Tag Archive for: Tashfeen Malik

Five Different Government Agencies Vetted San Bernardino Muslim Female Slaughterer

It just keeps getting worse. At first we were told that she had been vetted by two agencies. Apparently Obama Administration officials were hoping to cover up the magnitude of this failure. In any case, Tashfeen Malik stands as a witness to the impossibility of vetting for jihadis.

Tashfeen-Malik

Tashfeen Malik

“U.S. missed ‘red flags’ with San Bernardino shooter,” CBS News, December 14, 2015:

As investigators focus on what or who motivated San Bernardino shooters Syed Rizwan Farook and his wife, Tashfeen Malik, to open fire at the Inland Regional Center, a report about Malik’s comments on social media before she moved to the U.S. is raising questions about how thoroughly she was vetted.

Law enforcement sources confirmed to CBS News that Malik made radical postings on Facebook as far back as 2012 — the year before she married Farook and moved to the U.S., reports CBS News correspondent Carter Evans. According to a report in the New York Times, Malik spoke openly on social media about her support for violent jihad and said she wanted to be a part of it. But none of these postings were discovered when Malik applied for a U.S. K-1 fiancé visa.

“If you’re going to start doing a deeper dive into somebody and looking at their social media postings or other things, you really want to focus your effort on the high-risk traveler, the person that you’re really worried about being a threat to the United States,” said James Carafano, national security expert and vice president of the Kathryn and Shelby Cullom Davis Institute for National Security and Foreign Policy at the Heritage Foundation. “The question is, how do you identify them?”

Malik was not identified as a threat despite being interviewed at the U.S. Embassy in Pakistan and vetted by five different government agencies that checked her name and picture against a terror watch list and ran her fingerprints against two databases.

RELATED VIDEO: Pamela Geller with Charles Payne on Fox Business on San Bernardino Catastrophic Intel Failure:

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VIDEO: Tafsheen Malik Radicalized at Women’s Islamic Academy

From U.S. and Canadian news reports comes evidence that the murderous Jihadi couple, Tafsheen Malik and Syed Rizwan Farooq had  allegedly long been radicalized. The picture above from ABC News is a shot taken on July 27, 2014 when the couple went through customs at O’Hare International  Airport after Ms. Malik had secured a K-1 fiancée Visa to come to the U.S. with her intended husband Farooq.

The Customs photo caught them in Sharia compliant garb reflective of professing  fundamentalist  Muslims.  They were returning from an extensive trip that took Farooq to Saudi Arabia to meet Malik and hence to her parent’s home in Multan in Central Pakistan before returning together to California.  There is the suspicion that Ms. Malik had undergone formal radicalization in her native Pakistan. Information on Malik’s background is emerging from independent investigations about  her attendance at  an Al Huda women’s Islamic Academy in Multan, one of several  across Pakistan propounding a Salafist Islamic doctrine.

mlogoThe Los Angeles Times produced a report on  the Pakistani Al Huda Islamist women’s seminaries and Ms. Malik’s attendance at the one in Multan, San Bernardino assailant attended Islamic institute in Pakistan:”

Tashfeen Malik studied at Al Huda, a chain of religious institutes that teach a fundamentalist strain of Islam, while she was enrolled in a university in Pakistan’s Punjab region several years ago, according to two fellow students.

The two former classmates of Malik’s at Bahauddin Zakariya University in the city of Multan said she regularly attended Al Huda classes, whose stated objective is to bring women “back to their religious roots.”

“She used to go to attend sessions in Al Huda almost every day,” said one of the former classmates, who spoke on condition she not be identified. “She was not too close to any class fellow.”

The former classmate said that Malik, who studied pharmacology at the university, did not share her thoughts on religious issues.

Pakistani security expert points out the ‘fundamentalist’ Islamic doctrine propounded by Al Huda:

Dr. Ayesha Siddiqa, a Pakistani security analyst, said Al Huda teaches women “fundamentalist” ideas, though it does not necessarily promote a jihadist agenda.

“I call Al Huda the fourth generation of religious seminaries. It does not promote use of violence but takes you closer to the red line,” she said. “Now, it is a personal decision to cross the red line and take or give one’s life.”

Siddiqa said that the impact of the institutes is widespread, because a child who attends can influence other members of her family. “People would be familiar with, for instance, a daughter going to an Al Huda changing the mother and eventually the entire household. This dynamic is mirrored in more traditional seminaries as well.”

