“Whenever any package got delivered at the courthouse, another guard often said; We have to be careful Omar may send us a bomb and he will get his 72 virgins”, Mateen wrote, according to the records.
Advertisement
In a document released yesterday, Mateen said that other guards at the St. Lucie courthouse would gang up on him and tease him for being a Muslim.
The records show one higher-up at the sheriff’s office was not going to ask G4S to transfer Mateen out of the courthouse security detail, but another higher-up demanded he be transferred, saying there was, “sufficient, reasonable belief has been established that there is a probability for security to be compromised at his current location”. CBS News reported an agent even told a sheriff’s office major he did not believe Mateen “would go postal or anything like that”. Observant Muslims don’t eat pork because it is considered unclean.
Federal investigators concluded Mateen was not a terrorist, removed him from the list and ended the investigation. In the letter to his employer, he expressed his patriotism to the United States and said he loved his job. He claimed one called him “a f*****g terrorist” and another called him “a camel jockey”.
“I’m mentally and physically 1000% percent against any of these terrorist organizations which are anti humanity and anti American”, he wrote.
The FBI investigated Mateen again in 2014 because of his ties to a Syrian suicide bomber who went to the same mosque, but that case also was closed without the agency taking action.
Law enforcement officials have said there is no doubt that Mateen was radicalized at some point before the Pulse nightclub attack, though there is no evidence that he was directed by any foreign terror groups.
Federal Bureau of Investigation spokeswoman Amy Pittman on Monday referred questions to the FBI’s Miami office.
Mateen, 29, was born in NY to Afghan parents. “I’m ready to give up my life defending the United States”.
Advertisement
The Orlando Sentinel reported that his co-workers at G4S reported his claims to the authorities, prompting the FBI to place him on a terrorist watch list and to launch an investigation that lasted nearly a year.
