Don't know how I missed this report? On December 6, 2019, in Pensacola, Florida, three U.S. sailors were killed in cold blood and eight other people were wounded before the gunman, Saudi Air Force Second Lieutenant Mohammed Saeed Alshamrani, was himself shot dead.
With an FBI investigation underway,
Navy security officer David Link still is not allowed to talk about what he saw when a Saudi gunman killed three U.S. sailors at this sprawling Florida naval base last month.
1-23-2020 -
At Florida base, a mix of relief, anxiety in Saudi shooting aftermath
U.S. Defense Secretary Mark Esper meets Navy sailor David Link, one of the first responders at the scene of a December 6, 2019 shooting at Naval Air Station Pensacola by a Saudi military officer that killed three U.S. sailors, at the base in Pensacola, Florida, U.S., January 22, 2020.
But Link, one of the first responders at the scene, makes clear he appreciates just how badly things could have gone for him on Dec. 6 at Naval Air Station Pensacola.
“When I got home, it was kind of immediate relief. I got to see my wife and daughter, to know that I got out of that situation — and with my life,” said Link, a master-at-arms 3rd class.
Link and other base personnel met U.S. Defense Secretary Mark Esper on Wednesday during a visit that highlighted the Pentagon’s efforts to restore a sense of security at U.S. military bases across the country. The facilities host about 5,000 military students from 150 countries, including more than 800 from Saudi Arabia.
It is an uphill battle in Pensacola.
Three U.S. sailors were killed in cold blood and eight other people were wounded before the gunman, Saudi Air Force Second Lieutenant Mohammed Saeed Alshamrani, was himself shot dead.
Families at the base were already on edge after the shooting. Then, earlier this month, U.S. Attorney General William Barr declared it an act of terrorism and announced 21 Saudi cadets training in the United States were being sent home after an investigation turned up child pornography or social media accounts containing Islamic extremist or anti-American content.
Twelve of them had been training at the Pensacola base.
Navy Captain Tim Kinsella, commanding officer of the naval air station, acknowledged apprehension among families who live on the base and said his team has held around 25 town halls in the past six weeks to address their concerns. “There’s a natural apprehension. There’s always the questions: what are we doing to make the base safer,” Kinsella said.
Still, Kinsella played down calls for the Saudis to be sent home, including an online petition to move all training of students from countries outside NATO overseas, calling them “outliers.”
Esper told reporters traveling with him there was no “active” consideration of sending Saudis back home to carry out their training. He noted recent Pentagon changes aimed at improving the vetting of foreign military students.
Asked about how he was addressing tensions between military families and the 140 Saudi students remaining at the Pensacola base, Esper said it was something local base leaders were “working aggressively on.” “We talked about maybe increasing roving patrols, stationary patrols,” he said.
The Dec. 6 attack further complicated U.S.-Saudi relations at a time of heightened tensions between the United States and Iran, Saudi Arabia’s regional rival. It also cast the international military exchange programs the U.S. military believes help forge long-term partnerships in a negative light.
Florida Governor Ron DeSantis, a Republican, praised those relationships and Esper’s efforts to strengthen security. “At the same, though, we cannot be bringing people over here who want to do things like this with our country,” DeSantis said, standing next to Esper.
Kinsella said he believed that the broader Pensacola community still supported the presence of international military trainees.
He recounted how one Pensacola resident gave an apple pie to a group of Saudi military officers, apprehensive of what the community thought of them after the shooting by a fellow Saudi. “People here recognize that they (the foreign students) are victims of this as well,” Kinsella said.
7 December 2019 -
Saudi airman kills four at US Naval Base in Florida
https://www.wsws.org/en/articles/2019/12/07/saud-d07.html
An attack carried out by a Saudi air force pilot early Friday morning at the US Navy’s sprawling Pensacola, Florida Naval Air Station left at least four dead, including the shooter, and another eight wounded. Police and naval authorities reported that the attack was carried out with a handgun.
Aerial view of Naval Air Station Pensacola [Source: Wikimedia Commons]
The carnage spread across two floors of a classroom building at the base, which trains tens of thousands of pilots and airmen each year. Deputies from the Escambia County Sheriff’s Department were the first to respond to the incident, shooting and killing the Saudi officer.
He was identified by NBC News as Second Lieutenant Mohammed Saeed Alshamrani. The US Navy and police authorities were withholding the names of the victims pending notification of their families.
The mass shooting at the base in Pensacola was the second such incident at a US Navy facility in the space of barely 48 hours. On Wednesday, a 22-year-old sailor from Texas, identified as Gabriel Antonio Romero, opened fire at Pearl Harbor’s naval shipyard in Hawaii, killing two civilian workers and wounding a third, before shooting himself to death.
At a press conference held Friday afternoon at the Pensacola base, Florida Governor Ron DeSantis suggested that the killings there may have been linked to terrorism. “There is obviously going to be a lot of questions about this individual being a foreign national, being a part of the Saudi Air Force and then to be here training on our soil,” DeSantis said, adding that the Saudi monarchy needed “to make things better for these victims” as “this was one of their individuals.”
At the same press conference, Escambia County Sheriff David Morgan told the assembled media not to expect “quick answers” about the shooting, and that there were “aspects of the case that will never be public.” The government, he said, would “tell you what you need to know to keep our [communities] safe.”
Republican Congressman Matt Gaetz, who represents the Pensacola area, tweeted Friday that “This was not a murder. This was an act of terrorism.”
January 14th, 2020 -
After Florida killings, Saudis withdraw 21 cadets from United States
After Florida killings, Saudis withdraw 21 cadets from United States
Saudi Arabia will withdraw 21 cadets receiving military training in the United States following a US investigation into a Saudi officer's fatal shooting of three Americans at a Florida naval base that US Attorney General William Barr on Monday branded an act of terrorism.
The December 6 attack further complicated US-Saudi relations at a time of heightened tensions between the United States and Iran, Saudi Arabia's regional rival. A deputy sheriff shot dead the gunman, Saudi Air Force Second Lieutenant Mohammed Saeed Alshamrani, in the Pensacola, Florida, incident.
[...] The Pensacola attack prompted the Pentagon to halt operational training for some 850 visiting Saudi military personnel as part of a "safety stand-down" in the aftermath of the shooting. The Pentagon said on December 19 that it had found "no information indicating an immediate threat" after reviewing the visiting Saudis following the shooting.