The FBI first discovered Omar Mateen, the man who would kill 49 and injure more than 50 others at a gay nightclub, when he boasted of a friendship with terrorists.
Mateen told one of his co-workers at a private security firm in 2013 that he knew Boston Marathon bombers Tamerlan and Dzhokhar Tsarnaev. Mateen’s co-worker reported that information to the FBI.
Federal agents were already investigating Tamerlan Tsarnaev’s links to Ibragim Todashev, an Orlando man who was shot and killed during a scuffle with an FBI agent.
A link between the Boston Marathon bombers and another Florida man sounded plausible. Agents took the tip seriously and interviewed Mateen on two separate occasions.
Their conclusion: Mateen was spinning fantasies and wasn’t a threat. His file was closed.
If the investigating agents were required to close Mateen’s file, the reason wasn’t due to lack of legal authority. The bureau forces agents to close assessments because agents are pursuing thousands of assessments nationwide under a policy to pursue any and all leads, no matter how ridiculous they are.
The caseload can be overwhelming for FBI offices.
Jeff Danik, who recently retired after 29 years with the FBI, worked in the bureau’s counterterrorism section in South Florida. He didn’t investigate Mateen — but he knew the agents based in Fort Pierce who did.
“These guys do not let things get away from them in investigations,” Danik said. “They pushed it as hard as they could.”
The problem, Danik said, was the FBI’s bureaucracy. FBI brass want agents to show immediate results. “If you cannot come up with articulable facts in a short period of time, you’re required to shut these cases down,” Danik said.
The FBI later reopened its investigation of Mateen, because agents were concerned about his connections to Moner Mohammad Abu-Salha, whose alias was Abu Hurayra al-Amriki. Abu-Salha joined the Nusra Front and became the first American suicide bomber in Syria. Before his death, he recorded a video in which he burned his U.S. passport.
“I went back to my home state, which is Florida,” Abu-Salha said in the video. “I stayed with my friend’s family. And it was no good. The reason I had to stay with them is that the state I was in, I finally realized I was being watched.”
Abu-Salha said he knew he was under FBI surveillance in Florida, and he was. Federal agents began investigating everyone he made contact with, including Mateen. But agents concluded that Abu-Salha’s contact with Mateen was minimal and that Mateen was not a threat.
Mateen’s FBI file was closed again.
Two years later, Mateen legally purchased an assault rifle and a handgun, then opened fire on a crowded nightclub in Orlando.
Mateen’s transformation from not being a threat in the FBI’s view to carrying out the worst mass shooting in U.S. history can be attributed to what the FBI calls “quick flash to bang.”
“If the bureau had looked at someone for 60 or 90 days while they were a casual observer of the jihadi world, then they’re going to conclude this guy doesn’t have a big touch,” Danick, the former FBI agent, said. “Then two months later a triggering event.”
A “quick flash to bang” might never be detectable in the FBI’s view. But Danik cautions that he believes the FBI’s “quick flash to bang” theory also allows federal agents an easy out — a pass for failing to stop someone like Mateen. “It’s an excuse for agents,” Danik said. “Hey, quick flash to bang. That’s why we didn’t get him.”
Michael German, a former FBI undercover agent who is now a fellow with the Brennan Center for Justice’s Liberty and National Security Program, agreed that Mateen might have fallen through the cracks not because the FBI didn’t have the authority and resources to investigate him sufficiently, but because the bureau has a history of arbitrarily limiting agents.
“They’re imposing rules and restrictions that don’t actually exist [in the law],” German said. “There actually isn’t a time limit on assessments.”
Already, in the wake of the Orlando shooting, there are calls to provide the FBI with more resources and greater investigative powers. But neither is a problem for the FBI, in German’s view.
“I would simply suggest we take time to examine how the authorities and resources have already been used by the FBI,” he said. “Checking somebody’s work is the only way to make sure they’re doing it correctly.”
He also questioned the effectiveness of the bureau’s pursue-every-lead counterterrorism policy.
“There needs to be a reasonable threshold before they initiate investigations,” German said. “Right now, there really isn’t one.”
