“Michigan man” Ayman Ghazali had mass murder on his mind and all the equipment necessary to commit it when he plowed into Temple Israel in West Bloomfield, Michigan on March 12. In doinog so, he was inspired by Hezbollah to kill as many Jews as possible. He assidously sought out the site and gathered the means. On Monday Detroit FBI Special Agent in Charge called a press conference to lay out the evidence compiled in the course of the investigation. Interim United States Attorney for the Eastern District of Michigan Jerome Gorgon also spoke at the press conference along with the West Bloomfield police chief.
The 35-minute press conference is posted in full here on YouTube. SAC Runyan speaks for the first 17 minutes or so. Gorgon picks up from there for the following several minutes. I recommend a viewing of their prepared remarks in full (about 25 mintues).
The brief AP video summary is below. It doesn’t do justice to the evidence laid out at the press conference. Batya Ungar-Sargon expands on the press conference and comments on the mainstream media’s treatment of Ghazali’s efforts here at her Substack site.
Mr. Gorgon specifically invoked the horrendous 1983 Hezbollah attack on American forces in Beirut that killed 241 Marines: “Remember that the terrorist in 1983 drove a truck loaded with explosives into a building to kill Americans. That is exactly what this terrorist did a few weeks ago in our back yard….” Funny, not funny — I haven’t seen this quoted in the news accounts.
He further stated that Ghazali performed the acts in issue under Hezbollah’s direction and control. On this point he added: “I’ve seen some odd attempts to explain away or even lessen this terrorist attack by claiming that he was an isolated lone wolf, but that is misleading.” He goes on to explain why he said so.
Incidentally, the FBI translates Ghazali’s messages as variously seeking to muder “Jews” or “Isralis.” To take only one example, in a message sent from the temple parking lot 10 minutes before his attack, the FBI renders Ghazali’s message as “This is the largest gathering place for Israelis in the State of Michigan.” I seriously doubt that “Israelis” is the proper translation of the term he used in this context. It appears at about 13:30 of video of the full conference. In any event, American Jews were his only target.
If Dearborn residents were saddened by the killing of Ayatollah Khameni, as stated behind closed doors by Democrat Michigan Senate candidate Abdul El-Sayed — and he should know — they must be inconsolable over the death of Ghazali and the miraculous failure of his March 12 project.
