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Robert Spencer in FrontPage: Fort Lauderdale Airport Shooter Converted to Islam Before He Joined Army

Jan 16, 2017 11:30 am By Robert Spencer

Why wasn’t he stopped? My latest in FrontPage:

It has now been definitively established that Esteban Santiago, who opened fire in the baggage claim area of the Fort Lauderdale Airport on January 6, murdering five people, was a convert to Islam who took the name Aashiq Hammad, downloaded jihadist material and recorded himself singing the Islamic confession of faith. The universal mainstream media indifference to these facts is yet another indication of how the prevailing denial and willful ignorance about the jihad threat is hamstringing our opposition to it.

The new revelations came after it was discovered that Santiago/Hammad had told the FBI, in a bizarre incident, that he was being forced to fight for the Islamic State (ISIS). He was also photographed making the one-finger sign that signifies one’s adherence to Islamic monotheism, and which has come to be associated with allegiance to ISIS.

Santiago’s aunt, Maria Ruiz Rivera, claimed that it was all about his mental problems: after he served in the U.S. army in Iraq, she said, “He lost his mind.” But this only raises a larger question: why was he able to join the army in the first place, since Santiago’s enlistment came after his Muslim alter ego, Aashiq Hammad, had downloaded jihad propaganda?

The obvious answer is that to bar him from the army on those grounds would have been “Islamophobic.” Recall that the Fort Hood jihad mass murderer, army Major Nidal Malik Hasan, had been in repeated contact with jihad mastermind Anwar al-Awlaki. But when the FBI agent who was monitoring Hasan’s communications reported these contacts to his superiors, they told him again and again that they had no interest. After the agent persisted, he was told that the bureau “doesn’t go out and interview every Muslim guy who visits extremist websites.”

Why not?

Hasan, in any case, remained on active duty until, screaming “Allahu akbar,” he massacred 13 people at Fort Hood on November 5, 2009.

Esteban Santiago was likewise not stopped. Nor was he by any means singular in this. After an Islamic jihadist set off bombs in New York City and New Jersey in September 2016, the New York Post reported: “It happened again: The FBI had the future Chelsea bomber on its radar — for a while, anyway — but let him slip through. Just as officials had done with men who became the perps in at least eight other terror attacks.”

Terror researcher Patrick Poole, who for years has tracked what he has dubbed the “known wolf” phenomenon – that is, jihad attacks perpetrated by people who were known to authorities who had turned a blind eye to the threat they posed – details one incident that is as disquieting as it is emblematic:

When the problem of terror recruitment amongst the U.S. Somali community by al-Shabaab became an issue in 2008 and 2009, there were reports in my hometown of Columbus, Ohio, which has the second largest Somali population in the country, that al-Shabaab operative Dahir Gurey was fundraising and recruiting for the terrorist group in the area. He later showed up in Minneapolis.

When we told the FBI about it, the response was that our information couldn’t be accurate, because if it were true they would have heard about it from their local Muslim outreach partners.

This indicates a level of credulity on the part of law enforcement authorities that is truly breathtaking. Many who are aware of the nature and magnitude of the jihad threat blandly assume that officials parrot the party line about Islam being a religion of peace and “extremism” being a problem among people of all faiths in public, but in private are aware of the jihad threat and working to counter it. Poole’s account, however – and there are many other similar accounts – shows that they really believe the nonsense they purvey in public.

The establishment media, meanwhile, is no better. Three days after the Aashiq Hammad story broke, ABC News reported, in the 26th paragraph of a story about the Fort Lauderdale shooting, that “since the attack, investigators recovered his computer from a pawn shop, and the FBI is examining it to determine whether the alleged shooter created a jihadist identity for himself using the name Aashiq Hammad, according to officials familiar with the case.” That’s it, as far as the mainstream media is concerned.

Imagine, in order to put this into perspective, imagine if Santiago had put up a webpage some years ago indicating that he had joined the KKK, and had downloaded white supremacist literature. Do you think the establishment media would be so indifferent to this as a possible indication of a motive for the Fort Lauderdale Airport shootings? Neither do I.

