this was a man, abu salah, from ft. pierce, florida, who left a rather privileged upbringing where he lived in a gated community and heavily into basketball, went to syria, apparently got training with radical elements in syria, and then came back to florida where he tried to enlist other people to join him. it was only then when he went back to syria that the u.s. became aware that he had been in syria, came to the u.s., and went back. it was a very eye-opening experience for the federal government to show how someone could go to syria, come back to the u.s., without tripping any sort of trip wires and notifying law enforcement that he had done this. in any event, the fbi says they determined he had some contact with abu salah when he came back to the u.s., but that it didn't amount to anything. but they interviewed him again and didn't find anything to it. abu salah went back to syria and in 2014 drove a truck laden with explosives and carried out a suicide attack, so that's who that man is. brushes with these people,

the fbi says they became aware he had some contact with abu salah. after looking into it, they decided it was very minimal, very psmall. as we have reported all day long, nbc news has been told by his father that he saw this thing in florida and that may be what touched him off. one question here is how long was he planning this attack. the atf said just a moment ago he bought a handgun and a long gun just last week. we've since been told by authorities that those were the weapons that were used in this shooting. if he planned it far in advance, he only recently bought the guns. we don't know whether he was going to target that specific facility in orlando. >> pete, was the long gun in question indeed an ar-15? if so, remind our viewers what other shootings it's been associated with recently. >> well, they describe it as an ar-15 type weapon. the ar-15 is made by colt. it's a weapon that can hold a high capacity magazine. it's what people call an assault weapon. once you put this high capacity magazine in the rifle, then you can fire around. every ti

so that i think confirmed our meeting in darm salah.me individual story really terrible, really desperate, such desperate moment you develop some sort of determination to do something for peace. wonderful. so that goes to show we all have the same potential like that. so therefore peace of mind is very, very useful for individual interest. that peace of min more compassion of mind. sometimes people say, people feel compassion is something good for other but not necessarily oneself. it's totally wrong. the practice of compassion first of all benefit to oneself i often mention my story. one time in germany your neighbor, you italy. i think italy more sort of -- like that. german hardworking, serious. anyway, one meeting one late evening quite dark. and i passing through road as my own nature or habit when i met some people on the street. i just usually smiling. so passing through the street one young lady coming down. as usual, i smile, show human brothers, sisters spirit. then that lady seems to develop suspicion. why? why this person st

it's a bad thing that has happened. >> you know, obviously, a few years ago abu salah attended the mosque here, became the suicide bomber in syria. now omar. the country looks at this little mosque and says something must be here. what do you say? >> i have no comment on that. i have no idea. you have to talk to the imam. i can't say anything. >> is there any sort of rhetoric here. >> no. there is no rhetoric, that, i can say. there is no rhetoric. can you listen to our imam. there is no rhetoric. nothing like that. we are against isis and all this hamas and arched r. and r. arched are after and al qaeda. >> quiet community in fort pierce. >> griff, the orlando sentinel is reporting that mateen visited the pulse, which is behind me several times. they are reporting that we haven't confirmed it you have heard anything there about whether he visited the pulse several times before his slaughter on saturday night? >> we have not spoken to anyone yet who can confirm that we're hearing all sorts of things accomplices, even some of these folks may have gone to pulse. we have nothing to confirm t

thunderstorm warnings in the yellow areas includes northerns neck of virginia down to the lower pen nine salah. as we continue to watch flush warnings because of all the rain that has fallen. storm reports can't to come in not only did we have hail possible tornado out in martinsburg west virginia big him vest virginia.m v i wanted to mention we got a a report of golf ball size hail at 4:04. high up in the atmosphere when finally they drop, you know thaa they really got very large. obviously, loudoun county got the hail reports. middle burg in particular. but 1.5. a couple of reports of bigger hail in blue mount. in now, this is the third act, the heavy rain that will continued.w this is a do that blah estimated.es anywhere from two and a half too almost up and over four inchesrf of rain down to the south. watch the southern suburbs as you are driving later, flashat flood watch will be in effect i until six in the morning differs between a watch warning we're on guard for flooding flash flooding a warning means a flooding is occurring. occ here's the grand finaleale tremendous lighting and fut

