By Col (Dr) Tej Kumar Tikoo (Retd.)
15 Jun , 2016
It is here that America is going to face a serious challenge. In a democratic set-up, where human dignity and human rights are jealously guarded by the press, electronic media, judiciary, the civil society and the Constitution itself, a radicalized Muslim will not wait for the FBI or the local police to get to him before he or she strikes. Such lone wolf attacks by unmonitored young men/women, born and brought up in the United States, will only increase as they have a powerful lobby of sympathisers in influential places, who will shout ‘violation of human rights’ from roof tops on the first sign of the law enforcement agencies acting against them.
…it became clear that the strike, even though being presently termed as ‘Lone Wolf’ attack, was the result of religious beliefs of the murderer.
From the sketchy details available till now, the U.S. suffered its worst terrorist strike since 9/11 on Sunday, 11 June 2016, when an apparently lone gunman, now identified as Omar Siddique Mateen, attacked a LGBT Club, Pulse, in Orlando, Florida, killing 50 people and wounding 53 others. In the SWAT action that followed the attack, the Omar was killed, ending a gory night of massacre and bloodshed. The attacker is supposed to be an American born Afghani whose parents had migrated to the United States, many years back.
The initial reports claimed that he lived in Port St. Lucie and nearby Fort Pierce. Unconfirmed reports say that his father, Seddique Mateen, said that he was running for president of Afghanistan sometime around May 2015. Omar possessed a State-wide Firearms License, and used an assortment of weapons, including an AR 16 Assault Rifle, to kill unarmed revellers who were attending a musical concert in a Club.
Initial reports coming on various news channels were circumspect in announcing the likely motivation of the attacker for having carried out such a mass murder. But after initial reluctance and further confirmation, it became clear that the strike, even though being presently termed as ‘Lone Wolf’ attack, was the result of religious beliefs of the murderer. It has now been stated by the FBI that Omar Mateen had earlier been found to be in touch with ISIS, but his limited interaction with the dreaded Islamic terror group had not been considered serious enough to pose a threat to others and therefore, he had not been kept under surveillance or even investigated.
Mateen, had purchased some heavy calibre automatic weapons in an open market as the U.S. laws had not banned him from purchasing such weapons.
However, as more details become available, it is now becoming quite apparent that the killer had a reputation of having been influenced by the radical Islamic ideology, particularly of the ISIS and was a self- confessed admirer of various Islamic terror groups. It was subsequently reported that he had phoned 911 and pledged allegiance to ISIS. At a Sunday afternoon news briefing, FBI Assistant Special Agent Ronald Hopper said the agency was aware of Mateen. According him, “FBI interviewed him in 2013 and 2014 after he expressed sympathy for a suicide bomber. Those interviews turned out to be inconclusive, so there was nothing to keep the investigation going.”
Omar Mir Seddique Mateen was born in 1986 in New York and till recently lived in Fort Pierce, about 120 miles southeast of Orlando. His former wife, an Uzhbegh woman, to whom he had been married in 2009, reportedly told The Washington Post that Omar “was not a stable person. He beat me. He would just come home and start beating me up because the laundry wasn’t finished or something like that.” She said that he worked as a guard at a facility for juvenile delinquents and frequently exercised at a nearby gym in his spare time. Actually, Omar Mateen had worked since 2007 as a security officer at G4S Secure Solutions, one of the world’s largest private security companies.
It is learnt that she and Mateen were together about four months, though it took a long time to complete the divorce proceedings because they lived in different parts of the country after separation. Mateen’s parents said that Omar had expressed outrage after seeing two men kiss in Miami. This, perhaps, may have led him to strike at the LGBT Club. It may be mentioned that the killer, Omar Mateen, had purchased some heavy calibre automatic weapons in an open market as the U.S. laws had not banned him from purchasing such weapons. It is, however, not confirmed whether he used these weapons during the Pulse Strike or not.
