Evidence support the idea that Wednesday’s attack on a gathering of government workers in San Bernardino, California was at least inspired by international terrorism has been building virtually from the moment we began to learn facts about the case. Off the top, the fact that the attack was conducted by multiple shooters who chose to escape rather than wait for police as is typically the case with often suicidal mass shooters suggested from the beginning that this was not a typical mass shooting case along the lines of Sandy Hook, Aurora, or Rosewood, Oregon. When we learned at the end of the day that the main suspect in the shooting was named Sayed Farook, the inclination to jump to the theory that there was some element of Islamist/Jihadist terrorism involved in what happened was, seemingly, only natural. Then, starting yesterday, other clues started to roll in.
First, late in the day CNN reported that law enforcement sources were saying that Farook had been “radicalized” and had at least some contact with people who were at least ‘of interest’ to intelligence analysts:
Law enforcement sources said it appears Syed Farook was radicalized and the belief contributed to the shooting motivation, though other motivations like workplace grievances could also have played a role. President Barack Obama hinted as much Thursday when he said that the attackers may have had “mixed motives.”
Farook was in touch with more than one terrorism subject who the FBI were already investigating, according to other law enforcement officials. But his contacts with them were scant and months old.
David Bowdich, assistant director in charge of the FBI’s Los Angeles office, told reporters Thursday that Farook had traveled to Pakistan.
And two government officials said no red flags were raised when he’d gone to Saudi Arabia for several weeks in 2013 on the Hajj, the annual pilgrimage to Mecca that Muslims are required to take at least once in their lifetime. It was during this trip that he met Malik, a native of Pakistan who came to the United States in July 2014 on a “fiancée visa” and later became a lawful permanent resident.
Saudi and U.S. officials said records show Farook also was in Saudi Arabia in July 2014. He was there for nine days, a Saudi official said. A U.S. official described the 2014 trip as Farook’s “last recorded” trip to the country.
Officials had previously said neither Farook nor Malik were known to the FBI or on a list of potentially radicalized people. Nor had they had any known interactions with police until Wednesday.
Yet Farook himself had talked by phone and on social media with more than one person being investigated for terrorism, law enforcement officials said.
The communications were “soft connections” in that they weren’t frequent, one law enforcement official said. It had been a few months since Farook’s last back-and-forth with these people, who officials said were not considered high priority.
Law enforcement also reported yesterday that the couple had a large arsenal of weapons and ammunition, all of which appeared to have been legally obtained, although there were indications that the rifles that were used in the attack may have been originally purchased by another as yet unnamed party and that Farook and Malik took steps to modify the weapons in ways that made it easier to shoot large amounts of ammunition, most of which appear to have been unsuccessful. The search of the home that the two apparently resided in also revealed what law enforcement described as twelve pipe bombs in various stages of construction that appear to be similar to the ones that were deployed unsuccessfully both during the initial shooting on Wednesday and the police chase later that day, as well as thousands of rounds of ammunition for both the rifles that were found with the couple and two handguns that were found at the scene of the police shootout. All of this, of course, suggests both that the incident on Wednesday was pre-planned and that there may have been other incidents planned for either the same day as the Wednesday attack or at some point thereafter.
On top of all of that, it is now being reported that Tashfeen Malik, the wife of Syed Farook, made a video pledging allegiance to ISIS shortly before the attack was launched, a fact which seems to clearly move this into the the terrorism category:
WASHINGTON — The woman who helped carry out the shooting in San Bernardino, Calif., on Wednesday had pledged allegiance to the Islamic State in a Facebook posting, according to federal law enforcement officials.
There’s no evidence the group directed the woman, Tashfeen Malik, and her husband Syed Rizwan Farook, to launch the attacks, which killed 14 and wounded 21, said the officials, who spoke on the condition of anonymity because the investigation is continuing.
“At this point we believe they were more self-radicalized and inspired by the group than actually told to do the shooting,” one of the officials said.
