Two weeks ago, with Americans on edge over the Islamic State attacks in Paris that left 130 people dead, Comey said that USA authorities had no specific or credible intelligence pointing to an attack on American soil.
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The broadcast came a day after Facebook confirmed that comments praising Islamic State were posted around the time of the mass shooting to an account on the social media website established by Malik under an alias.
Reported San Bernardino shooter Tashfeen Malik, 27. pledge her support for ISIS on Facebook, according to the New York Times, who cite federal officials.
The officials, who were not authorized to speak publicly about the matter, cautioned that the new evidence did not mean that the militant group directed Malik and her husband to carry out the Wednesday attack, and that investigators think it instead suggests that the couple had become self-radicalized.
United States authorities said Malik and Farook had two assault-style rifles, two semi-automatic handguns, 6,100 rounds of ammunition and 12 pipe bombs in their home or with them when they were killed.
They fired as many as 150 bullets before being shot by police, killing 14 and injuring 21 more.
“This is looking more and more like self-radicalisation”, a law enforcement official said.
The Pakistani officials said Malik had two brothers and two sisters and was related to Ahmed Ali Aulak, a former provincial minister.
Earlier it emerged, that the female attacker had pledged allegiance to the leader of IS, Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, in a post on Facebook.
Fourteen people were killed at a centre for disabled people in the Southern California city of San Bernardino when the couple – who had a six-month-old daughter – opened fire on Wednesday. “This is electronic evidence that these killers tried to destroy and tried to hide from us, that we now have and are exploiting to try and understand them”, Comey said. The agency will be taking over the investigation from local officials.
“They were totally shocked that this could take place”, said criminal defense attorney David Chesley at a California news Conference Friday.
Farook, 28, was born in IL and worked for the San Bernardino County health agency as an inspector.
Farook, a USA citizen, and Malik, from Pakistan and in the US on a fiancee visa, were married for less than two years.
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Investigators now believe Farook or Malik-or both-“made contact with suspected Al Qaeda terrorists” during one of the trips to Saudi Arabia.
