Tuesday, June 21, 2016

Obama Administration's Defense of Islam Through Orlando Investigation

By Douglas V. Gibbs,
AuthorSpeakerInstructorRadio Host

While the Democrats have tried to spin the Orlando shooting to help their gun control narrative, their efforts to also protect their narrative regarding Islam has hurt them.  The Obama administration has been doing all it can to downplay the fact that the shooter was Muslim, and tied to the Democrats, while attempting to direct everyone's attention to the fact that the target was a gay bar, and that the guns were purchased legally.  Protecting Islam is a habit of the Democrats, and using a misinformation strategy to downplay the connection between Islam and terrorism is nothing new.

The ridiculousness of their attempt to control the narrative has caused a number of the gay community to arm themselves, and defect to Trump, while also encouraging the Republicans to demand the Obama administration reveal what the Department of Justice has been hiding.

Republican leaders pressured the Justice Department into reversing itself, and releasing a full, uncensored transcript of the Orlando terrorist's 911 call on the night of the massacre, calling the morning’s furor over omissions in the document “an unnecessary distraction.”

An earlier version of the transcript had deleted the word “Islamic State” and the name of ISIS leader “Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi.” Omar Mateen made the 50-second 911 call in which he claimed responsibility for the terror attack and pledged allegiance to Islamic State's leader at 2:35 a.m. The call came just over a half hour into the June 12 slaughter at gay nightclub Pulse.

“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.

The old version had several words scrubbed and read: "I pledge allegiance to [omitted] may God protect him [in Arabic], on behalf of [omitted]."

House Speaker Paul Ryan, R-Wis., called the earlier decision by DOJ and the FBI to release only a partial transcript "preposterous."

So, while trying to hurt Trump through Orlando, the event has actually backfired on the Democrats.  After all, the two issues Donald Trump used to vault himself into position to be the presumptive GOP nominee for the 2016 Presidential Election has been illegal immigration and a demand to ban Muslims from being imported into this country.  If Trump's stance had been followed all along, new supporters are now reasoning, Orlando may not have transpired.

Attorney General Loretta Lynch is the one doing the most back-pedaling, as the Obama administration throws her under the bus to protect its own image.  She had gone on numerous Sunday talk shows with the news that the partial transcripts would be released on Monday, immediately generating controversy from not only elected officials, but media outlets. On Monday, the White House said the decision was made solely by the Justice Department.  They were scrambling to separate Obama from all of this.

“All of the decisions about releasing the transcripts were made by Justice Department officials,” White House spokesman Josh Earnest said at the daily press briefing at the White House. “The view of the White House is that we should not interfere with an ongoing investigation and rather that those decisions should be made consistent with the assessment by law enforcement officials about the best way to advance the investigation.”

The FBI and DOJ reversed the morning decision and released the full transcript in an afternoon news release.

"Unfortunately, the unreleased portions of the transcript that named the terrorist organizations and leaders have caused an unnecessary distraction from the hard work that the FBI and our law enforcement partners have been doing to investigate this heinous crime," the organizations said in a statement.

The only complete transcript released was of the 911 calls. Several calls made later to crisis negotiators were only released in summarized form with few direct quotes provided.

The investigation, from the White House's point of view, is an attempt to downplay somehow Islam's connection, and likely to chase the New York Times accusation that the Christian criticism of homosexuality as to blame for the shooting.

-- Political Pistachio Conservative News and Commentary

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