A Life of Violent Threats Paved Way for Orlando Attack

Wall Street Journal ^ | June 16, 2016 | DAMIAN PALETTA, ALEXANDRA BERZON and JOHN R. EMSHWILLER

[reaganaut1]

Again and again for much of his life, Omar Mateen let people know he was a violent, dangerous person capable of murder. Repeatedly, he wiggled out of trouble, distracting officials with a beguiling charm, a feigned stupidity or some other tactic.

A look at Mateen’s troubled life, based on interviews with officials and people who knew him, as well as documents, reveals that on at least a dozen occasions, beginning when he was in grade school, he gave clues in a public setting that he was capable of mayhem.

At age 14, he said he could shoot an AK-47 and mimicked an airplane flying into the World Trade Center. At 26, he bragged to courthouse co-workers of terrorist ties. Weeks ago, at 29, Mateen sought to buy heavy-duty body armor and bulk ammunition.

Many of his violent outbursts aped or celebrated Islamic terrorism and he repeatedly claimed connections to known terrorists, including the Boston Marathon bombers. He cheered the 9/11 attacks on the day they happened and once threatened to shoot partygoers at a barbecue when pork, which is forbidden to Muslims, touched his hamburger.

There doesn’t appear to be a moment when Mateen’s political extremism and religious zealotry kicked into high gear. Rather, this appears to be a case of slow, steady intensification.

Law-enforcement officials say he became radicalized online yet key facts remain unknown about what drove him to launch a terror attack. Officials are probing what his wife knew about his plans. Investigators are scrutinizing Mateen’s communications and travel history to detail any direct or indirect influence he might have had with terror networks.

Central Intelligence Agency Director John Brennan on Thursday called the Orlando massacre part of a pattern of attacks Islamic State is trying to encourage by “sympathizers who have no direct links

[Opinionated Blowhard]

distracting officials with a beguiling charm, a feigned stupidity or some other tactic.

The officials who were fooled by this psychopath need to be fired. Their bosses need to be fired.

[IC Ken]

Re>sympathizers who have no direct links

What hogwash. His dad was Taliban and still is. Also visited the Whitehut. This shooter had direct ties to Obama.

[rellimpank]

—looks like an interesting piece, but I can’t find a way past the paywall—

[Lurkinanloomin]

And some people believe he would have been eligible to run for President in 6 years.

Children of foreign nationals are NOT natural born citizens.

[gigster]

...once threatened to shoot partygoers at a barbecue when pork, which is forbidden to Muslims, touched his hamburger. So I guess Bacon Cheeseburgers were not at the top of his Food Pyramid, like they are on mine.

[Mears]

“Children of foreign nationals are NOT natural born citizens.”

---

I don’t believe that.

That means that I grew up with MANY people who could not be president.

Born in Boston,1932,and many of us had parents who had not yet become citizens. They were mostly Irish and Italians and eventually became citizens.

.

[gigster]

His Feigned stupidity fooled the truly stupid, naive, oblivious people, in this case.

[Lurkinanloomin]

It was meant to be an exclusionary term.
Naturally a US citizen as one could not be anything else if born here to US citizen parents.
Foreign parent(s) or birth brings foreign citizenship(s), making one not solely an American.
Omar Mateen would not be a natural born citizen any more than Rubio, Cruz, Haley or Jindal.

[BraveMan]

https://www.google.com/search?q=A+Life+of+Violent+Threats+Paved+Way+for+Orlando+Attack&ie=utf-8&oe=utf-8

[gigster]

Children of foreign nationals are NOT natural born citizens. I think the statement is absolutely correct. My parents were both British Subjects when they were married, and I was born eleven years later, in Grosse Pointe,Mi. They could not confer natural born citizenship to me because they did not have the rights of full-fledged citizens. They only became naturalized citizens fully forty five years later. My mom became a citizen so she could vote against Bill Clinton.

[Chewbarkah]

I wonder:
1) if there were any communications from the White House or State Dept to DoJ/FBI about Mateen while the FBI was investigating him?
2) If Mateen or his father received any funding from the US Government, directly or indirectly? Curious how they afforded houses, political pursuits, flights to KSA, etc., on a security guard’s pay. Being a Taliban supporter living in the US must pay well.

[Georgia Girl 2]

Mateen didn’t evolve he was raised in this mindset. I’ll bet he heard about the evil white infidels from Pops on a daily basis.

[rellimpank]

—thanks—had tried the search but didn’t find one that worked—

[Pollster1]

I’m surprised that, as a member of the religion of peace, he was not corrected by his fellow Muslims and guided toward the productive jihad (struggle) toward universal peace, joy, and love that defines all of Islam.

[ataDude]

Same here. I am getting more and more frustrated by posts referencing a WSJ story only to find the first sentence or two available. :-(

[YogicCowboy]

He became radicalized offline... in the Mateen family.

[YogicCowboy]

He was:

Peace: the cessation of againstness that results from killing all enemies;

Joy: the gleeful consequence of successful mass slaughter in the name of Allah;

Love: the act of giving the devout gift of death to the deserving infidel.