Pulse Nightclub

Five years ago, an ISIS-inspired terrorist took 49 innocent lives at Orlando’s Pulse Nightclub. Florida honors the memories of those who were murdered on one of the darkest days in Florida’s history. pic.twitter.com/p8tRFV8sJ9

— Ron DeSantis (@GovRonDeSantis) June 12, 2021

The FBI Knew Ahmad Al Aliwi Alissa

The FBI knew in advance the identity of Ahmad Al Aliwi Alissa. And the Pulse Nightclub shooter. San Bernardino terrorists. Boston Marathon Bombers. Garland Texas shooters. Parkland High School shooter. Fort Hood shooter.

Never has one entity known so much and done so little.

— First Words (@unscriptedmike) March 23, 2021

The FBI is failing the American people.

Pulse Nightclub, Orlando - 1 Year Ago

We will NEVER FORGET the victims who lost their lives one year ago today in the horrific #PulseNightClub shooting. #OrlandoUnitedDay pic.twitter.com/OFFUVAFBJM

— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) June 12, 2017

A year ago, 49 people died at Pulse nightclub. Today, Orlando remembers. https://t.co/k6Bj3gXStD

— Washington Post (@washingtonpost) June 12, 2017

While remembering the 49 innocent people killed, let's also remember what happened.

A year ago, a homicidal, hate-filled Islamic jihadist murdered 49 innocent people at Pulse nightclub in Orlando.#neverforget https://t.co/KvuABO0Iro

— Michelle Malkin (@michellemalkin) June 12, 2017

Obama Farewell Address

It's been a while since I've watched Obama deliver a speech.

I didn't see his speech at the Democrats' convention last summer. I stopped watching his State of the Union addresses years ago. I didn't see his second inaugural address. I tuned out.

But, I decided to watch his farewell address.

Transcript here.

Here's video of the full speech:



That echo was annoying. Strange that the sound was so weird.

In terms of content, naturally, supporters and fans consider the address to be Obama at his best, a soaring triumph.

I consider it to be Obama as usual, making some true and some false claims delivered as truth, both cloaked in flowery phrasing meant to impress. Sure, some of the things he said sounded nice, but there was a disconnect between his words and the truth. Of course, the Leftist utopian rhetoric was out in full force, as were the crowd-pleasing applause triggers that peppered the speech. And, of course, there were those thinly-veiled shots aimed at Trump and Republicans, as well as the statement that prompted the crowd to boo loudly, "In ten days, the world will witness a hallmark of our democracy."

I didn't like the lecturing, especially given the hypocritical nature of his remarks. He can't talk unity when you look at his 8-year record of divisiveness and partisanship. The last time I heard such a load Meryl Streep was lecturing the country during the Golden Globes just a couple of days ago, singling out the rubes, the football and MMA fans.

Obama's yapping about the "retreat into our own bubbles" and complaining about the "selective sorting of the facts" was so disingenuous.

Obama was doing a lot of finger-pointing when he should have been looking in the mirror, and at least acknowledging that he was certainly a major player in stoking the problem.

He complained about "corrosive" political dialogue.

In his own farewell address, George Washington wrote that self-government is the underpinning of our safety, prosperity, and liberty, but “from different causes and from different quarters much pains will be taken... to weaken in your minds the conviction of this truth.”

And so we have to preserve this truth with “jealous anxiety;” that we should reject “the first dawning of every attempt to alienate any portion of our country from the rest or to enfeeble the sacred ties” that make us one.

America, we weaken those ties when we allow our political dialogue to become so corrosive that people of good character aren’t even willing to enter into public service. So course with rancor that Americans with whom we disagree are seen, not just as misguided, but as malevolent. We weaken those ties when we define some of us as more American than others.

Obama has been so corrosive. The things he said while campaigning for Hillary were beyond the pale. Was he admitting that he engaged in weakening those "sacred ties"? No, but he did.

I didn't like Obama's claim that "no foreign terrorist organization has successfully planned and executed an attack on our homeland these past eight years." That statement rests on the definition of "foreign terrorist organization."

While he did go on to acknowledge "Boston and Orlando and San Bernardino and Fort Hood," he diminished the significance of those terrorist attacks by attributing that violence to "dangerous radicalization," as if killing in the name of an ideology requires a "foreign terrorist organization" to order the bloodshed to consider it a successful attack.

