According to senior federal officials, Malik’s husband, Mr. Farook, was likely in contact with a small handful of alleged extremists, including one with al Shabab and another with the Nusra Front in Syria. The IS group has encouraged supporters in the United States and elsewhere to carry out lone wolf attacks.
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Should the investigation prove that the attack was indeed inspired by militant Islamism, it would count as the most serious such attack since September 11, 2001.
While authorities did not cite specific evidence that led them to the terrorism focus, a USA law enforcement official said the wife, Tashfeen Malik, 27, had, under a Facebook alias, pledged allegiance to the Islamic State (IS) group and its leader.
FBI Director James Comey would not discuss whether anyone affiliated with IS communicated back to Malik, but he said there was no indication yet that the plot was directed by any other foreign terror group. He warned that the investigation has not yet shown evidence the couple was part of a larger group. “There is no indication that they are part of a network”, he told reporters in Washington.
Farook family attorneys, holding a news conference in Los Angeles, denied there was any evidence that either the husband or wife harbored extremist views.
“As of today, based on the information and the facts as we know them, we are now investigating these horrific acts as an act of terrorism“, said Federal Bureau of Investigation assistant director David Bowdich.
The FBI refocused its efforts on these individuals earlier this year in response to a shift in tactics by the IS, law enforcement officials said.
“It is entirely possible that these two attackers were radicalized to commit this act of terror”, Obama reportedly said.
Mohammad Abuershaid and David Chesley, who represent Syed Farook’s family, say Farook’s wife, Tashfeen Malik, wore a veil that covered her face and didn’t drive. On Friday morning, the property’s owner allowed reporters inside in an unusual scene broadcast live on cable TV.
Comey says Syed Farook and Tashfeen Malik didn’t appear on the FBI’s “radar screen” before the shooting Wednesday that killed 14 in San Bernardino.
“This is a very traditional way of acting”, Abuershaid said.
But the Farook family’s attorneys sought to downplay the terrorism angle, chiding reporters from rushing to judgement.
“If the most evidence there is to any affiliation is a Facebook account under another person’s name… then that’s hardly anything at all”, Chesley said.
The pair, who are Muslims, donned dark, tactical gear and masks, arming themselves with high-powered assault rifles and handguns, police said.
While interviewing the widow of one of the 14 people killed during Wednesday’s terrorist attack in San Bernardino, California, CNN awkwardly brought up the victim’s deeply-held religious convictions.
The FBI questioned her on Wednesday night and, according to the lawyers, refused to release her until Farook’s siblings came for questioning.
Nor did they know the couple had a makeshift bomb lab in the apartment they shared with their 6-month-old daughter.
Pakistani intelligence officials have contacted Malik’s family in her homeland as part of the investigation, a family member said.
But it’s not known what connections Malik, who was born and raised in Pakistan and moved to Saudi Arabia about the age of 19, had with any terrorists or groups. Farook, 28, is of Pakistani descent and was born in IL.
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Two weeks ago, with Americans on edge over the IS attacks in Paris that left 130 people dead, Mr Comey said United States authorities had no specific or credible intelligence pointing to an attack on American soil. Though most are men, “women are taking an increasingly prominent role in the jihadist world”, the report said. Even with the newly confirmed terrorist connection, and the possibility Farook and Malik did not act alone, local police want this community to return to normal while staying alert.