mateen as a result of his so-called minimal contact with abu salah, but it was inconclusive, in their words. it sounds pretty stark to me, though. >> well, there will certainly be questions asked about this investigation. salah became the first american suicide bomber for al qaeda in may 2014, blowing himself up in syria. as peter was talking about, he came back to florida for a period of time, even after he'd spent some time in syria. both men from florida. at the same time it's got to be stressed that the fbi conducting an awful lot of terrorism investigations right now. they have opened 1,000 cases into suspected radical extremists in the united states. 800 of those cases there's some kind of link to isis in terms of sympathy. so they are stretched quite thin right now, the fbi, in terms of everything that they have to look out for. one extra point here is that over the last seven, eight months there has been a real drop in the number of americans who have been attempting to try to travel to syria and iraq. up until august 2015, according to fbi director, six to ten americans were

monar salah who blew himself up in syria. soo there were indications that mateen had some sort of contact with him. both men were from the fort piecer area of florida but ultimately the fbi decided that there wasn't enough there to pursue a full-fledged investigation. what investigatedders are looking at now is whether there are any direct con tablghts to operatives overseas in connection with the nightclub attack, scott? >> jeff pegues in the washington newsroom, jeff, thank you very much. all day long around major hospitals here in orlando there has been a vigil, of families who have not been able to contact their loved ones and are waiting outside the hospitals with the hope that they will learn at some point that their missing loved one is in the hospital and has survived. our correspondent jamie yuccas has more on this bns 24 year old jose mar tins went to pulse nightclub to kick off pride week. his cell phone died and his family didn't know what happened to him. jafier rossale did. >> he works at the six days a week. >>

last time the family communicated was the day she law salah store was it a the tell her fearing and dreading.her son was >> vicki: together for more than a year they were stabbed as a bouncer in the nightclub status says the cheese's spoke to the media on behalf of her friend and she wants people to note that it's not assess the name of the last. a person who loved life. >> steve: we are hearing from some victims' families and grant is here with the emotional corner of the story. >> grant: i to a 6 1/3 year-old man texas did call his mom then she little they freddie further word from her son. >> grant: and a late last night crash the hon. close she was appearing in dreading hearse on among those killed also a here in chilling detail data sugar for a victim who survived chilling details about the shooter. "fired through the whole front of the stall." >>: fired not not argue it was shooting deaths were first, it first to wounds at the point i feel of the family and phone was dying. in the phone turned off. >> steve:the owner of the gun store where the gunman purchased his weapons.says he passed al

pierce man, abu salah. their contact, the fbi determined, was minimal. again, case closed. the fbi director says he doesn't believe agents missed any sign that mateen would later become a terrorist. >> we are looking for needles in a nationwide hay stack, but we're also called upon to figure out which pieces of hay may become needles. that is hard work. if we can find a way to do that better we will. >> reporter: during the ten months mateen was under investigation, his name was on a terror watch list. if he had tried to buy a gun then, the fbi would have been notified. but not after the case was closed. a former top atf official says the system should be changed to send an alert when anyone who's ever been investigated for terrorism goes to buy a gun. >> if something changed and a neighbor called you and said he was calling in with large barrels of chemicals that would be a trip wire that you'd want to act on. but the same could be true if a person was trying to buy assault weapons and large amounts of ammunition. >> reporter: a little over a week ago, what teen went to th