Correction: June 15, 2016
An earlier version of this story incorrectly referred to the assault weapon used in the Orlando shooting as an AR-57. In fact, initial reports was that it was an AR-15. Officials have since clarified that it was a Sig Sauer MCX.
Dear Trevor Aaronson, what do you make of Max Blumenthal’s report on Alternet that the FBI tried to lure Mateen into a terrorist plot?
Like the comment below, I’m surprised Trevor Aaronson is coming out with this. His book shows that the FBI will turn a man with a shred of information into an informant, and go to great lengths to turn a suspect into a terrorist. There have been some MIND-BOGGLING cases, where secret evidence and FBI informant testimony has been the clincher in a case.
The people who need to be put under surveillance are the FBI.
I am nonplussed that, of all people, Aaronson–the only one to my knowledge who has tried in any comprehensive way to investigate and report on the State’s creation of “homegrown Islamic terror” mythology through a massive crime-creating “CI”-“sting” program–would be duped by this trite story-line from the FBI. “If we only had enough resources and no bureaucratic red tape, this wouldn’t have happened.” Nonsense. Even if the FBI were on the level, no secret police organization, no matter how efficient, can stop people from going insane (unless, of course, it kills or imprisons everyone).
The story here is not why the FBI did not do enough. The story is, exactly what did it do? But, just as in Boston, nobody–not even the Intercept–is asking that question.
“the worst mass shooting in U.S. history”
I’m so sick of seeing that phrase in reference to this event.
The worst masss shooting in US history was on December 29 1890 when the 7th Cavalry slaughtered between 150 and 300 Lakota Sioux – men, women and children – as the US government set about stealing their land and reneging on treaties signed with the Lakota and other indigenes (e.g., the Treaty of Fort Laramie in 1868 which guarantted Lakota ownership of the Blakc Hills in perpetuity, not until some paleface politician decided the US wanted it).
How many people crawled out of these holes, injured, with blood dripping ?
Where is the evidence? The shooter, as well, was supposedly killed coming through the hole. Where is his blood?
Someone needs to fire the top FBI managers who insist on the provocateur based entrapments of dozens of stupid bozos who didn’t have the intent or wherewithal to carry out any terrorist attacks. The only logic to these sting operations and show trials must be to scare the real terrorist out of any attacks. As we can already see, it’s not working.
With 20/20 hindsight one is inclined to blame FBI, but the simple fact is that it is impossible to stop a criminal before he commits the crime. FBI does not have Minority Report style oracles. Had they kept the case open there would probably have been no entries before this final crime. Don’t assign FBI an impossible task and then blame them for not doing the job.
Wonder if Mateen’s father is/was a CIA asset? The channel that hosted/hosts his so-called talk show was reportedly a Pak/ISI/CIA outlet.
There is a factual error in this article. According to all the recent reports I’ve seen, the long gun used was not actually an assault rifle. An “assault rifle” has a relatively specific military definition that includes the ability to switch trigger reactions, at least one of which is either burst mode or continuous automatic. This is often called a “select fire” function. Both of the attacker’s guns were semi-automatic, requiring a trigger pull for each fire.
Under the old Fed ban, the long gun used may have been classified as an “assault weapon” – a somewhat nebulous category that includes some but nowhere near all semi-automatic rifles. If it would or not depends on specifics such as did it have a foldable stock, or a threaded muzzle to allow attaching a suppressor, etc.
I point this out despite it being borderline off-topic because it’s important that we are sure we are all discussing the same thing. The surface similarity of such terminology can lead to confusion and talking at rather than to each other.
this : ‘Federal agents were already investigating Tamerlan Tsarnaev’s links to Ibragim Todashev, an Orlando man who was shot and killed during a scuffle with an FBI agent.’
should say this ‘Federal agents were already investigating Tamerlan Tsarnaev’s links to Ibragim Todashev, an Orlando man who, ACCORDING TO THE FBI, was shot and killed during a scuffle with an FBI agent.’
or
‘Federal agents were already investigating Tamerlan Tsarnaev’s links to Ibragim Todashev, an Orlando man who ALLEGEDLY was shot and killed during a scuffle with an FBI agent.’
there is zero evidence of the circumstances of todashev’s death . just because the fbi says it happened a certain way doesn’t make that true . as a reporter, you should always clarify that you are making a statement based upon reports by police (fbi) … we are well aware that police lie for a living
“Mateen legally purchased an AR-57 assault rifle”
As if the AK-47 and the AR-15 didn’t scare people enough. Now, apparently, we have this new hybrid “Super Gun”. It combines the best attributes of both scary rifles with even more killing power! Don’t forget to ban this one, too.
