Transcripts Show ISIS Influence on Orlando Gunman Omar Mateen cited the death of an Islamic State leader as a motivation for the June massacreBy Dan Frosch and Nicole Hong
http://www.wsj.com/articles/transcripts-show-isis-influence-on-orlando-gunman-1475023090
Holed up in an Orlando nightclub and surrounded by police, Omar Mateen told a hostage negotiator that he was angry about the death of a top Islamic State operative, according to recently released transcripts of their phone conversations during Mateen’s massacre earlier this year.
The new details of the conversations, released by Orlando Police last week, show Mateen had more than a passing interest in Islamic State, counterterrorism experts said. He specifically singled out the death of Abu Wahib, one of the more visible leaders of the terror group, as one of the main motivations for his attack. Abu Wahib was killed in an airstrike in Iraq just weeks before Mateen opened fire at the Pulse nightclub in June in an attack that killed 49 people and wounded 53. Mateen died in a shootout with police.
“Yo, the airstrike that killed Abu Wahid a few weeks ago—That’s what triggered it, okay?” he told the police negotiator, an apparent reference in the transcript to the Islamic State commander.
Abu Wahib, whose real name is Shaker Wahib al-Fahdawi, was known as one of the group’s more Internet-savvy leaders, often appearing in propaganda videos.
Only an “avid consumer” of Islamic State propaganda would know when Abu Wahib was killed, said Seamus Hughes, the deputy director of George Washington University’s Program on Extremism.
“This isn’t somebody who decided that night he was going to wrap his personal grievances around ISIS,” Mr. Hughes said.
Islamic State supporters in the U.S. more commonly cite as inspirations people like Islamic State leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi or Anwar al-Awlaki, the American-born al Qaeda recruiter who was killed in a U.S. drone strike in 2011. While talking to the 911 operator the night of the Orlando shooting, Mateen also pledged allegiance to Mr. Baghdadi, according to a partial version of transcripts released by the Federal Bureau of Investigation in June.
It is unclear when precisely Mateen, 29, was radicalized, though he had aroused the FBI’s suspicion after making claims of ties to terrorists in 2013.
At a hearing before the Senate Homeland Security Committee, FBI Director James Comey on Tuesday defended his agency’s handling of probes into Mateen, as well as into Ahmad Khan Rahami. Mr. Rahami is awaiting trial on charges he placed bombs around New York and New Jersey earlier this month that injured 31 people.
Mr. Comey was repeatedly pressed by lawmakers about whether the FBI should have investigated longer before closing its probes into Mateen and Mr. Rahami, which took place well before their deadly attacks. Mr. Comey acknowledged that in the case of Mateen, agents had not searched his online activity for indications of radicalization.
In the series of phone calls with the negotiator during the Orlando massacre, Mateen also railed against U.S. airstrikes in Syria and Iraq, saying they were killing women and children.
“What am I to do here when my people are getting killed over there. You get what I’m saying?” he said.
Mateen’s constant references to U.S. airstrikes are a “basic regurgitation of the propaganda he’s consuming,” said Brig Barker, a retired FBI special agent who focused on counterterrorism. CONTINUE AT SITE
Comments are closed.
