FBI questions member of mosque attended by Orlando gunman

The Islamic Center of Fort Pierce, Fla., is seen in Fort Pierce, Fla., Sunday, June 12, 2016. The mosque is where Omar Mateen worshiped.

ORLANDO, Fla./FORT PIERCE, Fla., June 17 (Reuters) – FBI agents on Friday questioned a member of the Florida mosque attended by Omar Mateen, the man who shot 49 people to death at a gay nightclub, as new information surfaced revealing the killer had exhibited chronic behavioral problems during his youth.

Academic records obtained by Reuters showing Mateen was frequently suspended as a student – at least twice for fighting before he was transferred to a special high school for potential dropouts – added to a disturbing portrait of the long-troubled gunman who committed the deadliest mass shooting in modern U.S. history.

Mateen, the 29-year-old private security guard shot dead by police at the end of the June 12 massacre in Orlando, has been described by his first wife – whom he divorced after a brief marriage – as an abusive, mentally disturbed man with a violent temper.

Others who knew him recalled Mateen, a U.S. citizen and Florida resident born in New York to Afghan immigrants, as a quiet, socially awkward individual who kept largely to himself.

The FBI has acknowledged interviewing Mateen in 2013 and 2014 for suspected ties to Islamist militant groups but concluded he posed no threat. Still, evidence in the Orlando case points to a crime at least inspired by extremist ideology.

Authorities have said Mateen paused a number of times during his three-hour siege at the Pulse nightclub to place cell phone calls to emergency 911 dispatchers and to post internet messages professing support for various Islamist militant groups.

Nevertheless, Mateen appears to have been “self-radicalized” and acting without any direction from outside networks, although his second wife, Noor Salman, had known of his plans to carry out the attack, U.S. officials have said.

A federal grand jury was convened earlier in the week to decide whether to charge Salman.

FBI MOSQUE INTERVIEW

FBI agents turned their attention on Friday to at least one of Mateen’s fellow worshipers at the mosque he attended near his home, the Islamic Center of Fort Pierce.

In what was the first such known interview in connection with the nightclub shooting, two federal agents met with the man at the mosque for about 30 minutes ahead of Friday prayers, according to Omar Saleh, a lawyer for the Council of American-Islamic Relations who sat in on the session.

“We were meeting with some agents,” Saleh told Reuters, declining to identify the person interviewed. “They were asking questions relative to the incident that happened on Sunday.”

Meanwhile, funerals and memorials were held around Florida and in Puerto Rico – home to many of the people killed. Mourners hugged and wept after the burial of Kimberly Morris, 37, in Kissimmee, Florida, and family members of Angel Candelario-Padro, 28, embraced after his body was returned to his hometown of Guanica, Puerto Rico.

The Vietnamese Association of Central Florida sponsored a public memorial vigil on Friday night.

MULTIPLE SUSPENSIONS

As details about Mateen’s background continued to emerge, transcripts and disciplinary records furnished to Reuters on Friday showed Mateen was suspended at least 15 times during his enrollment in Martin County, Florida, public schools, mostly in the eighth and ninth grades.

Two of those suspensions, within a week of each other in May of 2001, were listed as discipline for “fighting with injury” during his freshman year at Martin County High School.

Days after that second suspension, Mateen was transferred to Spectrum Junior-Senior High School, a dropout prevention center run by the district, records showed.

He returned to Martin County High in January 2002, stayed there for another year, then withdrew from mainstream high school and enrolled instead in adult education classes through April 2003.

His academic performance was mixed, a combination of high grades and failing marks, in contrast to his mostly dismal report cards from elementary school.

President Barack Obama, who met with survivors of the shooting and families of the dead in Orlando on Thursday, urged Congress to pass measures to make it harder to legally acquire high-powered weapons like the semi-automatic rifle used in the attack.

Lawmakers are under pressure to respond. The Senate is expected to vote on Monday on four proposals for limited gun restrictions, although all four are expected to fail. A group of Republican senators attempted on Friday to craft compromise legislation that might stand a better chance of passing.

