On my old Typepad site, I picked up on the 2009 Little Rock murders perpetrated by Carlos Bledsoe, and so this afternoon was surprised to find the above video on YouTube featuring his father, Melvin.

Others who followed up on Little Rock found information relevant today to the Boston Marathon Bombing.  Here’s a gem from Pipeline News:

In a series of notes sent to the Memphis based newspaper, Commercial Appeal and also to Judge Herbert W. Wright, a Pulaski County Circuit Court judge, Muhammad provided great insight into his motivation for his rampage, which he claimed was Islamic law:

Below from these letters:

“…how I became Muslim. I don’t believe in the word “convert.” What I use “revert” because we Muslims believe that all mankind are born into Islam…I went to Yemen to learn, meaning more about Islam…Yemen is quoted from our beloved Prophet…as a place of faith and wisdom…it is one of the few places left in the Islamic world where people are actually still Muslims…[speaking of his source of income in Yemen]…I felt uncomfortable teaching the language of the Enemy to my brothers and sisters…my wife’s [he was married in Yemen] family is from Abyan…which was bombed by American drones…by O’l Uncle Sam…they claimed they targeted a meeting of the Mujahedeen…I read a statement from our Shaykh “Anwar Al Awlaki,” and he said that they killed 17 women and 23 kids…We want revenge…They kill our soldiers, we kill theirs, but if they bomb our women, children and elders Guess what? We’ll bomb theirs..the apostates of Yemeni government are true dogs. I wish I had some of their blood on my hands…”

From National Public Radio (NPR): “Islamic extremists preyed on his son and programmed him to hate Americans, Bledsoe said.”

From Huff Post College: ”

“This is a story that needs to get out. It’s here,” Long told the Associated Press. “Melvin didn’t raise his son to kill my son.”

The documentary has proved controversial however, because it places the blame for the attack squarely on radical Islam.

How did I miss this!?

The story has produced a documentary with a web presence: Losing Our Sons: An American Tragedy.

Here is the trailer:

From The Investigative Project on Journalism:

During an interrogation session, Muhammad told Little Rock police and the FBI that the shooting was a holy war and that he was not guilty of murder. “It’s an act of retaliation,” he said. “There’s a war going on,” he said.

Abdulhakim Mujahid Muhammad pleaded guilty in the murder of an Army recruit, the attempted murder of another, and numerous weapons violations in a Little Rock, Arkansas shopping center in 2009 and in return received the sentence of life in prison.

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Reference

Long, Daris.  “President Obama has a history of refusing to acknowledge terrorism.”  The Daily Caller, September 10, 2012.

Statement by Melvin Bledsoe, Father of Carlos Leon Bledsoe (aka) Abdul Hakim Mujahid Muhammad: “The Extent of Radicalization in the American Muslim Community and that Community’s Response.”  Committee on Homeland Security, US House of Representatives, Washington DC, March 10, 2011.

Wikipedia.  “2009 Little Rock recruiting office shooting”.