The mass murders in Orlando shouldn’t be blamed on inadequate gun control laws, described as a lone wolf attack, characterized as a homegrown terrorist tragedy or dismissed as the act of a crazed hate crime perpetrator. Orlando represents a war on America, and the culprit is President Obama and his shackling of law enforcement in favor of political correctness.
Early reports indicate that Omar Mateen, American-born son of Afghani legal immigrants, pledged his ISIS allegiance during a 911 call just before he began his rampage on the gay community. He also reportedly shouted “Allah Akbar” as his shooting spree left the dead and wounded strewn about the Pulse night club. California U.S. Rep. Adam Schiff (D-Calif.), the ranking Democrat on the House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence, later confirmed that Mateen had made this pledge.
While many of the official statements are being carefully worded during the investigation’s initial days, Florida Senators Bill Nelson and Marco Rubio strongly suggested that radical Islam motivated Mateen. As Rubio put it, the Orlando attack was “inspired by radical Islamic ideology,” a phrase Obama has steadfastly refused to use (including his statement Sunday just hours after the killings).
Exactly how Mateen’s family arrived in the U.S. is not yet clear. But what is known is that no matter how closely vetted the first Muslim arrivals may be - and FBI director James Comey says it’s impossible to screen them effectively - there’s no telling what their children may eventually do. Mateen, whose father is reported to be a strong supporter of the Taliban, is the latest example in a long list of Muslim citizens that murdered Americans. The list includes Muhammad Yousef Abdulazeez who killed four U.S. Marines in Chattanooga last year; Dzhokhar and Tamerlan Tsarnaev, the Boston Marathon bombers; San Bernardino’s Syed Farook and Tashfeen Malik who killed 14 people and wounded 22, and Ft. Hood Maj. Nidal Malik Hasan who killed 13 and injured 30 in an incident Obama called workplace violence.
The media criticized the FBI for opening and then closing three separate investigations into Mateen’s activities. But former Deputy Assistant FBI director Danny Coulson, who led the Oklahoma City bomber investigation, told Fox News that the blame should be put on Obama’s Department of Justice for imposing a “ridiculously” short time on the agency to complete its review of terrorist suspects.
The Obama administration is committed to resettling more Middle Eastern refugees in the U.S. and has ordered background checks on incoming Iraqi, Syrian and Afghani refugees be dramatically reduced, from 18 to 24 months, to three.
Department of Homeland Security records show that between 2001 and 2013, 30,000 Afghanis were resettled, and during the same period, an aggregate 1.5 million Muslims were made permanent U.S. residents. After analyzing DHS data, the Senate subcommittee on Immigration and the National Interest projected that without a significant reduction in green card visas, more than 680,000 Muslims, the equivalent of Washington, D.C.’s population, would resettle within the next five years, and will be added to the estimated 3.3 million Muslims who already reside in America. The Pew Research Center reports that, in U.S. households, Arabic is the nation’s fastest growing language, and to accommodate the growing demographic, the Census Bureau will offer an Arabic version of its 2020 count.
Orlando should wake Obama up to the folly of resettling thousands more Muslim refugees. But with only seven months left in his administration, Obama is unlikely to shift his course. With luck, however, the next administration may have a greater commitment to national security. If not, more attacks and more lost lives are inevitable.
Joe Guzzardi is a Californians for Population Stabilization Senior Writing Fellow. Contact him at joeguzzardi@capsweb.org