(Additional reporting by Carlos Barria in Kissimmee, Florida, Alvin Baez in Guanica, Puerto Rico and Zachary Fagenson in West Palm Beach, Florida; Writing by Scott Malone; Editing by Mary Milliken and Richard Pullin)

Married Muslim Converts Arrested in Arkansas for Making Terroristic Threats

This husband and wife in Northwest Arkansas have been arrested on terror charges after allegedly threatening a waitress in a local diner. “People like you are the reason we kill,” the wife reportedly said to the victim. She further threatened the waitress on social media by posting a picture of her husband in “Muslim attire” kneeling with an assault rifle. This was not the first time the couple attracted the attention of law enforcement.

Police say Daphne Ridenour, who also goes by Daphne Crawford, and her husband Alan Crawford made terroristic threats to a waitress while eating in Mel’s Diner in Prairie Grove.

After the incident in the diner, investigators say the couple continued making threats on multiple social media websites.

According to the police report, on May 24, Alan Crawford was frustrated at Mel’s Diner. Alan Crawford was upset because his order was taking too long and he thought the food was too expensive, according to the report. Alan Crawford reportedly said, “Only a Christian would treat them like that,” because they practice Islam.

Before the Crawford’s left Mel’s Diner, it is reported that Daphne Crawford said,”People like you are the reason we kill.”

Daphne Crawford also threatened a victim on a Facebook post saying her husband would show up with an AK-47. According to the report, Daphne Crawford sent the victim a picture of her husband in “Muslim attire” kneeling with a weapon described as an assault rifle.

The victim of the social media threats says the FBI is also involved in the investigation of the couple.

The arrests of the Crawfords on Thursday follow a long list of encounters with multiple law enforcement agencies. For instance;

• In October 2009, Alan Crawford was arrested and booked in Sequoyah County on rape and sodomy charges. Those charges were later dropped.

• Law enforcement in 2015 discovered that the Crawfords were making radical comments and threats on social media about their conversion to Islam.

• In November 2015, when a military serviceman was killed, Muldrow police believed the Crawfords were a credible threat to the funeral, but did not have any charges against them at the time.

• In December 2015, the Crawfords were escorted out of Central Mall in Fort Smith for recording mall entrances against mall policy.

An officer in a police report regarding the incident said, “I had two unknown subjects come up to me and advise me that a male subject wearing a thobe was video recording everyone in the mall and he was video-taping the entrances of several stores.”

However, while speaking to KFSM, Crawford claimed he was only recording audio and that five officers were not needed to escort the family out of the mall. “He informed me that he needed me to lift up my thobe in order to obtain my ID. What crime I committed, I don’t know. I wasn’t aware that police officers show up five at a time to enforce mall law. If you want me to leave, I will leave happily,” Crawford said.

Further, he said he was at the mall to shop and hand out leaflets for a local charity. Crawford insisted he saw no sign prohibiting filming and recording in the mall.

“I audio recorded the police officer and held my camera in the manner that would lead him to believe that I did video tape while he screamed at me and told me that “I can confiscate your phone”. You can’t confiscate my phone for mall law. I violated mall law, OK? Which wasn’t even clearly posted,” he said.

Nigeria is finally going to do the painful thing everyone said it has to do

Business Insider/ Nigeria is finally going to do the painful thing everyone said it has to do.

The central bank announced on Wednesday that the naira peg will be abandoned on Monday, June 20, and the currency will be allowed to float freely.

Although, Central Bank of Nigeria Governor Godwin Emefiele also said that the bank will intervene “as the need arises.”

As for what this means for Nigeria’s economy, in the short-term it’s going to get ugly. But in the long-term, things should start to pick up.

“Over the long-run, a weaker currency will help Nigeria’s economy by encouraging import substitution and attracting foreign investors, who have shunned the country for fear of a devaluation,” wrote Capital Economics’ Africa economist John Ashbourne in a note.

“But the move will be painful over the short term. Higher import prices will add to inflation, which reached 15.6% y/y in April. This will probably force the authorities to tighten monetary policy,” he added.

Plus, if Nigeria’s central bank can’t get inflation back under control, then the country might end up getting stuck in a “vicious” cycle of high inflation that leads to a weaker naira, noted Marc Chandler, the global head of currency strategy at Brown Brothers Harriman. And that, then, could lead to higher inflation.

