What a difference a day makes. Responding to pressure from Republicans and concerned citizens, the FBI released the full transcript of Orlando gunman Omar Mateen’s 911 calls on Monday.
Attorney General Loretta Lynch on Sunday announced that the FBI would heavily edit out Mateen’s references to “Islamic terrorism” or “ISIS” in the transcript.
Lynch also said the FBI would not release audio of the 911 calls made by MAteen made during and after he killed 49 people and wounded 53 others inside an Orlando gay bar on June 12.
In one call to 911, Mateen reportedly said: “I pledge allegiance to Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi may God protect him [in Arabic], on behalf of the Islamic State,” Mateen says on the new transcript.
But Lynch’s heavily edited transcript would have stated: “I pledge allegiance to [omitted] may God protect him [in Arabic], on behalf of [omitted].”
Lynch said, “What we’re not going to do is further proclaim this man’s pledges of allegiance to terrorist groups, and further his propaganda. “We are not going to hear him make his assertions of allegiance [to ISIS].”
But Republicans and American citizens cried foul, saying Lynch and her boss, President Obama, were censoring information that the public has a right to know. After all: this is not a communist country — at least not yet, but Obama is working on it.
“We know the shooter was a radical Islamist extremist inspired by ISIS,” House Speaker Paul Ryan said in a statement. “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.”
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