1. Aubrey Immelman Says:
   June 21st, 2016 at 9:38 pm

   Cross-posted from http://www.sctimes.com/story/opinion/2016/06/21/orlando-shooting-raises-points/86199986/

   From the LTE: “[Omar Mateen] chose ISIS as the banner of his hatred, just as Charleston church shooter Dylann Roof chose the Confederate flag.”

   I do, however, see a significant distinction:

   Mateen was responding to calls by a global-reach terrorist organization to attack soft targets wherever its adherents might find themselves.

   I’m not aware of any global-reach terrorist organization with allegiance to the Confederacy calling on its followers to attack soft targets.

   In my opinion, Mateen was motivated primarily by religious ideology, in contrast to Roof, who appears to have been motivated primarily by old-fashioned racism.

2. Aubrey Immelman Says:
   June 22nd, 2016 at 9:56 pm

   Cross-posted from http://www.sctimes.com/story/opinion/2016/06/21/orlando-shooting-raises-points/86199986/

   Reader comment: The Orlando masacre wasn’t about religion, and the killer’s reference to ISIS was a deflection from his real purpose. Mateen was a self-loathing closeted mentally ill homosexual – and he killed these people because they were gay. It had nothing to do with ISIS, Islam or religion. (John Ellenbecker)

   Reader response: That makes me wonder. If Mateen had been a self-loathing, closeted, mentally ill homosexual — but Christian, Hindu, Buddhist, or atheist rather than Muslim — would he have committed mass murder? (Aubrey Immelman)

   Reader reply: Yes. And he would have called 911 with some reason other than ISIS as his reason, to make it clear to the world that he wasn’t gay. (John Ellenbecker)

   Reader rebuttal: I cannot determine Omar Mateen’s state of mind or motive at the time of the shooting, so all I have to go on is the unredacted transcript of his 911 call released by the FBI, which reads as follows:

   Orlando Police Dispatcher: Emergency 911, this is being recorded.

   Omar Mateen: In the name of God the Merciful, the beneficent [said in Arabic].

   OD: What?

   OM: Praise be to God, and prayers as well as peace be upon the prophet of God [said in Arabic]. I wanna let you know, I’m in Orlando and I did the shootings.

   OD: What’s your name?

   OM: My name is I pledge of allegiance to Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi of the Islamic State.

   In a later calls to police negotiators, Mateen identified himself as an Islamic soldier, told the crisis negotiator that he was the person who pledged his allegiance to ISIS, and told the negotiator to tell America to stop bombing Syria and Iraq and that is why he was “out here right now.”

   If Mateen’s motive for the shooting was “to make it clear to the world that he wasn’t gay,” my question would be why he referenced U.S. military involvement in Syria and Iraq. Wouldn’t it have made more sense simply to invoke some Quranic or Biblical verse regarding the “abomination” of homosexuality?

3. Aubrey Immelman Says:
   June 26th, 2016 at 11:20 am

   Cross-posted from http://www.sctimes.com/story/opinion/2016/06/21/orlando-shooting-raises-points/86199986/

   Was the Orlando Gunman Gay? The Answer Continues to Elude the F.B.I.

   By Frances Robles and Julie Turkewitz
   June 25, 2016

   After news media reports suggested that the man who carried out the massacre at a gay nightclub here may have himself been gay, the company that bills itself as “the world’s largest gay hookup site” put out what amounted to a distress call, asking members who may have been in contact with the gunman, Omar Mateen, to come forward.

   In an attempt to find an account connected to the killer, the site, Adam4Adam combed through the profile photos of every one of its 300,000 Florida members and researched 20 email addresses used by Mr. Mateen over the years that the company said had been provided by the F.B.I.

   Adam4Adam came up with nothing.

   “I think it was a hoax,” David Lesage, a spokesman for the Montreal-based company, said about the reports that Mr. Mateen had used Adam4Adam and other dating sites and apps for gay men. …

   The claims have prompted investigators to look into whether Mr. Mateen, who had called 911 pledging allegiance to the Islamic State, was also a closeted gay man consumed by feelings of self-loathing and revenge.

   F.B.I. investigators, who have conducted more than 500 interviews in the case, are continuing to contact men who claim to have had sexual relations with Mr. Mateen or think they saw him at gay bars. But so far, they have not found any independent corroboration — through his web searches, emails or other electronic data — to establish that he was, in fact, gay, officials said.

   The question of sexual orientation is a part of a broader effort by the F.B.I. to establish Mr. Mateen’s criminal profile. Beyond being a critical piece of information that could help the agency reconstruct the deadliest mass shooting in modern American history, it could aid in creating a broader analysis of criminal and terrorist behavior. …

   Spanish-language television network Univision aired an interview with a man identified only as Miguel — his face was disguised and his voice distorted — who claimed to have had a two-month relationship with Mr. Mateen after meeting him on the app Grindr.

   The man said Mr. Mateen had profiles on at least three gay dating apps. He said they first met at another gay club in Orlando, the Parliament House, and had more than a dozen rendezvous at an area hotel.

   Miguel told the network that Mr. Mateen felt rejected by Hispanic gays and was angry at Puerto Ricans in particular, because he once had a sexual liaison with a man who later confessed to being H.I.V. positive.

   “I believe this crazy horrible thing he did was revenge,” he said in the English-language version of the interview.

   Federal authorities looked into his account and do not consider it credible, said a law enforcement official who spoke on background because the information was part of an ongoing investigation. …

   Read the full report at the New York Times » http://www.nytimes.com/2016/06/26/us/was-the-orlando-gunman-gay-the-answer-continues-to-elude-the-fbi.html

4. The Immelman Turn » Blog Archive » ISIS Swarm Attack on Paris Says:
   September 18th, 2016 at 3:12 am

   […] Largest U.S. Mass Killings (June 12, 2016) […]

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