The posting had been removed from the social media site and it’s not clear when federal authorities obtained it.
“At this point we believe they were more self-radicalized and inspired by the group than actually told to do the shooting,” one of the officials said.
The posting had been removed from the social media site and it’s not clear when federal authorities obtained it.
In recent months, the F.B.I. has been particularly concerned about individuals inspired by the Islamic State staging attacks in the United States, law enforcement officials say. Even before the shootings and bombings in Paris last month, the agency had under heavy surveillance at least three dozen individuals who the authorities were concerned might commit violence in the group’s name.
The F.B.I. refocused its efforts on these individuals earlier this year in response to a shift in tactics by the Islamic State, law enforcement officials said. Instead of trying to persuade Americans to travel to Syria to join the Islamic State, the group began calling on its sympathizers and followers in the United States to commit acts of violence at home.
“We’ve especially focused on the portfolio of people we’re investigating for the potential of being homegrown violent extremists,” the F.B.I. director, James B. Comey, said last month at a news conference. “That is, people consuming the propaganda. So those investigations are designed to figure out where are they on the spectrum from consuming to acting.”
Within that group we’re trying to focus on those we think might be at the highest risk of being a copycat,” Mr. Comey said, referring to those who may try to follow the attackers in Paris. “And so we are pressing additional resources, additional focus against those. That’s the dozens.”
In the days leading up to the shooting, the couple in San Bernardino took several steps to delete their electronic information, in an apparent effort to cover their tracks, officials said. Those efforts have led authorities to believe that the shooting was premeditated.
Islamic terrorists have used the oath of allegiance, called a bayat, to declare their loyalty to specific groups and leaders. To become a member of Al Qaeda, for instance, terrorists historically swore their devotion to Osama bin Laden.
As investigators search for signs of a political or religious motivation for the massacre, the discovery of Ms. Malik’s Facebook posting has forced them to consider whether any radical impetus for it came from her more than from the husband, or from both. The couple were killed in a shootout with the police after the attack.
F.B.I. officials came up with no hits when they searched agency databases for Mr. Farook’s name, according to law enforcement officials. That is significant because it meant that not only was Mr. Farook never the focus of an investigation, he was also never mentioned by anyone else interviewed by the F.B.I., even in unrelated cases.
The bureau, however, has uncovered evidence that Mr. Farook had contact with five individuals on whom the F.B.I. had previously opened investigations for possible terrorist activities, law enforcement officials said. It was not clear, however, how significant the contacts were.
One individual contacted was associated with the Shabab, the Islamist militantgroup in Somalia. Another was associated with the Nusra Front, the Qaeda wing in Syria. None of the other three were tied to the Islamic State or core Al Qaeda. All five inquiries was closed, and the contacts were made a few years ago, not recently, the authorities said.
Ms. Malik, 27, was born in Pakistan and traveled on a Pakistani passport, but had recently lived in Saudi Arabia. Mr. Farook, 28, was a United States citizen, born in Illinois, whose parents were from Pakistan.
Mr. Farook had posted profiles on Muslim dating websites, and apparently the couple met online. He told co-workers last year that he was traveling to Saudi Arabia to meet his bride, and both American and Saudi officials have confirmed that he spent more than a week in that country in July 2014.
Mr. Farook, was an American citizen, and he and Ms. Malik traveled to the United States together in July 2014, David Bowdich of the F.B.I. in Los Angeles said at a news conference. He said she had traveled with K-1 visa, a special visa that allows people to come to the country marry an American citizen. A couple has to marry within 90 days; after that the K-1 visa expires.