“This is one reason why devaluations can be so painful, as central banks typically jack up interest rates afterwards. Recessions are often seen post-devaluation,” he wrote. “Yet if Buhari has finally relented on maintaining what we viewed as an unsustainable peg, the longer-term outlook for Nigeria will have improved.”

Analysts have long been arguing that Nigeria will eventually have to capitulate and devalue its currency given that the government’s controversial agenda of currency and price controls created a bunch of economic stresses in Africa’s largest economy. Most recently, inflation soared to a six-year high.

Still, devaluing the currency peg will not magically fix all of Nigeria’s problems.

The country continues to suffer from numerous headaches, including lower oil prices, the fuel-shortage crisis, and ongoing oil-production disruptions by the Niger Delta Avengers. Plus, the Nigerian Bureau of Statistics recently revealed that the country’s economy shrank by 0.4% year-over-year in the first quarter, which was way worse than expected.

“A weaker currency is, at best, a necessary but insufficient condition of an economic recovery,” concluded Ashbourne.

But at least it’s a step in the right direction.

Niger Deltans Drag Federal Government to ECOWAS Court Over Oil Blocks Ownership

In a release signed by one Barrister Sophia Okoedion of H.S Okoedion Chambers, the Niger Deltan community has dragged Federal Government of Nigeria to the ECOWAS Court over oil blocks allocation and ownership. Below is the unabridged transcript of the release;

PRESS RELEASE

This is to inform the general public, interested parties and oil & gas stakeholders that on Thursday the 16th day of June 2016, in the Ecowas Community Court of Justice, Suit No: ECW/CCJ/APP/20/15, holden at Abuja, on the commencement of hearings after pleadings have been concluded by learned counsels on both sides of the Plaintiffs and Defendant since the suit was instituted just over a year ago. This landmark case is between the Plaintiffs, Mr. Nosa Ehanire-Osaghae, Mr. Jonah Gbemre, Mr. Aiko Obobaifo and Mr. Daniel Ikponmwosa, suing on behalf of the Niger Delta People and the Defendant, the Federal Republic of Nigeria. Our expectation is for the Defendant to take plea for the court to hear witnesses on both the Plaintiffs and Defendants sides. That we are set to go on with the matter until the determination of the case.

That the Ecowas Court is a noteworthy International Court for the common man of West Africa, and that at the end of this landmark case, the Honorable Court will grant the orders we sought in prayers. Namely:

That the Federal Republic of Nigeria has violated the fundamental human rights of Niger Deltans by depriving them of their God given oil blocks vis-à-vis natural resources which they allocated to foreign oil companies and non-indigenes from other parts of the country at their own expense and impoverishment.

That the Federal Republic of Nigeria has violated the fundamental human rights of Niger Deltans to life and a healthy environment by the hazardous flaring of gas in their host communities unabated for the last 30 years, which has resulted in many health casualties, fatalities and untimely deaths without adequate reliefs and compensations.

That the Federal Republic of Nigeria should put a stop to all acquiring, renewal, award, allocation, transfer, prospecting, buying and selling of oil blocks and their assets until the hearing and determination of substantive matter.

That the Federal Republic of Nigeria should re-allocate the ownership of all onshore and offshore oil blocs in the Niger Delta region back to the indigenous oil communities forthwith in accordance with its United Nations and African Union treaty obligations and statutory international law.

That the Federal Republic of Nigeria should immediately pay remedial environmental damages to the United Nations Environmental Program (UNEP) in order for them to speedily facilitate the total remediation of the oil polluted farming lands and fishing waters in Niger Delta region to the tune of $30 billion. For the excess of 9 million barrels of spilt crude oil in the Niger Delta region and for the hazardous gas flaring over the last fifty years of oil exploration and exploitation in the Niger Delta.

That the Federal Republic of Nigeria, should not impede and mitigate but rather assist and facilitate an enabling environment for the people of Niger Delta to conduct a peaceful and democratic Referendum to exercise their inalienable Right to Self Determination as enshrined in the United Nations and African Union treaties which it ratified and is signatory bound in accordance with the statutes of international law.

