Poor Obama! It is so clear that this is Islamic terrorism.

Just listened to BHO speaking on the Orlando gay massacre.   He would so love to make this a gun law issue, but it is just so  difficult given the facts known so far:

1. Sunni Muslim  who called 911 to renew his pledge of allegiance to IS and his Caliph Ibrahim DURING the attack.
2. This second generation US citizen had no criminal record
3. As a licensed security guard for a major security company this man was allowed to buy firearms with less than the background checks required of ordinary Americans (like me)
4. He evidently bought guns legally.
5. Media surrogates are a bit confused by all this.  Almost all of them know nothing of firearms and are unqualified to discuss them.  They sound ridiculous. 
6. It is Ramadan and Islam universally condemns homosexuality.  IS kills them when they find them.
7. In the EU possession of an AK-47 is illegal.  They still get them on the Black Market.  There are several million AR-15 variants legally in civilian hands in the US. 
8. It is once again falsely stated that magazine size would make a difference.  Wrong!  I am old and can make a magazine change in an AR-15 in less than five seconds.
9. The ignorant, like Malcolm Vance insist that Islam does not permit killings like this.  He is wrong.  As I have often stated Islam has NO CENTRAL AUTHORITY.  Because of that Islam is whatever some group of Muslims agree that it is.  Think IS.  pl

Poor Obama!  Surely this can be twisted into a gun control sermon!  Surely!  pl

Addendum #1.  Omar went to Saudi Arabia for pilgrimage and also to the UAE.  What was he doing in the UAE?

Addendum #2. The man's father is a long time supporter of the Taliban in his native Afghanistan.

Comments

[Tyler]

Dear The Gays:

Trump does not care what happens in your bedroom. Meanwhile Hillary wants to import a gorillion violent foreigners who are hunky dory with tossing you off a building or stoning you to death.

Choose wisely.

[Farmer Don]

In the news:
Demonstrators have formed a human chain near a US air base in western Germany to protest against lethal drone strikes.

The demonstration was organized by the alliance "Stop Ramstein - No Drone War", which says the Ramstein base relays information between operators in the US and unmanned drone aircraft on missions over Iraq, Afghanistan, Pakistan, Yemen, Syria and other places.

Organizers said that 5 to 7 thousand people took part in the chain near the Ramstein Air Base, the principal US Air Force facility in Europe, on a rainy Saturday.

http://www.commondreams.org/news/2016/06/11/germany-thousands-surround-us-air-base-protest-use-drones

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Civilian_casualties_from_US_drone_strikes

[Tab]

Agreed 100%. I think Trump's a realist in both domestic and foreign policy. From everything I read-- including from comments from his fellow billionaire titans-- I think Trump's approach will Joe-six-pack (i.e., non-idiological) libertarianism. I firmly believe Hillary intends "bold" (radical) domestic and foreign policy and actions that will be disastrous to social and global order. And in the U.S. will further marginalize white males (IMHO, the most valuable asset to any country).

[kao_hsien_chih]

This is sure to throw a big monkey wrench into the intersectionalist, multiculturalist crowd. You cannot force the lamb and the lion to lie side by side because you insist on seeing that world, at least not without a major backlash. It's not a matter with the lamb or the lion--they are perfectly justified in not wanting to lie next to each other for their reasons. It's not the lion or the lamb that deserves the blame if things go wrong, but those who insist on remaining willfully blind to those reasons.

Tyler is right: we should see a big surge in support for Trump from many unlikely quarters. A lot of people, including "minorities" of various kinds, don't want to play the multiculturalist game at the risk of their life, limb, and property.

[mbrenner]

So far, we have no evidence that this guy had any affiliation with Islamist groups - much less ISIS - or that he was motivated by religious convictions of any kind. the second-hand FBI report is that they twice checked this out some time ago and came up with nothing. As to the declaration of allegiance to ISIS during the attack - shouldn't we consider that this most likely is a last desperate claim to some sort of identity and value from a mentally ill man who has just committed an act of violence against anonymous victims? It is more emotionally gratifying to suddenly pronounce himself an Islamist agent than to proclaim the unpalatable truth: I am a mental mess, a non-entity hasn't the slightest idea idea why I did such a crazy thing!! I know of no killer anywhere who ever has made that statement despite it's being very close to the truth.

