Omar Mateen’s (Possibly Estranged) Wife May Have Known of Attack Plans in Advance
[guest post by JVW]
From NBC News (hat tip Powerline) comes word that Noor Zahi Salman, the wife of the Orlando Pulse nightclub terrorist Omar Mateen, may have had advance knowledge that her husband had diabolical plans afoot:
Omar Mateen’s wife, Noor Zahi Salman, told the FBI she was with him when he bought ammunition and a holster, several officials familiar with the case said. She told the FBI that she once drove him to the gay nightclub, Pulse, because he wanted to scope it out.
USA Today reports that Ms. Salman tried to talk her husband out of carrying out the attacks, to no avail. Obviously she did not share her concerns with authorities in advance (or is there yet another shoe to drop in this case?), and her husband thus went on to kill at least 49 people during his rampage in the club early Sunday morning. According to the both NBC News and USA Today, Ms. Salman is cooperating with the FBI in its investigation. The couple has three-year-old son together. Ms. Salman is the American-born daughter of a family who emigrated from Ramallah in the West Bank in in the late 1970s and settled in California. Yesterday, the New York Daily News alleged that Ms. Salman and the boy had left Mateen and returned to California to live with her family at the end of last year, though there was no divorce record between Ms. Salman and Mateen filed in Florida. The Daily News, for that matter, also failed to find a marriage record for the two filed in Florida. This comes on the heels of Mateen’s first wife, Sitora Yusufiy, characterizing him as abusive and possibly gay.
Again, there is bound to be more information both released and leaking out as law enforcement learns more.
– JVW
Her husband (allegedly) drops very strong hints he wants to harm innocent people. She (allegedly) tries to talk him out of it. He (allegedly) ignores her. She (allegedly) says nothing. Forty-nine (and, sadly, counting) innocent people are dead.
Is she what passes for a “moderate Muslim”?
JVW (34f70e) — 6/14/2016 @ 3:12 pm“ANDERSON COOPER REALLY GETTING TO THE ROOT CAUSES OF ORLANDO. CNN: “Anderson Cooper grills [Florida AG] Bondi on LGBT support.”
Related: Progressive Silence Over Islamic Extremism Is Homophobic.”
https://pjmedia.com/instapundit/236274/
Colonel Haiku (fc9aef) — 6/14/2016 @ 3:14 pmI was promised that Barack’s election and re-election were supposed to temper jihadi anger toward the United States.
Cruz Supporter (102c9a) — 6/14/2016 @ 3:17 pmBTW,
MD in Philly (cf3c76) — 6/14/2016 @ 3:22 pmI heard that Chik-fil-A in Orlando opened on Sunday and provided free food.
In this lefty politically correct nation, people are afraid to report suspicious behavior from people who look like they might be Muslim… it would be Soooooo Islamophobic!!
And being an Islam hater is worth than death!
Pts (ce7fc3) — 6/14/2016 @ 3:23 pmI heard that Chik-fil-A in Orlando opened on Sunday and provided free food.
That seems impossible, because we all know they are a hater company owned by a religious nutcase hatey-hate-hater who spends every waking moment hating gays.
Seriously though, that’s a nice story and it should remind us how shrill and wrapped up in hysterics the opposition to Chik-fil-A was a couple years back.
JVW (34f70e) — 6/14/2016 @ 3:29 pmthings that make you go hmm:
http://www.foxnews.com/us/2016/06/14/mateens-twin-trips-to-saudi-arabia-raise-suspicions.html
narciso (732bc0) — 6/14/2016 @ 3:32 pmCan a spouse be compelled to testify against the other spouse, these days? I know marriage doesn’t mean much anymore, but is a marriage license an agreement to around the clock surveillance by a government informant?
nk (dbc370) — 6/14/2016 @ 3:36 pmBTW,
I heard that Chik-fil-A in Orlando opened on Sunday and provided free food.
MD in Philly (cf3c76) — 6/14/2016 @ 3:22 pm
===========================================
I think I’d read they supplied free food to all of those standing in line to provide blood and all who were helping deal with the aftermath of the crime.
Colonel Haiku (fc9aef) — 6/14/2016 @ 3:42 pmCan a spouse be compelled to testify against the other spouse, these days?
How official does the matter of matrimony have to be? If it turns out that they were married in Islamic law but never filed the official legal paperwork how does that factor in? Does the fact that they had a child together make a difference?
