[ April 20, 2024 ]
CNN et al keep calling San Bernardino the first ISIS-inspired attack on US soil. As usual, they’re wrong: the jihad attack on our free speech event in Garland, Texas, was inspired by ISIS, as was the Boston jihadis’ plot to behead me. This story says investigators are attempting to determine if Farook had any social media connection with Mujahid Miski, who was in close contact with Ibrahim Simpson, one of the Garland jihadis.
“New Photo, Details Emerge About Woman Shooter in San Bernardino Killings,” by Rhonda Schwartz, Brian Ross, James Gordon Meek and Lee Ferran, Good Morning America, December 5, 2015 (thanks to Larry):
Story continues below advertisementJust hours after the public got its first look at Tashfeen Malik, a new photo and some new information emerged overnight about the background of the female San Bernardino, Calif. shooter, a mother-turned-killer who officials increasingly believe was the mastermind of the horrific attack.
The photograph, taken from around the time of Malik’s college days in Pakistan between 2007 and 2012, is the second that has become public. Friday evening ABC News published the first, and in both the young woman has her hair covered and looks unsmiling into the camera.
Law enforcement officials told ABC News that while there is no hard evidence that Malik was the leader of a terrorist conspiracy, she is increasingly becoming the focus of investigators as the shooting’s possible “mastermind.” Her purported skill in wielding one of the assault-style weapons, for instance, led counter-terrorism analysts to assess that she “had some training.”
Investigators are also examining any possible digital footprint from the couple, attempting in part to determine if Farook had any social media connection to a known American ISIS recruiter named Mohamed Hasan who uses the online handle “Miski,” federal authorities said today. Originally from Minneapolis, Minn., the FBI fugitive is thought to be living overseas. He was previously linked to a failed ISIS-inspired plot in Texas this May.
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Tashfeen Malik was born in Pakistan, but moved to Saudi Arabia when she was just four years old, according to an official close to the Saudi Arabian government. Overnight a family friend of the Maliks in Pakistan told ABC News her father, Gulzar Malik, was an engineer who spent most of his career in Saudi Arabia. He was known for helping the poor and building a mosque in his neighborhood, the family friend said. He was also an ultra-conservative Salafist Sunni who held strong anti-Shia views.
Tashfeen Malik moved back to Pakistan at least by 2007, attended Bahuddin Zakri University in Multan and stayed until 2012, according to a Pakistani intelligence official. She was said to be a brilliant student and was not known to have religious or political affiliation while there.
When it comes to how Tashfeen Malik met Syed Rizwan Farook, her future U.S.-born husband and killer accomplice, the family friend provided new but conflicting information. Friday an attorney for Farook’s family said that the couple met on a dating website, a version of events that Malik purportedly gave to U.S. consular officials when applying for a visa in 2014, according to a U.S. government document obtained by ABC News. U.S. officials had said it’s possible the couple met in Saudi Arabia in 2013, but it’s certain that after Farook took a nine-day trip to Saudi Arabia in July 2014, he returned to the U.S. with Malik in tow. They were married in the eyes of U.S. law a month later.
But the family friend, who said he’s known the Malik family for years, said Malik and Farook were first connected by family, rather than the internet. He told ABC News that a relative of Farook’s father worked with Malik’s father and that Farook and Malik may have met as early as 2009.
A step-aunt of Malik’s in Pakistan told The Associated Press she understood Malik had grown to be more zealous in her faith over the last three years, changing from western clothes to the hijab and more conservative burka. However, the woman also said she had never actually met Malik and that her immediate family and Malik’s were not on speaking terms. A professor at the college Malik attended until 2012 told The Washington Post he remembered her wearing a “complete veil” and being a “religious-minded student.”
Malik came to the U.S. in 2014 on what is known as a “fiancé” visa, which allows an American fiancé to petition for his or her partner’s temporary entry before marriage. Malik received her Green Card this summer, U.S. officials said.
Six months ago, the couple had a baby daughter and named her according to a naming convention more common to Arab families, rather than in the typical Pakistani manner.
How Malik purportedly became radicalized enough to post the alleged pledge of allegiance to ISIS and help kill more than a dozen people in a quiet California town is still a mystery.
