Loose ends at San Bernardino

These are things that puzzle me about this attack and these people.  Tell me what I have gotten wrong about these points:

1- Siyed Nizwan Farooq was evidently never on any warning list, was not under surveillance, was not on a "no fly" list.  Therefore the Democrats' bleating about keeping suspected terrorists from legally buying guns is just silly.  He was not a suspected terrorist.

2- Nevertheless, he chose in 2011 and 2012 to have a neighbor, a "shade tree mechanic" buddy, buy the two rifles.  These were California-legal versions of the semi-automatic AR-15.  These were limited in magazine capacity to ten rounds by design to make them California legal.  Why did he not buy them himself?  He could have and would have passed the federal/state background checks as he evidently did for the two handguns.  Was he afraid that some "trail" he had left would have emerged in the background check and cause him to be surveilled?  Was he afraid that the very act of buying them would have caused him to be surveilled?  In any event, he was careful that far back to hide the purchase.  That indicates to me that even then he intended to use these guns in a criminal act or acts.

3- Someone modified the two rifles to make them fully automatic.  This is a federal crime in itself. Someone modified the two rifles to make them capable of larger magazines, 30 rounds I believe.  This is probably a California crime.

4- The person who modified the two rifles had a considerable amount of skill as a gunsmith.  Who was that person?  Was it Farooq?  Did he have that kind of skill? I know a lot about small arms and could not have done the job.

5- His mother either lived in Farooq's town house or visited it often.  She saw nothing that would have made her criminally liable for not notifying the police?  I doubt that.

6- His father, evidently a drunk, and divorced from the mother, is also called "Siyed."  Since both father and son are so named it is likely that this is an honorific and that the family has some pretensions to descent from the Prophet Muhammad.  This may well be fantasy on their part but did this influence the mental attitudes of the son?

7- This woman, Malik, seems to have been virtually invisible both in the larger community and in the Muslim community of San Bernardino.  Her brother in law said he had never seen her face.  Did Farooq do all the shopping?  Did she never go out alone?  She did not go to the local Mosque while he prayed.  She waited out in the parking lot in their car.

8- Farooq was born in Illinois, and had not lived in the ME or Pakistan.  He had visited but one does not learn languages well on that basis.  She was Punjabi and had lived in Saudi Arabia.  When she had returned to Pakistan the local people called her "the Saudi girl."  I suppose that tells us something of what they thought of her.  She spoke Urdu and Arabic and broken English.  What language did they communicate in and do all this planning in.  It must have been quite a romance.

9- Why did they not leave town after the attack?  Flight would have been understandable and easily prepared.  Instead they hung around town, and returned to their house at least once.  The police picked up the chase there and the two lovers were killed a few blocks away.

You will think of other unusual things about this.  pl

Comments

[Abu Sinan]

There are a lot of questions out there. The brother in law never saw her face? There is a picture of the husband and wife circulating on social media that shows the husband and wife at what looks to be a social event with numerous men in the background and not only does she have her face showing, she is not even wearing hijab.

CBS interviews someone who said they witnessed the shooting, claimed that there were three shooters dressed in all black. The witness describes three male shooters, all dressed black, well built and she said from what she could see they looked to be white.

I am not into conspiracies, but when the news interviews someone who claims to have been there and saw three well built male shooters, but then end result we are told are a husband and wife, the wife weighing around 100 pounds and short, it makes me wonder why there is such a huge disconnect between this witness and what we are being told?

http://www.cbsnews.com/videos/witness-describes-the-san-bernardino-shooting/

[bth]

Did they live at the bomb factory apartment address or another?

Where were they in the hours between the first shooting and the gun battle? Did they perhaps go upload the video of the shooting?

Was she trained alone or in a group of women at the Red Mosque?

Did the extra guns, ammo and pipe bombs left at the house suggest an accomplish (no show) was to pick them up for a second concurrent attack?

