IS cashes in on California attack

The FBI announced today that it has taken the lead on the investigation into the mass shooting that occurred earlier this week in San Bernardino, California, and that the attack that killed 14 people and injured 21 others has been deemed an act of terrorism.

Malik is believed to have pledged allegiance to the Islamic State group in a Facebook post made under another name, around the time of the attack, according to media reports.

A U.S. law enforcement official said Malik used a Facebook alias to pledge her allegiance to the Islamic State group and its leader just before the shootings. Investigators are still hoping to recover information from the couple’s computers and cellphones that will reveal whether they had browsed jihadist websites, or had contact with militant groups, before the attack at the Inland Regional Center on Wednesday.

FBI Director James Comey cautioned that the bureau’s investigation has not yet shown evidence that the slain shooting suspects were part of a larger group or members of a terror cell. But it’s not known what connections Malik, who was born and raised in Pakistan and moved to Saudi Arabia about the age of 19, had with any terrorists or groups. “She’s probably about 90 pounds, so it’s unlikely she could even carry a weapon or wear some type of a vest or do any of this”, Chesley said.

Miller told the New York Daily News that he regretted his decision to open the house to the media.

Farook went to the Dar Al Uloom Al Islamiyah of America mosque in San Bernardino every day but abruptly stopped coming three weeks ago.

Khan also said he is beginning the legal process to adopt Farook’s six-month-old daughter, who was dropped off with relatives Wednesday morning before the shooting. “There’s a number of pieces of evidence that has essentially pushed us off the cliff to say we are now investigating this as an act of terrorism”. While searching the couple’s home, police found a bomb making factory.

Bowdich said the investigation turned into a terrorism probe after it became clear that the shooters, Syed Rizwan Farook and his wife Tashfeen Malik, had made extensive preparations for their attack.

“There’s a lot of things that, quite frankly, don’t add up or seem implausible”, Chesley said during a CNN interview with Chris Cuomo on Friday, Mediaite reported. They knew that Farook had two handguns, according to the attorneys, but they never saw these either as they were said to be kept under lock and key.

“It is entirely possible that these two attackers were radicalized to commit this act of terror”, Obama said.

They described Farook as a “pretty private person”, but they shrugged off reports that he had reacted badly when people he worked with at the San Bernardino County Health Department teased him about his beard.

Last May, Malik and her husband rented a townhouse in Redlands, about seven miles from the attack site, said Doyle Miller, their landlord and owner of the townhouse.