Islamic State has ‘revolutionized’ terrorism, FBI director says

The FBI had previously hesitated to use the word terrorism in relation to the attack.

In this image taken from video, armored vehicles surround an SUV following a shootout in San Bernardino, Calif., Wednesday, Dec. 2, 2015.

“Your parents’ al Qaeda was a very different model than the threat we face today”, Comey told a counterterrorism conference in NY.

“So far, in this investigation we have found no evidence of posting on social media by either of them at that period in time and thereafter reflecting their commitment to jihad or to martyrdom”, he said, referring to media reports suggesting that Malik had spoken openly on social media about jihad and that background checks had not detected those comments.

Comey had said earlier this month that the married couple, who killed 14 people at an office holiday gathering, were communicating online in late 2013 “about jihad and martyrdom”, exchanging messages that predated the rise of the Islamic State.

Comey said the Federal Bureau of Investigation now has “hundreds” of investigations in all 50 USA states involving potential Islamic State-inspired plots.

Comey also said the July 16 attack in two military sites in Chattanooga, during which five US service members were killed, was “inspired and motivated by foreign terrorist propaganda”.

The group has a three-pronged strategy, Comey said: recruit fighters to join it in the Middle East; inspire individuals in other countries to carry out attacks; and send out trained operatives to commit violence in Europe and the United States.

“The threat comes from social media, which revolutionized terrorism”, Comey said.

Reuters reported on Wednesday that this echoes “investigators’ views that the pair were inspired by, rather than organized by Islamic State”.

He and Farook were neighbors in the Californian town of Riverside for around a decade, according to The New York Times. But finding such homegrown violent extremists is a “very hard thing”, Comey said.

New York City schools received a similar email, but Bratton and Mayor Bill de Blasio said the threat was a hoax and did not warrant closing schools.

Comey acknowledged that there is a growing anxiety nationwide about the next terrorist attack. “If they really think that this is someone who will kill on their behalf they make another move, they move them from twitter direct messaging, which we can get access to with lawful process, to a mobile messaging app that is end-to-end encrypted”.

Comey conceded that balancing Internet privacy and security isn’t an easy question to answer, but noted that the “temperature” on this issue has come down since previous year.