. And it’s as purely evil as we’ve seen in this country in a long, long time.”

However, FBI Director James Comey wouldn’t label the shooting terrorism.

“Terrorism is act of violence done, or threatens to, in order to try to influence a public body or citizenry, so it’s more of a political act. And again, based on what I know so [far] I don’t see it as a political act,” Comey said Saturday in Baltimore.

However, that statement doesn’t seem to agree with the FBI’s own definition of terrorism. Feds define a terrorist act as “the unlawful use of force or violence against persons or property to intimidate or coerce a government, the civilian population, or any segment thereof in furtherance of political or social objectives.”

Given what’s known about Roof’s motivations — in his online manifesto, he says he wanted to take revenge for black acts of violence — his actions seem to fit the FBI’s criteria. He calls African Americans “the biggest problem for Americans” and seems determined to alter the American cultural landscape.

“Our culture has been adopted by everyone in the world. This makes us feel as though our culture isnt [sic] special or unique,” Roof wrote.

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