TEMPLE-RASTON: Well, we’ve been talking to intelligence officials and investigators. And they’re becoming, as you say, increasingly convinced that the motive for this attack had very little or maybe even nothing to do with ISIS. Al-Qaida- and ISIS-inspired attacks – typically they follow a very different pattern than what we’ve seen in this case. I mean, we know that during the attack, the gunman posted messages on Facebook saying he was doing this on behalf of ISIS. But officials have yet to find any of the precursors usually associated with radicalization.
With interviews – they’ve interviewed dozens of people who either knew him or had contact with Mateen. And they say they’ve yet to find any indication that he became noticeably more religious, which is one of the indicators of radicalization. He still was going to the same mosque. The way he dressed didn’t change. His relationship with his family hadn’t changed in any way. And these are all typically warning signs that parents and friends and educators are told to look for if they’re worried someone they’re close to is radicalizing. I mean, this isn’t science, but in this case – so far, anyway – it doesn’t appear that any of those precursors were there.
SIMON: So investigators are suggesting to you that Omar Mateen’s post about ISIS might have been what amounted to a cover story for some other motive.
TEMPLE-RASTON: A cover story or maybe a story of convenience.
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