Tag: San Bernadino

The FBI cannot account for 18 minutes of Syed Farook and Tashfeen Malik's activities after the shootings at San Bernadino.

Agents said Tuesday they have yet to figure out what the couple were doing for a critical chunk of time — 12:59 p.m to 1:17 p.m. When Farook and Malik resurfaced, they were a mile from the center, which at that time was flooded with paramedics, police, reporters and family members frantically searching for loved ones.

They remain convinced, however, the shootings were terror-inspired but not terror-directed:

During a news conference Tuesday, Bowdich said the investigation had turned up no evidence that the attack was orchestrated from abroad. “This seems to be an inspired terrorist act,” he said.

The House Judiciary Committee has released Tashfeen Malik's immigration application saying her visa vetting was insufficient. The 21 page document is available here.

I don't really see the reason for the Committee's criticism of her visa vetting (other than the obvious that after the fact we know she was a terrorist.) Her story on the application is fairly consistent with what Syed's now estranged parents claim. [More...]

At the press conference on San Bernadino today, the FBI was emphatic:

At the news conference, Mr. Bowdich said that at this point, the authorities did not believe that forces beyond the nation’s borders had been involved in orchestrating the attack.

“I want to be crystal clear here — we do not see any evidence so far of a plot outside the continental U.S.,” he said. “We may find it someday, we may not; we don’t know. But right now we’re looking at these two individuals.”

Shhh....don't tell Donald Trump. It will probably ruin his day.

Also, apparently authorities no longer view the wife was the primary radicalized one. They say Syed had been radicalized long before he met her. [More...]

President Obama said today the San Bernadino shooters were not affiliated with a specific terrorist group or part of a bigger cell.

The President's team also affirmed that they had as of yet uncovered no indication the killers were part of an organized group or formed part of a broader terrorist cell.

Obama will address the nation on the shooting and our response to terror threats tomorrow night.

Yesterday, an unofficial ISIS news account praised the couple as supporters. Today, ISIS official radio station, al Bayan, referred to them as supporters in Arabic. The English audio version refers to them as "soldiers of the Khalifah" (available here at 3'20" in.) The French version says sympathizers. If supporters rather than soldiers is correct, which most analysts on Twitter seem to think is the case, the attacks may have been inspired by ISIS but not directed by ISIS (or al Qaida.)

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Police say more than one shooter reportedly fled the scene of today's shooting at a social service center in San Bernadino. The police chief just confirmed 14 deaths and 14 injuries. The information they have now is there were three attackers.

Sgt. Vicki Cervantes, a San Bernardino police spokeswoman, told reporters at the scene that up to three shooters were believed to be involved in the attack inside the Inland Regional Center.... heavily armed and were possibly wearing body armor.

Police also detonated a device inside the building. Was there a bomb? Police say they don't know.

The FBI Assistant Director is on the scene and says it is too soon to say if it is a terrorist incident. The police chief downplays the holiday party rumor, although he said most of those shot were in one place.

The police chief says the shooters came prepared, were well equipped and were "on a mission." They had "long-guns" not handguns. [More...]