FBI Releases [Omitted] Transcript of Orlando Shooter’s 911 Call

On Sunday, U.S. Attorney General Loretta Lynch said the FBI would release a transcript of the Orlando terrorist’s 911 call, but that some important details would be omitted.

NBC’s Chuck Todd asked Lynch what would be left out of the transcript, and Lynch said: “What we’re not going to do is further proclaim this man’s pledges of allegiance to terrorist groups, and further his propaganda.”

She clarified we would “hear him talk about some of those things, but we are not going to hear him make his assertions of allegiance.”

When the actual transcripts were released, they looked like a joke. Here was a shooter we all know claimed allegiance to the Islamic State now claiming allegiance to “[omitted].” An excerpt from the partial transcript:

Orlando Police Dispatcher: Emergency 911, this is being recorded.

Omar Mateen (the shooter): In the name of God the Merciful, the beneficial [in Arabic].

OPD: What?

OM: Praise be to God, and prayers as well as peace be upon the prophet of God [in Arabic]. I let you know, I’m in Orlando and I did the shootings.

OPD: What’s your name?

OM: My name is I pledge of allegiance to [omitted].

OPD: Ok, what’s your name?

OM: I pledge allegiance to [omitted] may God protect him [in Arabic], on behalf of [omitted].

OPD: Alright, where are you at?

OM: In Orlando.

OPD: Where in Orlando?

[Call ends]

So, they’re okay to leave in references to God (so long as it is not clear which God), but not okay with the shooter referencing the terrorist organization that sparked the actual attack.

Make no mistake, as much as Democrats seem to want this to be the case, Mateen did not walk into a gun store and get the idea to murder 49 people in an Orlando night club. No, his inspiration came from an ideology—radical Islam—that caused him to purchase a weapon and open fire on innocent people.

Lynch might be trying to claim that the omission was a way to keep his propaganda from spreading. A better way to do this would be to, you know, actually go after the Islamic State to stop the message from spreading. Omitting 911 transcripts serves no purpose other than to further create the impression that the Obama administration would rather not talk about terrorism and instead focus on removing rights from lawful gun owners.

This is clearly an afterthought to the administration. President Obama called the Orlando shooting “an act of terrorism.” Will that statement be censored now? Are we now entering a phase where we are not even allowed to talk about the Islamic State or terrorism?

If this continues, the administration will claim it’s about not spreading the propaganda. We know better. This is about an administration that doesn’t want to effectively counteract or even discuss Islamic terrorism and would instead rather blame law abiding gun owners, Republicans or any other disfavored group.

UPDATE: The FBI has released the full transcript, which makes clear that Mr. Mateen pledged his allegiance to “Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi of the Islamic State.”