Esteban Santiago/Aashiq Hammad could have been stopped before he killed anyone. But that would have required an entirely different culture within law enforcement and the media. If such a sea change is not forthcoming, there will be many more Aashiq Hammads.

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Filed Under: Featured, Jihad in the U.S., journalistic bias, willful ignorance Tagged With: Aashiq Hammad, Esteban Santiago


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Comments

  1. DogOnPorch says

    Jan 16, 2017 at 12:10 pm

    Double standards in the media? Say it ain’t so…lol.

    Keep up the good fight, Mr Spencer.

  2. lebel says

    Jan 16, 2017 at 12:16 pm

    Nothing has been established, go to the links provided.

    Meanwhile no claim of responsibility from ISIS even though they almost aways take credit

    • JawsV says

      Jan 16, 2017 at 2:33 pm

      ISLAM is responsible.

    • gravenimage says

      Jan 16, 2017 at 9:51 pm

      Of course Muslim apologist lebel would say that a Muslim slaughtering people has nothing to do with Islam…

    • gravenimage says

      Jan 18, 2017 at 12:16 am

      There you go:

      “Fort Lauderdale Airport shooter says he carried out the attack for the Islamic State”

      https://www.jihadwatch.org/2017/01/fort-lauderdale-airport-shooter-says-he-carried-out-the-attack-for-the-islamic-state

  3. davej says

    Jan 16, 2017 at 12:30 pm

    Just as chilling was the media cropping his picture to remove the one finger Islamic salute.

    • Michael Copeland says

      Jan 17, 2017 at 6:46 am

      Also, quite probably the colour of the scarf has been added: the original could well be white.

  4. Angemon says

    Jan 16, 2017 at 2:08 pm

    When we told the FBI about it, the response was that our information couldn’t be accurate, because if it were true they would have heard about it from their local Muslim outreach partners.

    *facepalm*

  5. JawsV says

    Jan 16, 2017 at 2:31 pm

    I knew Ft. Lauderdale was Islamic from the get-go. There’s the little moron turd in his keffiyeh and his Heil Allah finger salute mowing down the Infidels. Islam is a plague that must be stopped.

  6. Alarmed Pig Farmer says

    Jan 16, 2017 at 2:50 pm

    Some time ago Fitzgerald made the great point that recent converts are perhaps the best barometer of the violence in Islam. They’re new, immersed in the scriptures, and most want to do what the scriptures say, what Allah commands: murder.

  7. davej says

    Jan 16, 2017 at 2:53 pm

    Get this, Kerry says Trump not entitled to call Merkel’s policy a “catastrophic mistake”.

    Complete with one finger salute.

    http://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/kerry-trump-merkel_us_587d0dcfe4b0b3c7a7b25535?cn66ka2ds7e486w29

    • Carolyne says

      Jan 17, 2017 at 11:44 am

      Kerry is an idiot whose main occupation is marrying super wealthy women. If he has any brains, and I doubt it, he keeps them in that enormous chin of his. He and his puppet master, Obama, have created more havoc in the world than Hitler ever dreamed of. The entire Middle East is aflame because of him, Obama and Hillary Clinton with the way having been paved by Jimmy Carter.

      But I believe that Teraaaayza is ill so he might be returning to his basic career shortly.

  8. Mac-101 says

    Jan 16, 2017 at 7:15 pm

    It makes you wonder if the Crazies like Alex Jones are correct and the FBI allows this to go on. Too many cases where these people are identified and let go to carry on their murderous Satanic attacks.
    .
    Why, after going to the FBI and saying he was forced to go Jihad by ISIS, he kept his weapon and security permit and was NOT placed on the No Fly list?
    .
    Surely no Lib would complain if his weapons permit was revoked and he was bared to fly!

    • Carolyne says

      Jan 17, 2017 at 11:46 am

      I think that some Libs would indeed complain because such acts further their ambition to disarm us all.