. >> in 2014 mateen again came to the attention of the fbi because of possible ties to salah, american suicide bomber. >> in the end, that investigation was closed, with reportedly in the enough contact to constitution mateen being a suspect. mateen, who is an american citizen, was born to parents who are from afghanistan. he made his home in port st. lucie florida early sunday morning, cbs sources say he made calls to 911 pledging allegiance to isis, and armed with a legally purchased assault style rifle, mateen made his way inside the pulled night club and opened fire, some inside hiding themselves in a freezer from the rapid gunfire. >> they heard it repeated. everybody just dropped to the floor. >> at mateen's fort pierce area mosque, speak to go reporter. >> we don't know what was in his mind. >> and at this time, officials say, they are working to confirm a relationship between mateen and isis, the is a.m. lake fate called them one of their fighters and claimed responsibility for the attack. coming up at 6:00 a.m., more on mateen in his ex-wife's words, what she saw. brooke, nico

we have that one terrorist salah abdeslam, he was involved in paris attacks, lived in brul brussels.e went back and forth several tiles. will it be less easy for folks to cross border. >> the schengen zone was established a open border issue by another name in europe permitted huge amount of migration and lack of control. the europeans are trying to get this under control. i think they are almost in a desperate situation to do this. by the way the brits never partipated in that program. so they have maintained control at the border though they have hundreds of thousands of refuges and migrates inside their country. but they do have a much better control over that situation than the other europeans. i don't see the europeans solving this problem any time soon. >> let's move little beyond isis here. i understand vladimir putin is also -- that is one person on whose side i don't want to be but i understand he's kind of getting excited about this brexit move. explain. >> well he -- the kremlin has got to be celebrating. because think about what this is. first of all i absolutely believe

. >> in 2014, mateen again came to the attention of the fbi because of possible ties to salah, an american suicide bomber. >> both investigations were closed, mateen, an u.s. citizen, was born to afghan parents, he made his home in port st. lucie florida more than 120 miles south of orlando, at fort peers mosque -- >> we don't know, only god knows what was in his minds. >> has spoken to the f.b.i., she now lives in colorado, and she says mateen tried reaching out to her about a year ago, she blocked him on facebook. in the sat center, justin finch, cbs-3, "eyewitness news". >> well, it was emotional ceremony at the tony awards. >> the broadway community gathered on its biggest night to embrace the lbgt community after the orlando night club shooting. >> the tony goes to hamilton. >> the cast of the hip hole stage biography, founding father alexander hamilton, won 11 tony's, one short of the records. but awards show was muted by the orlando tragedy. >> on behalf of the whole theater community, and every person in this room, our hearts go out to all of those affected by this otrocity. all we

one of them did alert the fbi, but by then, abu salah had already left the u.s. at the time, the fbi thought his contact with abu salah was minimal and it didn't pose any kind of a real threat. law enforcement officials have told nbc news that there was no indication that mateen was in touch with terrorists overseas or that the attack was directed by someone else, to the point of what you were talking about. so meanwhile, we're also hearing from mateen's ex-wife. she talked to the press yesterday, and she described her former husband as unsound, claiming he was physically abusive and had in the past taken steroids. and that she actually left all of her belongings behind to escape their life together. >> instability, emotional instability, sickness, mentally, he was mentally unstable and mentally ill. that's the only explanation that i could give. and he was obviously disturbed. when he would get in his tempers, he would express hate towards things, toward everything. so in that respect, you know, yeah, but he was at the moments you would see his emotional instabi

. >> do you believe there was a connection between omar mateen and abu salah who became the suicide bomber? >> many people will not believe this and are reluctant to do so. it is truly a coincidence. >> reporter: shortly after that malik says he heard mateen talking about al-alwaki's video. it concerned him so much he called the fbi. >> he told me it was powerful. >> reporter: that was troubling? >> that raised the flag higher for me. >> reporter: the fbi did investigate mateen for the second time in two years and cleared him of any suspicion. malik says the fbi never asked about mateen again but did contact him about the muslim community. >> was he ever there for teaching that would have been considered radical? >> absolutely not. >> people that have come in have radicalized on their own. >> reporter: malik has gone public with his story because of comments made by donald trump, who argues the muslim community isn't doing enough. >> he says a lot of stuff, i believe, without factual evidence. the fbi is saying the opposite of what he says. that we do come forward and we help. i am an exam