[steveg]

To point #2. The neighbor either wittingly
or unwittingly became a straw buyer. To
conceal actual en user must be the reason.
Why would he check himself into a mental
health facility after the assaults? Is that a
protected space?
#3 At one time you could buy the sear assembly
to make a weapon fully automatic. A friend did
this. Some mechanical ability required. Would
not a high capacity magazine fit these weapons
as magazine well is part of a stamped assembly.
Possibly some minor modification required.

[Macgupta123]

The eyewitness Sally Abdelmajeed said on CBS telephonic interview that she saw three shooters, tall, male, likely white. An eyewitness who was on MSNBC (I could not find the transcript later) said that she saw one of the shooters as a heavy-set man. Neither Syed Farooq nor Tashfeen Malik would count as heavy-set, even with their equipment vests on.

We do know that eyewitness accounts are often unreliable. But since you asked for unusual things, here are two things that suggest a wider involvement than just two people.

Regarding the name Syed, there is an interview with the father (that I cannot locate now) that suggests the same thing happened with the birth records of his children as is discussed here:
http://www.shiachat.com/forum/topic/234967677-naming-my-child-with-syed-or-syeda/

Also some first-generation immigrant parents do expend a lot of effort in making sure their children learn the country-of-origin's language; many others do not.

[Old Gun Pilot]

The media makes much of the fact the shooters had 4500 rounds of ammo and that much ammo should have been noted by visitors. A 50 round box of .45 is only about the size of box of kitchen matches and 90 of those boxes would not make a very big pile. If all of the rounds were 223 you'd double the size but it would still easily fit in a foot locker. It'd be a pretty heavy foot locker but wouldn't be difficult to conceal. Also you can accumulate 4500 rounds in a relatively short time without drawing any unwanted attention.

[b]

To Q4 - the guy was said to be a hobby car mechanic. So he probably had the tools and the metal working know how to convert a gun.
--
The girl visited an elite Wahhabi Madrassah in Pakistan - the likely source of her radicalization.

http://www.latimes.com/world/afghanistan-pakistan/la-fg-pakistan-san-bernardino-20151206-story.html
--

The two came together through some "matrimonial agency". I wonder which one was that and under who's guidance?

My first theory was that she was a honeypot that lured some U.S. passport holder into bringing her, a trusted Jihadi, to the states. I am still wondering if that could be the background of the story.

[turcopolier]

OGP

I agree on the ammunition. I may have that much here myself, but nobody coming to the house would see it. I shoot a lot and buying in bulk on-line is much cheaper than in a store front. I still think she was infiltrated into the US using him. She may have been something like the commissar in this. The bomb factory was in the detached garage of their townhouse. They seem to have returned to the house an hour or so after the attack to pick up their extra gear. There is something strange about the whole thing. pl

[Mac]

Very interesting...

Colonel,

By now, DHS should have located her "A" file and reviewed the record as far as the in-person interview she and the husband had when she applied for and received conditional lawful permanent resident status after adjusting from the K1 fiancé visa. Also, if her English was not adequate an interpreter would have been necessary from, and those calls are recorded as is the interview itself. Lastly, they may or may not have hired counsel to do the case which could also shed some additional light on the atmospherics of their relationship.

Mac

[DC]

News reports stated that a neighbor was suspicious of groups of people entering/exiting the home, but failed to report due to "racism anxiety." The p.c. nonsense aside, the report implies that more than one neighbor were probably aware of something strange going on within that home. If so, the feds are going to have to move fast in order to discover the extent of that social network and clamp down on it either physically or through close monitoring. If a local mosque's community is involved, well...could get a bit ugly.

The other neighbor (I assume this is a different neighbor) who purchased the assault rifles is likely a source for identifying members of the social network. I assume he is NOT in rehab (as reported) but a cooler somewhere, under interrogation (he should be).