Malik, 29, was born in Pakistan to a land-owning, politically influential family in Karor Lal Esan, in southern Punjab province. Though Malik’s family moved to Saudi Arabia when she was a child, she returned to Punjab to study pharmacology at Bahauddin Zakariya University from 2007 to 2012.

One of her professors, Dr. Nisar Hussain, recalled her as “a very hardworking and submissive student,” and “an obedient girl.” He said she came to school veiled.

“She was religious, but a very normal person as well,” Hussain said in an interview. “I cannot even imagine she could murder people.”

A family member in Pakistan who asked not to be identified said that she had been a “modern girl” who changed during college.

After university, Malik returned to Saudi Arabia. In the last few years, she entered into a relationship with Syed Rizwan Farooq, a Southern Californian of Pakistani descent who she met online.

Another Pakistani academic expert  noted the credo expounded in the Al  Huda seminaries:

Sadaf Ahmad, an assistant professor at the Lahore University of Management Sciences, has written that Al Huda founder Farhat Hashmi’s denunciation of various cultural practices and disapproval of Westerners and Indians gives women a new conception of their identity as Muslims.

Ahmad found Al Huda graduates  “very intolerant and judgmental toward people who were different from them.”

The Toronto Star had more on Malik and Al Huda founder Farhat Hashmi who had immigrated to Canada, “Founder Pakistan religious school where San Bernardino shooter studied, lives in Mississauga:”

While in Multan, [Malik] also attended a religious school, which Pakistani intelligence officials on Monday identified as the Al Huda International Seminary. The school is a women-only madrassa with branches across Pakistan and in the U.S. and Canada, said the officials, speaking on condition of anonymity in line with regulations.

The Canadian branch is based in Mississauga, Ont., according to the foundation’s website.

Al Huda’s founder, Farhat Hashmi, who now lives in Canada, has been criticized for promoting a conservative strain of Islam, though the school has no known links to extremists.

Hashmi was not available to comment on Monday, as she is currently in Pakistan, said a staff member at the school’s Canadian branch. The school also released a statement condemning the shooting in California and saying it was looking to increase security around its Mississauga campus.

Hashmi is on the payroll of Muslim Brotherhood affiliate in Canada:

Hashmi’s name surfaced on the payroll of one of Canada’s largest Islamic organizations, despite her not actually working there. An audit in 2011 revealed the Islamic Society of North America Canada was trying to help her immigrate to Canada.

Note the heavy concentration of extremist support in the central region of Pakistan and Malik’s course of study:

The region where the school is located, however, is home to thousands of extremist seminaries, with hundreds of them linked to al-Qaida and the Pakistani Taliban. Pakistan, which supports Islamic militants battling archrival India in the disputed region of Kashmir and is widely believed to have ties to insurgents in Afghanistan, has long turned a blind eye to institutions that teach radical interpretations of Islam.

Malik spent more than a year at Al Huda, taking classes six days a week, the school’s spokeswoman Farrukh Chaudhry told The Associated Press.

She enrolled in a two-year course to study the Qur’an, its translation and interpretation, but did not finish the course, Chaudhry added. Malik was a student there from April 17, 2013 until May 3, 2014, when she handed in her last paper in the first-year curriculum, the spokeswoman said.

“According to our records, this girl didn’t complete the course,” Chaudhry said, speaking over the phone from the southern port city of Karachi where she is based. “She told us that she was going to get married in two months, and after that she will leave for America.”

Pakistani police and intelligence are conducting further investigations into Malik and her family:

Pakistani authorities have also been looking into Malik’s time in Multan. Police and intelligence agents have searched the house where she lived on two occasions since Friday. Shabana Saif, a counterterrorism official, said intelligence agents seized documents, family photo albums and a laptop belonging to Malik’s sister, Shahida, who was studying engineering at a Pakistani college. It is not clear whether the house, which has been sealed, was owned by Tashfeen or her father.

Watch this AFP TV video report on the Pakistani University where Tashfeen Malik studied:

You may recall this comment from Asra Nomani, former Wall Street Journalist, author and colleague of the late Daniel Pearl in Pakistan from Sunday’s NBC Meet the Press segment on Islam and ISIS:

I saw it in 2002, went to Islamabad, Pakistan, and met women who were supporting this ideology. I call them the Taliban Ladies Auxiliary back then. This young woman in California would’ve been a star member of it.