Donald Trump’s open advocacy of, “stopping the immigration of Muslims into the United States till we find out what the hell is going on..”, is likely to gain traction…
Omar Mateen had called 911 before launching his attack on ‘Pulse’ and had pledged his allegiance to ISIS. Subsequently it was found that a message posted in Arabic on a web site associated with the ISIS news agency Amaq said, ” The armed attack that targeted a gay night club in the city of Orlando in the American state of Florida, was carried out by an Islamic state fighter.” It is however, not quite clear whether the strike had been ordered by the ISIS or the terror outfit just owned it up after gauging its radical Islamic motivation for claiming credit for propaganda purposes.
President Obama, who cancelled his joint address in the ongoing Presidential election campaign with the presumptive Democratic Presidential nominee, Hillary Clinton, said in an address to the nation from the White House, “ We know enough to say this was an act of terror and act of hate, …. While the violence could have hit any American community, this is an especially heartbreaking day for our friends who are lesbian, gay, bisexual or transgender.”
In the ongoing Presidential campaign, this shooting and the heavy casualties it caused, is sure to influence the campaign, and I dare say, also its likely outcome. Both presumptive nominees of their respective parties, i.e., Donald Trump of the Republican Party and Hillary Clinton of the Democratic Party, will endeavour to milk the event to their own advantage. President Obama, during his seven years of Presidency, had pleaded vigorously to ban the open sale of high calibre automatic weapons. But the American gun lobby, which is very powerful and enjoys quite a bit of public support, thwarted his attempts at restricting the operation of Second Amendment of the U.S. Constitution, which allows U.S. citizens to bear arms. Hillary Clinton is bound to use the event to hit at those who oppose what her colleague, the democratic President, thought was important to curb such violence. On the other hand, Donald Trump’s open advocacy of, “stopping the immigration of Muslims into the United States till we find out what the hell is going on..”, is likely to gain traction and attract those common Americans who would like to be left alone to live their lives as they desire, without having to worry for the safety of their near and dear ones.
Tackling terrorists at home is not the same thing as fighting ISIS in far off Middle East. Americans will have to make hard choices.
At the macro level, away from the hum drum of U.S. Presidential election campaign, the Orlando shooting, coming as it does at the fag end of his presidency, is bound to adversely impact the legacy that Obama would have liked to leave behind. Coming on the heels of an earlier attack ( On December 2, 2015, a mass shooting occurred at the Inland Regional Center in San Bernardino, California, which left 14 dead and 22 injured. Two suspects of the attack, Rizwan Farook and Tashfeen Malik, both Muslims, who fled the scene in an SUV, were later killed), the Americans are bound to raise serious doubts about Obama’s ability to stem the increasing terrorist attacks on their soil from home grown terrorists. It is particularly galling that in the present case, the killer was already on the radar of FBI but had been taken off their sights, having noticed nothing particularly serious about him.
It is here that America is going to face a serious challenge. In a democratic set-up, where human dignity and human rights are jealously guarded by the press, electronic media, judiciary, the civil society and the Constitution itself, a radicalized Muslim will not wait for the FBI or the local police to get to him before he or she strikes. Such lone wolf attacks by unmonitored young men/women, born and brought up in the United States, will only increase as they have a powerful lobby of sympathisers in influential places, who will shout ‘violation of human rights’ from roof tops on the first sign of the law enforcement agencies acting against them.
Besides such radicalized youth will easily merge itself into the American mainstream without raising any suspicion against their actions before they hit at their chosen target. The seamless movement of such radicalized youth, easy availability of dangerous weapons and thousands of Imams pouring hatred over loud speakers in hundreds of mosques throughout United States, is bound to increase the frequency of such lone wolf or group attacks on unarmed, innocent civilians in the coming years. United States has, therefore, a serious problem at their hands. For all its technological advancement, powerful military and strong economy, America’s fights against its home grown terrorists is going to be a long haul. The new president, whosoever it is, will have his hands full.
Tackling terrorists at home is not the same thing as fighting ISIS in far off Middle East. Americans will have to make hard choices.
© Copyright 2016 Indian Defence Review
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