As for Obama, and other "leaders," I am more distressed by the rush to pronounce this an act of "terrorism." I find that to be dishonest on two counts. First, what he really means by the phrase is that this was a mass killing by a Muslim against non- Muslims. Other than that, the decision to use the phrase has no purpose since any act of this sort is terrifying. Second, as noted, the ascription of an Islamist motivation has no evidential basis at this point.

Personally, I am sick of these guys going out of their way to stir the emotional pot in order to exalt their own role as President, Governor, or whatever.

[Nana2007]

Who knows anything about G4S- the security firm Mateen worked for?

[Kooshy]

"Man with weapons and explosives arrested, was going to L.A. gay pride parade, police say"
http://www.latimes.com/local/lanow/la-me-ln-gay-pride-la-weapons-20160612-snap-story.html

"Colonel, FYI, this guy was cut just a few blocks away from my lotus eating neck of the woods office. Report doesn't say (yet) if he was another jehadi.

[jerseycityjoan]

I will not wade into the gun control aspect of this. But I will share this simultaneously unbelievably laughable but of course entirely unfunny account of Seddique Mateen, the killer's father, that I just saw at the Washington Post.

Mateen junior's first wife says he beat her up and that she saved by her parents from a terrible marriage. God knows what else we'll be hearing about this crew in the days ahead.

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

"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.

...

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. ..."

https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/worldviews/wp/2016/06/12/orlando-shooting-suspects-father-hosted-a-political-tv-show-and-even-tried-to-run-for-the-afghan-presidency/

[Prem]

"Islam is whatever some group of Muslims"

Nail on the head. Theological arguments about what constitutes "true Islam" are completely moot in this context. The only thing that matters is what people believe.

There are millions of good people who follow that religion, but the unfortunate reality is that Muslim minorities require extensive policing wherever they exist. If as a country you don't have one, importing one is a bad mistake.

[Dubhaltach]

Colonel,

WRT to your fifth point. Yes they sound ridiculuous to _you_. And they sound ridiculuous to ... well, pretty much anyone who knows a bit about the topic ... but they don't give a damn because they don't sound ridiculuous to the overwhelming majority of people who read them and rely on them for information and commentary. God help us, they sound authoritative to their target audience and why spoil the (lucrative) habit of a lifetime?

Upton Sinclair said it very pithily: "It is difficult to get a man to understand something, when his salary depends on his not understanding it" and seems to me that that is what you're faced with. How you go about fixing that I freely admit I haven't a clue as it seems to me to be a profitable species of invincible ignorance.

In the meantime may God have mercy on the souls of those killed, and bring succour to those wounded and to the bereaved.

[Jack]

Trump needs to make the point you make. Its not the government's business what happens between consenting adults in their bedroom among many other things they get involved in. While ban the guns rhetoric will be in full swing with the Borg Queen the real issue of death in gun free zones will not get much airing.

[Will Reks]

Tyler,

I think you have a valid point there, minus the usual hyperbole. We could stop all immigration tomorrow and it wouldn't change the fact that the terrorist was not a foreigner but a born US citizen.

Trump cannot guarantee security to anyone, let alone The Gays, considering we have a few million Muslims in the United States who were either born here or immigrated here legally.

[ISL]

Dear Colonel,

Either this former FBI got lucky on picking Florida, or it seems the call for a lone wolf attack was heard. Note, date is June 8.

http://cbs6albany.com/news/nation-world/isis-kill-list-targets-palm-beach-treasure-coast-residents-ex-fbi-agent

and more recently,

http://lawofficer.com/2016/06/isis-announced-florida-threat-3-days-ago-we-will-attack-florida/

[walrus]

I predict it's going to be twisted into an assault rifle issue unfortunately.