RELATED ARTICLE: Islamic State Papers: How ISIS is building its state

EDITORS NOTE: This column originally appeared in the New English Review. The featured photo, obtained by ABC News, shows Tashfeen Malik, center, and Syed Rizwan Farook, right, going through Chicago’s O’Hare International Airport on July 27, 2014.

From Fort Hood to San Bernardino: ‘Diversity’ is more important than stopping the slaughter

A friend sent me the below YouTube video of remarks made by former U.S. Army Chief-of-Staff General George W. Casey, Jr. after the Fort Hood slaughter on November 5th, 2009. I call what happened at Fort Hood a slaughter because Nadal Hassan was following the Quran to the letter.

Hassan’s actions were driven by Quran versus 2: 191-193, which reads:

And kill them wherever you overtake them and expel them from wherever they have expelled you, and fitnah is worse than killing. And do not fight them at al-Masjid al- Haram until they fight you there. But if they fight you, then kill them. Such is the recompense of the disbelievers.

And if they cease, then indeed, Allah is Forgiving and Merciful.

Fight them until there is no [more] fitnah and [until] worship is [acknowledged to be] for Allah . But if they cease, then there is to be no aggression except against the oppressors.

The Quran requires the killing, expelling and fighting disbelievers where ever they are found. Fitna (any resistance to Islam) “is worse than killing (slaughter).” Fitnaphobes, like Hassan, will kill because disturbing the peace and order of the Muslim community is worse than the slaughter of innocents, such as the 5,000 annual honor killings by Muslims of their family members.

Fast forward to the slaughter in San Bernardino, California on December 4th, 2015. Tashfeen Malik and her husband Syed Rizwan Farook were carrying out their form of slaughter to stop the Fitna (resistance by their co-workers and non-Muslims to Islam).

After the Fort Hood slaughter the narrative was that this was a case of “work place violence” and that the victim of the shooting were not the soldiers shot by Hassan – it was “diversity”.

The very same narrative is being played out today as it was at Fort Hood. The initial response was that this was another case of work place violence. Again, the rush to protect Muslims from discrimination was the call from the Obama administration. Little was said about the repeated pattern of violence perpetrated by Muslims against non-Muslims and Muslims alike.

What do Nidal Hassan, Tashfeen Malik and Syed Rizwan Farook all have in common? Answer: Their sacred duty under Islam to stop the Fitna.

President Obama: We can’t let “this fight be defined as a war between America and Islam”

In my column “When will President Obama tell Muslims to stop clinging to their religion and guns?” are these thoughts:

Perhaps it is now time for President Obama to face the reality that Muslims cling to their religion and guns. The difference is they use their guns to further their religion. Christians and Jews do not.

Paul R. Hollrah reports:

On Thursday, Dec. 5, 2015, Attorney General Loretta Lynch threw down the gauntlet in a speech before the Muslim Advocate’s 10th Anniversary dinner in Arlington, Virginia.  Speaking just one day after Muslim terrorists, Sayed Rizwan Farook and his Saudi wife, Tashfeen Malik, murdered fourteen innocent people in an unprovoked terror attack on the Inland Regional Center in San Bernardino, California, Lynch said, “On behalf of our nation’s Justice Department, I am grateful to count you as partners in our work to promote tolerance, to ensure public safety, and to protect civil rights (emphasis added)

This is the official narrative of the Obama administration. 

It was in November 2009 and remains so in November 2015.

The narrative today is that its not the Muslim perpetrators who are to blame, its the anti-Muslim rhetoric and guns that are to blame. Free speech and guns don’t kill people, people kill people.

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San Bernardino: Another Muslim Slaughter, Another Cover-Up

In FrontPage today I explain why mainstream media reporters don’t even need to show up for work. They can file their stories beforehand.

Syed Rizwan Malik

Syed Rizwan Malik

The San Bernardino jihad massacre is the latest jihad atrocity, but it’s just like the last one, and just like the next one: it has played out in exactly the same way that the last jihad atrocity did, and in just the same way that the next one will play out as well. Mass killings by “radicalized” Muslims are followed by earnest statements from the President and the mainstream media that we must not rush to judgment, that the motive of the shooters was unclear, that we need gun control, that we need to address the real threat of climate change, that Muslims fear “Islamophobia,” and so on. It’s always a new massacre, but it’s always the same story.

