Orlando, Fla. (home of giant theme parks) has 2 high profile murders in under 24 hours

[Lauren Johnson]

[Peter Lemkin]

Any idea how the ISIS shooter could be wearing a LAPD shirt?

Such shirts are available, and not closely controlled. In fact, if it doesn't have the NYPD written on the back, I think you can get them in tourist shops in NYC. He may have wanted to be an NYPD officer. He certainly played out some behaviors that unfortunately a lot of police would have liked to have done. I'd like to know how they know that he made the [or any] 911 call pledging support to ISIL. This shooting has all the usual weirdness as most of the others....especially the 'having been on FBI radar for several years'. Come to think of it, so were many of the so-called 911 hijackers and a majority of the mass shooters - atta way to go FBI!

[Drew Phipps]

It's an NYPD shirt, and it can be bought over the internet here. http://www.grandslamnewyork.com/NYPD-T-Shirts/

[Drew Phipps]

I sure hope that the guy who said there was someone holding the door shut gets his name and his story out into public awareness like Javer Antoinetti did with his sighting of two shooters.

[Magda Hassan]

Orlando suspect's father hosted a TV show and now pretends to be Afghanistan's president

By Max Bearak June 12 at 2:53 PM
Seddique Mateen, the father of Omar Mateen, who authorities say committed the worst mass killing in U.S. history. The elder Mateen hosted the "Durand Jirga Show," which aired on a channel broadcast from California. (YouTube)

The father of Omar Mateen, identified by police as the man behind the carnage at an Orlando nightclub early Sunday morning, is an Afghan man who holds strong political views, including support for the Afghan Taliban. In a video he posted on Saturday, he appears to be portraying himself as the president of Afghanistan.

[What we know about the Orlando nightclub mass shooting]
Seddique Mateen, who has been referred to as Mir Seddique in early news reports, hosted the "Durand Jirga Show" on a channel called Payam-e-Afghan, which broadcasts from California. In it, the elder Mateen speaks in the Dari language on a variety of political subjects. He doesn't always make much sense. Dozens of videos are posted on a channel under Seddique Mateen's name on YouTube. A phone number and post office box that are displayed on the show were traced back to the Mateen home in Florida. Mateen also owns a nonprofit organization under the name Durand Jirga, which is registered in Port St. Lucie, Fla.
In one video, Mateen expresses gratitude toward the Afghan Taliban, while denouncing the Pakistani government.
"Our brothers in Waziristan, our warrior brothers in [the] Taliban movement and national Afghan Taliban are rising up," he said. "Inshallah the Durand Line issue will be solved soon."



The gunman who killed at least 50 people in a shooting rampage at an Orlando nightclub has been identified as 29-year-old Omar Mateen. Here is what we know about him so far. (Deirdra O'Regan/The Washington Post)

[Ex-wife of suspected Orlando shooter: He beat me']
The "Durand Line issue" is a historically significant one, particularly for members of the Pashtun ethnic group, whose homeland straddles the border between Afghanistan and Pakistan. The Durand Line is that border. It is not clear whether the Mateens are Pashtun. The Afghan Taliban is mostly made up of Pashtuns.
The line was drawn as a demarcation of British and Afghan spheres of influence in 1893. The British controlled most of subcontinental Asia at the time, though some parts, including what is now Afghanistan and northwest Pakistan, were only loosely held. The line was inherited as a border by Pakistan after its independence. Since it splits the Pashtun population politically, it is seen as a cause for their marginalization. Pashtuns are the largest ethnic group in most of eastern Afghanistan and northern Pakistan.

The scene in Orlando after a gunman opened fire at a nightclub

View Photos


Officials say at least 50 people were killed and dozens more were injured in the shooting.






Pashtuns are also sometimes referred to as Pakhtuns, or Pathans.
Just hours before the Orlando shooting, Seddique Mateen posted a video on a Facebook page called Provisional Government of Afghanistan Seddique Mateen. In it, he seems to be pretending to be Afghanistan's president, and orders the arrest of an array of Afghan political figures.
"I order national army, national police and intelligence department to immediately imprison Karzai, Ashraf Ghani, Zalmay Khalilzad, Atmar, and Sayyaf. They are against our countrymen, and against our homeland," he says, while dressed in army fatigues.
The most recent video on Mateen's YouTube channel shows him declaring his candidacy for the Afghan presidency. The timing of the video is strange, as it came a year after presidential elections were held in Afghanistan. Mateen appears incoherent at times in the video, and he jumps abruptly from topic to topic. His use of Dari, instead of Pashto, the language of Pashtuns, was another strange element of his presentation, given that he is discussing issues of Pashtun nationalism.



A gunman opened fire on a crowded nightclub in Orlando early Sunday, June 12. He killed at least 50 people. The final death toll is not known, but this shooting is already the deadliest mass shooting in the history of the United States. (Monica Akhtar/The Washington Post)

On Sunday morning, Mateen told NBC News that his son's rampage "has nothing to do with religion." Instead, he offered another possible motive. He said his son got angry when he saw two men kissing in Miami a few months ago. He said his son was especially enraged because the kissing took place in front of his own young son.
"We are saying we are apologizing for the whole incident. We weren't aware of any action he is taking. We are in shock like the whole country," Mateen said.
Mateen could not be reached for comment by The Washington Post. His cellphone has been switched off.