[James Loughton]

Uh oh. Another incidence of "danceplace violence", like that little incident of "workplace violence" down at Fort Hood in which Maj. Nidal Hassan killed 13 and injured another 30 soldiers.

Obama and his lackeys calling that workplace violence was despicable. One of those killed was a friend of mine, Michael Cahill, who was a reservist and physicians assistant. Mike was shot while trying to attack Hassan with a chair.

[Fred]

It looks like the Bataclan was a template for the attack. The cowardice in our political leadership which continues to refuse to recognize reality in its religous adherence to the PC narrative is a disgrace. Many of my friends still working for politicians started the anti-gun rant even before the blood dried. Shameful. Apparently he was interviewed by the FBI previously but ......

[Dubhaltach]

In reply to Farmer Don 12 June 2016 at 03:51 PM

How is this even remotely relevant to the topic at hand?

[Dubhaltach]

In reply to Nana2007 12 June 2016 at 04:21 PM

Well you could start with the fact that they're the largest security firm in the world and start doing some research from there on sites like wikipedia and google

[Will Reks]

All,

So I've noticed that European leaders are far more likely to use the phrase "Islamic terrorism" than either Obama or Bush before him. From reading the comments here people seem to think this is a matter of political correctness that would actually make a difference. I don't think HRC will have the same reservations to using this phase.

Ultimately, I think Americans would get behind a cessation of immigration quicker than a ban on guns or even the type of regulation that might have prevented Mateen from purchasing his weapons. This is because there is no constitutional question as to the former.

What policy is going to prevent homegrown terror attacks?

[raven]

Trump: I’m Getting So Much ‘Congrats for Being Right’ on Terrorism After Orlando http://bit.ly/28uVL2N pic.twitter.com/2nIU4j1vQa
1:18 PM - 12 Jun 2016

[BabelFish]

I went to a movie this afternoon, with my wife. As I have done for some time know, I sat and wondered WTF I would do if some animal came in and started shooting. I can go a lot of places in my mind regarding all the issues but it comes down to sanity. IMO, sanity says our governments and agencies have to be our shield and protection. When the highest elected official will not utter the words that accurately describe this and other incidents, we have arrived at his single biggest failure. He has failed to effectively lead the effort to keep us safe.

[Anonymous]

Fred is right. Bibi must be already throwing elbows for a place in the first row in the memorial parade. Tump, of course, will be banned from attending.

James Loughton, thats Viodance. A new fashion combining muslim explosive rithm with gay moving vibrancy.

Pardon me for being insensitive. I no longer think ultrage suffices as surrogate for political action.

[Nana2007]

That wasn't my question. Thanks nonetheless.

[MartinJ]

I wouldn't be at all surprised to learn that this murderer was himself gay.

So disgusted with his unnatural feelings that perverted the laws of his religion that he felt compelled to act against them. Killing the infidel and at once absolving himself in the eyes of God from his personal deviances.

I have heard first hand a number of times where individuals have joined AQ as an escape route out from such "feelings" or, perhaps, as a cover for them.

[kao_hsien_chih]

Trump's tweet was tasteless, but ultimately right. The truth is that there really is a terrorist threat that is grounded in the variant of Islam accepted by many. Instead of accepting that there is an Islamic terrorism threat (notice that I said "an" Islamic terrorism, not "the"), the media and political class go into denial mode, with the "Islam is religion of peace" canard. Personally, I think that is far worse than just accepting that there are a very large number of Muslims who are indeed out to do us infidels harm, even if they might be only a minority of the whole. People are not dumb: they see that many Muslims are not peaceful and indeed justify their violence in the name of faith and religion. Surely, it would make for a more honest debate to recognize the reality that, yes, there is a sizable minority, numbering millions or even tens of millions (out of billions) of Muslims who do want to do us harm, explicitly for "religious" reasons? I think the American public is clear-headed enough to see this.