After it was revealed that the Muslim shooter who on Thursday murdered four US Marines in Chattanooga, Tennessee was the son of a man who previously was on the terrorist watch list, new details have surfaced about the father.
It has been widely reported that the shooter, Muhammod Youssuf Abdulazeez, was a naturalized American born in Kuwait.
While it's true his mother Rasmia Abdulazeez is from Kuwait, where Muhammod was born in 1990, multiple reports reveal that the attacker's father Youssuf Abdulazeez actually hailed from Shechem (Nablus) in Samaria, a city under Palestinian Authority (PA) control.
Apparently Abdulazeez the father traveled to Kuwait where he married and had Muhammod, before the family relocated to the US.
The Palestinian connection was also demonstrated by pictures posted on Facebook recently by Muhammod's family member, either a sister or cousin, who put up an image featuring a fist grasping a loudspeaker in the colors of the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) flag with the words: "speak for Palestine!"
Abdulazeez lived with his parents in Hixson, Tennessee, located near Chattanooga where the shooting took place.
His father reportedly is employed by the City of Chattanooga Public Works Department and as of 2005 was appointed to be an unarmed special policeman by the Chattanooga City Council, reports Business Insider.
That comes despite the fact that Youssuf Abdulazeez was investigated several years ago for donating money to an organization possibly connected to a foreign terrorist organization. He was on a terrorist watch list and even was questioned during a trip out of the country, but eventually his name was taken off the terrorist list.
Experts have said the attack by the 24-year-old Abdulazeez fits the mold of attacks Islamic State (ISIS) has called for, althoughFBI officials on Thursday night said they don't have "anything that directly ties" the attacker to any foreign terrorist organizations.
The attacker, seen driving an open-top Ford Mustang, first went to a joint military recruiting center in a strip mall and sprayed it with gunfire, riddling the glass facade with bullet holes. He then drove off to a Naval Reserve Center about 6 miles away, fatally shooting the four Marines before being shot and killed in a firefight with police.
Abdulazeez's Palestinian connection is particularly notable given the similarities of his attack on an army base with the 2009 deadly shooting rampage at the Fort Hood army base, conducted by Palestinian American Army Major Nidal Hasan.
Hasan admitted to conducting the shooting as an Islamist terror attack, during which he shouted "Allahu Akbar" (Allah is greater), although initial government reports on the attack played it down as a case of "workplace violence."
It was revealed by the counter-terror SITE Intelligence Group that Abdulazeez this week uploaded two blog posts about Islam, describing life as "short and bitter" in one, and warning Muslims not to miss "the opportunity to submit to Allah" in the other.