Pfffffffffftttttttt!
Exactly why I specified that we need to be smart about who we conduct surveillance on. If you own or purchase a military grade weapon. You will be watched! Randomly chasing leads is good for full employment of the Military Industrial Complex and it’s subsidiary Intelligence Wing, but it is piss poor at producing any results.
Get with the program. We are already being watched, analyzed, sliced and diced via “Big Data”, monitored, labeled, and categorized. We need to just admit that people with assault weapons can kill other people, and they need to be followed closely. It isn’t a random occurrence that our latest mass murder / terrorist attack came courtesy of a person with domestic violence and mental illness in their history.
We don’t need to take away anybody’s “Right to Bare Arms”, they just need to be aware that the weapons they choose come with consequences and among those is surveillance. It’s no different than when our courts rule that “cell phone” ownership is permission for “3rd Party Doctrine” surveillance.
Sign the petition!
https://petitions.whitehouse.gov//petition/executive-order-requiring-mandatory-surveillance-gun-owners
There are nowhere near enough people to watch all the owners of AR-15’s in America which number in the millions. I don’t have exact #’s but for 20-30 years they have been the most popular rifle in the US. Also the Columbine massacre occurred during the ‘assault weapon’ ban between ’94-’04. The nation is sick and mass shootings are a symptom of dysfunctional policies.
Keep all Americans Muslims in closely watch list .every single of them especially men.
To the author, and editorial staff, how could you all possibly screw up such a straightforward fact of the reporting as the make of the rifle?
It’s a goddamned AR-15 and seeing as it’s the most popular weapon in America, and has been identified accurately by every other news agency so far, how, HOW could you let that slip?
Please for the love of existence try to nail the fundamentals of journalism so that your otherwise excellent reporting can cut through the white noise.
The only solution is for Muslims to do their own policing and catch the murderers among them and hand them over to FBI. Unfortunately, that does not happen unless we pay those crooks for the information. Muslims must wake up to the threat they are creating for everybody and do something about it.
But first of all they must stop killing each other. It’s really ridiculous that they expect mercy from others when they show little of it to others who also shout allahuakbars when they pray 99% of the time, so I’m told.
Great idea, Herc. Will the banksters and the Christian fundamentalists be participating in the same program?
Thanks for agreeing with me finally. I knew you are are no senile fool as you often pretend.
Yes, of course, every community must practice self-regulation for their own benefit as well as for the rest of mankind. This is a well-established principle. The goals of religion and ethics are intended to foster self-regulation. It doesn’t help Muslims to wait for everyone else to self-regulate before they start doing it. I’m sure you don’t wait for your neighbors to set their house in order before you do yours, so you will appreciate Muslims approaching their crisis with lesser idiocy.
Anyway, keep agreeing and you may find the world more peaceful for those who survive this madness.
My view is that more Americans need to wake up to the threat they are creating for everybody. Imperialistic ambition, antagonistic tribalism, glorification of violence and weapons — all of that must go.
Clearly more intelligence is needed.
Does that say Tuttle or Buttle?
“Intelligence” is very important but also grossly inaccurate – intelligence should be portrayed in that way.
One of the reasons intelligence is so grossly inaccurate is when they report that investigators “interviewed” or “interrogated” a suspect – many times it’s not done under oath and the agents don’t identify themselves to the suspect.
Put yourself in the suspect’s shoes: If a stranger sits next to you at a bus stop or in a bar and asks you deeply personal questions – do you give them the summarized version, exaggerate or even tell them the whole truth, since you are not under oath of perjury? Those agents then report that the suspect was evasive or non-cooperative (as most normal people would be).
