Remember my random gallery of “lone” shooters?

One of the entries was this one:

Feb. 23, 1997
New York City
Abu Kamal, a Palestinian teacher shoots seven tourists on the 86th-floor observation deck of the Empire State Building, killing one. AP: “‘[He carried a note blaming the United States for using Israel as “an instrument’ against his people. The note found in Ali Hassan Abu Kamal’s pocket contains ‘rambling, angry stuff,’ and appears to contradict claims by the man’s family that the shooting had nothing to do with politics, a high-ranking police source said last night. The letter also expressed anger at France and England for using Israel as ‘an instrument’ against Palestinians, and indicated that Mr. Abu Kamal planned to vent his anger at the Empire State Building, the source said.’”

Well, Kamal’s family has finally acknowledged the truth to the NYDailyNews:

Ali Abu Kamal’s relatives say they are tired of lying about why the Palestinian opened fire on the observation deck of Empire State Building, killing a tourist and injuring six other people before committing suicide.

Kamal’s widow insisted after the shooting spree that the attack was not politically motivated. She said that her husband had become suicidal after losing $300,000 in a business venture.

But in a stunning admission, Kamal’s 48-year-old daughter Linda told the Daily News that her dad wanted to punish the U.S. for supporting Israel - and revealed her mom’s 1997 account was a cover story crafted by the Palestinian Authority.

“A Palestinian Authority official advised us to say the attack was not for political reasons because that would harm the peace agreement with Israel,” she told The News on Friday. “We didn’t know that he was martyred for patriotic motivations, so we repeated what we were told to do.”

But three days after the shootings, Kamal’s family got a copy of a letter that was found on his body, they said. The letter said he planned the violence as a political statement, his daughter said.

“When we wanted to clarify that to the media, nobody listened to us,” she said. “His goal was patriotic. He wanted to take revenge from the Americans, the British, the French and the Israelis.”

“We didn’t know that he was martyred for patriotic motivations, so we repeated what we were told to do.”

So the daughter, who refers to her murdering fanatical father as a martyr/patriot and admits her family took orders from the PA, is still living in America…why?!

Robert Spencer observes: “With all the talk these days about how terrible it is for some people to question whether or not the killer’s Islamic religion had anything to do with the Salt Lake City mall murders, this is an especially intriguing story.”

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Dan Riehl notes that Rudy Giuliani used the Kamal jihad attack to advocate for…more gun control.

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