Obama: "California Shooting Could be Terrorism"; Massive Weapons Arsenal Found; Suspects Radicalized in Trip to Pakistan

In Search of a Motive 
 
Police are still searching for a motive in a Couple's California Rampage that Killed 14.

Authorities sought on Thursday to determine if a couple accused of killing 14 people in a mass shooting at a workplace holiday party in Southern California had links to Islamic militant groups abroad, U.S. officials familiar with the investigation said.

Syed Rizwan Farook, 28, and Tashfeen Malik, 27, who had a 6-month-old daughter together, were killed in a shootout with police after Wednesday's massacre at the Inland Regional Center social services agency in the city of San Bernardino.

Farook and Malik were identified as Muslims and David Bowdich, the FBI assistant director in Los Angeles, said the couple had returned to the United States in July 2014 after a trip that included Pakistan and perhaps other countries. Farook did not have a criminal record, police said.

CNN, citing law enforcement sources, said Farook had been "radicalized." CNN also said he had been in touch through telephone and social media with more than one international terrorism suspect who was being investigated by the FBI.

Obama Says California Shooting Could Be Terrorism

The Financial Times reports Barack Obama Says California Shooting Could Be Terrorism.

President Barack Obama said on Thursday that the California shooting that left at least 14 people dead and wounded 21 others could be related to terrorism, but left open the potential that a workplace grievance may have been the motive.

The two suspects killed in a shootout with police on Wednesday were identified as Syed Rizwan Farook, 28, and his wife, Tashfeen Malik, 29. They had a massive arsenal of weapons on them during the shooting and at their residence in nearby Redlands, according to Jarrod Burguan, the San Bernardino police chief.

The suspects fired up to 75 rounds of ammunition at the Inland Regional Center, which provides services for more than 30,200 people with disabilities in Riverside and San Bernardino counties, said Mr Burguan. Authorities also found three pipe bombs combined into one device that was tied to a remote control toy car that failed to work.

The suspects shot another 76 rifle rounds in the stand-off with police that followed a hunt for them. In all, they had a stockpile of about 6,000 rounds of ammunition, while 12 pipe bombs were found at their home, in addition to hundreds of tools that could be used to construct improvised explosive devices and pipe bombs, said Mr Burguan.

David Bowdich, the FBI agent in charge of the Los Angeles office, said Farook visited Pakistan and returned to the US with Malik, who had a Pakistani passport, in July 2014. He was a US citizen, while his wife was in the US on a visa.

Hillary Wants US to Accept 65,000 Syrians as a "good Start"

Hey, let's ignore the obvious terrorism risks and accept 65,000 Syrians as "a start".

And so as to not inconvenience any potential terrorists, let's not do any background checks either. Obama calls background checks "unnecessary and impractical".

For details, please see Obama to Veto Bill Requiring Background Checks On Syrian Refugees; France Demands Tighter Controls, EU Balks; 31 States Won't Take Syrian Refugees.

ISIS Welcome



Another NSA Job Well Done

Congratulations to the NSA for recognizing Farook had been in phone conversations with terrorist suspects and for stopping this heinous attack in advance.

Oh wait, they didn't.

This is what I mean: The NSA is doing such a fantastic job, it clearly needs to collect even more data that it will not look at.

Mike "Mish" Shedlock