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Mateen pledged allegiance to ISIS, al-Baghdadi
The source says he made two foreign trips, one in 2011 to Dubai and one to Saudi Arabia in 2012. He was not on a current watch list. He was on the Terrorist Screening database when the FBI was questioning him. Source tells CBS News he was removed when the FBI closed their investigation. The 2013 investigation began when Mateen told co-workers and others he knew the Tsarnaev brothers. FBI agent Ronald Hopper said Sunday that Omar Mateen had been interviewed in 2013 and 2014. Hopper said agents first investigated Mateen after he made inflammatory comments to co-workers alleging possible ties to terrorists. Mateen was interviewed twice and, when investigators were unable to verify the details of his comments, the FBI closed the probe. In 2014, the agency looked into potential ties connecting Mateen to Moner Mohammad Abusalha, the first American to carry out a suicide attack in Syria. Like Mateen, Abusalha lived in Fort Pierce, Florida. Hopper says agents determined that contact was minimal and did not constitute a substantive relationship or a threat at that time. Mateen was 29 years old and born in New York. The FBI says he referred to the Islamic State in a 911 call before the slayings. Posted by: Steve White 2016-06-13 |
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