Even though it’s not over, 2015 is the deadliest year for terror attacks on U.S. soil since 2001 and the September 11th attacks. Could the Obama administration could have done more to prevent these terror attacks?
According to reports, it appears the government had a chance to stop the San Bernardino massacre, had they caught more red flags. But the U.S. government appears to have totally missed extremist messages exchanged during the online courtship two years ago between the American-born man accused in the California shootings and his future wife in Pakistan, according to lawmakers detailing closed-door briefings by federal officials on Capitol Hill.
American officials say 28-year-old Syed Rizwan Farook and his wife, 29-year-old Tashfeen Malik, discussed martyrdom and jihad online as early as 2013. But the couple never surfaced on law enforcement’s radar and Malik was able to enter the U.S. on a fiancée visa last year despite having professed radical views online.
Meanwhile, the investigation into the shootings that left 14 dead last week continued in San Bernardino, where an FBI dive team searched a small, urban lake about 3 miles north of the shooting site. A law enforcement official briefed on the investigation said divers are looking for a computer hard drive that may have been dumped in the lake. The official wasn’t authorized to speak by name about an ongoing investigation and spoke on condition of anonymity.
Authorities said the shooters, who killed 14 people at a holiday gathering on Dec. 2, had been in the area.
The couple died in a shootout with law enforcement hours after the attack and left behind a 6-month-old daughter.
FBI Director James Comey and other senior American officials on Thursday briefed members of Congress, who were curious to know whether any red flags may have been missed in the last two years.
Comey has said Farook had been in communication with individuals who were being scrutinized by the FBI in terrorism investigations, but that the contact he had was apparently not enough to bring him onto the law enforcement radar.
“It’s safe to say that the information about what happened prior to their marriage and to the attacks in San Bernardino was acquired through forensic investigations of these individual lives,” Republican Rep. Will Hurd of Texas, a member of the House Homeland Security Committee, said.
Multiple lawmakers raised the fact that neighbors saw suspicious activities but failed to mention them to investigators until after the attack.
“There were people who were aware of things, thought they were suspicious, but did not want to be accused of being discriminatory for reporting something,” said Rep. Bob Goodlatte, R-Va., chairman of the House Judiciary Committee. He said these people saw activity around the garage that they thought was suspicious.
Asked repeatedly whether any hints could have led law enforcement to prevent the attack, Sen. Richard Burr, R-N.C. replied, “Explain to me how you do that without any bread crumbs that are obvious, without somebody that’s inside a mosque, that’s inside a person’s family that tips you off. In this particular case there was nothing like that that gave them a reason to look at this couple sooner than after the attack.”
More than three years ago, Farook’s longtime friend and relative-through-marriage Enrique Marquez bought the assault rifles used in the shooting.
Marquez, who checked himself into a mental hospital after the attack, told investigators that he and Farook were plotting an attack in 2012. Idaho Sen. Jim Risch, a Republican who sits on the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence, said they had an actual plan, including buying weapons, but became apprehensive and shelved it because of law enforcement activity and arrests in the area. Marquez hasn’t been charged with a crime.
Lawmakers said the FBI wouldn’t provide details about his ties to the case, citing an “ongoing criminal investigation.” Marquez’s mother Armida Chacon told reporters Thursday that her 24-year-old son is a good person.
The Associated Press contributed to this article
It is extremely sad and unfortunate that this incident was allowed to happen. The reason it happened, in my opinion, is because those responsible for collecting data, monitoring websites and chat rooms, and being more vigilant were apparently not doing their job. The focus, rather, is on gun control in America and climate changes, rather than the real problem. The administration is dodging the “Terrorists Threat” to our country, like ostriches. 2017 can not come soon enough for the American people and let’s hope it is a change for the better, which is so long overdue, 8 years is long enough to destroy so much.
This “administration” let’s this crap happen to further their anti-gun agenda ! PATHETIC MARXISTS
I am commenting on the comment Trump made about Ted Cruz…”he’s a maniac.” Well, I only wish we had more maniacs like Cruz and we could do with less egotists like Trump.
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They say “see something, say something” but then your a racist if it’s a Muslim! Thats why people are going to die because they don’t want to hurt their feelinsg. Well, I don’t care about no feelings. If you got a headwrap on get off my plane!
Trump is the only one that has been able to get any kind of response from the candidates & the GOPers! AND THE PEOPLE! (Big mouth & all). Everyone is scrambling to get him out because he is making TO MUCH NOISE!! Yes, he can do without the name calling & thug talk but he is really waking up alot of people, mainly non-voters! That would be a major plus, otherwise it would be, Politics as usual. I do like Cruz & I will vote Cruz if not Trump but I really hope that it’s Trump. He speaks the Anger that has been in us for the last 7 yrs. If not either of them, than I quit voting because it is all set up for us to take a fall. Bush was the intended, the intended…..it WAS all preplanned!! We have shocked the Republicans & their backers because it is all back firing!!
I agree with many of the comments. The “clock boy” incident is just the tip of the iceberg. He is after money after he brings a suspicious item in school and people will probably pay him off to shut his mouth. Our moral society is crumbling around the immoral actions of people that should be deported or put in jail. When you talk to 25-35 year olds they have very little understanding of the political world and will all be voting for Hillary with their heads in the sand. One of my relatives fits that category. She doesn’t even want to talk about guns and gets all nervous when you bring the subject up. I may send he a membership to The NRA for Christmas !
the fiancee might not have got in if the asshole Jed had allowed us to read her FB page, privacy? that is CRAP. The FB page is OUT there for everyone and his Dog to read. That is a treasonous act and JED KNOWS it. Yes the massacre would have been avoided if we read the FB page and then the visa would have been denied. Damn! I’ll be so glad when Trump or Cruz get’s in the WH. by then it may be too late.