[David Guyatt]

Orlando, Fla. (home of giant theme parks) has 2 high profile murders in under 24 hours.

On Saturday (6/11/16), a talented singer from US TV show "The Voice," Christie Grimmie, was fatally shot in Orlando by a gunman who then killed himself.

http://www.cnn.com/2016/06/11/entertainm...mmie-shot/



Then on Sunday (6/12/16), a shootout at an Orlando gay nightclub claimed 20 lives, and the shooter also died.

http://www.aol.com/article/2016/06/12/gu.../21393689/



The second of those events has been declared "domestic terrorism" by the Orlando Police. But since their description of the even is entirely too vague and seems to be contradicted by an eyewitness, it's worth quoting here.

A gunman shot dead about 20 people and injured 42 others in a crowded gay nightclub in Florida early on Sunday before being killed by police in what U.S. authorities described as a "domestic terrorism incident". A police officer working as a security guard inside the Pulse club exchanged fire with the suspect at about 2 a.m., police officials said. A hostage situation quickly developed before a squad of officers entered the club and shot dead the gunman. It was unclear when the victims were shot by the gunman.


"At ... 0500 hours this morning, the decision was made to rescue hostages that were in there. Our officers exchanged gunfire with the suspect. The suspect is dead," Orlando Police Chief John Mina told a press conference. At least one officer was injured in the gunbattle but the police action saved at least 30 lives, Mina said. The suspect was carrying an assault-type rifle and a handgun as well as an unidentified "device" on him, Mina said. Police did not immediately name the gunman or provide a possible motive for the attack but officials have classified the rampage as a "domestic terrorism incident," Orange County Sheriff Jerry Demings said.


Javer Antonetti, 53, told the Orlando Sentinel newspaper that he was near the back of the dance club when he heard gunfire. "There were so many (shots), at least 40," he said. "I saw two guys and it was constant, like 'pow, pow, pow,'." Police said they had carried out a "controlled explosion" at the club hours after the shooting broke out, but did not explain why that was done.

(Reporting by Chris Michaud in New York and Mary Milliken in Los Angeles; writing by Frank McGurty; Editing by Mark Heinrich)

Emphasis added. Was it one guy or two? What details justify the "terrorism" label? How many people died in the "controlled explosion" caused by the police? How many people were killed by the initial guy(s), and how many died during the rescue attempt?

Uh oh. Strikes me as being similar to last year's San Bernardino shooting where three witnesses fingered 3 white "athletic" white guys as being responsible (at which point the media feeding frenzy suddenly went quiet). A cynic faced with a repeat of that might consider an alternative theory: a strategy of tension. I'm not alone in being cynical. Pepe Escobar has posted on his FB account today the following:

CUI BONO ALL OVER AGAIN
Who benefits from a rather convoluted story of a US-born Muslim of Afghan descent, a registered Democrat with a legal Florida gun license and no criminal record, employed for 9 years by a security firm, suddenly engaging in a LBTG-targeted killing spree?

[Peter Lemkin]

Bartender [shot multiple times, but survived] and other survivors say there were two shooters, minimum.

[Tracy Riddle]

The familiar, depressing pattern:
* Alleged shooter(s) dead, can't explain or defend themselves
* 24 hour emotion-based news coverage, endless speculation, national security experts come on and talk about blah blah blah
* Leaks from anonymous police/FBI sources and media coverage form our narrative of the event
* Within hours, everyone with a political agenda is on the march (War on terror, gun control, whatever)
* Rinse, repeat

[Drew Phipps]

I listened to NPR this AM "On Point" and heard a guy say that the sound of the shots came from "close...far...close...far...." which implies two shooters, although again it is unclear if this means 1 killer and 1 off-duty cop, or 2 killers.


On that same program, a guy with a Middle Eastern accent also blamed Wahabiism and Saudi Arabia for violent intolerant teachings.


I further think that the mass media and the authorities are doing a disservice to us all by referring to the guy as a "terrorist" and thereby lending him some semblance of legitimacy. I realize that the mass media has to sell soap, and that the authorities have to justify whatever program they're trying to push; but don't you agree that by lending him any sort of justification (especially the very justification that the killer sought by calling 911 and pledging allegiance to the leader of Daesh), no matter how spurious, you are both encouraging copy-cats, and making the terrorists seem more successful than they really are?

[David Guyatt]

Danny Hopsicker is posting some interesting facts on his FB account about this. Apparently, the shooter's father, Seddique Mateen, is linked to the Voice of America. I've tried to translate the link Daniel provided but not a lot of luck so far.

But in a later post, he says that the father is also linked to Pakistani's INI.

If the link to Voice of America is true as Danny says - and I have no doubt it is - then it must rank as highly significant given that Ruslan Tsarni, the uncle of the Boston Bombers, was directly linked to former CIA operative, Graham Fuller by marriage. Coincidences like this simply don't happen.