Even if they can’t compel her to testify against her spouse they could certainly use the leverage of threatening to charge her as an accessory to murder to get her to voluntarily testify, right? Or would a court throw that out?
JVW (34f70e) — 6/14/2016 @ 3:42 pmSpousal privilege/marital communications privilege is still alive and well. So, as to your question about a marriage license – no, not yet. I’m sure Trump will make his Supreme Court change that one too – except with regard to his own spouse(s), of course.
Leviticus (efada1) — 6/14/2016 @ 3:42 pmShouldn’t call it a “crime”, but a mass-murder carried out by an Islamic terrorist.
Colonel Haiku (fc9aef) — 6/14/2016 @ 3:45 pmI imagine there is case law on the difference between failing to notify police and not testifying with actual conspiring and being an accomplice to a crime.
Reports say she tried to talk him out of it, and that she made trips herself to the nightclub to gather information.
Sounds suspiciously like being an accomplice and then covering up.
MD in Philly (cf3c76) — 6/14/2016 @ 3:53 pmyes it is a terrorist attack on a ‘soft target’ that point is elided,
narciso (732bc0) — 6/14/2016 @ 3:56 pmJVW, the privilege is bifurcated. The testifying spouse cannot be compelled to testify under penalty of law; and the accused spouse can also bar his/her testimony even if the testifying spouse is happily cooperating with the other side.
nk (dbc370) — 6/14/2016 @ 3:57 pmConspiracy:
1. Intent to commit a crime;
2. An overt act by one of the co-conspirators in furtherance of the conspiracy.
The government will have to prove that she wanted this.
nk (dbc370) — 6/14/2016 @ 4:00 pmAlmost all news reports identify Mateen’s rifle as an AR-15. It’s not, it’s a Sig Sauer MCX Carbine, simi-automatic (each trigger pull fires one round) more expensive and more versatile than an AR-15, and easily distinguishable by gun buffs.
ropelight (596f46) — 6/14/2016 @ 4:05 pmThis senseless slaughter could have been prevented if only it was legal for Omar Mateen to use the lady’s room, Corenello.
Steve57 (e33d44) — 6/14/2016 @ 4:15 pmYour average reporter can’t look at someone’s genitals in the locker room at their Pilates club and distinguish between the boys and the girls so I have no doubt the difference between the Sig Sauer and the AR would be hopelessly lost to them.
Trick question. Men don’t do Pilates.
Steve57 (e33d44) — 6/14/2016 @ 4:19 pmThis is based mostly on housing records. Reporters visited the killer’s home, where they saw a Mickey and Minnie Mouse Disney Calendar with the date of Tuesday, June 7 circled and marked “D Day 10:30” so they’d pretty much be able to tell if somebody else lived there, but they don’t say.
People don’t like to die, so maybe he let D-Day slip from its original date. he might have circled that a month or two in advance.
If his wife left him, this is again typical – people do this when their life is falling apart.
What is this but? Usually a couple separates and only after do they get divorced or engage in any kind of formal separation and not the other way around.
It is very possible that they never got civilly married.
JVW (34f70e) — 6/14/2016 @ 3:42 pm
That would have no legal bearing in the United States except when and where common law marriages are recognized. According to the Daily News, she’s listed as his wife on a St. Lucie County mortgage document from September 2013. Now banks don’t usually ask for marriage certificates, I think.
If they wanted her to take the Fifth Amendment, that would be a great idea.
Sammy Finkelman (643dcd) — 6/14/2016 @ 4:39 pmOn Monday the New York Times sanitized what his father was. The New York Post had more. It’s not tooclear, but my guess is that his father envisioned himself as a compromise figure to be put in charge of Afghanistan in a negotiated settlement between the Taliban and the Afghan government.
The killer’s claims in 2013 of havng connections to both the Taliban and Hezbollah (which was one reason for the FBI to think he was blowing smoke, since they were fighting each other in Syria) may be true. The connection to the Taliban was supposed to be through his family, and can very well be true and the connection to Hezbollah was his own,although nothing has appeared in print toshow that was real. It’s possible – his second wife is a Palestinian from ramallah -maybe there are somne Lebanese connections.
He passed backgrounds checks in 2007 and 2013. He was on the no fly list but was taken off.