Finally, I think the feds have enough info now to conduct deep monitoring and research into the international dating/marriage agencies. It seems as if the U.S.-sourced johns/grooms are so mentally maladjusted (whether pre-radicalized or radical from the start) that they cannot find a woman who will have them in their local communities. They are forced to reach out to international-sourced fellow radical females who will find them easily controllable. Off-topic, I have long suspected that lack of sex and/or physical comfort is an additional (non-religous) factor that acts to drive these fellows off the proverbial cliff. A number of them may be closet homosexuals who cannot deal with their own nature.

[Kooshy]

PL

In my opinion they are sleeping cells, and we don’t know when, where and what will trigger the next one, I don’t think they necessarily will be ignited by an order from ISIL syria, or someone in a mosque in KSA, in my opinion like the Hashishies they very well can be programed ( brain washed) and triggered by a proactive word, an action they don’t see good, or even an argument, they are time bombs. It will be tough if not impossible to prevent this. For the life of me I can’t see how and why a newly married couple with a newborn six month old child, leaving comfortably with a good job, home, car, etc. to leave it all and go on a suicide mission and kill many innocent people indiscriminately. I can’t think of any other explanation. This a new phase that has started.

[VEC]

I want to know where "the third shooter" is.

[Jack]

Sir

On your point 6, his father reportedly told a reporter that the reason that both his son's first names are Syed is because of a screw-up in Illinois when his name got tacked on to his kids names. Their actual names were Rizwan and Raheel which became their middle names.

Sir, your point 2, caught my attention too. The fact of when he acquired the assault rifles and the use of his childhood friend to provide cover. Clearly there was some intention for that purchase. And stories that his wife radicalized him does not jive with the timing of the purchase of the rifles.

His father reportedly also has said that he was a "momma's boy" and voiced support for radical islamists. His mother lived with him, so it's puzzling that she didn't notice the acquisition of ammunition and the building of pipe bombs.

Your Point 7 is most intriguing. I read a story that he hesitated initially after getting back to the party and she was the first shooter. I'm curious if she also dressed up in tactical gear or wore a burka to the attack.

I too am puzzled by your point 9. It was several hours after the attack that the police caught up with them. They could have possibly been on a flight to Saudi Arabia or Pakistan by then.

IMO, this attack could change perceptions of Muslims in the US who fit the stereotype of attire and looks. Anecdotally this weekend at the pub, lot of guys wanted extra scrutiny of those wearing burka and guys looking the part. There is likely a sentiment building here similar to what Le Pen is articulating in France. The daughter and grand-daughter have won big in the first round of their regional election yesterday. Now the Socialists and Sarkozy's alliance may be aligning to prevent them from winning the second round. They are clearly striking a chord with many French. EU skeptic parties are no longer fringe parties to be laughed at by the cognoscenti. The ideas of national sovereignty and secure borders and cultural identity are becoming more important.

[Tyler]

Other questions:

3rd person was NOT a "runner who happened to be in the area".

How did Farooq Senior get into the country, being a drunk incapable of work?

The name "Tashfeen Malik" is likely a pseudonym - the historical Tashfeen Malik is the name of the war leader who defeated Alfonso IV on the Andalusian Peninsula way back when. Very odd about her being a K1 - my wife is a K1 and she had to have both a medical checkup and a face to face interview with a consular officer before the visa was processed.

[RM]

I believe that there was an unsuccessful attempt to make the ARs fire automatically. No idea who did this.

Since they were CA legal guns, In order to change the 10 round magazines that came with them one had to use a tool (a cartridge would suffice)to depress a button in order to remove the empty magazine before inserting a new, loaded one.

http://abcnews.go.com/US/weapons-san-bernardino-massacre/story?id=35584257

[Tyler]

Also: the FBI left out pass ports, shredded documents, and there was no sign of fingerprint dust ANYWHERE in the apartment.

What the hell is going on with that?

[Tyler]

Chances that the Pakistani Deep State is involved in this?