Intelligence is important but grossly inaccurate. The best truth-seeking device ever invented is the Judicial Branch court system where everyone, including government officials, are under oath and investigators identify themselves as such. Attorneys can challenge evidence/theories and juries can weigh all of the evidence.
These were probably not real “interviews” under oath. They’ve been doing this stuff for nearly 15 years now.
Come on Trevor! You know better!
This kid fit the FBI ENTRAPMENT PROFILE for a bigger more horrific tragedy than the previous one.
He was brainwashed. He lived well..on a security guard’s salary?
He was FBI profiled as a patsy, which is why G4S wouldn’t fire him after he created serial disruptive behavior on the job.
THEN HE IS EXECUTED & the FBI INVESTIGATES A DEAD MAN? What’s the point?
And G4S procures CRISIS ACTORS FOR AN AGENCY:
http://crisiscast.com
WE HAVE AN OSTENSIBLE POTUS WHO DOES NOT GRIEVE. HIS ONLY CONCERN IS TO BAN ARMS.
HE AS NO AFFECT.
HE IS INSANE, & those who follow his orders are desperate & COMPLICIT
All is not what it appears.
Trevor, you know the FBI MODUS OPERANDI.
THIS IS Boston 2.0
Absence of evidence is not evidence of absence. The FBI obviously should never close a case. In addition, taking away some more basic freedoms is always a good response to any sort of tragic event. Mrs. Clinton has already suggested expanding the no-fly list and using it to screen gun purchases.
However, the single best response is the one which has stood the test of time: find some country in the Middle East and start bombing it. This immediately reassures the general public that the US government takes the problem seriously.
I see Chris Christie already has this covered. It is truly serendipitous that the US has been blessed with such splendid leadership.
I wonder if Chris Christie, a former U.S. Attorney, knows Mateen was from St Lucie Port … and spent some time down toward Miami.
Mrs. Clinton is to be disbelieved.
She is a juggling fiend, a “congenital liar” (Wm. Safire), a money launderer, & a contract murderer of hundreds of innocents who knew too much.
Don’t be taken in by a psychopath. She talks, & her word is worthless.
Somebody who always lies is predictable. Therefore I see Mrs. Clinton as a pair of ‘safe hands’, a known quantity, who is less risky than some of the alternatives. Also, all leaders are psychopaths, so that isn’t a mark against her.
hmmm
she is owned by wallstreet money.
she pledged allegiance to goldman-sacks during her secret speech.
she got mexico to sell their national oil industry to her friends.
she hid a whole lot of email communications from the public.
she supported dis-assembling Libya and then left an embassy outpost in crazyland bengazi which was attacked and many killed.
she opposes throwing the wallstreet bankster thieves into prison.
she wants to improve peoples lives by increasing their chances for success like removing one number from a lottery
she wants to allow something called SECRETARY OF GENERAL AFFAIRS.
Haha furtive troll.
Who can forget Safire, pathological liar extraordinaire? Safire lied so often for so long, especially about the Clintons, that any sane person realized that he never uttered one truthful word on any important subject. He’d been a speechwriter for Agnew and never climbed out of the gutter. Scum.
Thanks for that stroll down memory cesspool.
Houston, we have a problem when a man is on the FBI’s radar related to terrorism more than once and then he walks in a gun shop and the background check goes to the SAME FBI that investigated this man twice and NO RED FLAGS go flying???
Seems any average sixth grader with a brain and some computer knowledge could create a program that sends out an alert the second a background check comes in on a person like Mateen.
Is the FBI really this dysfunctional when “national security” is supposed to be the number one function of the federal government?
From Pearl Harbor to Oklahoma City to 9/11 to Bakersfield to Orlando. Lots of FAILS piling up here folks!
And The New York Times and Obama and Hillary want to take OUR guns?!
