Transcripts of the phone conversations between Orlando nightclub shooter Omar Mateen and a crisis negotiator revealed an erratic terrorist hellbent on emulating other lone jihadists and insisting his attack was linked to the assassination of an ISIS military emir.
Mateen attacked Pulse, an LGBT nightspot, on June 12, killing 49 and wounding 53 before being killed by police at the culmination of a three-hour standoff.
The 29-year-old security guard called 911 at 2:35 a.m., about half an hour into his attack, according to transcripts released last week by police.
He claimed responsibility and pledged allegiance to the Islamic State, hanging up when the 911 operator prodded him for details. A police negotiator called back Mateen’s cell phone.
“You have to tell America to stop bombing Syria and Iraq. They are killing a lot of innocent people. What am I to do here when my people are getting killed over there. You get what I’m saying?” Mateen told the negotiator. “…They need to stop the U.S. air strikes. You have to tell the U.S. government to stop bombing. They are killing too many children, they are killing too many women, okay?”
Mateen claimed there were “some vehicles outside that have some bombs” that “can take out a whole city block almost.”
“My homeboy Tamerlan Tsarnaev did his thing on the Boston Marathon… so now it’s my turn, okay?” he said.
The negotiator pressed Mateen for his name.
“My name is Islamic soldier, okay?” he replied. “Call me mujahideen, call me the soldier of the God.”
“That’s a lot for me to say, so can I just — can I just call you something else?” the negotiator responded.
Mateen noted that it was Ramadan and said he “fasted the whole day and I prayed.” He claimed that he was wearing a vest like “what they used in France.”
“If you bring the bomb dog they are not going to smell s**t,” he said. “…Bring your little American bomb dog, they are f**king outdated anyway.”
The negotiator tried to reason with a silent Mateen until the phone call ended. He called back Mateen, who said, “Yo, the airstrike that killed Abu Wahid a few weeks ago, That’s what triggered it, okay?… Do your f**king homework and figure out who Abu Wahid is, okay?”
Abu Wahid, a veteran of al-Qaeda in Iraq, was ISIS’ military emir in Anbar province. The Pentagon said he was killed in a U.S. airstrike on May 6.
Mateen told the negotiator the “airstrikes need to stop and stop collaborating with Russia.”
“Let it be known in the next few days you’re going to see more of this type of action going on, okay?” he added.
“Okay. I understand that. I can pass that along. Where is that going to happen?” the negotiator asked.
“It’s none of your business. Just let it be known it’s going to be done in the name of the Islamic State, even though it’s not f**king airstrikes, it’s f**king strikes here, okay?” Mateen replied. “…Tell — tell the f**king — the airstrikes need to stop.”
The negotiator asked if Mateen brought someone with him.
“No. No. No. No. No. No, Mr. hostage negotiator, don’t try your bulls**t with me,” he responded. “…None of your business, homeboy.”
Mateen, who tried to be a corrections officer before being expelled from training, quizzed the negotiator out of the blue on what year he graduated from the police academy. When the negotiator turned the focus back to Mateen, the terrorist hung up.
The negotiator tried “for a while” to get a hold of the terrorist. Mateen said the police calls were getting “annoying.”
“The fact that you appreciate it or not doesn’t matter at this point. We need to talk and we need to stay –” the negotiator said.
“Don’t say things likes that, no. No. No. No. No. No. No,” Mateen protested.
“No, I’m treating you like an adult. We need to stay in constant contact,” the negotiator replied.
“No. No. No. No. No. No. No,” Mateen continued before talking about airstrikes again and hanging up on the officer.
An al-Qaeda analysis of the attack afterward that they “stand by and support all Muslims who attack America in their homeland regardless of their affiliation to any group or loyalty.”
“We call upon all those oppressed by America, be it a Muslim or not, to retaliate and take back their rights by any possible means (under the umbrella of Shariah) from this oppressive state,” al-Qaeda said.
The terror group noted that his choice of a gay nightclub wasn’t the best target, even though they believe gays should be killed, “in order not to deviate the essence of the operation and letting it be termed as a small issue as the American media is trying to portray in the case of Mateen.”
“The Western media focused on the testimony by Mateen’s father who said that his son hates homosexuals and that terrorist ideas had no place in his motives,” the al-Qaeda analysis said. “The media reiterated this, saying that Umar saw some homosexuals kissing each other and that such a scene offended him. The media tried to portray the operation motives to be against a particular group of people in order to turn the American public away from the real motives of the operation.”
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