San Bernardino killers were radicalized before they met — Federal Bureau of Investigation chief

FBI Director James Comey, Homeland Security Secretary Jeh Johnson and John Mulligan, deputy director of the National Counterterrorism Center, planned to brief members of both houses of the U.S. Congress on Thursday about the investigation of Farook and Malik in closed, classified sessions. He said the Federal Bureau of Investigation would be remiss not to follow up on every piece of information in the shootings. Officials caution that Marquez’s claim of a 2012 attack could turn out to be false and an attempt to deflect his role in helping buy weapons that Farook later used in the San Bernardino shootings last week.

(AP Photo/Jae C. Hong).

FBI investigators have pieced together more clues in the lives of Syed Rizwan Farook, a US-born Muslim, and his Pakistani immigrant wife Tashfeen Malik, in an effort to understand why they carried out the mass shooting at a Christmas work party in southern California that killed 14 people and wounded 21 others. Two of the men were later found guilty, and two pleaded guilty.

Divers have searched a California lake near the site of the San Bernardino massacre looking for evidence that may have been left by the husband and wife behind the attack.

Officials are also still trying to determine if others were involved in last week’s massacre. Authorities have said the married couple were self-radicalized and that Malik posted a message on social media around the time of the attack in which she pledged loyalty to the Islamic State.

A specific target was weighed, CNN reported, citing two United States officials, though they did not identify it. The couple died in a shootout with law enforcement hours after the attack.

The men were also connected by marriage, since Marquez is married to Mariya Chernykh, whose sister is the wife of Raheel Farook, the brother of Syed.

Marquez went to the same Riverside high school as Farook and regularly attended prayer at Islamic Society of Corona-Norco until about 2011.

Azmi Hasan said Wednesday that he understood Marquez had converted to Islam but said he was not a member of that mosque.

Marquez’s security license expired a year ago and he was recently fired from a job at Wal-Mart. He had worked at Wal-Mart since May but has since been fired, spokesman Brian Nick said. He voiced interest in joining the military, according to a student at Riverside Community College.

Federal agents said they have questioned Marquez but have not arrested him.

But a friend of Marquez told ABC that at a party months ago, the glasses-wearing Walmart employee made a remark that in hindsight was prophetic.

He last saw Marquez in the past month or so when Marquez fell asleep at a friend’s house and they stacked beer cans on his body.

Now, he indicated the concerns of technology firms, many of which started to offer end-to-end products in the wake of the Edward Snowden revelations in 2013, are unfounded. “He was a pretty laidback guy”.

Another neighbor, Freddy Escamilla, said he’d recently run into Marquez on the street and that he was typically subdued, nodding hello but not saying much.

Marquez checked himself in to a mental health facility after the San Bernardino attack. It’s unclear where he is now.

Ms. Ramirez doubts her friend would have helped Farook and Malik if he had known what they were going to do with the weapons.

After a closed-door briefing on the investigation Thursday, U.S. Representative Matt Salmon, an Arizona Republican, denounced the State Department review of Malik. The official was familiar with the visas but not authorized to speak publicly.

Farook and Malik had been in contact with people in Orange County, California, who had been investigated by the FBI for possible ties to terrorism, but nothing arose during that investigation to draw attention to either shooter, a USA government source said.

Police in Geneva Switzerland are actively searching for suspects linked to the Paris attacks.

A law enforcement source said investigators are focusing on how Malik obtained the K-1 fiancée visa that the United States issued so she could come to the country with Farook.

Meanwhile, Malik’s father says he condemns and regrets his daughter’s action and the deaths of 14 people. For him, the deepest pain is over those victims whom doctors didn’t even get the chance to try to save.

Farook traveled to Saudi Arabia in 2013 for the Hajj for a couple of weeks, two government officials said.