Here are some newsbites I think may be relevant when analyzing the recent shooting in Orlando, culled from RT’s live coverage. First, the FBI is saying the suspect, Mateen, made a total of three calls to 911, but Orlando PD is refusing to release the calls:

The Orlando attacker made two 911 calls and the dispatcher then called him back, for a total of three calls, FBI director James Comey told reporters Monday.

In the course of the calls, the attacker said he was doing this for Islamic State, but also mentioned the Boston Marathon bombers and a US citizen who became a suicide bomber for the Al-Nusra Front in Syria, leaving “some confusion about the motives,” Comey said.

…

Orlando Police Department has declined to release the recordings or transcripts of the 911 calls involving the attacker, citing the ongoing criminal investigation. Several news outlets have reported on three 911 calls between Omar Mateen and a dispatcher, in which he pledged allegiance to Islamic State and brought up the Boston Marathon bombers, and a US suicide bomber for the Al-Nusra Front in Syria. The reports cited unnamed law enforcement sources, and have received no official confirmation.

So, not only was what he alleged to have said inconclusive when it comes to a clear motive, we can’t even verify for ourselves that he said any of these things, that it was really his voice, or anything else. Was Comey’s statement a valid verification of the content of the calls (in which case, why should we even trust him?), or him simply rolling with the “anonymous source” propaganda? Don’t hold your breath, because you’ll likely never know. That’s American transparency and openness for you.

Next, there’s this:

Orlando shooter Omar Mateen traveled to Mecca on pilgrimage at least twice, Saudi Major General Mansour Al-Turki said, as cited by CNN Arabic.

He visited the holy city to perform the so-called Umrah, a pilgrimage that can be taken at any time of the year, Al-Turki said, adding that Mateen spent 10 days there in March 2011 and eight days in March 2012.

So the guy who was reportedly not very religious made two pilgrimages to Mecca? Right. Do you trust al-Turki? I don’t. If he made these trips, it likely wasn’t for any religious purpose – more likely to visit his Saudi handlers (the Americans, Saudis and Israelis have long collaborated on grooming “jihadi” mercenaries, from the Arab-Afghan legion that became al-Qaeda, to the “moderate rebels” of Kosovo, Libya and Syria).

Next, some insights from an ex-wife, and his current wife:

Sitora Yusufiy, former wife of the Orlando gunman, told CNN that Omar Mateen was emotionally and mentally unstable and that family members had to “rescue” her from her ex-husband during their divorce.

…

Mateen’s wife Noor Zahi Salman reportedly told federal authorities on Sunday that she and her husband had visited Walt Disney World in April, and that Mateen was scouting the venue for an attack.

Sounds like a charming guy. It would be nice to see these stories verified. More anecdotes from coworkers:

A former coworker says the Orlando shooter Omar Mateen frequently made racist and homophobic comments, but the company chose not to act on repeated complaints because Mateen was Muslim.

“I quit because everything he said was toxic,” Daniel Gilroy, a former Fort Pierce police officer who worked with G4S Security for several months in 2014-15, told USA Today, “and the company wouldn’t do anything. This guy was unhinged and unstable. He talked of killing people.”

Gilroy said he complained to his employer several times but G4S did nothing because it did not want to be accused of Islamophobia, USA Today reported.

But there are contradictions in the accounts:

As law enforcement agents search the residence of Orlando gunman Omar Mateen, people who knew him offer somewhat contradictory testimonies about his past.

The imam of a Florida mosque that Mateen attended for almost a decade describes him as a quiet, lonely man. “He hardly had any friends,” Syed Shafeeq Rahman, head of the Islamic Center of Fort Pierce, told Reuters. “He would come with his little son at night to pray and after he would leave.”

A high-school classmate, however, described Matteen as a typical American teenager, who played football and was gregarious and talkative. “He clearly was not anti-(gay) at least not back then. He did not show any hatred to any of us. He treated us all like the individuals we were. He always smiled and said hello,” said Samuel King, who last saw Mateen in 2009.

Public records show Mateen had a state firearms license that expired in 2013 and a permit to work as a security guard, Reuters reported, adding he was registered as a Democrat.

Shades of Lee Harvey Oswald!

Stay tuned for more. In the meantime, see the recent coverage and analysis of the Orlando shooting here on SOTT: