She Knew: FBI Arrests Wife of Orlando Nightclub Terrorist

by Andrew January 17, 2017, 4:53 pm 667 Comments

The FBI announced Monday that they had arrested Noor Salman, the wife of the terrorist who killed 49 people at the Pulse nightclub in Orlando last summer. Authorities charged Salman with obstructing the investigation as well as aiding and abetting her husband, the deceased Omar Mateen.

From the New York Times:

She was taken into custody by F.B.I. agents at her home outside San Francisco, where she had been living with her young son. Prosecutors had been weighing charges against her for months in the aftermath of the attack by her husband on June 12, 2016.

Investigators interviewed Ms. Salman for hours after the attack and came to believe she was not telling the truth about her husband’s plans to carry out the rampage.

According to the Justice Department, Salman will appear Tuesday in Oakland’s federal court to answer for the charges. Her arraignment will bring one window of the investigation to a close; federal agents knew something was suspicious about Mateen’s wife from the beginning of the inquiry.

Still, Salman’s lawyer insists that her client is being unfairly prosecuted in lieu of the killer himself.

“Noor Salman had no foreknowledge nor could she predict what Omar Mateen intended to do that tragic night,” said attorney Linda Moreno. “Noor has told her story of abuse at his hands. We believe it is misguided and wrong to prosecute her and that it dishonors the memories of the victims to punish an innocent person.”

A jury will be the judge of that claim, but federal agents do not typically charge people with crimes they can’t prove in court. That’s not to say that Salman is not deserving of a presumption of innocence, but her involvement in this shooting has always looked likely.

It’s like Donald Trump said on numerous occasions – the families know, the neighbors know. This isn’t an excuse to bash Islam, but these are often insular little communities where other members of the faith would sooner protect a terrorist than turn on a fellow Muslim. We can perhaps understand the psychology at play, but that doesn’t mean we have to stand by and tolerate it when it puts American lives in danger.

It’s time for our country to stop playing footsie with Islamic radicals, whether they come from the Middle East or the Midwest. And that includes anyone who supports these jihadists in their murderous efforts.

She Knew: FBI Arrests Wife of Orlando Nightclub Terrorist

Written by Andrew

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