Wednesday, June 22, 2016

Orlando and the Obama Administration's Farcical Obscurantism

By Kit

A week and a half ago, a few hours after midnight on Sunday, Omar Mateen entered The Pulse, a nightclub oriented towards gays, and opened fire. By the time he was taken down by the Orlando PD 3 hours later he had killed 49 of the revelers present and wounded nearly the same number. It is the worst mass shooting in American history (not carried out by the federal government) and, given the statements made by the mass shooter, the worst terrorist attack on US soil since September 11, the fifth major Radical Islamist attack in the West since Charlie Hebdo was hit almost a year ago.

While it is true there is no proof that he was directly linked to ISIS as they hate to be called, in that he never visited Syria and never received training from any members of ISIS he was clearly influenced by their views. Through it’s leader, Al-Baghdadi, and it’s official magazine it has called upon Muslims living in the “Crusader nations” (US, Europe, Canada, etcetera) who cannot travel to Syria to fight alongside the Islamic State there to carry out attacks upon non-believers with guns or, if they lack guns, then knives, rocks, and cars. They only request that before, during, or immediately after the attack you make a recorded statement declaring loyalty to the self-proclaimed caliph of the Islamic State, Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi.

Mr. Mateen, as New York Times’ reporter Rukmini Callimachi diligently noted in her various daily 50-tweet series, he knew the lingo; he plead allegiance to Al-Baghdadi in the terminology required by the Islamic State and, like the shooters at the Bataclan, called for the US to cease its bombing campaign in Iraq. Shortly after it was confirmed that he did indeed declare allegiance to Al-Baghdadi, the Islamic State’s official radio news agency proclaimed him “one of the soldiers of the caliphate of America.”

The evidence is undeniable: This was an Islamist terrorist attack. A lone wolf attack, but an attack nonetheless. He had a history of erratic and unstable behavior, it is true. But he seems to have been nowhere near as unstable as the Tuscon, Aurora, or Navy Yard shooters and hardly moreso than either Elliot Rodgers or Dylann Roof, both of whom were able base their crimes on clear-cut ideological pretexts that did not involve dream control, global currency conspiracies, or microwave emitters. But whereas the Left had no difficulty pinning to Elliot Rodgers and Dylan Roof the ideologies they promoted, with Mr. Marteen they are struggling.

Even while the BBC was calling this “America’s Bataclan,” that is, calling it an Islamic terror attack, our liberal media was busy trying to connect this to the gun rights lobby and Christian conservatives and, therefore, the American Right. Anderson Cooper hammered the Florida Attorney General for representing her state’s opposition to same-sex marriage while the New York Times ludicrously claimed that the Book of Romans in the Bible called for the killing of gays. Meanwhile, our president, used the attacks as a platform to engage in what Charles Cooke rightfully called “emotional blackmail” to call for gun control procedures that would never have stopped the gunman in the first place.

Background checks? He passed them when he bought them. Keep those on the No-Fly List and the Terror Watch List from buying guns? Not only was he given a pass by the FBI after two interviews but very (1) very few Americans are on those lists and (2) the former list involves only names such as Stephen Hayes and Ted Kennedy. I’m serious. Then there are of course the Due Process and 5th Amendment concerns which prompted the ACLU to side against the Left on this. In short, rather than use this as a way to talk about how the US government can better stop terrorists in the future, the Left decided to engage in an idiotic war on the Bill of Rights, pushing measures that would not have stopped the attack.

Speaking of government, that brings me to another topic: The breathtaking incompetence shown by the federal government in its handling of this case. First, when something like this occurs we often wonder “Where were the red flags?” and “Why didn’t Law Enforcement know about him?” and “Did anyone tell the cops about this guy?” Here, the question is who didn’t tell law enforcement about him. This is the list I have gathered so far: a couple of co-workers informed the FBI after he made inflammatory comments about Islamic terrorism, a gun shop owner from whom he tried to purchase weapons, one Mosque attendee also reported him to the FBI because of his support for radical Islam, and the Muslims whom he tried to recruit with him to go to Syria. Oh, and his current wife, who seems to have been aware of what he was planning? During her press conference today Loretta Lynch admitted that the FBI had lost track of her.

I hope Mrs. Mateen is not planning anything involving, say, guns or things that go boom.

But don’t think the fine G-Men and G-Women (we gotta be PC!) at the FBI and the Department of Justice were sitting with their hands on their behinds doing nothing. Nope! On Monday they released the partial transcript of his phone calls to 911 wherein he proclaimed his allegiance to the Islamic State. “Partial” because they deleted the parts referring to the Islamic State. Now, when I heard they had did this I assumed deleted entirely the sentences and passages of the call where he referred to the Islamic State. Therefore, when I saw a bunch of folks on twitter putting out stuff like, “I pledge allegiance to [omitted]” I thought that was just them exaggerating the nature of the edits for jokes.

Here is an excerpt of the partial transcript:

OD: What’s your name?
OM: My name is I pledge of allegiance to [omitted].
OD: Ok, What’s your name?
OM: I pledge allegiance to [omitted] may God protect him [in Arabic], on behalf of [omitted].


Our country is now living out plot-lines too silly for The Veep. Wonderful.

23 comments:

Kit said...

BTW, if you have a twitter account and you are not following Rukmini Callimachi (@callimachi) then do so now.
LINK

tryanmax said...

Even as this tragic story was unfolding, it was also obvious that it was putting a whole set of wrenches into the left wing narrative about, well, just about everything they believe. It's utterly transfixing to watch their response.

tryanmax said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
Kit said...

Tyranmax,

According to Scrivener, this post is 1,029 words long. Yet, it is amazing how much left-wing nuttiness I left out.