Investigators are also still puzzling over Malik’s exact role ahead of the San Bernardino shooting — whether she may have radicalized Farook, whether it was the other way around, or whether this was an act of radicalism at all.
“I don’t know the answer, whether she influenced him or not. Being a husband myself, we’re all influenced to an extent. But I don’t know the answer,” FBI Special Agent David Bowdich told reporters Friday.
In addition to Malik’s suspected “training,” an online dating profiled set up by Farook years ago indicated he too had experience with firearms — among his hobbies, he listed shooting “target practice.”
The FBI announced Friday it was treating the investigation as one into an “act of terrorism,” but no official motive has been determined.
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An official close to the Saudi Arabian government said that Saudi intelligence officials did not have Malik on any of their watch lists and she did not appear to have any link to extremists in the region. Neither Malik or Farook were on the FBI’s radar in the U.S., officials said.
Friday lawyers for the Farook family cast doubt on the reports of the ISIS pledge and said that there hasn’t been any real evidence that the couple has any “extremist tendencies.”
“None of the family knew of him as being extreme, aggressive or having any extreme religious views,” one of the attorneys said.
The other noted that Malik was very soft-spoken and conservative — so much that Farook’s brothers never saw her face, due to the full burqa she always wore in public….
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28 Comments
8 years ago
“How Malik purportedly became radicalized enough to post the alleged pledge of allegiance to ISIS and help kill more than a dozen people in a quiet California town is still a mystery.”
Dear Good Morning America: You can’t spend your lives being so easily mystified. First principles, Clarice. Simplicity. Read Marcus Aurelius. Of each particular thing ask: what is it in itself? What is its nature? What does she do, this woman you seek? She covets islam.
8 years ago
Reply to
Walt Parkman
Yes. The press should be exposing and discussing the nature of that set of beliefs to sensitive people to the motivation here. It is well understood. There are many experts including ex-Muslim like Hersi Ali.
8 years ago
Hi Pamela.
I read the NYTimes this morning. There is a positive development in the mainstream news.
EVEN THE NEW YORK TIMES is not ignoring the information you are presenting here.
I believe that states are like fish–they rot from the head (i.e. Obama). People take his lead assuming he knows something or is worthy of his position. I think this is the end of the mainstream media taking Mr. Obama’s posturing on Islam as truth.
8 years ago
Reply to
El Cid
The lame stream media are maggots feeding on the carcass of events that they use as fodder for their insatiable appetite to attack readers and advertising. The more lame stream media outlets that go bankrupt, the better, eventually the survivors will figure out that the truth, not the spun or withheld truth is what will save their bacon.
8 years ago
Reply to
Mahou Shoujo
I gotta admit, I’d love to to see the enemedia go bankrupt — especially the Crescent News Network.
8 years ago
Judge Jeanine: Time to batten down the hatches
Dec. 06, 2015 – 5:28 – United States faces deadliest terror attack since 9/11
8 years ago
“San Bernardino jihad killers may have been in contact with ISIS plotter of Garland jihad attack”
Don’t hold your breath for any truth to emerge from this investigation. The American department of justice has been given orders from the very top, it’s treacherous head and your treacherous president, to whitewash Islam and rather than uncover any Islamic plots, to prosecute those who speak against this vile ideology.
8 years ago
Get ready the Nutjob and Traitor in the White House is going to make an address tonight from the Oval Office.
It will be Obama’s usual don’t blame Muslims and lets try to understand them and lets welcome the refugees and stricter gun control rheteroic.
Obama won’t address why there is always a Muslim finger behind all the mass killings recently in the US.
Of course he will continue his bull about Islam being a religion of peace.
I am going to buy an expensive pair of ear plugs as his address tonight is going to be too painful for a sane person to listen to Obamas’ lies and bullsh_t.
I am counting the days till Obummer is out of office. When he flees to Kenya hopefully they can arrest him for treason.
8 years ago
Reply to
Obama's Lies &BS continue...
Very true. Even though CA has the strictest gun control in the country the Islamist-in-Chief’s main objective tonight will be gun control and most certainly, over the next year. You may want to buy some weapons along with those ear plugs, if you have not already. By the way, I’m counting down the days with you.