salah was the mastermind of the terrorist attacks in brussels. brahim blew himself up in paris. easier, say some, to brainwash recruits who are not religious. a former radical told "the new yorker" for purposes of recruitment, having no background in islam is actually an advantage. manji is trying to stop the recruitment process by exposing young people to all of islam's ideas. >> i'm pointing out that the faith itself has the wrong material. it has the elements for a change. >> there is another famous koranic story. a father's two sons convert to christianity and leave home. the father asks the prophet muhammad to bring them back but muhammad declines saying there is no compulsion in religion. >> the book itself can't speak. it is we muslims who speak on its behalf. there is a beautiful passage in the koran that states god does not change the condition of a people until they change what is inside themselves. >> and to those who say, well, you are cherry picking, what do you say? >> i say, yes, that's correct. and so are you. by not acknowledging the freedom-loving verses of the

. >> that 9/11 call also included a salute to american suicide bomber monar abu salah. and the fbi realize that the pulse shooter and the bomber were much closer than they thought. pulse survivors are also now remembering that the terrorist announcing his rifle jammed and asking if there were any black people in the club. >> and the gunman responded back to him saying that you know, i don't have a problem with black people. >> elsewhere in the club, the terrorist wasn't so talkative. >> he is shooting everybody that's dead on the floor. making sure they're dead. >> while that's happening the hospital down the street received the first wave of victims and called every doctor possible. >> i said this is not a drill, this is not a joke we have 20-plus gunshot wounds coming in. >> the emergency rooms and operating rooms were quickly crowded and there was a lull when the shooter was barricaded inside. but then a second wave. two dozen more gunshot victims. >> trauma bay was very full. >> fox news.com just learned federal prosecutors have convened a grand jury. they seek to c

monar salah who blew himself up in syria. so there were indications that mateen had some sort of contact with him. both men were from the fort pierce area of florida but ultimately the f.b.i. decided that there wasn't enough there to pursue a full-fledged investigation. what investigators are looking at now is whether there are any direct contacts to operatives overseas in connection with the nightclub attack, scott? >> jeff pegues in the washington newsroom, jeff, thank you very much. all day long around major hospitals here in orlando there has been a vigil, of families who have not been able to contact their loved ones and are waiting outside the hospitals with the hope that they will learn at some point that their missing loved one is in the hospital and has survived. our correspondent jamie yuccas has more on this. >> reporter: 24-year-old jose martins went to pulse nightclub to kick off pride week. his cell phone died and his family didn't know what happened to him. jafier rossale did. >> he works at the six days a week

and the heredity component in that is when we began to talk about it salah was treating patients all of this history was constantly in the back is like a buzz in the back of your head. am i one of those? who else? is the figure that is needed? so this was my story long before it became my story. in fact, and then i just kept coming back to the idea and as i said it was like "star wars" as a prequel. [laughter] >> you dedicate the book to to people but one of them were jerome grandmother because she was involved very much to take care of your uncle who was mentally ill so there is a powerful story there also won a want you to read from the start of a book when you were with your father and went to visit your cousin. >> i will read a little bit from that this is where the story really begins so thises the prologue of the book the blood of your parents in the winter of 2012 revisited my cousin my father accompanied me as a companion in front of the brooding presence my father was the youngest of five brothers with since 2004 he as been confined to an institution of the mentally ill and

so that i think confirmed our meeting in darm salah.tory really terrible, really desperate, such desperate moment you develop some sort of determination to do something for peace. wonderful. so that goes to show we all have the same potential like that. so therefore peace of mind is very, very useful for individual interest. that peace of min more compassion of mind. sometimes people say, people feel compassion is something good for other but not necessarily oneself. it's totally wrong. the practice of compassion first of all benefit to oneself i often mention my story. one time in germany your neighbor, you italy. i think italy more sort of -- like that. german hardworking, serious. anyway, one meeting one late evening quite dark. and i passing through road as my own nature or habit when i met some people on the street. i just usually smiling. so passing through the street one young lady coming down. as usual, i smile, show human brothers, sisters spirit. then that lady seems to develop suspicion. why? why this person strange with the

