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Home Front: WoT
The Bureau of Missed Clues Strikes Again
2026-05-31
[GatesOfVienna] Failure to Anticipate Old Dominion Shooting Shows Glaring Holes in FBI’s Lackluster Approach to Counterterrorism

In March, Mohammed Bailor Jalloh
…36, previously in the Rantburg archives as Mohamed Bailor Jalloh, naturalized citizen of Sierra Leone, killed one in his second try for the glory of ISIS in a ROTC classroom in Old Dominion before the students killed him with their bare hands (and a knife)…
entered a classroom at Old Dominion University in Virginia and asked if it was a ROTC class. Upon learning that it was, he yelled "Allahu Akhbar" and started shooting. The jihad attack left the class instructor dead and two students maimed. Jalloh was subdued by students and killed by one with a knife.

Jalloh was convicted of a terrorism charge in 2017 and released from prison in December 2024, begging the questions: Was the Old Dominion attack preventable? Was Jalloh on the FBI’s radar? If not, why not?

After the attack, the Sharia TipSheet sent queries to the FBI National Press Office. THERE WAS NO RESPONSE to these critical questions:

  • Did the FBI monitor Mohammed Bailor Jalloh after he was released, as it has other convicted Lions of Islam in the past?

  • If not, why not?

  • If so, what did the monitoring consist of? [Editor’s Note: common techniques include tailing, communications monitoring, and financial tracking.]

  • Does the FBI currently monitor anyone convicted of terrorism charges after they are released from prison?

  • If so, what factors go into the decision to monitor certain individuals and not others?

  • Reportedly, the FBI used to monitor convicted Lions of Islam upon release. If the FBI stopped such monitoring, why?

  • Reportedly, the FBI is automatically notified by the Bureau of Prisons (BOP) when an inmate with a terrorism conviction is scheduled for release. Was the FBI notified of Jalloh’s release? If so, what did the FBI do with the information? If it is not the FBI’s job to monitor released terrorists, then why are you notified of their release?

  • Have any changes been made to monitoring policy as a result of this case? If not, why not?

The TipSheet informed the FBI the TipSheet would argue the Old Dominion case is another example of the FBI missing clues that could have prevented a terrorist attack on U.S. soil. Previous examples of the FBI missing clues include the Boston Marathon bombing and the San Bernardino and Orlando massacres. The FBI was asked whether it had anything to say in its defense.

Again the response was CRICKETS.

Despite ongoing statements of intent and actual attacks by jihadis, the FBI has missed clues in doctrinally-motivated terrorism plots, including the Boston Marathon bombing and the San Bernardino and Orlando massacres. Former FBI director Robert Mueller told Congress he was unaware that the Islamic Society of Boston had played a prominent role in the radicalization of the Tsarnaev brothers.

The TipSheet contends the repeated instances of missing clues is a result of the FBI’s purge of standard counterterrorism training materials in use before the introduction of the watered-down Countering Violent Extremism (CVE) approach in 2011. CVE homogenizes all domestic threats, placing Islamic jihadis on par with PETA activists. The purge of standard counterterrorism concepts and trainers is why the FBI missed clues in these spectacular jihad attacks. Federal personnel are no longer trained in Islamic war doctrine or in the means and methods of the massive jihadi network in the U.S. Couple this with other acts of unilateral disarmament — such as the order given to the late Philip Haney to destroy a database of potential jihadists targeting America — and the potential for devastation is self-evident. Haney wrote See Something, Say Nothing: A Homeland Security Officer Exposes the Government’s Submission to Jihad.

Other observers have criticized the FBI’s performance in the Old Dominion case, as well:

  • Phone records show Jalloh traveled to his gun supplier’s house, then to a mosque where he stayed more than nine hours.

  • The Justice Department knew in 2017 Jalloh viewed his terrorist activity in religious terms and as affording him a path to heaven. But this blaring ideological commitment apparently wasn’t enough to make Jalloh a priority for monitoring upon his release from prison in 2024.

  • The FBI has misplaced priorities, like chasing Catholics in Richmond, which is causing it to lose focus on what really matters.

The FBI is falling down on the job of counterterrorism. The FBI admitted as much in a report in 2020. The job of rectifying the situation begins with understanding the standard Islamic doctrines of world domination and violent mostly peaceful jihad as the means to achieve it. The FBI needs to jettison CVE, bring back proven counterterrorism techniques, and rehire the purged trainers who knew their stuff. It also needs to change its lackadaisical attitude toward Lions of Islam who are released from prison and monitor at least some of them on a selective basis. Otherwise, the nation can look forward to more missed clues, more Boston Marathon bombings, more Orlando and San Bernardino-style massacres, more Ft. Hood rampages, and more Old Dominion-type shootings. And it will be the FBI’s fault, no question. The Bureau is ideologically screwed up and can’t think it’s way out of a paper bag when comes to the existential threat Islam poses to the nation. The Bureau has had plenty of time to get its act together and must be held accountable.
Related:
Bailor Jalloh 03/16/2026 Campus shooter Mohamed Bailor Jalloh was a current student at Old Dominion University, man who sold him the gun arrested
Bailor Jalloh 03/15/2026 Jihad in America: The Michigan Attack
Bailor Jalloh 03/13/2026 Sometimes You Do Bring a Knife to a Gunfight: 2nd time ISIS jihadi attacks, kills one at Old Dominion U before being killed by ROTC cadet

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