Either Obama genuinely doesn't understand terrorism or he is intentionally defining it in a manner that allows him to claim there have been no attacks "on our homeland these past eight years."

Whatever. Why bother picking apart his words? At 11:00 AM CT on January 20, the Obama era ends. It's history. The possibilities for the future, for change and improvement, for better days ahead, excite me.

It was very touching when Obama thanked Michelle and his daughters (Malia was there, but Sasha was not), expressing his pride and appreciation and love. I believed it. He was being sincere. I could relate to him in that moment.

I was reminded that what we share as Americans and human beings is much greater than any of the things that divide us.

Seddique Mateen and Hillary

Omar Mateen's father, Seddique Mateen, was invited by the Democrat Party to attend a Hillary event.

From Infowars:

“Clinton is good for United States versus Donald Trump,” Seddique Mateen later told a news station in broken English as he held a pro-Hillary sign and revealed that he had been “invited by the Democratic Party”.

Seddique Mateen also supports the Taliban and exterminating gay people.

As CBS News previously reported, Mateen said that, “God will punish those involved in homosexuality”.

He also hosts a TV show on a California-based satellite Afghan TV station that is “nationalistic, pro-Taliban slant; full of anti-U.S. rhetoric and inflammatory language.”

WILL HILLARY DISAVOW MATEEN ENDORSEMENT? https://t.co/r9GhPCWM4w

— DRUDGE REPORT (@DRUDGE_REPORT) August 9, 2016

Redacted Transcript

Obama administration: [Constitution omitted]

— Ben Shapiro (@benshapiro) June 20, 2016

in court would not edit 911 call since potentially mislead jury-so why does DOJ edit terrorists' 911 call? potentially mislead public

— Greta Van Susteren (@greta) June 20, 2016

The only thing we have to fear is fear itself.

No, Obama and his administration fear the truth.

_________________

UPDATE: FBI, DOJ release new, full transcript of Orlando shooter's 911 call

Under pressure from Republican leaders, the Justice Department released a full, unredacted transcript of the Orlando terrorists 911 call on the night of the massacre, calling Monday morning’s furor over omissions “an unnecessary distraction.”

An earlier version of the transcript deleted the word “Islamic State” and the name of ISIS leader “Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi.” Omar Mateen made the 50-second 911 call in which he claimed responsibility for the assault and pledged allegiance to the terror organization at 2:35 a.m., more than a half hour into the June 12 slaughter at gay nightclub Pulse.

“I pledge allegiance to Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi may God protect him [in Arabic], on behalf of the Islamic State,” Mateen says on the new transcript.

The old version had several words scrubbed and read: "I pledge allegiance to [omitted] may God protect him [in Arabic], on behalf of [omitted]."

Obama and Terrorist Cells

Breaking: Terrorist cells are hard to detect, says guy who launched his political career in Bill Ayer's living room

— David Burge (@iowahawkblog) June 14, 2016

.@heatherwilhelm pic.twitter.com/6EL36XCaFf

— David Burge (@iowahawkblog) June 14, 2016

Masonic Temple Mass Shooting Plan - Milwaukee

Back in January, Samy Mohamed Hamzeh, 23, was arrested. He planned to carry out a mass shooting in Milwaukee.

Thank God, he failed.

Here's Hamzeh's mugshot:



According to the FBI, Hamzeh intended to get the world's attention with an act of terror in Milwaukee.

Yes. Milwaukee.

From FOX6 News:

FBI officials announced on Tuesday, January 26th that Milwaukee resident Samy Mohamed Hamzeh, 23, has been charged with possessing machine guns and a silencer.

According to the criminal complaint, Hamzeh had been under investigation since September 2015. The investigation revealed that, in October 2015, Hamzeh planned to travel to Jordan, enter the West Bank, and conduct an attack on Israeli soldiers and citizens living in the West Bank. Hamzeh later abandoned those plans and began to focus on conducting an attack in the United States.

According to the criminal complaint, Hamzeh has engaged in extensive conversations with two confidential sources (referred to here as CS-1 and CS-2). Those conversations, which were in Arabic, were monitored, recorded, and translated by the FBI beginning in October 2015.

During those recorded conversations, Hamzeh explained that he wanted to commit a domestic act of violence and, earlier this month, he settled on a Masonic temple in Milwaukee as his target.

The details are chilling.

