The Orlando gunman used Facebook during his deadly rampage, apparently seeking to gauge reaction in real time while also vowing more attacks, it emerged on Thursday, as Barack Obama flew in to the city to console families of the victims.



Omar Mateen went online and searched for the terms “Pulse Orlando” and “shooting”, according to a letter released by a Senate committee, even as his victims lay dead or dying in the gay nightclub.

The 29-year-old American Muslim also apparently posted “America and Russia stop bombing the Islamic state..I pledge my alliance to [its leader] abu bakr al Baghdadi..may Allah accept me,” on one of at least five Facebook accounts thought to be associated with him.

According to the Senate committee’s letter, he then posted: “The real muslims will never accept the filthy ways of the west” and “You kill innocent women and children by doing us airstrikes..now taste the Islamic state vengeance.”

In a final message, Mateen apparently wrote: “In the next few days you will see attacks from the Islamic state in the usa.”

Republican senator Ron Johnson of Wisconsin, chairman of the Senate homeland security committee, quoted the posts in a letter to the Facebook chief executive, Mark Zuckerberg, asking for help uncovering Mateen’s digital tracks. Johnson did not explain how the committee obtained the information about Mateen’s Facebook activity.

Johnson also wrote that his staff learned that in May Mateen used Facebook to search for information on the San Bernardino terrorists and on 4 June 2016, Mateen apparently searched “Baghdadi Speech”.

The senator added: “My staff has also learned that Mateen apparently used Facebook to conduct frequent local law enforcement and FBI searches, including searching for specific law enforcement offices.”

As club-goers desperately sent text messages to loved ones, Mateen is known to have pledged allegiance to Isis in a 911 phone call during the three-hour attack. However, the head of the CIA said on Thursday he has been “not able to uncover any link” between Mateen and the militant group.

Reinforcing four days’ worth of internal government assessments across multiple agencies and an FBI inquiry, director John Brennan contrasted the “lone wolf” killers in Orlando and San Bernardino last December with the recent terrorist attacks in Paris and Brussels, which he told the Senate intelligence committee were “directed” by Isis leadership in Syria and Iraq.

Brennan described a spread-bet strategy by Isis as it loses territory in its Iraq and Syria strongholds. The group’s “terrorist capacity or global reach” remain undiminished by US-led advances on Isis-held cities like Manbij and Falluja, the latest developments in a war nearing its third year, and Brennan said the US should expect Isis to launch accelerating terrorist attacks worldwide, a reversion to its pre-2014 status quo.

“As the pressure mounts on Isil, we judge that it will intensify its global terror campaign to maintain its dominance of the global terrorism agenda,” Brennan testified, using the administration’s preferred acronym for Isis.

But Brennan indicated the shape of those attacks will vary. Isis is consolidating and “interconnecting” its foreign branches, particularly its “most dangerous” branch in Libya, and place operatives in western countries, chiefly in Europe. It will also “inspire attacks by sympathizers with no ties to the group”, which Brennan said taxes the security agencies’ ability to notice ahead of an attack.

America’s worst terrorist attack since 11 September 2001 began at 2am on Sunday and ended three hours later with Mateen being killed by a police Swat team. The FBI says it is still gathering evidence at Pulse and analysing mobile phone location data to piece together Mateen’s activities leading up to the massacre.

Orlando on Thursday awaited the arrival of Obama, who plans to meet victims’ families and doctors, paramedics and first responders and offer words of solace. Vice-President Joe Biden will accompany him.

Air Force One landed in Orlando at 12.45pm in bright sunshine. Obama descended the steps with Orlando congresswoman Corinne Brown and Florida senator Marco Rubio. They were greeted by officials including Biden, Governor Rick Scott of Florida and Orlando’s mayor, Buddy Dyer.

The speed with which Obama’s trip has been organised reflects the gravity of the tragedy. Last December, he made a stop in San Bernardino, California, on his way to holidaying in Hawaii, 16 days after the shooting there, but did not deliver remarks. He went to Charleston, South Carolina, nine days after a gunman killed nine people at an African American church.

The White House press secretary, Josh Earnest, said: “When the president makes a trip to another American city, we’ve got a week or so to plan it. In this case we’ve had about 48 hours to plan it.”

Earnest said Obama would tell Orlando’s residents “that they’re not alone, even as they endure what surely have been several dark nights”.

The president also intends to speak publicly during his visit “to make clear that the country stands with the people of Orlando, stands with the LGBT community in Orlando, as they grieve for their loss”, the spokesman said.