With these reports, it would seem fairly clear that Farook and Malik were motivated in some sense by sympathy to the ISIS agenda and Islamist Jihadist terrorism, even though the manner in which the attack was carried out still stands out as odd in many respects. The fact that this all occurred, at least in what may have just been an initial stage, at a gathering of Farook’s co-workers and people that knew him is why initial reports led many people to theorize that this may have been a case of workplace-related violence, albeit an unusual one in that it involved more than one shooter. At the same time, though, the amount of planning that seems to have gone into this attack, the amount of weaponry and explosives that the couple had access to, and the fact that they had taken steps to close off their lives from others such as by dropping their six month old child off with a family member at the start of the day would seem to indicate that this was more than just a one-off workplace “revenge” scenario that they were contemplating. Add into all of this the reports about Fraook’s apparent radicalization and contacts with Islamist groups, although not necessarily representatives of ISIS, and Malik’s apparent pledge of support to ISIS and there really seems to be only one conclusion one can reach. Namely, that at the very least these were two people who had been radicalized in some respect to commit violent terrorist acts and that what happened Wednesday was somehow part of that scheme.
What we don’t know, of course, is whether there was international connection to the attack itself in terms of planning, encouragement, or training. All we seem to know is that Malik is a Pakistani-born woman who was apparently living in Saudi Arabia when Farook traveled there to marry her after having met her online. There are also suggestions that Farook may have traveled to Pakistan at some point during that journey, although that could have been to visit Malik’s family. In any case, there are questions about which member of the couple radicalized whom and at least some suggestion that it may have been the wife who played the most significant role in pushing Farook toward this radicalization that led to violence and death. What this means going forward will depend a lot on what we learn about how and why all of this happened.
Update: At the law enforcement briefing that just concluded an hour ago, the Assistant F.B.I. Director now leading the investigation confirmed that the attack is being investigated as an act of terrorism:
WASHINGTON — The F.B.I. is now treating the San Bernardino shooting by a husband and wife that killed 14 and wounded 21 as an act of terrorism, an agency official said Friday.
As of today, based on the information and facts as we know them,” the agency is investigating this “as an act of terrorism,” David Bowdich, the assistant F.B.I. director in charge of the Los Angeles office, said at a news conference. The agency will be taking over the investigation from local officials.
Mr. Bowdich did not offer any details about why the bureau had made the determination, saying only that “there’s a number of pieces of evidence that has pushed us off the cliff.”
The shift in the investigation game shortly after federal law enforcement officials said the woman who helped carry out the shooting in San Bernardino, Calif., Tashfeen Malik, had pledged allegiance to the Islamic State in a Facebook posting.
There is no evidence the Islamic State directed Ms. Milik , and her husband, Syed Rizwan Farook, to stage the attacks, the officials said. But the Facebook post has led investigators to believe that the couple took inspiration from the group, they said.
“At this point we believe they were more self-radicalized and inspired by the group than actually told to do the shooting,” one official said, speaking on the condition of anonymity because the investigation is continuing.
Islamic terrorists have used the oath of allegiance, called a bayat, to declare their loyalty to specific groups and leaders. To become a member of Al Qaeda, for instance, terrorists historically swore their devotion to Osama bin Laden.
The posting, which had been removed from the social media site, provides one of the first significant clues to the role that Ms. Malik, 27, played in the attacks.
CNN is also reporting on air that accounts associated with what has generally been considered a communications arm for ISIS have announced that the San Bernardino shootings were carried out by “supporters” in the United States. As one analyst pointed out, this differs from the statement released in the wake of the Paris attacks, which ISIS said were carried out by “fighters.” This suggests that Malik and Farook were largely self-radicalized and acting on their own rather than acting at the direction of ISIS itself or after having trained under ISIS in Syria or elsewhere. This obviously raises the same kind of concerns about self-radicalized, self-taught homegrown terrorism that the Boston Marathon Bombing raised, since the Tsarnaev brothers were also largely only influenced by entities overseas rather than in sufficient contact with them for the attack to have been part of an international plan. If anything, this kind of terrorism is more worrisome than a Paris-like attack directed from abroad since, as we’ve seen here, it is much harder to detect in advance that any kind of planning may be going on.