  9. Baucent says

    Jan 16, 2017 at 7:25 pm

    The media just don’t want to tell the true story. That photo alone with the Arabic scarf and finger sign was ample evidence he was a muslim. His family came out quickly with the mentally ill “good boy” story and the media looked no further. One reason Robert’s work is so vital.

  10. abad says

    Jan 16, 2017 at 7:54 pm

    Trump at some point will make conversion to Islam illegal and anyone caught doing so will be sent to Syria.

    I have had enough out of these Muslim criminals who incessantly play the victim card every single time one of them commits a crime. Someone want to be Muslim they can do it in Syria.

    • gravenimage says

      Jan 16, 2017 at 10:02 pm

      No, he won’t. But if he just consistently opposes Jihad, it will be better than what we have had.

  11. gravenimage says

    Jan 16, 2017 at 9:50 pm

    Robert Spencer in FrontPage: Fort Lauderdale Airport Shooter Converted to Islam Before He Joined Army
    ……………………

    This does not surprise–it already seemed to be the case.

  12. somehistory says

    Jan 16, 2017 at 11:42 pm

    They took his gun away, they gave it back. A second time, they took his gun away and gave it back. They had indications of what he planned, and they allowed it to go forward.

    And then his aunt and his brother say it is the fault of…the government. Not entirely as he is moslim and bound and determined to kill for his fake deity, satan the devil. But their hands are not clean.

    • Joe says

      Jan 17, 2017 at 4:20 am

      Yeah, there is a real chance that FBI helped him plan the attack. That makes sense if you look at the facts. For example, why was a guy, who was sent to the mental hospital for thinking that the government wanted him to fight for ISIS, allowed to keep his gun? Let’s suppose the FBI thought it was a mental condition. Then that would be a life long condition. It is not as if the mental hospital could “cure” him. He would continue to think the same thing. Sure, it might be the FBI is as bright as a burned out light bulb, but it could also be the case that they helped with the attack. We know for certain, that they were a part of the problem, because they knew the guy was crazy about killing people, and they did nothing other than send him to a mental hospital which everyone knew would have been ineffective with that type of a problem.

      • gravenimage says

        Jan 18, 2017 at 12:19 am

        Joe wrote:

        Yeah, there is a real chance that FBI helped him plan the attack…
        …………………….

        Yeah–and Mossad and George Bush plotted 9/11…sarc/off

  13. mortimer says

    Jan 17, 2017 at 12:52 am

    Esteban Santiago joined the Army because the Army has LEARNED NOTHING from the shootings of Major Dr. Nidal Hasan who shot and murdered unarmed troops at a medical clinic.

    POLITICAL CORRECTNESS IN THE ARMY COSTS LIVES.

    • Carolyne says

      Jan 17, 2017 at 11:50 am

      After Nidal Hassan committed the massacres in Ft. Hood, one of the Generals in the Army said that it would be a shame if this incident prevented diversity to proceed in the armed forces. This is the mindset of many of the officers who hold their ranks because of Obama. Maybe they can be weeded out now that sanity will return to the government.

    • gravenimage says

      Jan 18, 2017 at 12:20 am

      True, Mortimer.

  14. Marty says

    Jan 17, 2017 at 4:56 am

    A useful rule of thumb.
    Any Westerner who converts to islam has criminal intent, if male.
    if female, they are masochistic or just plain stupid.

  15. Jack HOLAN says

    Jan 17, 2017 at 3:42 pm

    Christine, 2-generations of Journalists in this Country thought of themselves as American Journalist not International Journalists with no allegiance to the Homeland. A story such as this would have been deemed worthy of using investigative reporting resources and a top story accepting only answers not brush offs.
    As far as the FBI and other Security Agencies Obama has had 8-year Mid Level and Lower Management trained on accepting Islam is not a cause that it’s only other factors. These people can’t paint with a wide brush within a Community nor monitor “religious” sites that act as a center for other activities. I believe the training and orders to go light on the Muslim Community was and is a Top/Down Order and enforcement starting on the political level and then Secretaries Agency Heads and down. Trump needs to give an order that chafes direction. If someone is not on board they’re out.

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