Sammy Finkelman (643dcd) — 6/14/2016 @ 4:44 pmFlorida law has changed spousal immunity in at least some circumstances–mostly with an eye on domestic violence cases.
But note that spousal immunity is irrelevant now. He, being dead, can not testify against her, and can’t be charged
kishnevi (050eae) — 6/14/2016 @ 5:02 pmi’m over this story already is that wrong
i looked at National Soros Radio earlier today and it was just sickening how they’re trying to exploit this
it’s like newtown babbies all over again
what a nasty culture failmerica is, the way you people pimp fresh-dead corpses
happyfeet (831175) — 6/14/2016 @ 5:22 pmand your p.o.s. president my god
and so many of you begging pleading whining for four more years of this obscenity
ugh, I say
happyfeet (831175) — 6/14/2016 @ 5:23 pmI don’t even have to tell you which one I save the red velvet donut for (Mr. Trump).
happyfeet (831175) — 6/14/2016 @ 5:18 pm
Well, ok, then.
nk (dbc370) — 6/14/2016 @ 5:28 pmyes yes Mr. Trump is the one who will save us
that’s worth so many donuts I can’t even understand how many (it’s a LOT)
happyfeet (831175) — 6/14/2016 @ 5:33 pm“ISIS PRAISES MATEEN AS ‘LION OF CALIPHATE,’ URGES ATTACKS AT THEATERS, HOSPITALS, AMUSEMENT PARKS.
Headline as read by the White House: Jayvee Praises Random Bitter Clinger, Demands Additional Workplace Violence, Man-Caused Disasters.”
https://pjmedia.com/instapundit/236286/
Colonel Haiku (2601c0) — 6/14/2016 @ 5:47 pmThey were legally maried in California. After the marriage, the wife made only one trip back, for her father’s funeral. Omar would not allow her to go more often, but it seems like maybe she may have went back to California with the child around December if that is right. But then didn’t she go witgh him to Disney World in April? And also to “the Pulse?”
Sammy Finkelman (7ea384) — 6/15/2016 @ 9:53 amHe was texting her during the siege and massacre.
Sammy Finkelman (7ea384) — 6/17/2016 @ 9:37 amlast november the casualties were 13, some nine months later they went up to 49,
http://www.nationalreview.com/corner/436745/parade-red-flags
narciso (732bc0) — 6/17/2016 @ 9:48 amcan we focus,
http://hotair.com/archives/2016/06/17/tony-shafer-interview/
narciso (732bc0) — 6/17/2016 @ 10:29 amAmong the red flags:
Incidentally, his father has now (before the massacre) declared himself transitional president of Afghanistan and named a cabinet.
Apparently he sees himself as someone who would be put in power at the conclusion of negotiations between the Afghan government and the Taliban. He takes both an anti-American and anti-Pakistan position, hoping to be picked, I guess.
Sammy Finkelman (7ea384) — 6/17/2016 @ 11:29 amAnother time Omar Mateen threatened to kill people:
But he didn’t this in an airport!
Six weeks before the massacre he went in a gun shop and asked to buy body armor. They got him out of the store too soon, because when they called the FBI, they couldn’t give them his name, nor was the video, as is typical, of good quality.
Sammy Finkelman (7ea384) — 6/17/2016 @ 11:34 amAt about 4 am Saturday night/Sunday morning, the killer texted his wife and asked her if she had seen the news. At some point later, she texted him that she loved him. She also tried calling him but he wouldn’t or couldn’t answer the phone.
The only reason he gave that’s been reported was a more or less political reason: People killed by U.S. bombs in ISIS held territory. He didn’t mention homosexuals; he didn’t mention Hispanics.
Sammy Finkelman (7ea384) — 6/17/2016 @ 11:40 amAttorney General Loretta Lynch confirms on Face the Nation that on his 911 call – they will be making that (and maybe some other things public tomorrow) the murderer didn’t say anything about homosexuals.
The New York Times published brief profiles of all 49 victims (very similar to what they did, day after day, after the September 11, 2001 attacks) with pictures (I don’t think the same set of 49 pictures that have previously appeared on the Internet. Judging from the names and some other details, I think 11 of them were not Hispanic, meaning 38 were, or slightly over 3/4, not 90%
All of this is on page 19 today (Sunday June 19, 2016) of the printed paper.
Sammy Finkelman (7a22e4) — 6/19/2016 @ 8:49 am