Surely by now mainstream media reporters don’t even need to roll out of bed to file their stories. How much legwork does it take to write, “Syed Farook and Tashfeen Melik murdered 14 people at a Christmas party in San Bernardino; yes, Farook was a devout Muslim, but authorities are searching for a motive; moderate Muslims condemned the attack and said they feared anti-Muslim backlash”? Change the names and date, change the number of victims and the place, and they’ve filed that story dozens of times. They can just take out their last New York Times or CNN piece on the Paris jihad attack, change the details, hit send, and pour a cold one.

A few years ago, a couple of writers for Salon.com showed up at a panel at the Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC) on which I was speaking, and were deservedly ridiculed after they were caught writing their story before the panel had even begun. But you can’t really blame them for trying to save some time: their story was going to be the same “Racist Bigoted Islamophobes Say Egregiously Evil Things” no matter what anyone on the panel really did say, so why not get a head start on the writing?

Tashfeen Malik

Tashfeen Malik

With San Bernardino, and every jihad attack, it works the same way. The media trims the facts to fit the Procrustean bed of their narrative, such that, in this case, most of the American public will likely never hear that San Bernardino jihad murderer Syed Farook had been “radicalized”; or that he had been in touch with Muslims being investigated for jihad terror activity; or that he spent his free time in the mosque, memorizing the Qur’an.

If they do hear about such things at all from the mainstream media, their significance won’t be explained: no one on CBS or NBC or ABC or PBS or NPR or in the New York Times or the Washington Post will remind his or her audience that the Islamic State and other jihad groups consider themselves to be at war with the United States, and have explicitly and repeatedly called upon Muslims in the U.S. to commit mass murder of American civilians. Would anyone have wondered about the motive of a German national who slaughtered fourteen Americans on U.S. soil in 1943? Of course no one would have, but that was a long time ago. Now we are engaged in a great ignored war, a war that only one side is fighting, a war in which enemy combatants are tried in civilian courts – as if they were criminals, not enemy soldiers — by a government that desperately wishes to maintain the illusion that there is no war at all.

This play has played to rapt audiences in Boston and Fort Hood, and all over the country. It is so familiar that all the players hit their marks with the nonchalant and unthinking precision of the overtrained. But it needs to close. The endless proclamations after every jihad attack, that it has nothing to do with Islam, and that Muslims are the real victims, are not only ludicrous; they’re offensive. The mainstream media and the Obama Administration have insulted the intelligence of Americans long enough. Their denial and willful ignorance are endangering us all, as they continue to behave after every jihad attack that their primary duty is not protecting Americans, but protecting Islam’s image.

San Bernardino has so far been just another production of this dreary little play, but it still has a chance to be much more than that. If Americans see the real lessons of San Bernardino and no longer accept this nonsense we are being fed; if we demand of our elected officials and presidential candidates that they must speak the truth about this threat we are facing, and formulate realistic ways to counter it, or their political careers will be over; if we no longer accept this endless portrayal of Muslims as beleaguered victims of “Islamophobia” after every murder of non-Muslims by Muslims – then San Bernardino could be a defining moment.

But for that to happen, people would have to be informed as to the true parameters of this issue, and those who are charged with informing them are instead doing all they can to spread disinformation. So San Bernardino will fade in memory once it is replaced by the next jihad carnage. And that one won’t have anything to do with Islam, either. Journalists can get their stories ready now, so that when that carnage comes, they can just fill in the requisite blanks and be the first to file. In fact, they better have five or ten jihad attack story templates ready. They’re going to need them.

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‘I pledge allegiance to the Islamic State’

“MASS SHOOTING: San Bernardino female attacker pledged allegiance to ISIS, officials say,” by Vince Cestone, CNN, December 3, 2015:

UPDATE – Friday 7:31 AM As the San Bernardino attack was happening, investigators believe the female shooter, Tashfeen Malik, posted on Facebook, pledging allegiance to ISIS leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, three U.S. officials familiar with the investigation told CNN.

The posting was by Malik made on an account with a different name, according to one U.S. official. The officials did not explain how they knew Malik made the post.

WATCH the above video to hear a first responder’s account of the shooting, as well as the full Thursday night press conference.

SAN BERNARDINO (CNN, KRON) — Syed Rizwan Farook — who along with his wife, Tashfeen Malik, carried out the San Bernardino shooting massacre — apparently was radicalized and in touch with people being investigated by the FBI for international terrorism, law enforcement officials said Thursday.

Farook’s apparent radicalization contributed to his role in the mass shooting of 14 people Wednesday during a holiday party for the San Bernardino County health department, where Farook worked, sources said. The names of the victims were released Thursday evening.

