23/06/2016
23/06/2016
ORLANDO, Fla, June 22, (AP): The Orlando massacre at a popular gay nightclub shows no one yet has “found the magic bullet” to prevent Americans from being inspired to violence by jihadist propaganda on the internet, Attorney General Loretta Lynch said Tuesday as she visited a city still shaken by the shootings.
C o u n t e r i n g the narrative of radical extremism continues to be a challenge for the government, Lynch said in an interview with The Associated Press. “How do we break that chain? How do we counter this extremist ideology that’s online, knowing that the internet has to remain free and open?” she said. “What can we get out there that’s a counter-message to that?” At the scene of the carnage, workers removed a temporary fence that was erected around the Pulse nightclub. State officials wondered how they would pay for resources drained by the June 12 massacre, and investigators kept probing for gunman Omar Mateen’s motives for the rampage, in which 49 people were killed and dozens more wounded. Mateen died in a gunbattle with police.
Motive
Rampage
On Monday, police Chief John Mina said that if any fire from responding officers hit victims at the club, Mateen bears the responsibility. “Those killings are on the suspect, on the suspect alone in my mind,” he said. Lynch said the Justice Department will provide Florida $1 million in emergency funds to help with response costs. Florida’s Republican Gov Rick Scott had complained that Washington had turned down his request for $5 million to help pay for the state’s response. Federal Emergency Management Agency spokesman Rafael Lemaitre said its disaster fund was not an “appropriate source” to pay for law enforcement response, medical care and counseling for victims of a shooting.
More clues emerged about the attack Monday when the FBI released a partial transcript of phone calls Mateen had with a 911 operator and police crisis negotiators once the shooting got underway. In them, he identified himself as an Islamic soldier, demanded that the US “stop bombing” Syria and Iraq, warned of future violence and at one point pledged allegiance to Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, the leader of the Islamic State group, the FBI said. Mateen’s calls to police, which one FBI official said were made in a “chilling, calm and deliberate manner” were similar to postings he apparently made on Facebook around the time of the shooting.