Orlando shooter told 911 operator he was Islamic soldier
Source: CBC
Orlando gunman Omar Mateen spoke in Arabic to a 911 dispatcher, identified himself as an Islamic soldier and demanded to a crisis negotiator that the U.S. "stop bombing Syria and Iraq," according to transcripts released by the FBI on Monday.
The partial, printed transcripts were of three conversations Mateen had with the police during the worst mass shooting in modern U.S. history, in which 49 people died and dozens were wounded.
Read more: http://www.cbc.ca/news/world/orlando-shooting-transcripts-fbi-1.3643109
philosslayer
(3,076 posts)But of course the press is only going to focus on what is the most sensational. More than that, he was a self-loathing homophobe.
IthinkThereforeIAM
(3,076 posts)... eom.
David__77
(23,372 posts)Also, do you think the media should not focus on what the killer said?
Wibly
(613 posts)But it is their actions that count. This guy clearly was targeting Gays and Hispanics. His history shows that he had a great deal of internal turmoil regarding his own sexuality, and was clearly racist on some level.
No one has suggested his words should not be reported, however, it is pretty darn clear his used Islam as an excuse for bad behavior. It is also clear he was a lone wolf, who ascribed to many differing groups, but had no real ties to any of them.
Seems to me the 'focus' should be on the reality, which is, this guy was a mentally ill, had serious emotional issues, was homophobic, a racist, and had access to weapons he should never have been allowed to possess.
I'm interested to get your take on his comment to blacks. He asked if there were any blacks there and one guy said yes, there were 6 or 7. He told them that he 'didn't want to hurt blacks, that they had been through enough'. Would that imply that it wasn't about gays or that he wasn't racist?
I agree that he has serious issues!
David__77
(23,372 posts)My understanding is that he claimed adherence to Islamic State and killed people in a gay club.
TexasMommaWithAHat
(3,212 posts)in his mind. They should have stayed in the closet like they do (mostly) in the Middle East. (And gays should have stayed in the closet like he did and then he wouldn't have been so tempted. Although I'm not 100% convinced that he was actually gay.)
Yeah, it's easy to see why someone who was brainwashed by a Muslim fanatic, homophobic father who supports the Taliban would target a building filled with gays. I'm just surprised it hasn't happened before.
Behind the Aegis
(53,955 posts)What he actually said has "no real meaning", but things other speculated/assumed is "truth".
Saviolo
(3,282 posts)Is at odds with itself. He claimed membership to groups that are not only not allied with each other, but actively in conflict with each other. See the links in post #6.
Behind the Aegis
(53,955 posts)If you want to parse the MEANING in that, fine; but outright denial this means he wasn't a terrorist inspired by fundamentalism is nothing more than speculation and not FACT.
Saviolo
(3,282 posts)Again, please see post 6.
He was certainly inspired by radical fundamentalism, but to claim that he was a "member" of ISIS or any of these other terrorist groups is a little unbelievable. He was self-radicalized.
He arose out of a toxic and volatile stew that includes easy access to guns, two deeply homophobic cultures, strict religious upbringing, racism, and radical religious propaganda.
JI7
(89,248 posts)Saviolo
(3,282 posts)But those groups are both Sunni, and Hezbollah is Shi'a. There would be no cross-pollination between those two groups.
It's likely he was inspired by those groups' propaganda, but there's almost no way he was an actual member of any of them.
TexasMommaWithAHat
(3,212 posts)Hatred for the west and progressive values. They're all Muslim fundamentalist terror organizations.
So he was stupid. Big deal.
GreatGazoo
(3,937 posts)...
I cant believe i knew this dude . He worked at GNC at the treasure coast mall when i was at Ruby Tuesdays and he Graduated from the same high school in 2004, he wrote. He was a jokester and at the time didnt have an issue with the LGBT community.
http://www.thedailybeast.com/articles/2016/06/12/drag-queen-orlando-gunman-omar-mateen-was-my-friend.html
In my experience, homophobic people get angriest at the most openly gay people and they DO have an issue with transsexuals, etc. They also don't go from not homophobic to homophobic but rather the other way around.
MosheFeingold
(3,051 posts)And that's what ISIS is --- a cult pretending to be Islamic --- always recruit from damaged people.
Think about it: Charles Mason Family, David Koresh, various Mormon groups, whatever, target people down on their luck, people on drugs, people who don't fit in, people who hate themselves or with low self-esteem. They give them something bigger than themselves to believe in, affirmation, a feeling of belonging, and self-worth.
The particular damage is not what to focus on. There are as many kinds of damaged people as they are people.
The fact that this particular damaged person was a self-loathing homosexual is of passing interest, relevant only in that he knew the club he shot up.
They key is to realize they target self-loathing people, people down on their luck, ex-cons, etc.
And we have to reach out to these marginalized people as fast as possible.
scscholar
(2,902 posts)It doesn't mean what those xians assumes it means.
