Adnani’s speech calling for lone wolf attacks during Ramadan. Jihadists erupted in celebration on the internet. Mateen was acting on the Islamic State’s behalf.
Mateen had invoked ISIS, the group’s official news agency issued a bulletin quoting “a source” confirming that Mr. “They can pledge allegiance to Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi before or during, and that catapults them from being a self-starter jihadist guy, or girl, to someone who can be lionized as a soldier of the Islamic State and regarded as a warrior.” “I think what the Islamic State has done is very clever, and that is create a situation where someone can carry out an attack without any direct link to the organization,” said Charlie Winter, senior research associate at Georgia State University’s Transcultural Conflict and Violence Initiative. Yet the fact that there is often no direct link back to the core is intended to protect the organization in an age of surveillance. Once the recruit is caught, or killed, law enforcement officials struggle to put the pieces back together. The jihadist group has publicized its hatred of homosexuals, including releasing images of fighters killing people suspected of being gay by throwing them off tall buildings. In this case, there was a stark resonance between Islamic State propaganda and the killer’s choice of target.
