Saudi Royal Air Force Second Lt. Mohammed Alshamrani, pictured, killed three and wounded eight others at Naval Air Station in Pensacola, Florida, on Friday
A Saudi defense attache is said to have traveled to Pensacola Monday to meet with officials at the naval base in the wake of a shooting there that left three dead.
Saudi national Mohammed Alshamrani opened fire in a classroom building at the naval base in Florida last Friday, killing three people and injuring eight. He was also killed.
Now investigators are facing mounting pressure to discover his motives in the attack amid fears the US will not confront the oil rich kingdom over the incident.
It comes after Donald Trump maintained a diplomatic tone with the country, saying King Salman was ‘greatly angered by the barbaric actions’ of Alshamrani.
Bruce Riedel, a former CIA official who now directs the Brookings Intelligence Project, told CNN: ‘It is really remarkable how he has gone out of his way to defend the Saudis.’
He added ‘the natural Saudi inclination’ will be to get any national linked to the case ‘out of the United States as quickly as possible’.
Former US ambassador to Saudi Arabia Robert Jordan agreed, arguing there is ‘clearly a relationship between the two leaders that is something they are trying to protect’.
Jordan, who started his ambassador in the wake of 9/11, added: ‘They [the Saudis] are going to be very reluctant to air any dirty laundry with the US or the public. We need to find out what happened when this guy went home for vacations. That is going to be very difficult.’
Donald Trump, left, spoke with Saudi Crown Prince Mohammad Bin Salman, right, Sunday and the pair vowed to work together on the investigation of the attack. They are pictured in June
Trump said King Salman, pictured this month, was ‘greatly angered by the barbaric actions’ Mohammed Saeed Alshamrani. Investigators are facing mounting pressure to discover his motives in the attack amid fears the US will not confront the oil rich kingdom over the incident
Of the 19 men involved in the September 11 attacks, 15 were Saudi and some of them attended flight school in Florida.
When Washington Post journalist Jamal Khashoggi was murdered Trump is said to have decided not to actively confront Saudi Arabia’s crown prince because he was afraid global oil prices would spike, according to a forthcoming book.
‘Do you know how stupid it would be to pick this fight?’ Trump asked, according to ‘A Warning,’ penned by an anonymous author described as a senior Trump administration official.
The president has dismissively dodged questions, including two in public from DailyMail.com, about the ensuing scandal.
Gerald Feierstein, a former U.S. ambassador to Yemen, told USA Today: ‘All of the negative aspects of US-Saudi relations are going to come back into focus. The administration’s been doing its best to dampen down (criticism of Saudi Arabia) and promote the idea of close ties.’
Following the Pensacola shooting Trump also spoke with Saudi Crown Prince Mohammad Bin Salman Sunday and the two vowed to work together on the investigation into the attack.
White House spokesman Judd Deere said in a statement: ‘The Crown Prince reiterated Saudi Arabia´s commitment to working with the United States to prevent a horrific attack like the Pensacola shooting from ever happening again.’
Trump ally Rep. Matt Gaetz of Florida tweeted a day after the shooting: ‘We expect to conduct our investigation w full cooperation & no interference from the Kingdom.’
The night before he opened fire Alshamrani is said to have hosted a dinner party where he and three others watched videos of mass shootings, a U.S. official said.
An official who spoke Saturday said one of the three students who attended the dinner party hosted by the attacker then recorded video outside the classroom building while the shooting was taking place. Two other Saudi students watched from a car, the official said.
Alshamrani had also apparently gone on Twitter shortly before the shooting to blast U.S. support of Israel and accuse America of being anti-Muslim, a U.S. official said Sunday. The FBI confirmed it is operating on the assumption the attack was an act of terrorism.
‘We are, as we do in most active-shooter investigations, work with the presumption that this was an act of terrorism,’ said Rachel J. Rojas, the special agent in charge of the FBI’s office in Jacksonville.
Rojas said federal authorities are focused on questioning the gunman’s friends, classmates and other associates. ‘Our main goal is to confirm if he acted alone or was he part of a larger network,’ she said.
Authorities believe the gunman made social media posts criticizing the U.S. under a user handle similar to his name, but federal law enforcement officials are investigating whether he authored the words or just posted them, said the official.
He also visited New York City, including Rockefeller Center, days before the shooting and are working to determine the purpose of the trip, the official said.
A Saudi commanding officer has ordered all students from the country to remain at one location at the base, authorities had said.
‘There are a number of Saudi students who are close to the shooter and continue to cooperate in this investigation,’ Rojas said Sunday. ‘The Saudi government has pledged to fully cooperate with our investigation.’
Alshamrani used a Glock 9 mm weapon that had been purchased legally in Florida, Rojas said. Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis questioned whether foreigners should continue to be allowed under federal law to buy guns in the U.S. and called it a ‘federal loophole.’
Republican DeSantis said he supports that the Second Amendment but that it ‘does not apply to Saudi Arabians.’
Family members and others identified the three dead as Joshua Kaleb Watson, a 23-year-old graduate of the U.S. Naval Academy; Airman Mohammed Sameh Haitham, 19, of St. Petersburg, Florida, who joined the Navy after graduating from high school last year; and Airman Apprentice Cameron Scott Walters, 21, of Richmond Hill, Georgia.