ANY OTHER ORDER OR FURTHER ORDERS that this Honourable Court may deem fit to make in the circumstances of this case.

SIGNED:

BARRISTER SOPHIA OKOEDION.

H.S Okoedion Chambers,

90 Akpakpava Road, Benin City.

08039514131, 08091987480, 08057816764.

Pistorius walks on stumps in court as seeks to avoid jail

By TJ Strydom and Tanisha Heiberg

PRETORIA (Reuters) – Oscar Pistorius shuffled through a Pretoria court without his prosthetic legs on Wednesday to show how vulnerable he is as the Paralympian seeks to avoid prison for murdering his girlfriend Reeva Steenkamp.

The 29-year-old faces a minimum 15-year jail term for the Valentine’s Day killing in 2013 in a case that has attracted worldwide interest and divided South Africa. He will be sentenced on July 6.

Pistorius has always said he mistook Steenkamp for an intruder when he fired four shots through a locked toilet door in his Pretoria home, killing her almost instantly.

During his closing arguments, defense lawyer Barry Roux asked the gold medalist, known as the “Blade Runner” for his carbon-fibre prosthetics, to walk on his stumps to show the difficulty he faced dealing with the threat of an intruder.

The lower part of his legs were amputated when he was a baby.

His body shaking with emotion, Pistorius removed his prosthetics and stood on his stumps for about five minutes in front of the court television camera, wiping away tears with a tissue.

“The accused was vulnerable because of his disability,” Roux said. “His failure to conduct a rational thought process does not negate his vulnerability.”

The defense says Pistorius did not deliberately kill model and law graduate Steenkamp and was “a broken man”, calling for a non-custodial sentence that includes community service.

A state prosecutor argued that Pistorius – who did not take the stand himself – had shown no remorse or told the court why he fired the shots, and asked the court jail the athlete for the prescribed minimum sentence of 15-years.

The athlete originally received a five-year sentence for a manslaughter conviction, that was upgraded to murder on appeal. The original trial judge, Thokozile Masipa, was presiding at the hearings at the Pretoria High Court.

FIERCE DEBATE

Roux asked the judge to consider that his client was vulnerable because of his disability and that the prescribed 15-year minimum sentence should give the court “unease”.

“The fact is that a disabled person in jail has a more difficult time,” Roux said.

The case has prompted a fierce debate in a country beset by high levels of violent crime against women and still dealing with the legacy of decades of apartheid race-based rule.

Some rights groups have said Pistorius, a wealthy white man, has received preferential treatment.

Pistorius reached the pinnacle of his fame in London 2012 when he became the first double amputee to run in the Olympics, reaching the 400 meters semi-finals, before taking two golds in the Paralympics.

Roux said the publicity surrounding the case led to it being portrayed as an incident of gender-based violence, despite the facts showing it was not. Pistorius had now “become the face of gender violence”, he said.

Shortly after Roux asked Pistorius to walk without his prosthetics, prosecutor Gerrie Nel requested that the judge allow photos to be shown of Steenkamp’s bloodied head and torso.

Masipa ruled that the photos be made available to the public upon request. She said the photos had been banned to protect the Steenkamp family, who had now agreed to lifting the ban.

The victim’s father Barry Steenkamp said on Tuesday that Pistorius must pay for his crime.

Prosecutor Nel said Pistorius had failed to show remorse.

“There’s a chasm between regret and remorse,” Nel said. “Real remorse would have been the accused taking the court into his confidence, telling the court why I fired that shot, why I did what I did. We don’t have that.”

Johannesburg-based criminal law attorney Zola Majavu said the judge could only deviate from handing out the minimum sentence if Pistorius had demonstrated exceptional circumstances to warrant such a deviation.

He said Pistorius’ decision not to speak in court could prove central: “It was a perfect opportunity to show the court that he does take responsibility for his actions.”

Pistorius has given an interview to British television, which will be aired next week.

Bodies of 42 fishermen butchered by Boko Haram pulled from Lake Chad

Boko Haram have again killed innocent fishermen from villages close to Lake Chad(

International Business Times – The bodies of 42 fishermen, who were killed by the Islamist group, Boko Haram, have been pulled from Lake Chad in Cameroon, the country’s military has announced.