8 years ago
Reply to
Obama's Lies &BS continue...
Every democrat, heavy on the “rat” oration is a pontification in foregone conclusions. It is a waste of time to listen to the same mindless propaganda spewing from the political gutter of dhimmi democrat rhetoric.
8 years ago
Reply to
Mahou Shoujo
I remember when I was a Demorat and voted for C-l-i-n-t-0-0-n and worse yet Kerry. I plead temporary insanity. One time a demorat called me recently looking for hand-outs, by the time I stopped laughing the guy had hung up.
8 years ago
Reply to
Obama's Lies &BS continue...
You think he’ll flee to Kenya? Nah, he’s got used to the milllion dollar lifestyle now and he won’t give it up so easily. If he’s not arrested the minute he leaves the WH, clapped in irons and charged with treason, he’ll probably make for a private island in Hawaii surrounded by 24hour protection.
8 years ago
Reply to
Obama's Lies &BS continue...
I refuse to watch. He’s a liar. He will lie tonight, and he will continue lying until his term is over.
8 years ago
Reply to
Obama's Lies &BS continue...
Yeah I just can’t listen either. Pure political spin and no honest grief for the victims and understanding of the fear and anger about this in average working people. I just can’t.
8 years ago
Pam my dear, I stand with you! Thank you for what you do!
People are waking up. 2-3 years ago criticizing Islam was a no no even on conservative blogs. Now, 99% of people on conservative sites are speaking the truth. This is a MAJOR change. MAJOR!
8 years ago
Reply to
meangirl
And you know what? Some liberals on the liberal sites are finally speaking truth as well. I never thought I’d even see 1 liberal say anything against Islam. Ever.
It’s no longer deniable.
8 years ago
John 15:13
King James Version (KJV)
Greater love hath no man than this, that a man lay down his life for his friends.
———-
Denise Peraza, who was shot in the back and is recovering in a hospital, said her heroic co-worker shielded her with his own body when the shooting started, telling her “I got you,” according to WXIA-TV in Georgia.
“Wednesday morning at 10:55 a.m. we were seated next to each other at a table, joking about how we thought the large clock on the wall might be broken because time seemed to be moving so slowly,” she wrote in a tribute to Johnson the station obtained Friday from Peraza’s sister.
“I would have never guessed that only 5 minutes later, we would be huddled next to each other under that same table, using a fallen chair as a shield from over 60 rounds of bullets being fired across the room.
“While I cannot recall every single second that played out that morning, I will always remember his left arm wrapped around me, holding me as close as possible next to him behind that chair.
“And amidst all the chaos, I’ll always remember him saying these three words, ‘I got you.’
Peraza, 27, went on to say that she believes she is still here today because of “this amazing man.”
“This amazing, selfless man who always brought a smile to everyone’s face in the office with his lively stories about his hometown back in Georgia. Who will be deeply missed by all,” she wrote.
WXIA reported that Peraza called Johnson “my friend, my hero” in her tribute.
8 years ago
That Mohammed drawing contest was brilliant Pam. So brave and so right. Of course all the sleeper cells are all connected.
8 years ago
In this gender fluid world, what is amazing is that no one seems to have commented on this ‘wo’ mans appearance and actual gender.
‘She’ looks very much like a man, so is she a she or actually a he?
8 years ago
Reply to
freepeoples
I agree the Muslim shooter above does look like a man. Maybe she is transgender?
8 years ago
There is no way that, that is a woman.
8 years ago
Possible link between Calif. shooters and ISIS recruiter
Dec. 06, 2015 – 3:13 – Rod Wheeler breaks down the latest developments
8 years ago
You know we can target CAIR and their members. They are officially a terrorist organisation. Never seen a criminal or terrorist going to the police. It is a win win situation, lets act.
8 years ago
No mystery, the more they absorb the Quran etc. the more radical they become,. Islam makes people lose their mind and self control, they start to think of death and paradise. They become in love with death not living
8 years ago
LOL – and this corrupt government tells us they were watching them! What a joke.
8 years ago
How Malik became radicalized is “still a mystery”?
To cite Allen West, she did “exactly what this book says”.
