In 2011 an analysis of homegrown extremists by the National Counterterrorism Center and obtained by ABC News included a secret report from the CIA that said that for some young men who converted to Islam and later became radicals, the strict religious structure offered “a hope of banishing their impulses and fantasies that they did not view as acceptable.” But from everything that has occurred and connecting the pieces to what I knew myself from my time and experience, I would not be surprised.”Ĭases in which repressed homosexuality has been linked to extremism have been an interest for counterterrorism officials. “You know, knowing somebody and living with them every day. At this point, I think he might have been,” she said. Today Yusufiy said Mateen had told her that he used to go out to night clubs “a lot,” but never said they were gay clubs. I guess that created some confusion between that, and there was definitely moments that he would express his intolerance to homosexuals,” she said Monday. Islamic culture, it is really not tolerated, homosexuality, and I know at the time he was trying to get his life straight and follow his faith. He would express his anger towards certain culture, homosexuality, because in. “I started noticing in his emotional instability.
The purported behavior appears severely at odds with how Mateen said he felt about gay people, according to his ex-wife, Sitora Yusufiy, who was married to Mateen briefly in 2009. what clubs are popping and things of that sort and what are good places to go,” West said. “When he first contacted me, he was asking. “He would try to meet people and try to bump up against people and put his arm around and maybe try to dance with them or something, because that’s what everybody tries to do,” Van Horn said.Īnother Florida man, Kevin West, told ABC News’ Houston affiliate, KTRK, that he was contacted by Mateen on a gay dating app. “You would be my kind of guy,” the classmate said Mateen told him.Įmployees and patrons at Pulse told ABC News that Mateen went to the bar on a regular basis.Ĭhris Callen, a performer at the club, said Mateen “didn’t seem homophobic to me.” One night, he said, Mateen asked him if he was gay. FBI agents are hearing accounts of Omar Mateen’s presence at gay clubs going back years.Ī former classmate at a police academy - who requested he not be identified - told ABC News that Mateen hung out with him and others, frequenting Florida gay bars while they were at the Indian River State College training program, as far back as 2006.