Orlando Shooter Made 3 Calls, Praised Allah Before Pledging Allegiance to ISIS, Transcripts Reveal
Omar Mateen, the man behind the deadliest shooting in modern U.S. history who took the lives of 49 people at a gay nightclub in Orlando, praised Allah and pledged his allegiance to the Islamic State terror group in a 911 call on the night of the massacre, transcripts reveal.
"In the name of Allah the merciful, the beneficial," Mateen said in Arabic in his call to police.
"Praise be to Allah, and prayers as well as peace be upon the prophet of God. I let you know, I'm in Orlando and I did the shootings," he added, signaling his confession.
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When asked to state his name, Mateen responded: "My name is I pledge of allegiance to Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi of the Islamic State."
Baghdadi has led IS in its conquest of territory in Iraq and Syria for the past two years, and has been at the top of America's terror list.
Fox News notedthat the Justice Department initially released a version of the transcript on Monday that omitted specific words, such as Baghdadi's name, but later published the full 50-second uncensored conversation. The Justice Department also changed the name Allah to God.
House Speaker Paul Ryan, R-Wis., had urged the DOJ and the FBI not to omit references to Islamic extremism.
"We know the shooter was a radical Islamist extremist inspired by ISIS," Ryan said at the time. "We also know he intentionally targeted the LGBT community. The administration should release the full, unredacted transcript so the public is clear-eyed about who did this, and why."
Republican Florida Gov. Rick Scott added: "This is evil, this is ISIS. It's radical Islam. At some point, we lost 49 lives here and we lost a journalist who was beheaded by ISIS. We need a president that's going to say I care about destroying ISIS."
The FBI said Mateen made three calls on the night of the shooting, and said in a summary that he identified himself as an Islamic soldier and "told the negotiator to tell America to stop bombing Syria and Iraq and that is why he was 'out here right now.'"
"When the crisis negotiator asked the shooter what he had done, the shooter stated, 'No, you already know what I did,'" the document added, according to CNN.
IS has acknowledged and praised Mateen's actions in its name in an official video, arguing that the massacre served as "revenge" for Muslims that the U.S. government has killed in its airstrikes in Syria and elsewhere.
"Omar Mateen one of Islamic State's lions, set out to restore the glory of the Ummah and avenge the death of Muslims. He shook the head of kufr (unbeliever) America, terrorized it and shed its blood," the terror group's video last week stated.
"Allah enabled him to inflict heavy casualties amongst the filthy Crusaders," it adds. "He killed and injured over a hundred of them. This is the biggest raid to be carried in America after the raid of Manhattan 16 years ago. All praise to Allah."
The FBI said that it decided to release the full transcript on Monday out of its commitment to transparency.
"Unfortunately, the unreleased portions of the transcript that named the terrorist organizations and leaders have caused an unnecessary distraction from the hard work that the FBI and our law enforcement partners have been doing to investigate this heinous crime," a statement explained.