Still, the radicalization wasn’t necessarily the only driver behind the carnage, as workplace grievances might have also played a role. President Barack Obama hinted as much Thursday when he said that the attackers may have had “mixed motives.”…

RELATED ARTICLE: Video: Robert Spencer on Hannity: the SB jihad attack and jihad denial

EDITORS NOTE: The featured image is courtesy of ABC News.

California Shooting: The Debate Starts Here

With the investigation of the California shooting in its primary stages, what we do know about this horrific attack is that it was highly planned. The shooters were prepared: in dress — they donned “assault-style clothing” (described as dark, tactical garments) and body armor; with weapons — they chose AK-47 Kalashnikov semi-automatic rifles (or the equivalent) plus pistols; and with ammo – they were carrying multiple magazines and had planted explosive devices resembling pipe bombs.

Without ruling out other motives, law-enforcement officers say the facts of this case point to a terrorist attack. What we do know is that Syed Rizwan Farook, one of the shooters, “was very religious,”according to his father.

He had travelled to Saudi Arabia and returned with this wife, who he had reportedly met online.

A neighbor said Farook lived with his wife, mother and baby and “sounded really happy. I did notice there were lots of packages being dropped off and he was in the garage working on stuff.”

Larson had assumed they were Christmas packages, perhaps unaware of Farook’s religious beliefs. She says in retrospect she wonders if they were the munitions and other elements he needed for the attack.

Fellow workers say Farook was quiet and didn’t socialize with them. Those same workers had recently made a baby shower for him sometime after his now six-month-old child was born.  In a list of workers and their salaries at the facility where Farook worked, he is listed as an environmental specialist with a salary of over $50,000.

Less is known about his wife, Tashfeen Malik, Farook’s accomplice and fellow shooter.

In the wake of the attack, U.S. President Barack Obama and Democratic presidential candidates Hillary Clinton, Bernie Sanders and Martin O’Malley all immediately called for gun-control laws, not venturing into the territory of what makes another human being want to cause so much death and destruction with a gun.

Republican candidates initially offered prayers for the victims and their families, as well as law-enforcement officers in harm’s way. At a speaking engagement, Ben Carson pointedly asked, “What happened to our country?  Where did that come from?  I will tell you where it did not come from.  It did not come from our Judeo-Christian values.  It came from something else.”

If, indeed, the shootings turn out to be an Islamist terror attack, Carson’s questions need to be answered. The current administration’s policy of denying the ideological underpinning of the world’s current battle with worldwide terror is as dangerous as it is ridiculous.

Having an unidentified elephant in the room, a lurking “that-who-will-not-be-named” presence wreaking havoc in the lives of hundreds of thousands of people does not make it go away. On the contrary, it only empowers it.

By limiting the conversation to the voices of those recruiting and building a movement fueled by Islamist ideology, we have taken away one of our prime weapons to fight it: Our ability to refute it and offer an alternative.

Young people, possibly 28-year-old Farook and his 27-year-old wife, do not get radicalized in a vacuum. To borrow a common proverb, it takes a village. With the advent of modern technology and social media, that village has become global.

The fact that Islamist extremists have managed to influence and terrorize so much of the world is a testament to that fact.

Clarion Project is dedicated to having that conversation.

Radicalization in mosques is a number-one factor in swaying the opinion of young Muslims. See Clarion’s Islamist Organizations in America project and see if there is a radical mosque near you.

Watch the trailer below to our upcoming short film “By the Numbers: The Untold Story of Muslim Opinions and Demographics.” Look for the release of the film on December 10.

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By the Numbers: Watch Trailer to Clarion’s New Short Film

Saudi Muslims Lead Suspects in the San Bernadino Slaughter

Fox News reported the name of perhaps the lead suspect, “Syed Farook” that is in play as the lead suspect involved in the massacre at a Holiday party at a San Bernadino, California, Development Disabled facility late Wednesday morning, December 2, 2015.   Farook and Tashfeen Malik  were in the bullet riddled  black SUV killed by Police, they were equipped in black tactical gear, body armor, AK -47 assault weapons with 30 round clips and hand guns.  A third possible suspect was seen running away, unclear whether it might a bystander not involved with the attack.

The Los Angeles Times in late breaking news reported:

Syed Farook, an inspector for the San Bernardino County Public Health Department, had traveled to Saudi Arabia, married, had a child, and appeared to be “living the American dream,” co-workers said today. They were stunned after law enforcement sources identified a man named Syed Farook as a suspect in the mass shooting at the department’s holiday party.

