US investigators are evaluating evidence that Malik, a Pakistani native who had been living in Saudi Arabia when she married Farook, had pledged allegiance to Islamic State leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, two USA officials told Reuters.
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A Facebook executive says Malik posted the material under an alias account at 11am on Wednesday.
Farook returned to Saudi Arabia in July 2014 to bring her to the U.S. She passed a Homeland Security counterterrorism screening as part of the vetting process, and officials told CBS News Farook was not on any U.S. terror watchlists.
Farook attended a Christmas party with colleagues at the San Bernardino County Health Public Health Department but had left in an “angry” state, according to witnesses.
Malik, 27, was a Pakistani who grew up in Saudi Arabia and came to the USA in 2014 on a fiancee visa.
Fourteen people were killed and 21 wounded in Wednesday’s attack.
Two Pakistani officials said Malik was from the Layyah district in southern Punjab province, but moved to Saudi Arabia with her father 25 years ago.
The landlord invited media into the town house.
“Based on the information and the facts as we know them, we are now investigating these horrific acts as an act of terrorism”, Bowdich said.
Timothy Lee, a friend of Sierra Clayborn’s, posted yesterday on Facebook he’d heard there was an active shooter in San Bernardino and asked that his “friends in SB please be careful”.
But Comey noted there’s still “a lot evidence that doesn’t quite make sense”.
He said authorities were continuing to investigate the case to understand the motivations of the pairs and whether they were planning more attacks.
“So many things about this exude external support, and I believe we’re dismissing what’s right in front of our nose”, Mann said.
Farook’s relatives had no idea why the couple burst into a holiday luncheon for Farook’s co-workers and viciously opened fire, family lawyers said.
Mr Bowdich said neither of the attackers – Syed Farook and Tashfeen Malik – was on the intelligence radar, even though they had “telephonic connections” with the subjects of FBI investigations. They died in a shootout when they tried to take on 23 officers, who fired about 380 rounds at the couple firing back at them, police said.
An MSNBC reporter on Friday found a crib, toys, a child’s book of the Quran, family pictures and shredded documents inside the Redlands, California, home.
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. But for all the outward signs of suburban normality, this couple, according to the police, used their comfortable home in a middle-class community near San Bernardino to stockpile weapons and build pipe bombs.
Farhan Khan, who is married to Farook’s sister, told reporters that he last spoke to his brother-in-law about a week ago.
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Farook had not been under surveillance by the Federal Bureau of Investigation or any other law enforcement agency, Bowdich said, adding that there was no evidence that additional threats lingered following the shooting.