Hamzeh said that they would need two machine guns so that they each would have one (Hamzeh indicated that one CS already had a machine gun), and also said that they would need three silencers:

“We want two machine guns, you now have one, so we want two more, and we need three silencers, that’s it. Find out how much all together these will cost, and then we will march.”

“We want two, like the machine gun you have. . . . And we need silencers. . . . Three, yes three silencers, and that’s it.”

“. . . each one has a weapon, each one has a silencer gun, the operation will be one hundred percent successful. I am telling you, to go without silencer gun, you will be exposed from the beginning.”

On January 19, 2016, Hamzeh, CS-1 and CS-2 took a guided tour of the Masonic temple, during which they learned meeting schedules and where people would be located during meetings. In a recorded conversation after they left the temple, Hamzeh, discussed his plans with CS-1 and CS-2. In that conversation, Hamzeh reaffirmed his intention to commit an armed attack on the temple and discussed in further detail how they would carry out the attack.

Hamzeh also explained to CS1 and CS2 that, when they executed the attack at the temple, one of the three of them would have to stay at the main door while the others went upstairs to kill the people who would be meeting there:

“one of us will stay at the door at the entrance and lock the door down, he will be at the main door down, two will get to the lift up, they will enter the room, and spray everyone in the room. The one who is standing downstairs will spray anyone he finds. We will shoot them, kill them and get out. We will walk and walk, after a while, we will be covered as if it is cold, and we’ll take the covers off and dump them in a corner and keep on walking, as if nothing happened, as if everything is normal. But one has to stand on the door, because if no one stood at the door, people will be going in and out, if people came in from outside and found out what is going on, everything is busted.”

“As long as the one on the door understands he has bigger responsibility than the others. For your information, he has to take care of everyone around him, the comers and the one that wants to go, he has to annihilate everyone, there is no one left, I mean when we go into a room, we will be killing everyone, that’s it, this is our duty, as for the one at the door, he must have 20/20 eye vision and always alert for all the traffic around him.”

“I am telling you, as I was saying, all three of us get in together, one will go, to the one that is staying at the reception . . . . If she was alone, it is okay, if there were two of them, shoot both of them, do not let the blood show, shoot her from the bottom, two or three shots in her stomach and let her sit on the chair and push her to the front, as if she is sleeping, did you understand? Then stay downstairs, the other two will take the lift to the third floor, go directly to the room, open the door, shoot everyone, move fast even avoiding the lift and take the stairs running down. . . . Using the stairs, the third one on the door will notice us coming down, we will go out together. No one sees anything and no one knows anything. We leave, as if there is nothing, no running, no panic, just regular walking. We’ll get three head covers with three holes in them. . . . we’ll get in all three of us together, the minute we get in, we shoot whoever is in front of us, and all have to be eliminated. One stays down and two will go up quickly.
“And we will eliminate everyone.”

Hamzeh also explained what his objectives were in committing the attack:

“I am telling you, if this hit is executed, it will be known all over the world. . . . Sure, all over the world, all the Mujahedeen will be talking and they will be proud of us. . . such operations will increase in America, when they hear about it. The people will be scared and the operations will increase, and there will be problems all over, because more than one problem took place, and this will be the third problem, this will lead to people clashing with each other. This way we will be igniting it. I mean we are marching at the front of the war.”

“They are all Masonic; they are playing with the world like a game, man, and we are like asses, we don’t know what is going on, these are the ones who are fighting, these are the ones that needs to be killed, not the Shi’iat, because these are the ones who are against us, these are the ones who are making living for us like hell.”

“Thirty is excellent. If I got out, after killing thirty people, I will be happy 100%. . . . 100% happy, because these 30 will terrify the world.”

The plan was to terrify the world with a slaughter at a Masonic temple in Milwaukee.

Hamzeh, Islamic terrorist, failed.

Thank God, CS-1 and CS-2 gained Hamzeh's trust and the plot was exposed.

As I remember, this plot didn't get much attention. It was a non-event.

So we just sort of brushed it off.

Nothing happened. No big deal, right?

Wrong. It is a big deal.

What are we doing in response to the acts of Islamic terrorism committed on US soil during Obama's tenure, other than laying blame at the feet of the NRA?

The thwarted plots are forgotten instead of serving as alarms.

Then we have the idiocy of moves like dispatching James Taylor to heal the world after the Paris attack and restore global harmony. Surprised that didn't work? The Islamists continue to kill.

It's a big deal that Obama and the Democrats have failed to address the threat of Islamic terrorism in the US. The deadly consequences of their political correctness and their anti-NRA agenda, demanding blindness to reality, are a big deal.

