Globe Trot: ISIS calls Orlando killer ‘a soldier of the Caliphate in America’

UNITED STATES: At 5 a.m. today an Islamic State radio bulletin described Orlando killer Omar Mateen as “a soldier of the Caliphate in America.” It described the early Sunday morning mass shooting that killed 49 as “a security raid in which he was able to enter into a gathering of Crusaders in a nightclub for followers of the people of Lot,” a reference to homosexuals. The bulletin, carried on Radio Al-Bayan, the ISIS radio station in the Middle East, noted it was the largest number of American casualties in a mass shooting.

For Islamic State terrorists it’s mostly irrelevant whether Orlando killer Mateen was acting under orders or just seeking publicity and ISIS approval for a personal act of hate.

In the “lone wolf” vs. ISIS attack debate, what people are missing, according to New York Times reporter Rukmini Callimachi in a tweet, “is that for 2 years, ISIS has been laying the foundation of a system allowing attackers to be inspired & act on their own.”

Which brings us to the important conclusion of the morning’s Wall Street Journal lead editorial:

“The distressing truth is that no amount of domestic vigilance can stop every ISIS-inspired act of terror. That’s why the only real solution is to destroy Islamic State in its havens abroad so young Muslims around the world won’t see it as the vanguard of the future.

“Part of President Obama’s legacy will be that Islamic State grew so dangerous on his watch, prospering in the political vacuum that was created when he chose to withdraw from Iraq and then do little in Syria. The job of the next President will be to repair the damage done by those two historic mistakes.”

Five of the 15 deadliest mass shootings worldwide have happened in the United States.

Seb Gorka says stop calling this a hate crime:

“This is what jihadists had been planning to do after Paris, after Brussels. This isn’t to be called a tragedy, like a train being derailed. This is part of the Global Jihadi strategy. It’s not an accident—it’s a war against America. And I have to ask my colleagues in the US Government to not call this attack a hate crime. Stop with the political correctness. It’s NOT a hate crime—it is part of an ideological military assault on the United States of America. We have arrested 101 persons on US soil since the ISIS Caliphate was declared. ISIS is here in America.”

NATO has announced plans to send four multinational battalions to the Baltic states and Poland to boost their defenses against Russia. The Baltics have been on war footing following unannounced Russian military exercises near their borders and with Russian aggression against Ukraine.

SYRIA: The Syrian Orthodox archdiocese of Aleppo is feeding poor Muslim families during the month of Ramadan—though its leadership is still entrusted to Gregorios Yohanna Ibrahim, the archbishop who was kidnapped (and presumed killed) by radical Islamists in 2013.