ACLJ Demands Answers, Files FOIA Request to Expose Obama Administration’s Censorship of Jihadist’s 911 Transcript

As we reported earlier last week, the Obama Administration reversed its initial decision to release a censored transcript of the Orlando terrorist attacker’s 911 call.

Responding to pressure and releasing the full transcript was good, but it does not change the fact that someone on President Obama’s team ordered the jihadist’s pledge of allegiance to the Islamic State to be censored.  

And, even when it released the “complete” transcript, Obama’s team made sure to translate the Arabic words for us, lest anyone be tempted to draw their own conclusions about the jihadist’s actual background and motivation based on his invocation of “Allah” as opposed to “God.”

Today, the ACLJ submitted a legal request under the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) to the Department of Justice (DOJ) and the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), to obtain the critical information about who decided to censor the transcript in the first place – and why.

We also requested the original untranslated transcript of Mateen’s 911 call – the transcript that reflects the actual Arabic words and phrases uttered by Mateen – and the records that will show who ordered the words be translated into English in the version released to the public.

This, taken from our letter, summarizes what we asked for:

[R]ecords pertaining to the transcript of the 911 call initiated at 2:35 a.m. on June 12, 2016, by the person initially identified by the FBI on June 20, 2016, as “shooter” and “[OM]” and later identified on June 21, 2016, as Omar Mateen during the attack at the Pulse nightclub in Orlando, Florida; and specifically,

A.        The complete, unedited, unredacted and untranslated transcript of that call;
B.        The decision to translate certain phrases from Arabic into English which were originally followed by the notation on June 20, 2016, of “[in Arabic],” and later changed on June 21, 2016, to “[Arabic]”;
C.        The decision to redact or omit certain portions of said transcript originally marked as “[omitted]”; and,
D.        The subsequent decision to include the omitted portions of said transcript.

The DOJ and FBI have 20 business days to respond to our requests in a meaningful way. We’ll keep you updated on any developments in this case.

Disturbingly, the press offices of President Obama’s government are looking more and more like Orwell’s history-altering, narrative-driving “Ministry of Truth.” Here are just a few examples:

• Censoring 8 minutes of a press briefing video record in which the Obama Administration’s deception of Congress and the public in carrying out its controversial Iran negotiations was brought to light;
• Censoring official White House video to scrub audio of the French president using the term “Islamist terrorism” just four months after the Paris attacks;
• Telling us that we are winning the war with ISIS, when our CIA director tells us “Our efforts have not reduced the group’s terrorism capability and global reach,” and that ISIS is taking control of yet another country (Libya);
• Falsely blaming the attacks on our Embassy in Benghazi on a spontaneous reaction to a video, when it was clearly and immediately known as an attack planned and carried out by jihadists.

We’ve had enough. And we are taking action.

If you are fed up with President Obama’s manipulation of critically important information about our nation’s sworn enemies, make you voice heard with us.

We’ve outlined a critical five-point plan to defeat ISIS and other jihadists, and this FOIA request is a critical part of our first step – forcing the Administration to name the enemy. Join us by signing our petition today and please share with your friends on social media.