CAIR National held an extraordinary late night news conference with a relative of the suspect Farook expressing concern that Farrok and  Tashfeen Malik had been missing since late morning. The CAIR news conference was endeavoring to condemn a possible terrorist attack, distancing American Muslims from an apparent Jihad attack or a rumored disgruntled former employee “going postal”. Both the San Bernadino police and the FBI are remaining circumspect for the moment pursuing leads and social networks of the suspects to determine if there is a wide network behind the attack, or an isolated, perhaps ISIS inspired cell.  FBI Director Comey had announced surveillance of 48 high risk suspects during the recent Thanksgiving holiday period. Further the FBI is investigating  1,000 ISIS influenced persons of interest in all 50 states.  70 arrests have been made so far.

The Fox News report cited the venue and circumstances that set the stage to this deadly assault:

The Inland Regional Center is one of 21 facilities serving people with developmental disabilities run by the state, said Nancy Lungren, spokeswoman for the California Department of Developmental Services. The social services agency administers, authorizes and pays for assistance to people with disabilities such as autism and mental retardation. On an average day, doctors at the regional centers would be evaluating toddlers whose parents have concerns and case workers meeting with developmentally disabled adults.

The San Bernardino facility consists of three buildings, and employs approximately 600 workers. Inland Regional Center Executive Director Lavinia Johnson told Reuters the shooting happened at a conference center her group rented out for a San Bernardino Health Department county personnel holiday party.

The shoot out in San Bernadino that claimed the lives of the two suspects in the black SUV occurred four hours after the massacre at the Inland Regional Center. It raised speculations about why the perpetrators  loitered in the vicinity for four hours , monitoring  police reports about their dastardly accomplishment or reloading for an  attack on pursuing police officers and SWAT teams. They had calmly walked into the party methodically shot and killed their victims and walked away virtually unidentified . The carnage they left behind was reminiscent of a Paris Charlie Hebdo or November 13th café or Bataclan concert hall massacre. It also was reminiscent of the Mumbai Jihadi attack in November 2008.  San Bernadino Police chief Jarrod Burguan said:

“It’s a possibility, but we don’t know that yet, “when asked at an evening news conference if the attack was an act of terrorism.”We will go where the evidence takes us. They came prepared to do what they did as if on a mission.”

The identification of suspect Syed Farook led to a raid on a townhouse in nearby Redlands, California with Police, FBI and ATF personnel sending in robots to investigate whether it was booby trapped. The police during the pursuit of the slain suspects spoke of pipe bombs being tossed out of SUV, a tactic used by Middle East terrorist groups to keep counterterrorism squads away from following them. It was the same method used by the Tsarneavs brothers when pursued by Police following the Boston Marathon Massacre

What was clear was the increasing involvement of the FBI in the investigation given suspicions that this could possibly be a terrorist event, not the deranged hostage shoot out that occurred at a Planned Parenthood clinic in Colorado Springs, Colorado last weekend killing three and wounding nine others.

Fox News noted:

The FBI was also on hand, and spokesman David Bowdich acknowledged that “adjustments” had been made in the investigation with an eye on the possibility terrorism was involved.

“It’s a possibility, but we are not willing to go down that road yet,” Bowdich said.

The Los Angeles Times reported:

Following the events at the facility, police used a bomb squad robot to search the building for possible explosives. A device found inside was detonated, but it was not clear if it was a bomb. Burguan said at a 5:30 p.m. news conference that authorities were still going through the building and believe there could be one or more bombs there.

Tight-lipped authorities offered no motive for the attack, citing the ongoing investigation. There were reports that one may have been at the facility earlier, possibly to verify the presence of someone targeted for death, only to return with two more gunmen to unleash horror. Another report, in the Los Angeles Times, had the man getting into an argument at the party and returning with armed henchmen.

Employees, who undergo monthly training drills to prepare for active shooter situations, initially thought the incident was a drill. But when real bullets flew, several hid in closets, barricaded themselves in rooms or fled for their lives.

Now, the nation awaits further developments from both Police and FBI investigations about the missing third suspect.  There is rising concern  that the two suspects killed in their SUV in a hail of police bullets may have been Jihadis perpetrating the San Bernadino holiday party massacre. Stay tuned for developments.

RELATED ARTICLE: California jihad? San Bernadino suspects linked to Islamist’s conviction?

EDITORS NOTE: This column originally appeared in the New English Review. The featured image is of Syed Farook.