It's not possible to track and thwart every jihadi, but Obama and the Democrats won't even acknowledge the reality of the threat.

That's a big deal.

Orlando Shooting: World Headlines v. US Headlines

Mark Steyn, sitting in for Rush Limbaugh on Monday, brought attention to the difference between international headlines and those in the US media covering the slaughter in Orlando.

Steyn cited Chris Pandolfo, Conservative Review:

In the aftermath of what has become the deadliest terrorist attack since 9/11, National Review writer Charles C. Cooke made a striking observation.

Here are the first four UK papers I saw on stands. (I’m visiting family.) pic.twitter.com/xBZmW4erUX

— Charles C. W. Cooke (@charlescwcooke) June 13, 2016

And here are the first four I looked up in the U.S. Interesting difference in emphasis. pic.twitter.com/twu15ASPk9

— Charles C. W. Cooke (@charlescwcooke) June 13, 2016

Indeed, while U.S. media outlets are calling what happened in Orlando a “mass shooting,” international headlines are focusing on ISIS and the Islamic roots of the terrorist shooter.

Take, for example, some more headlines from around the world:

The Americans murdered by an ISIS fanatic as they partied: Brand manager, pharmacy technician and theme park employee are among the 49 shot dead by terrorist in Florida gay club slaughter—from the UK Daily Mail.

50 dead, 53 injured in terror attack at Orlando nightclub—from the Jerusalem Post.

Chilling moment ISIS massacre begins in Orlando nightclub captured by victim's Snapchat—from the Daily Express.

And here are some more American headlines:

Deadliest Mass Shooting In U.S. History Leaves 50 Dead At Gay Orlando Nightclub—from the Huffington Post.

More Victims of Orlando Mass Shooting Identified as Loved Ones Share Grief: 'I Just Started Bursting into Tears'—from People Magazine.

Horror, sympathy as world reacts to Orlando mass shooting—from CNN.

It seems the media in the United States wants to bury this act of Islamic terror in a steaming pile of political correctness while the rest of the world wants to challenge the Islamic State.

This is the problem in a nutshell.

Disconnecting the dots puts us at risk.

This is Obama's legacy.
________________

Audio here.

Radical Islamist Targets

We must be honest: motive for Orlando massacre was radical Islamist ideology. LGBT community was target this time, but others will be next.

— Fr. Jonathan Morris (@fatherjonathan) June 12, 2016

Prayers For Victims

USCCB President @ArchbishopKurtz Reacts to “Unspeakable Violence” in Orlando; Offers Prayers for the Victims pic.twitter.com/j6YoQkgELX

— US Catholic Bishops (@USCCB) June 12, 2016

Omar Mateen: Terrorist

Omar Mateen pledged his allegiance to ISIS.

Orlando shooting suspect Omar Mateen was interviewed by FBI in 2013 and 2014: officials https://t.co/E8m7cCPNj5 pic.twitter.com/bKfRNL8Qtd

— KTLA (@KTLA) June 12, 2016

He targeted and slaughtered dozens of innocents at a gay club in Orlando, our fellow Americans.

This is Islamic terrorism. Is it a perversion of Islam? Whatever.

Was Mateen a lone wolf?

What difference does it make?

Fifty people are dead and many more wounded.

I wouldn't blame the gun.

The gun is an inanimate object. It has no power unless used by a person. The gun is incapable of committing an attack like this.

Blame the person for the carnage. Blame Mateen.

This notion that an evil person wouldn't be able to obtain weapons if we had stronger gun laws is absolutely crazy.

Blame Mateen.

Omar Mateen, Terrorist Who Attacked Orlando Gay Club, Had Been Investigated by FBI - The Daily Beast https://t.co/HV4CrK3Psr

— Vicki Mckenna (@VickiMcKenna) June 12, 2016

At least Obama has called this an act of terrorism.

It's about time.

Of course, Obama refused to mention ISIS or radical Islam, but at least he admitted it was terrorism.

The president of the United States should not be afraid to identify the enemy. It's disrespectful to those killed and injured.

Breaking: ISIS reportedly claims responsibility for the #Orlando shooting. https://t.co/ncSjLtDEYf (AP Images) pic.twitter.com/0Q1mHPVi6n

— Fox News (@FoxNews) June 12, 2016

I'd like to hear that from the White House.