Ft. Lauderdale Airport shooter grilled for hours

Esteban Santiago has been identified as the shooter in the Ft. Lauderdale-Hollywood International Airport in the Friday murders of 5 and wounding of 8 people. It was learned that Santiago visited the FBI Anchorage office in November and told them he was being forced to watch ISIS videos. He believed US intelligence had infiltrated his mind and were forcing him to watch the propaganda videos.

According to sources, Santiago seemed agitated and incoherent during that interview, and it seemed obvious that he was suffering from a mental disorder. But not severe enough, evidently, to prohibit him from taking a gun along with him for the flight from Alaska to Florida.

After the November contact, the FBI called local authorities who took custody of him and brought him to a local hospital "for a welfare check."

According to his brother, he had been receiving psychological treatment, but it isn't clear if he was receiving anti-psychotic medication(s) for his schizophrenia, are just a good talking to.

The sources said that the November incident prompted the FBI to open an investigation on him that led to family interviews, database checks and an interagency interview. It was believed (by James Comey) that there wasn't enough credible information to commit Santiago or indict him for anything because no prosecutor would go forward with the case.

Yet, in recent years, Santiago had a series of incidents with the law. 

Not quite one year ago, he was charged with fourth degree assault and damage of property in Anchorage where he lived from 2014 to 2016. (The fact that he never wore a winter coat should have alerted authorities, but that's another story.) One of the charges was dismissed by the local prosecutor two months later.

One of the charges may have been related to domestic violence but the case was resolved after Santiago agreed to enter an agreement of deferred prosecution. The charges were dismissed by the state prosecutor in exchange for completion of requirements.

Santiago served in the Puerto Rico National Guard and the Army Reserves prior to serving in the Alaska Army National Guard and was honorably discharged four months ago from his last post at Fort Greely, Arkansas as a Private First Class. He served 2 years in Iraq after which he started acting strangely, according to an aunt in Hudson County, NJ.

Santiago has a concealed carry permit and properly checked in his weapon prior to boarding--he evidently didn't want to get into any trouble. Maybe his becoming a dad this year cooled his jets until he landed in one in Florida today.

So did Esteban Santiago think he was somehow fighting for ISIS?

Santiago is behind bars and faces federal charges, the FBI announced Saturday. The official charges will be announced later in the day. The Special Agent in the case is George Piro who said that the suspect was questioned for hours and they have looked into his social media footprint and where he has traveled in the past.

Terrorism may have been a "potential motivation" for the attack, Piro said, and the FBI hasn't ruled anything out. "The indications are he came here to carry out this horrific attack," Piro said.

Santiago was not on any no-fly list, according to the FBI. Just because he approached them in Anchorage and told them an intelligence agency made him watch ISIS videos is no reason to put him on any no-fly list.

The suspect used a 9 mm semi-automatic handgun in the attack, Piro said. (I'm guessing Glock.)

One update has been made thus far: Broward County Sheriff Scott Israel said that 6 people, not 8, were wounded as originally reported. Three were in ICU and three were in good condition.

Santiago has a history of mental health problems, some of which came after he served in Iraq. He was receiving psychological treatment in Alaska, but nothing, it seems, was enough to put him on a no-fly list, and nobody worried that he took along a gun in his suitcase.

But I bet they checked his shampoo bottle and shoes.


Tweet

Police say 50 ISIS friends worked at Brussels Airport

Brussels airport partially reopened today after the March 22 attacks by two suicide bombers, killing 35 people, shut it down. An open letter from police, who had gone on strike after the attacks, made claims that hopefully will allow the West to remove their collective heads from their nether regions.

A police contingency wrote an open letter to the press criticizing alleged security failings at Zaventem airport. They claimed that 50 ISIS supporters remain on the airport staff and believe this may cause safety problems in the future especially to passengers who are not Muslims, or who are of a different Islamic sect, or who are gay, or who are of the same sect but don't pray five times a day to the moon god, Allah.

So the police demanded extra security measures be taken to ensure the safety of all infidels, which in the mind of ISIS, is everyone but ISIS card holders.

The specific demand is for checks at the main entrance to the departure lounge. In the past, authorities worried that checking for bombs, guns, and other weapons of mass airport destruction could create unwanted bottlenecks going into the airport.

"Now remove your shoes, granny"

The police officers complained that some airport workers jumped with glee, handed out candy,  performed "high fives,"and patted each other on the back in celebration of the Paris attacks.

That has to be bad for business and makes bottlenecks seem rather trivial in comparison.

Some Muslims suspected of having fought in Syria came to the airport as "false tourists," (Taqiyya tourists) the police said in the letter, and they reported this to authorities. However, they do not know if anything was done with the information, the letter added.

"When we checked these people, we were surprised more than once. It was men with radical ideology and a long police history," they said.

[After delving into the backgrounds of these men, it was discovered that the men in question were all religious Muslims who believe fully in the precepts of a book called the "Holy Qur'an."]

The letter went on: "Even today, there are at least 50 supporters of the Islamic State who work at the airport. They have security badges and have access to the cockpit of a plane."

For me, I would not only investigate these so-called "workers," I would investigate the people or person who authorized their employment.

But maybe I'm being too picky. After all, if that happened in the USA, I wouldn't want the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR) to jump all over me.

The letter admits that "In the past, a number of people had their badges revoked because they had IS sympathies. But clearly not everyone, especially in store personnel, cleaning services and baggage where we find the most suspicious people."

I can hear the people at CAIR saying, "Aww, c'mon. What damage can a baggage handler do?"

Tweet

Malaysian Flight MH 370

Malaysian officials are checking the CCTV footage at Kuala Lumpur's international airport and are questioning immigration officials and guards over the disappearance of Malaysian Airlines flight MH370. The plane went off the radar Saturday with 239 people on board. Two oil slicks were spotted off the southern tip of Vietnam but there is no absolute confirmation that these slicks were related to the missing plane.