The men had been seized on 8 June from the village of Darak, located near the Nigerian border, by militants who also killed 10 fishermen in nearby Touboun Ali on 6 June and 32 soldiers in Bosso, Niger on 3 June.

“Cameroonian sailors and villagers… saw several bodies floating on the water and immediately alerted security forces,” Cololenl Nomo Jean Claude told the African news website the Daily Sabah. “We recovered 42 bodies from the water between Saturday and Sunday. After identification, we found they were of Cameroonian, Nigerian and Chadian nationality. The bodies were immediately handed over to the families for burial.”

Boko Haram has fought a seven-year battle to form an Islamist caliphate in the region in which around 20,000 people have been killed and 2.7 million people displaced. Around 50,000 have been displaced in south eastern Niger in the last few days due to an onslaught by the group, according to Fox News.

This has prompted a doubling of food aid to southern Niger, the United Nations’ World Food Program (WFP) announced on Tuesday (14 June). “Many people have walked from 10 km to 40 kms (6 to 25 miles),” said WFP Niger deputy country director Belkacem Machane in a statement published by Reuters.

“They are arriving in a state of shock, and urgently need food, shelter, water – assistance with their most basic needs. They have now reached the end of their rope.”

Niger, Chad, Benin and Cameroon have all joined an international task-force to fight the insurgents, but often ordinary civilians are the ones who suffer most. BokoHaram has bombed many mosques, transport hubs and even refugee centres, as well as snatching over 200 schoolgirls from Chibok and selling them into slavery.

In March (2016) Cameroon announced the death penalty for 89 members of Boko Haram, a decision dismissed as counter-productive by anti-terrorism experts.

Nigeria MPs threaten to sue over US sex claims

Secretary of States, U.S., John Kerry, and President Muhammadu Buhari. Days after taking office, Nigerian President Muhammadu Buhari also met with President Barack Obama at the White House and o jump-started a frozen bilateral relations. — Secretary of States, U.S., John Kerry, and President Muhammadu Buhari.
Days after taking office, Nigerian President Muhammadu Buhari also met with President Barack Obama at the White House and o jump-started a frozen bilateral relations.

A group of politicians in Nigeria has threatened to sue the US embassy over accusations that they groped a hotel chambermaid and tried to solicit prostitutes while visiting the US.

The incidents allegedly occurred as the MPs were in Cleveland in April.

The three politicians identified in a letter from the US ambassador to Nigeria have denied the accusations.

He told Nigeria’s parliament speaker that such alleged conduct could put future visits by Nigerian MPs at risk.

Envoy James Entwhistle wrote that three of the 10-man delegation to a good governance exchange programme had allegedly been involved in behaviour that “left a very negative impression of Nigeria”.

He wrote that Mohammed Garba Gololo “allegedly grabbed a housekeeper in his hotel room and solicited her for sex”, while Mark Terseer Gbillah and Samuel Ikon “allegedly requested hotel parking attendants assist them to solicit prostitutes”.

The Speaker of the Nigerian parliament, Yakubu Dogara, has begun an investigation.

‘Shocked and embarrassed’

But one of the MPs, Mohammed Gololo, told the BBC the accusations were “false” and “unfounded” and that he demanded a retraction.

“I was shocked. I was embarrassed. There is nothing as such that has happened,” he said.

He went on to detail reasons why he believed the story did not stand up.

“You can imagine if one attempted to rape someone or grabbed someone, what stopped the person from screaming? What stopped the person from shouting?

“Remember we were there in April. Now we are in June. What stopped them from alleging or stopped them from reporting from April until now? What stopped them from bringing footage or some video clips of how it happened and where it happened?

“It’s false, it’s unfounded, and it’s really embarrassing.”

Mr Gololo said he was demanding an apology from the US government over the allegations or would take legal action, and that he was considering paying for himself to return to Cleveland to clear his name.

One of the other accused men, Mr Gbillah, said the allegation was a baseless attempt to tarnish the reputation of Nigeria’s House of Representatives.

A US Embassy spokesperson declined to comment on “private diplomatic correspondence”.

‘Shocked and embarrassed’

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