Of course, not Israel, not Saudi Arabia … “our all-lies are not the kind of terrorists we mean”
USG
especially not Saudi Arabia, since the love gay people so mush there
USG
“Mrs. Clinton has already suggested expanding the no-fly list and using it to screen gun purchases”
I can hardly wait for law by secret Government list under either Clinton or Trump. Of course this should be followed by incarceration by list just to be safe. This would help fill for profit prisons and create associated jobs and open millions of positions of those lockup. Unemployment would drop to near zero and the economy improve. A little down side for either gun owners or Mexicans and Muslims is a small price for a booming economy. This would also relieve the burden of those that had shoulder the economic responsibility of filling our prisons for decades.
This is a truly terrible article. It all stems from the title. Trevor cannot even begin to support the title’s reckless assertion of “How the FBI’s Pursue-Every-Lead Policy Allowed the Orlando Shooting.”
Trevor suggests the FBI is under-resourced and overwhelmed with casework: “The FBI forces agents to close assessments because agents are pursuing thousands of assessments nationwide under a policy to pursue any and all leads, no matter how ridiculous they are.” Trevor doesn’t provide any such information, statistics, or other data to support this claim. He doesn’t comment on the FBI’s overall resources, much less those of the South Florida office. He certainly doesn’t point out that the FBI isn’t exactly poor, having requested $9.5 billion for its 2017 budget. Instead he provides a second-hand account (Danik) who says “If you cannot come up with articulable facts in a short period of time, you’re required to shut these cases down.” By the end of the article his other source (German) contradicts this statement by saying that that “Mateen might have fallen through the cracks NOT because the FBI didn’t have the authority and RESOURCES… ” German also added that “They’re [sic] actually isn’t a time limit on assessments” (editor please!)
To summarize: Trevor says resources is the issue, German disagrees. Trevor says agents are forced to close assessments, German says there’s no time limit!
Trevor then quotes German as saying the FBI “has a history of arbitrarily limiting agents.” There is no further explanation of how they are limited; utterly useless. This article not only fails to corroborate its click-bait starved title, but is terribly written. Trevor’s description of the “the FBI’s ‘quick flash to bang’ theory,” is damn near incomprehensible with all its jargon and quotes with mangled syntax. Upon deciphering, Trevor suggests than any FBI claims of Mateen falling through the cracks is an excuse for agents’ failures. Yet earlier in the article, Danik said this about the Investigators on the Mateen case: “these guys do not let things get away from them in investigations.” Contradiction after contradiction.
Continuing the nonsense over the quick flash to bang “theory” (it isn’t a theory, its a term used by a single person), Danik says: “If the bureau had looked at someone for 60 or 90 days while they were a casual observer of the jihadi world, then they’re going to conclude this guy doesn’t have a big touch.” But the FBI did look at Mateen beyond Danik’s arbitrary time frame. Trevor conveniently excluded that the FBI surveilled him for 10+ months, used a confidential informant, used electronic surveillance, and placed Mateen on a watch-list.
This article should be deleted from existence. It’s almost like Trevor wrote the title and then tried to conjure up the narrative to substantiate it.
PS: TI is the only source I’ve heard say Mateen used an “AR-57″ assault rifle. Most sources are saying it was a Sig Sauer MCX.
I wonder if The Intercept will latch on to the story out now about the Orlando SWAT team “possibly” killing or injuring those already shot with “friendly fire”?
God I would hate to be doing the forensics on all the bullets being removed from corpses and those injured to see who shot who!
it is important to determine if friendly fire occurred, but that is irrelevant to this article.
Nate, I think you’re missing the point of the article. The two claims don’t contradict each other. It’s not a lack of resources, the FBI is certainly not underfunded.
“There needs to be a reasonable threshold before they initiate investigations,” German said. “Right now, there really isn’t one.”
The problem is that any tip, any possible lead on a terror suspect must be pursued with a full investigation. By spreading themselves so thin they’re not able to devote the massive amounts of resources they do have efficiently before having to move to the next case. If the FBI weren’t too busy giving fake bombs to deranged homeless men they might have more time to devote to real threats like Mateen.
Earlier you say “it’s not a lack of resources” and now you say they’re spreading themselves “so thin.” That very well could be a contradiction depending on why you’re being spread thin. Insufficient resources or bad allocation of resources come to mind.
But my point stands as is, Trevor doesn’t explain it in the least bit.
Now you’re just repeating Trevor’s talking points. This isn’t a zero sum game. You are taking a single instance to make a vast generalization.
“To summarize: Trevor says resources is the issue, German disagrees. Trevor says agents are forced to close assessments, German says there’s no time limit!”
You obviously did not understand what German said. He said the FBI *arbitrarily* limits agents, because *the law* does not set a time limit for such investigations, while the FBI’S bureaucracy does. There is no contradiction between the statements of the two sources.
If so, that makes more sense. But part of good reporting is writing clearly. When he refers to “they” as the arbitrary “bureaucracy,” that means little. Who!? Squad leader? The Assistant Special Agent in charge? The SAC? FBI HQ guy?
And there is contradiction as far as I’m concerned until you can demonstrate a policy supports the no time restriction
The ATF has specified that Mateen purchased a “.223 caliber AR type rifle,” contradicting the AR-57 (caliber 5.7mm x 28mm) designation. Not strictly relevant to the main point of the article, but important for maintaining credibility with any gun rights advocates who may be reading.
https://twitter.com/ATFHQ/status/742105007693156352
Dear Sir:
Last weekend I was traveling to Pa. to pick up my child from our in-laws, I stopped and at Super 8 in Fairmont, WV. Where nine men were packed into a one room, they appeared to be of Latin American descent however they were speaking Arabic with the whisky tongue of Persian. Should one have reported this?
Does this constitute a reason to report a foreign national? I feel for the responsibility that the agents of the FBI.
sincerely,
Teddy
My previous comment took me a bit off topic; probably because I am hoping that someone would write an article about some other possible reasons this person committed this awful attack. This article is on point. It shows that if we are really serious about preventing future tragedies like this, then we need to be serious about acknowledging that what we have been doing thus far is failing us. Otherwise, we are engaging in the game of insanity; doing the same thing over and over again without getting optimal results.
We may be missing the bigger picture here by getting too caught up in the “jihadi terrorism” aspect of the situation and ignoring the possibility that this was an individual whose struggle with sexual identity and inability to reconcile that with his religious beliefs caused him to commit this horrendous act. The negative treatment that he possibly received from his family, more specifically his father, in terms of his sexual identity may have been the catalyst for what happened. His pledge to ISIS may have been his way of “proving” to his father that he was steadfast in his religious beliefs (however ignorant that may sound to most) and not a shameful person that his father may have treated him as. This should be a great teaching moment for us all and our attitudes toward homosexuality and others who are different from us. No one person should ever feel as if he/she is an abomination, disgrace, shame, or not good enough because he/she is homosexual or is different in any other way. Until we start treating people as unique and okay individuals, we cannot prevent awful things from happening; ISIS or no ISIS involved.
The author seems to be suggesting that the investigation of Mateen should not have been closed, and was prematurely closed because agents are required to “pursue every lead.” But what evidence is there that the fbi had information about Mateen that made the two closings of his investigation unwarranted? Without that evidence this article is nothing more than Monday morning quarterbacking. Yeah, we all know now that the investigation of Mateen should never have been closed. But what did the fbi know at the time? At either of the two closing points, what reason did the fbi have to continue?
The author clearly is suggesting, at least. that, in the original instance, the “investigating agents were required to close Mateen’s file. . .” However, he presents absolutely no evidence that such is the case and I am aware of none in the rest of the media.
Indeed there is no indication, so far available to the public, of which I am aware, that the closures of both investigations were anything other than warranted: Mateen appears to have been a fantasist and a braggart.
I don’t think that’s true, at least with respect to the FBI investigations. They had no reason to continue.
On the other hand, if Mateen’s domestic violence had been reported to the authorities and proper procedure followed, it is likely that, at least, he would have been subject to a restraining order and his right to possess, bear and buy firearms (at least legally) would have been suspended pending resolution of the case. It’s most likely that the only people with standing to start such proceedings would have been Omar’s ex-wife and, perhaps, her immediate family.