and during the attack, he talked about the tsarnaev brothers and also abu salah. there was any type of collaborative relationship with isis. the dangerous thing about this enemy, when you have isis on the march in the middle east with a robust propaganda network, you don't necessarily need an operation or a relationship because just that sight of the caliphate being expanded is enough. >> congressman, today, literally a few hours ago, president obama got angry about his critics because he would not use the word islamic terror. was it islamic terror and would expression? >> without question. this was an act in furtherance of the islamic jihad. he was a militant islamist. it's important to do that because if you'll remember at the ft. hood attack, major hasan was taking all kind of radical statements but the army didn't do anything because they didn't want to call it by its name. if you look at the muslim brotherhood, they're also part of the problem. when you say it's confined to a few small people, you're not fully appreciating that this is an ideological struggle

. >> that 9/11 call also included a salute to american suicide bomber monar abu salah. and the fbi realize that the pulse shooter and the bomber were much closer than they thought. pulse survivors are also now remembering that the terrorist announcing his rifle jammed and asking if there were any black people in the club. >> and the gunman responded back to him saying that you know, i don't have a problem with black people. >> elsewhere in the club, the terrorist wasn't so talkative. >> he is shooting everybody that's dead on the floor. making sure they're dead. >> while that's happening the hospital down the street received the first wave of victims and called every doctor possible. >> i said this is not a drill, this is not a joke we have 20-plus gunshot wounds coming in. >> the emergency rooms and operating rooms were quickly crowded and there was a lull when the shooter was barricaded inside. but then a second wave. two dozen more gunshot victims. >> trauma bay was very full. >> fox news.com just learned federal prosecutors have convened a grand jury. they seek to c

allegiance to isis, the boston marathon bombers and his friend, this man, the american suicide bomber salah went to the same eastern florida mosque. >> the fbi closed his file because the obama administration treatsed treats radical islamic threats as a crime. if the file was open, we could have stopped it. >> the fbi director james comey said they did a full investigation of mateen but found no evidence he committed a crime or was providing material for terrorism. and that is the legal threshhold they operate under, bill. >> okay. catherine, more to come on that. catherine herridge in washington. >>> in america they can turn you down when wanting to buy a gun if you are a felon. but not if you're on the terror watch list. democrats are now pushing against a legislation to change that and republicans argue that owning a gun is your constitutional right. and some people will end up on the terror watch list by mistake. the man who gunned down 49 people appeared on that list when the fbi investigated him. but when the feds closed the case, he was taken off the list. that was two years ago. we

that he made inflammatory remarks about terrorist ties and in 2014, after contact he had with abu salah the first american known suicide bomb inner syria. mateen was eventually cleared. >> there will be a lot of scrutiny as to whether or not fbi dug deeply enough in those two investigations. >> reporter: law enforcement is looking into whether mateen had any help and are following up on over 100 leads. don champion for cbs-3 "eyewitness news". >>> tonight, hospital officials say they are expecting the victims still in their care to recover. orlando health tweeted the survivors in intensive care no longer need ventilators to breathe. city orlando identified most of the people killed in the shooting among them brendan mccool, who was with her friend nicholas perez and angel torres. perez and torres were being interviewed when they learned their friend had died. >> from what we heard she was missing but we he just saw that she has just died. >> family members say the hospital, still has more than a cost even patients who had not yet been identified. >>> tonight, dozens of people are still