Allena-C said...

Excellent post, Kit!
The FBI dropped the ball on this. Like the Ft.Hood terrorist, there were warning signs everywhere and govt. officials simply ignore them.
I wonder if they sleep well at night?

Anthony said...

Great write-up. I agree with everything.

Sounds like one of the terrorist's boyfriends has come forward.

http://www.mediaite.com/online/he-didnt-do-it-for-terrorism-man-claiming-to-be-orlando-attackers-lover-comes-forward/

Miguel described the killer, Omar Mateen, as having been wracked with self-loathing about his sexual orientation, resentment against gay Latinos, and an alcohol problem. He said that he and Mateen met on the gay dating app Grindr the year before and described the two-month-long relationship as one of “friends with benefits.” It ended in December, when Miguel moved away from Orlando. He said Mateen enjoyed being cuddled and described him as “affectionate” and “sweet.”

Following an assignation with two Puerto Rican men, one of them revealed to Mateen after the fact that he was HIV positive and Mateen became incensed, Miguel said. “He was terrified that he was infected,” Miguel said. “I asked him, ‘Did you do a test?’ Yes. He went to the pharmacy and did the test … it came out negative but it doesn’t come out right away. It takes four, five months.”

“‘I’m going to make them pay for what they did to me,'” Miguel recalled Mateen telling him.

BevfromNYC said...

This whole thing makes me think that I have been transported into a 60's absurdist theatre encounter with no way to exit.

My favorite is now it's a "gay thing" not a Is[omitted] ter[omitted] thing. And to think that Lynch just yesterday said they may never really know why he did it...oh, and coincidentally confirmed that her FBI let Mateen's wife get away to parts unknown. Ooopsie. I think that they are trying anything to side-step the fact that this guy had been reported on numerous time including when he went to buy body armor only days before, but the FBI didn't take it seriously and really screwed up.

Heck, the FBI thwarts all sorts of stuff by setting up stings...

AndrewPrice said...

Bev, As Monty Python said in "The Holy Grail,"... let's not argue over who killed who.

Besides, let's not worry what motives the Orlando-activist had. Motives don't matter unless they can be pinned on the right. And anyways, we know that the only reason he did this, besides Christian anti-gay sentiment, is that his guns made him do it. We must pass laws banning Christians from owning guns!

But don't forget, it's too early to judge any of this.

Allena-C said...

If terrorism had nothing to do with it then why did the killer pledge allegiance to ISIS? I think it was two breasons, based on the evidence. Self loathing and radical Islam.

BevfromNYC said...

OT Just in case you haven't heard, Senate Dems led by John Lewis are staging a sit-in (or temper tantrum depending on your point of view) on the floor of the Senate to demand legislation to stop terrorists from getting guns or stop guns from getting terrorists or something about not needing due process anymore because that was so 18th Century...

Personally, I think that none of them has the native intelligence or statespersonship to actually put quill to parchment to write any kind of legislation that would pass and actually do something positive.

EPorvaznik said...

Leftist heads imploding, a beautiful t'ing!

https://youtu.be/PlqXgXwzkPg

Critch said...

Homeland Security admitted today that they have lost track of Mateen's wife..I wonder where she is, or should I say which flight out?

Kit said...

"The FBI dropped the ball on this. Like the Ft.Hood terrorist, there were warning signs everywhere and govt. officials simply ignore them."

That they did.

Allena-C said...

As long as the FBI is PC that's the important thing.The left doesn't mind sacrificing gays on the PC altar.

BevfromNYC said...

Allena - the FBI/CIA/Congress/DOJ would sacrifice ANY OF US to keep their cushy job perks.

ArgentGale said...

Allena, you just stated my own suspicions on why things might have gotten so fouled up along the way. I imagine that if a leak or something similar does eventually confirm that they put PC before keeping people safe it won't be pretty. Priorities, right?

And somehow I'm not surprised that John Lewis is leading that particular bit of idiocy... As a Georgia resident I can tell you that Atlanta Democrat congressmen are a special kind of stupid and crazy. Aside from Lewis and his frequent bouts of verbal diarrhea others include Cynthia McKinney (too much stupid to summarize here) and her eventual successor Hank Johnson (Guam might tip over). Still, unfortunately, it seems like the pro-Second Amendment people I know are starting to feel outnumbered by the pro-gun control crowd on social media so who knows what this might eventually lead to.

Anthony said...

Allena,

I agree. I think the killer's Hispanic booty call is just telling us about the guy as he knew him. Maternity probably wasn't telling gays he was having sex with or trying to have sex with about his Islamic faith. Nor was he telling ISIS that he wanted to stage a terror attack because of his homosexuality.

BevfromNYC said...

ArgentGale - My favorite tweet of the day to Rep. Lewis - "I'm old enough to remember when Rep. Lewis sat in to protect rights not deny them.
I stole it a sent to another Rep. who posted a photo of Lewis and others sitting in.

ArgentGale said...

Good one, Bev. Unlike that particular tweeter I'm only old enough to remember Lewis after he became a demagogue and general pain in the neck to anyone who isn't already steeped in grievances. Still, it's a good contrast to draw.

- Daniel (getting a little more lax about signing posts lately)

Kit said...

re the Sit-in:

Imagine if a group of Republicans did it...

Kit said...

Honestly, if I was Paul Ryan I would just sit in the Speaker's chair reading John R. Lott's More Guns, Less Crime.

BevfromNYC said...

The Dems who are sitting in should get the "Idaho" treatment. Lock them in, shut off food, water, and electricity, and smoke'em out.

Kit said...

Funny tweet by Dan McClaughlin (Baseball Crank): LINK

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