What does it mean?
Saviolo
(3,282 posts)And I don't mean conflicting as in conflicting his own story, I mean these groups are in conflict with each other.
From the Washington Post: https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/worldviews/wp/2016/06/13/omar-mateen-may-not-have-understood-the-difference-between-isis-al-qaeda-and-hezbollah/
Mateen also mentioned the 2013 Boston bombing during his calls. That attack, which left three dead and more than 260 injured, was carried out by the Tsarnaev brothers. While the brothers were not found to be directly linked to a foreign group, they were partly motivated by a magazine published by al-Qaeda's affiliate in Yemen. (According to the Guardian, Mateen's admiration for the Tsarnaev brothers went back further. In 2013, Mateen is believed to have told the FBI that he knew the two bombers, though investigators later concluded that this relationship had been fabricated.)
Further confusing matters, Comey also revealed that in "inflammatory and contradictory" comments to co-workers in 2013, Mateen had claimed to be a member of Hezbollah, the Shiite militia based in Lebanon.
To be clear, these groups named by Mateen are not allies. The Islamic State and al-Qaeda both derive their theology from an extreme view of Sunni Islamism, but in practical terms the pair split in 2014, with the more established al-Qaeda publicly disavowing the actions of the more extreme Islamic State. Jabhat al-Nusra, al-Qaeda's affiliate in Syria, often fights the Islamic State in the Syrian conflict. Meanwhile, Hezbollah is a Shiite Islamist group. In Syria, it supports the government of Bashar al-Assad, effectively meaning it fights both the Islamic State and al-Qaeda.
Comey suggested Monday that Mateen may have not understood the distinctions among the groups.
More here from CTV News: http://www.ctvnews.ca/world/orlando-shooter-pledged-loyalty-to-conflicting-groups-fbi-says-1.2946235
Those mixed allegiances suggest that to some would-be jihadists, a general ideology of violent extremism is more important than the tenets of any particular group.
"Particularly with the lone wolves, they're pretty permissive and promiscuous. They're attaching themselves to whatever happens to be hot and sexy on that day, but they don't seem to have clearly delineated thoughts on geopolitics and the jihadist movement," said Will McCants, an Islamic State expert at the Brookings Institution.
He was self-radicalized by reading extremist propaganda from groups which held a message that resonated with him. In this case, extreme homophobia. He obviously grew up in a strict and very faith-driven home (his father has released statements about the fact that his son shouldn't have killed those gay people, because God will take care of that, after all). There are lots of rumours swirling around his presence on gay dating apps and visiting the same club many times over a three-year period. So, it's possible that he hated himself deeply for feeling what he had been brought up to believe were profoundly unclean attractions, but there is not a single reason for what he did.
He arose out of a toxic and volatile stew that includes easy access to guns, two deeply homophobic cultures, strict religious upbringing, racism, and radical religious propaganda.
MosheFeingold
(3,051 posts)TygrBright
(20,759 posts)Behind the Aegis
(53,955 posts)MosheFeingold
(3,051 posts)Again, as more fully explained in my earlier post on this thread, if he was a self-loathing homosexual or not is of marginal relevance.
He was a damaged person, and that's who cults recruit. ISIS is a cult, only materially different from Charles Manson in its scale of operation.
For one, until some dude shows up in the National Enquirer and spills his guys about being the killer's lover, all his trips to this bar reek of a scouting operation to me, just as much as they reek of his being a self-loathing gay.
Behind the Aegis
(53,955 posts)You may not be aware, but this type of bullshit is often used against LGBT people, the whole "self-loathing", but as a way to excuse heterosexuals own homophobia. So, yes, it is fucking frustrating and irritating, and bigoted, IMO, that people are dismissing HIS OWN WORDS outright, but taking the SPECUALTION of others as gospel.
MosheFeingold
(3,051 posts)You're right, I hadn't thought about this kind of thing being used against LGBT people, but chiefly because whatever disorder the guy had was of passing relevance. (And yes, by "disorder," I am referring to "self-loathing" not who he was sexually attracted to or the like. He could be a self-loathing Jewish guy. Cults just need that self-hate and anger.)
But, on a brighter note, given that the Jewish population has already been thrown under the bus by the PTB to make room for radical Muslims, you should already be used to being abused and taken advantage of by our fellow progressives.
There's lots of room under here.
B2G
(9,766 posts)But was can definitely take Dylan Roof's word that he wanted to start a race war, right?
smdh
melman
(7,681 posts)how badly people seem to need this to not be what it obviously is.
B2G
(9,766 posts)'if only we knew what was going through his mind...what his motivation was'?
Well he told us straight up and many here don't believe him.
Stunning, really.
jberryhill
(62,444 posts)Do you believe him?
B2G
(9,766 posts)Dylan Roof said he wanted to start a race war. Do you believe him?
ileus
(15,396 posts)Democat
(11,617 posts)According to many on DU he was anything except what he said he was.