. >> in 2014 mateen again came to the attention of the fbi because of ties to salah, an american suicide bomber. >> both investigations were closed, mateen, u.s. citizen, was born to afghan parents. he made his home in port st. lucie, florida, more than 120 miles south of orlando, at his fort pierce mosque: >> we don't know what was in his mind. >> and at mateen's mosque being many reports seeing him with three year old son, meantime, investigators are work to go uncover if mateen has any real ties to isis, the group does claim responsibility for the attack, even identifying him as one of their fighters. brooke, nicole, back into you. >> justin, thanks so much. >>> we now know some of the victims in the horrific shooting were from our area. >> "eyewitness news" reporter jan carabeo is live for us at city hall where many will gather later today for a vigil. jan? >> reporter: brooke, nicole, as officials in orlando continue to identify more of the victims this morning, we are learning that two of those victims were from the philadelphia area. now, they've in the yet been identified. we are

now, the very next year,ear, authorities looked at possible l ties connecting mateen to muhammad abu salah the first t f american to carry out a trash attack in syria. sia >>> the impact of thiss senseless tragedy has beendy has felt around the world. w >> president obama condemned omn attacks as well as hillary welai clinton and donald trump.. fox5's melanie alnwick is alnwii live from the white house withto more. good morning, mel.ng >> reporter: good morning,te wisdom and holly. you know, a vigiwil was heldas l here last night at lafayette park just after the president ordered the flags lowered aterea the white house. hse they marched from the steps of the u.s. capitol to the white house holding candles and singing for the victims of themt orlando shooting many feeling like it he's have been them. t >> earlier president obamalier addressed the nation from the white house. hou >> the shooter targeted aotergee nightclub where people cameme together to be with friends, fri to dance and to sing and too live.live a place where they wererehey wee attacked is more than a nightclub.gh it is a p

one of the questions to look into is how deep were the links between this individual and monu abu salaht to syria and joined al qaeda in syria and blew himself up in a suicide bombing. he left behind a video recording where he not only discussed why he had gone to syria but was actively encouraging people to carry out terrorist attacks not just in syria but in the west, including the united states. anyone that was remotely linked to him, that sent up flags. apparently the links were not significant to draw a red flag, but that name in particular, because he was an american, because he blew himself up in a suicide bombing, because he left behind a video urging people to carry out home grown terrorist attacks, and because he's from the exact same area, i'm sure there's going to be greater scrutiny to see was there anything there that was missed. >> evan, here we have an edp, an emotionally disturbed person. i think we can agree, who is angered by something he sees between two men on a street corner in miami. then mixed in with all the other qualities you just talked about, what -- a simpl

there was an fbi investigation into mateen because of his relationship with abu salah.know what the result of mateen being cleared was. this brings up this disturbing trend that happened after 9/11, after san bernardino and now hereafter the orlando terror attack of trying to look back seeing what dots could have been connected, what things were missed and by whom that could have prenktd these attacks. >> leland vittert, live in orlando. >>> apparently they are finding jack pots on his phones and internet search history where he didn't encrypt anything. there's the picture of the wife right there. she could have saved them all. apparently, she drove him to the gay nightclub days in advance. knew all about it and did nothing. >> there's a grand jury about to be impaneled about making a massive arrest on her. peter, your son knows, steve, that's where the investigation is heading. the kbe is -- the question is only thing that documents these things together is 2013 when they signed a mortgage together. how did they even meet? is this one of those sham marriages put togeth

threatened rich: -- salah abdelslam's coworkers, they recorded what he was saying but couldn't do anything he is a muslim. ashley: when they interviewed him, they said he was violent, difficult to be around, when they interviewed him, he said i felt marginalized because of my muslim faith. when he said that they backed off. liz: we know from the fbi they had to do a purge of their training manuals in their presentation of anything, and the fbi agents we have spoken to her are outraged that the doj controlled how they did their job. stuart: let's not forget lawsuits. if you raise your head and say this person is acting in a dangerous fashion and is a muslim, you can be sued. you can be called all kinds of things, you can be called a bigot, you can be fired, subject to a lawsuit, defend your self, that cost money. that has to do with the enforcement of political correctness and that is flat-out wrong. the dow is down 114 points. that is what i am giving you. take it. charles: we don't need to do this show. welcome to neil cavuto coast-to-coast, we expect to hear from president obama followin