A CNN terrorism analyst suggested on Tuesday that the Islamic terrorist who carried out a truck attack in New York City that killed at least eight people was motivated because of a traffic ticket he got in 2016 – despite the fact that the FBI interviewed him for terrorism in 2015.
Paul Cruickshank made the remarks about foreign national Sayfullo Saipov on Twitter and on television while speaking to CNN’s Wolf Blitzer during a segment of The Situation Room.
“I understand from the complaint that he was planning some type of attack in the United States for one year, which takes us all the way back to last November,” Cruickshank said. “Last November, he was actually forced to pay a fine for a traffic citation.”
Then Cruickshank directly implied that the traffic ticket might have “triggered” the deadly terrorist attack.
“There was perhaps, a sort of grievance attached to that,” the analyst claimed. “A brush with the law can really help trigger a move towards wanting to launch an attack.”
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Any doubt as to whether Cruickshank was implying that a traffic ticket sparked a major terrorist attack was removed when Cruickshank tweeted out his “analysis.”
During the segment on CNN, Cruickshank did go on to briefly mention other factors, including Islamic terrorism, ISIS propaganda, and his hatred of the United States.