[kao_hsien_chih]

I could not for the life of me figure out why they didn't get away when they had ample time. That they stuck around town and got shot down could make sense if there were indeed others, not just one, but two other "well-built men" who may well have been white so that they didn't look like "stereotypical Jihadis." The doofus couple could have played interference with their lives while they got away.

But this is a story wholly out of my tinfoil hat, for what it's worth.

[Patrick Bahzad]

AS,

If you're not into conspiracy theories, why are you suggesting one ?

In my experience, witnesses of such traumatic events - especially when they have no prior experience of shootings - often remember things that don't really exist.
Memories of the events get mixed up, height and build of an attacker is distorted, and skin colour, well, that Pakistani woman could definitely be described as "white" (especially against the contrast of dark clothing).

[Fred]

Abu Sinan,

The NYT is just as bad:
http://www.nytimes.com/2015/12/07/world/asia/in-conservative-pakistani-city-a-saudi-girl-who-stood-out.html

“... no male lecturer knew what she looked like, however, because of the niqab. And though conservative Muslims were not unusual there, Ms. Malik developed a reputation as someone who purposefully avoided making friends with men and who was deeply rooted in her Saudi upbringing.”

“Critics of Saudi influence usually focus on the funding of hard-line mosques and religious schools,…” Because they sure don’t do that at home in Saudi Arabia?

The left is doing the pc narrative thing to the exclusion of basic common sense.

[ked]

That is a great line of questions, Col Lang. I hope (& expect) the FBI to be just as sharp.
Allow me to posit a scenario... This couple amounted to an evolving composite terror operation. It seems they had a Big Plan of what they were going to do and had created the capability to do it. But the holiday celebration was not part of that Plan. What happened was that he lost control of himself while there in an on-going feud with his co-worker who was an in-your-face messianic Jew that boiled over. He departed for home in a rage, grabbed his wife & kit, drove back together to execute everyone at the party. Their end-game does not seem to support a Big Plan to do great damage with the guns, bombs & ammo they had amassed. However, if it is shown that she was awaiting in the prepared SUV parked nearby, & he returned to put on his tactical gear, & together they proceeded from there back to the party, that's obviously a different course revealing fore-thought about the day... does anyone know the time-line & their movements yet?

[Patrick Bahzad]

The most obvious scenario is that they had planned to go on a killing spree, of which the community center was only the first part. An easy soft target, good enough though as a "trial run" before turning to something more consistent possibly.

Don't forget that the attacker in Chattanooga also took shots at a first place (military recruitment center) before driving to a second place (a US navy reserve center) where he shot or killed a few more people.

I'm surprized nobody has looked at this angle in the current investigation: there is a method to this MO, hit in one place, exit it ASAP and then hit somewhere else, while law enforcement is still trying to figure out what went on in the first place.

In the SB shooting, I wouldn't be surprized if it turned out that they went back to resupply with ammo and explosives, before driving off to another possible shooting at the movie theater which seems to have been staked out earlier that week.

However, as with other inexperienced terrorists of that sort, they f*ed it up somehow. Possibly, they miscalculated the police response time, therefore being picked up by incoming first response units, or it took them longer than expected to kill those poor people at the community center.

Either way, their timeline went down the drain, and that was it for them. All they could do from then on, was to go down in a big bang ... which they did not manage, thx to the police doing a good job on them.

They also made another, possibly more important mistake, regarding their communication devices. This could prove vital in securing evidence about who they had been in contact with, and through what means. I got an idea already about what might turn up, but we shall see.

[Trey N]

Colonel,

This is isn't the only "mass shooting" incident that has "something strange about the whole thing." The recent attacks in France, the Boston bombings, and especially the Sandy Hook affair (among others) also raised a host of curious questions about the official MSM storyline. A quick google search will turn up myriad links pointing out facts at odds with the publicly accepted script.

