Pulse nightclub shooter Omar Mateen.

By Steve Neavling
Ticklethewire.com

The discovery that the father of the man who killed 49 people at an Orlando nightclub in 2016 was an FBI informant was an insufficient reason to reject the case against the widow of the mass shooter, a judge said Monday.

Lawyers for Noor Salman urged a judge to throw out the case because prosecutors withheld information that Omar Mateen’s father, Seddique Mateen, worked as a confidential FBI informant at various times between January 2005 and June 2016.

But U.S. District Judge Paul Byron rejected a motion to dismiss or declare a mistrial, saying Seddique Mateen’s role as a former informant “does not change the dynamic of whether Noor Salman aided and abetted,” NBC News reports. 

Salman is on trial on charges of aiding and abetting her husband’s June 2016 attack on Pulse, a popular gay club in Orlando, and obstructing law enforcement’s investigation by falsely denying her role in the attack, which was one of the deadliest mass shootings on U.S. soil.

Omar Mateen told police before he was killed that he shooting was done in the name of ISIS. 

Pulse nightclub shooter Omar Mateen.

By Steve Neavling
ticklethewire.com

The wife of the Orlando nightclub killer has been arrested by the FBI and charged with obstructing the investigation of the mass shooting.

Noor Salman, the wife of Omar Mateen, also was charged with aiding and abetting by providing material support, the New York Times reports. 

The FBI arrested Salman at her home outside of San Francisco.

Her husband killed 49 people and wounded dozens of others in an Orland nightclub on June 12, 2016.

After interviewing Salman for hours following the attack, the FBI believed she was being untruthful about her husband’s plans to carry out a mass shooting.

Salman is expected to make her first court appearance in federal court in Oakland, Calif., this morning.

Omar Mateen

By Steve Neavling
ticklethewire.com

The FBI concluded that Orlando shooter Omar Mateen was not a terrorist and not likely to “go postal” after interviewing him twice in 2013.

Mateen convinced the FBI that he fabricated ties to terrorists because he was fed up with the incessant anti-Muslim criticism from the St. Lucie County Sheriff’s Department, the Atlanta Journal Constitution reports. 

The FBI discounted Mateen has a threat, saying his comments were just rhetoric, newly released records show.

Mateen told an FBI agent he was “1,000 percent pure American.”

On June 12, Mateen walked into Pulse nightclub, leading to the deaths of 49 people.

Omar Mateen

By Steve Neavling
ticklethewire.com

The FBI investigated the Orlando shooter for 10 months but found no evidence to charge him.

The Los Angeles Times said counter-terrorism investigators pursued Omar Mateen from May 2013 to March 2014, the Los Angeles Times reports. 

The FBI and local sheriff’s office ran his name through criminal and terrorism databases and checked his phone records for suspicious contacts. They watched him from unmark cars. And they even sent two confidential informants to record his conversations.

Still, the agent and his supervisor believed Mateen was not a threat and closed the case.

About two years later, on Jun 12, he killed 49 people and wounded dozens more.

Rep. John Mica

By Steve Neavling
ticklethewire.com

Rep. John Mica, R-Florida, is demanding to learn more about the FBI’s response to Omar Mateen, the man who opened fire at a nightclub, killing 49 people.

Mica said he wants to know whether the FBI missed clues before the shooting and what the bureau knew about Mateen when he was previously investigated, WFTV reports. 

Mica is calling for a congressional hearing to get those answers.

Mica suggested that the FBI should have done more earlier but didn’t because of political correctness.

Omar Mateen

By Steve Neavling
ticklethewire.com

Did Omar Mateen, the man responsible for the Orlando nightclub massacre, have gay lovers?

Since the shooting that left 49 people dead, people have claimed Mateen had gay relationships and used gay dating apps.

But so far, the FBI has found no evidence to support those claims, the Los Angeles Times reports. 

Investigators have discredited claims by some people who alleged Mateen had sex with men.

To look into the claims, the FBI searched Mateen’s electronic devices and found no photographs, text messages, gay pornography or smartphone apps to support the claims that he had a secret gay life.

During the massacre, Mateen said he was avenging the bombings in the Middle East.

Omar Mateen

By Steve Neavling
ticklethewire.com

Two years before Omar Mateen opened fire on an Orlando nightclub, a Muslim friend warned the FBI about concerns that Mateen was becoming self-radicalized.

“The fact that this person was a Muslim, and also that he was a Muslim from my community and somebody that I knew — very, very, very disturbing,” Mohammad Mailk told CBS News.

The two met a decade ago and attended the same mosque.

Malik said he became concerned and called the FBI after Mateen confided that he was inspired by radical Islamic cleric Anwar al-Awlaki’s videos.

“He told me they were very powerful,” he recalled. “That raised the red flag even higher for me.”

The FBI investigated Mateen for the second time in two years, but decided Mateen wasn’t a clear threat. Malik said the FBI never asked him again about Mateen.

“These people that have committed these acts have radicalized on their own — not through the mosque,” Malik said.

Omar Mateen

By Editorial Board
Newsday

The FBI blundered badly Monday in its attempt to withhold portions of a transcript of the four 911 calls by Orlando nightclub assassin Omar Mateen.

Eventually, the decision to redact some of Mateen’s words was reversed, and the nation learned that the shooter had professed his loyalty to the Islamic State and its leader, Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, when he called the emergency number during the June 12 attack. The FBI’s rationale for its decision was to protect the victims’ families and “to prevent future attacks.” We doubt that knowing Mateen sympathized with ISIS really increased the suffering of the grieving families burying their dead.

And since eyewitnesses, local police and the FBI said from the start that this psychopath mentioned ISIS, how exactly would blacking out those words from the 911 transcript protect us from terror attacks? Attorney General Loretta Lynch put it this way: “What we’re not going to do is further proclaim this man’s pledges of allegiance to terrorist groups and further his propaganda.” Trying to shield Americans from the truth, and undermining their confidence in what the federal government is telling them, might be a more dangerous action. In reversing the decision to redact, the FBI and Justice Department said they wanted to avoid unnecessary distractions.

That’s missing the point.

To read more click here.