Attorney General Loretta Lynch announced Sunday that the FBI would release transcripts of 911 calls that Orlando jihad mass murderer Omar Mateen made during his massacre. Lynch said that the transcript would include:

… the killer’s calls with law enforcement, from inside the club. These are the calls with the Orlando PD negotiating team, who he was, where he was.

However, said Lynch, there would be one significant omission:

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].

Unaware of irony, Lynch added:

We’re trying to get as much information about this investigation out as possible.

But not, apparently, anything that might shed light on the ideology that led him to carry out the attack in the first place.

After saying that the Islamic content of the calls would be edited out, Lynch backtracked somewhat, saying:

We will hear him talk about some of those things, but we are not going to hear him make his assertions of allegiance and that. It will not be audio, it will be a printed transcript.

Lynch also mentioned another remarkable omission: the released transcripts would also not contain any statements Mateen made about gays. Not because the FBI was going to edit out those passages as well, but because Mateen didn’t say anything about gays at all:

You know, he didn’t get into that. So we’re still exploring why he chose this particular place to attack. We’re asking people who have information to come forward … We are trying to learn everything we can about this individual’s motivations.

Wow. Let’s summarize:

Lynch, and the Obama administration determined a priori that Mateen’s Islamic statements are irrelevant. She then made the announcement that the mainstream media’s — and Obama’s, per his speech — favored explanation of homicidal “homophobia” as the motive is not supported by the killer’s own statements.

So now Lynch is casting about for some way to understand why he committed mass murder at the Pulse nightclub, because she can’t prove his priority was murdering gays — and she refuses to even allow you to know what he actually said his motives were: Islam.

Lynch dismisses the explanation right in front of her face: Mateen killed gays because he was an adherent of the Islamic State, and the Islamic State has called for attacks on American civilians during this Ramadan.

If Lynch wants to know why Mateen chose the Pulse for his attack (after scouting out Disney World), even though he said nothing about it during his 911 calls, she might consider that the Islamic State as well as many Islamic governments regularly kill gays, and reflect on the fact that Islam mandates that gays be put to death.

But she will not consider any of that:

We’re not going to … further his propaganda.

Well, she is — by definition — furthering someone’s propaganda: her own.



This is a turning point for the Obama administration. For years, it has been the official administration position that Islamic terrorism has nothing to do with Islam. Indeed, as I reported last week, the administration scrubbed counter-terror training materials of all mention of Islam and jihad in connection with terrorism.

But now it is going even further: a jihad terrorist explained his motivations in terms of Islam — and the administration dismissed them!

This level of denial and willful ignorance would be comical if it weren’t so deadly.

If our intelligence and law enforcement officials do not understand the motives and goals of those who have vowed to destroy us, they will remain unable to counter them effectively. Ignoring, denying, and now actively censoring jihadis’ stated reasons for why they kill also leaves the vast majority of the American public ignorant and complacent regarding the nature and magnitude of the jihad threat.

Contrary to her assertions, Lynch’s absurd decision plays into the hands of the jihadis themselves. They are killing Americans for the ultimate goal of destroying the U.S. government and establishing an Islamic state here which enforces Islamic law.

Islamic law forbids criticism of Islam, as does Loretta Lynch.

Last January, a convert to Islam in Philadelphia named Edward Archer shot and seriously wounded police officer Jesse Hartnett. He then explained:

I follow Allah. I pledge my allegiance to the Islamic state. That is why I did what I did.

Jim Kenney, the mayor of Philadelphia, said the following after releasing a surveillance video of Archer in Islamic dress and shooting Hartnett:

In no way, shape, or form does anyone in this room believe that Islam or the teaching of Islam has anything to do with what you’ve seen on the screen. … It is abhorrent. It is terrible and it does not represent the religion or any of its teachings. This is a criminal with a stolen gun who tried to kill one of our officers. It has nothing to do with being a Muslim or following the Islamic faith.

Perhaps Kenney was angling for a plum position in the Obama administration, or in a subsequent Hillary Clinton administration. Certainly he and Loretta Lynch see eye-to-eye about their fundamental duty in the wake of any jihad terror attack: do everything possible to ensure that people do not have a negative — or even accurate — view of Islam.

Serving as Islam’s PR agent should not, in a sane world, be part of the responsibilities of the attorney general, or the FBI, or the mayor of Philadelphia, or the president of the United States. Their responsibility is protecting Americans.

In redacting the relevant material regarding Omar Mateen’s motives from the transcripts of his calls, Lynch and the FBI are derelict in that duty.