ISIS claims responsibility for Mandalay Bay massacre, FBI says no

Latest numbers from Las Vegas show 58 dead and over 500 injured in the Mandalay Bay massacre, making it the deadliest mass murder in American history. Las Vegas police have confirmed that Stephen Paddock, 64, is being considered the perpetrator. He was found dead in his hotel room, across from the site of the outdoor country music festival which he shot up.

"Stephen Paddock" doesn't sound like an Arab or African name, and a photo plastered all over the internet shows him as a rather scruffy-looking whitey. The question on everybody's lips, likewise all over the net, is: why did he do it? A little-known website called SITE Intelligence Group Enterprise, run by one (((Rita Katz))), reports that ISIS has issued a "formal communiqué" credit for the shooting. Here's what they tweeted.

The post, in the Jihadist News section of the website, claims that Stephen Paddock is one and the same as "Abu Abdul Barr al-Amriki". They show an ISIS communiqué declaring that he heeded the response of Islamic State leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi to attack coalition countries.

A statement from the ISIS news agency Amaq said, "The Las Vegas attacker is a soldier of the Islamic State in response to calls to target coalition countries. The Las Vegas attacker converted to Islam a few months ago." No evidence is given for any of that. Police searched Mr Paddock's hotel room and his home, but haven't come up with any evidence that he had ties to the Islamic terrorist group.

Apart from the SITE report, all we've heard so far is the suggestion that the late Mr Paddock was "known to local law enforcement". And now -- just a few minutes ago -- Agence France Presse tweeted a denial from the FBI that there is any connection between the perp and ISIS. Here it is.

Walt finds the contradiction between what SITE says and what the FBI says more than passing strange. Either the FBI is lying -- something they've never done before -- or SITE, (((Ms Katz))) and her colleagues are guilty of (at least) creating and spreading "fake news". But why would they do that? Stay tuned!