Beyond the obvious anti-gun agenda, it's difficult to know what other purposes the perpetrators of these events have in mind. These things usually involve "wheels within wheels" acting on several levels and with several aims -- absolutely none of which are for the benefit of us ordinary citizens, in whose name these organizations pretend to act....

[no one]

Maybe it's the booze talking, but the father seems to have been fully aware that the son was radicalizing. http://www.cnn.com/2015/12/07/us/san-bernardino-shooting/index.html

However, the family members that actually interacted with the shooters frequently, claim to be totally surprised. How can that be?

[Abu Sinan]

Because the facts reported by this one eye witness do not gel with other statements. In fact, for the first hour + the news outlets I follow all reported three shooters. Was this based on just this one woman's report? You dont have to be into conspiracy theories to find something odd with the facts surrounding the event, hence the Colonel's post.

[Shrike]

I think Malik is the key here and that we should be looking beyond IS or self-radicalized to organizations like Lashkar-e-Taiba, who have exactly this MO - keeping information confused and not admitting to anything. Malik went from her increasingly hardline family in Saudi back to Bahauddin Zakariya University in Multan. The key question here is whether Malik was combat trained. I don't believe it is easy to just throw off a Burqa, don tactical gear, be proficient with AR15s and 9mms, act confidently enough to be remembered as a larger male, kill innocent people point-blank in a hail of bullets and blood, and shoot continuously out of the back of a car while being chased by Police just from reading stuff at home on the Internet. Possible but less likely. If Malik was combat trained then this is most likely to have happened during her University years around Mutan, which is where LeT and similar organizations operate and NOT IS. There is no current evidence Malik ever visited Syria or Iraq.

If Malik was trained then there clearly was a supporting organization, contacts and direction behind this. Keeping Internet silence, destroying disks and phones - all marks of a thought-through MO to keep things hidden. A single last-minute post vowing fealty to Bagdadi is then just a piece of misdirection - if you are going to bomb someone over this please just keep bombing IS and don't look elsewhere (which is what we see in MSM). If it was LeT or a related organization then the question has to be asked about any help from ISI individuals.

There also appears to be something strongly personal here - although it may vary for Jihadi's, for most women mass shooters there are often strong underlying personal motives. Did Malik lose a first husband, lover, close friend or family member to a US drone or US-related action somewhere? Killing colleagues of her husband at a close-to work event is a very personal reaction. I also wonder if this was the best way to persuade Farook to start killing - dramatically playing up and inventing all kinds of disrespect and anti-Islam feelings at work to get Farook to act. Farooq's exit after recon at the event was a "I really have to do this" reaction rather than anything immediate, So the party becomes a target of convenience rather than something special, and not really based on any recent "workplace disagreement". It was pore-planned - they had rented the SUV several days before. I am unsure why they wanted to get away (masks and quick exit etc) - whether they planned more killing or if they really thought they wouldn't get found?

As we saw in New Delhi 2001 and Mumbai 2008, LeT is capable of intense planning and confusion. In fact, this operation is amateurish in comparison - suggesting it would be more of an experiment or a "lets help her do it" multi-year long-shot. If this had full planning and support then the explosives would have worked and not just been simpler Inspire-based devices and a higher profile target would have been more likely. Reports I have seen suggest only one AR15 was modified and not completely successfully - so some "making do" going on here. This was a long-game - Malik was in a foreign country with limited language skills, didn't drive, and it looks like she had to make a lot of stuff up locally. Hence the immediate soft target that she saw her husband go to the year before and for which they would know all the details. There is a question as to whether the neighbor really did see lots of strange people turning up at their house in the past few weeks, versus just packages, or whether these were all family members or friends not otherwise involved?

Under this view Farooq was selected as a way in to the US, he was conservative, and able to be radicalized. Malik was the true instigator, driven by some deep personal rage that was more important than her own baby, and most likely trained and backed to some degree by a Jihadi group based in Pakistan, such as LeT or one of the other groups there.