I would say the real problem lay with the ease of purchasing the assault weapon. The FBI has 3 days maximum (correct?) to respond to a criminal background check. In three days, there likely was not time to connect his purchase request to his past files with the FBI. And, even if there had been, there probably were no legal grounds to deny his purchase–the NRA fights hard to guarantee that. The NRA fights any effort to limit anyone’s freedom to buy assault weapons and unlimited amounts of ammunition with high capacity clips.
I’m pretty sure the NRA has never had a problem with background check delays as long as they’re legitimate and not done just to discourage gun ownership. Blame the FBI for not flagging this guy in the NICS system.
Like always, though, people like you blame the NRA whenever anything bad happens with a gun.
So fine! Let him buy his arsenal and have five FBI agents on him and ready to spring as he gets out of his car with his new toys and heads toward the club! Done and done!
Not only this but his wife claims she knew what he was planning!
Maybe a $100k reward leading to the arrest and conviction of anyone actively planning a terrorist act?
Comey is coming off as an incompetent manager here!
For Gods sake! A room full of high school kids could come up with better plans to thwart terrorist attacks than Comey!
No wonder Comey hasn’t interviewed Hillary yet! Guess he’s waiting for her coronation to be over so then he can chat it up with her and indict her for perjury and create a freakin’ Constitutional crises where, what? The VP candidate gets on the ballot and Sanders is told to go fly a kite along with his supporters??!
Seriously. Comey and the FBI are looking more like the Keystone Cops every day.
When it says that Ibragim Todashev “died during a scuffle with an FBI agent,” this article is just repeating an official story that is highly suspect, and that has been vigorously disputed by many people.
Bingo!
As I understand it, one problem with your apparent proposed reform – that cases stay open indefinitely – is that Salha and everybody else with his name is banned from flying indefinitely. Or buying guns or explosives or … what next?
The ugly side of the civil libertarian views that people like me hold is that yes, we admit that not everyone who ever claimed to know a terrorist should be kept under permanent investigation. We realize that this means that America will be less safe from attack than if every single person were locked up in a jail cell. We simply accept this risk of death. Conscious of the vast disparity between 50 dead to Bozo versus 650,000 dead to AIDS so far, it really doesn’t top our list of priorities at all.
Mr. Aaronson
This is a ridiculous article. It is nearly impossible to stop every lone wolf that makes a decision of mass murder. Of course, the US could copy the methods of Bangladesh authorities – and arrest everyone.
I’m sry. I’ve been neglecting you, craig. *& Mona says you been exposing yourself in fits of temper tantrums!
It is impossible to stop every ‘lone wolf’ (not nearly), and we (loosely) should, posthaste, stop trying to. I think, maybe, thats one of Mr. Aaronson’s points.
*fyi it wouldn’t surprise me, at this point, if Mateen was motivated by some deep psycho-sexual ‘lost love’ sob story… Freud would have a field day.
President Obama, catching a slight tail-wind, said ‘calling it (Oralndo) ‘radical Islam’ is doing ISISs’ work for them by pitting Islam against the rest of the world.’
Your lesson for today: see if you can spot the common denominator among the following groups of words.
radical Islam, radical Christianity, radical Judaism, radical Atheist, radical poop.
Trevor, ATL:
How did we get from closing the investigation because the agents concluded that Mateen was a fantasist with no link to the Tsarnaevs to “If the investigating agents were required to close Mateen’s file . . .?”
We (that is, you, Trevor) appear to have “just made up” the connection, as the agents concluded Mateen made up his connection to the Boston Bombers.
I’m sure you can write your story and make your probably-valid points without without manipulating the narrative so brazenly (and, frankly, dishonestly). And I think you should work on it.
Please start by considering a rewrite here.
After the Boston Marathon bombing it was noted that Tamarlan Tsarnayev was hearing “voices in his head”:
http://www.bostonglobe.com/Page/Boston/2011-2020/WebGraphics/Metro/BostonGlobe.com/2013/12/15tsarnaev/tsarnaev.html