House Appropriations subcommittee chairman Rep. Frank Wolf called Tuesday for Attorney General Eric Holder to investigate the Oklahoma beheading as an act of terrorism.
Wolf chairs the Appropriations subcommittee on commerce, justice, science and related agencies, which funds Holder’s Justice Department. Wolf wrote in a letter to Holder, obtained by The Daily Caller, that the Justice Department must not allow “political correctness” to shape the prosecution of beheading suspect Alton Nolen. MSNBC host Melissa Harris-Perry recently called the beheading “workplace violence” and her panel criticized the “right-wing ideology” behind reports linking Nolen to Islamic terrorism. (RELATED: Oklahoma Woman Beheaded By Islam-Evangelizing Co-Worker)
TheDC reported that Nolen celebrated terrorists included Osama bin Laden and disparaged non-Muslims on Facebook. (RELATED: ‘SHARIA LAW IS COMING’)
“Later today, the Cleveland County, Oklahoma district attorney’s office is expected to seek charges of murder and assault with a deadly weapon against Alton Nolen for his beheading of a woman and stabbing of another at a food processing plant in Oklahoma last week,” Wolf wrote. “I am writing today to urge the Justice Department to continue to investigate this decapitation as terrorism and not be quick to just dismiss this as “workplace violence,” as this administration notoriously did in the case of the 2009 terrorist attack on Fort Hood, which left 13 dead and more than 30 wounded.”
“It has been reported that over the past two years Nolen was becoming radicalized…it is more important than ever for you to make clear to the department’s agents and attorneys that this is, in fact, terrorism and to determine whether this or other plots are part of an effort by the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS) or al Qaeda to radicalize Americans and direct attacks in the U.S. Whether the Nolen investigation ultimately shows that he communicated directly with terrorists abroad or was independently inspired by the recent ISIS beheading videos, there is no question that this attack represents a direct threat from radicalized Islamist extremists to the American people.”
“We owe it to Traci Johnson and the family of Colleen Hufford to acknowledge this brutal killing as an act of terror committed by a man radicalized and influenced by terrorist groups like al Qaeda and ISIS,” Wolf continued. “The department also has an obligation to ensure it never again repeats the mistakes of Fort Hood by allowing political correctness to prevent action from being taken to stop a would-be jihadist.”