Orlando gunman was a 'homegrown' terrorist says Obama

We’re sorry, this feature is currently unavailable. We’re working to restore it. Please try again later.

Advertisement

This was published 7 years ago

Orlando gunman was a 'homegrown' terrorist says Obama

Every Monday to Friday I'll be delivering a personally-curated newsletter. Call it the double espresso of news – the morning news kickstart for busy people who want to know what they need to know before they get going.

By Latika Bourke
Updated

1. Orlando gunman was a homegrown terrorist

There has been a lot of to-and-froing about whether the Orlando gunman was carrying out an authorised Islamic State terror attack.

US President Barack Obama addressed this in a statement to the media in which he said the shooter announced his allegiance to IS "at the last minute," and appeared to have been "inspired" rather than "directed" by IS.

Could anything have been done differently to predict his deadly rampage and potentially stop it? The head of the FBI James Comey says "I don't think so." Interestingly the FBI also said the gunman has expressed solidarity with various Islamic groups including some who are fighting each other or are opposed to IS, including al-Nusra, Hezbollah and al-Qaeda.

The inspire vs direction debate goes to the heart of the changed face of terrorism in the internet age - an attack doesn't need to to be directed for it to cause death and fear - it only needs to be inspire and in Orlando, this "lone wolf" operation combined with the easily availability of weapons capable of causing mass fatalities, led to this deadly outcome.

President Barack Obama, left, with FBI Director James Comey, right.

President Barack Obama, left, with FBI Director James Comey, right.Credit: AP

2. Presidential reactions

Hillary Clinton struck a Presidential tone in one of her best campaign speeches to date and vowed to make "identifying and stopping lone-wolves a top priority."

Advertisement

She also criticised the lack of gun safety reform, receiving huge applause when she said "there is no place for weapons of war on our streets." She also received rapturous applause for making the following commonsense statement.

Significantly, Clinton called on the Qatari, Saudi Arabia and Kuwait to stop their citizens funding terror organisations and schools.

She laid out a plan for combating radical Islam and said it was essential to form contacts in Muslim communities not "scapegoating or isolating" them.

After accepting congratulations on Sunday for being "right" on radical terrorism, the presumptive Republican nominee Donald Trump proceeded once more down the path of conspiracy theories and said "there's something going on," in noting President Obama didn't use the words "radical Islamic terrorism," when talking about the shooting. In a speech just a short time ago, Trump made his strongest ever comments against Muslims and said that the US letting in hundreds and thousands of the Islamic faith was "adding to the problem" of radical Islam which he said was "imported from overseas." He attacked the Muslim community for not turning in the Orlando and San Bernadino shooters.

Trump said the killer was only in America because the US had allowed his Afghan parents into the country in the first place. He also pledged to ban immigrants from countries where there is a proven history of terrorism. And Trump boasted of earning the "earliest ever" endorsement from the powerful gun lobby in a Presidential race.

3. Brexit

The Orlando shooting also played into the Brexit debate dominating Britain with a grassroots leave group funded by a UKIP donor tweeting that voters needed to "act now before we see an Orlando-style atrocity here before too long." Our EU Correspondent Nick Miller's report here.

4. Election round-up

Bill Shorten went on Q&A solo and vowed to let journalists back onto Manus Island and Nauru to report on the asylum seekers being detained on the islands. My story here. Essentially, Shorten's hard-fought internal battle to keep in place the Coalition's harsh asylum seeker policies, including turnbacks, enable him to strike important positions of difference in this area.

A poll conducted for the Greens suggests star cabinet minister Kelly O'Dwyer who holds the seat of Higgins in Melbourne could be under threat and at risk of becoming the "Indi of 2016." This refers to the shock ejection from parliament of O'Dwyer's friend Sophie Mirabella in Indi.

Independent Nick Xenophon won't preference either Liberal or Labor but says it would be a dirty deal if the Liberal party and Labor party preference each other (reducing his chance of nabbing key sets from the Liberals in South Australia). In other news, politicians reported to be politicians!

5. Microsoft buys LinkedIn

Huge tech news. Microsoft bought professional networking company LinkedIn in a deal worth $26.2 billion, in its largest value acquisition to date.

The tech gags have been flowing ever since the announcement.

Ok I'll stop now.

6. Apple update

I've toyed with the idea of a smart watch but they just seem too clunky and a bit too masculine-looking for me, so I'm sticking with my FitBit for now.

But if you are interested in this sort of thing, Apple has just released a new operating system for the watch along with fresh operating software for computers and devices. Niftiest thing so far seems to be the ability to write on the watch screen with your finger.

That's it for today, you can follow me on Facebook for more.

Most Viewed in Politics

Loading