After listening to a recording bombing suspect Mark Conditt made a day before his death, Interim Austin Police Chief Brian Manley said he never mentioned anything about terrorism... Retired FBI agent Jim Ellis spoke to CBS Austin as to why investigators didn’t label Conditt’s violence as an act of terror. “When you use the word terrorism, it’s a shock word," he said. Ellis said law enforcement typically defines terrorism as the unlawful use of force or violence against people or places to intimidate a government or its citizens to further specific political or social objectives.