Yet another convert to Islam somehow gets the idea that his new religion requires treason and mass murder. Authorities remain incurious about this phenomenon.
“Both San Bernardino attackers pledged allegiance to the Islamic State, officials say,” by Missy Ryan, Adam Goldman, Abby Phillip and Julie Tate, Washington Post, December 8, 2015 (thanks to Pamela Geller):
…The FBI remains keenly interested in a former neighbor who provided the military-grade rifles used by Syed Rizwan Farook, the 28-year-old county health inspector, and his wife, Tashfeen Malik, 29, during the massacre that killed 14 people and injured 21 others.
The neighbor, Enrique Marquez, legally purchased the rifles — semiautomatic AR-15s manufactured by DPMS and Smith & Wesson — in California, officials say. The FBI is still investigating whether Marquez sold these rifles to Farook, his former neighbor, according to the officials.
Reports on Monday suggested that Marquez and Farook might have other connections in addition to being neighbors. An official with the Islamic Center of Corona-Norco, in Corona, Calif., the mosque Syed Farook’s brother Raheel regularly attended, said he believed that Marquez had periodically attended the center. Yousuf Bhaghani, a senior official at the center, said in an interview Tuesday that he had not interacted with Marquez but that other members he had spoken with said they recalled him occasionally praying at the mosque four or five years ago. Those who interacted with Marquez described him as a “decent person,” Bhaghani said. “They didn’t see anything which caused alarm.”
Marquez was also married to a woman who appears to be a relative of Tatiana Farook, the wife of Syed’s brother Raheel, according to county records. Both Marquez and the bride, Russian-born Mariya Chernykh, list the same home address as Raheel Farook, and Raheel and Tatiana Farook were witnesses to the couple’s marriage. The Corona mosque is listed as the couple’s religious center. The family connection was first reported by Reuters.
Marquez, who works as a security guard at Walmart and had lived next door to the Farook family for years, could become a subject of the investigation depending on what the FBI learns, one official said.
Farook and Marquez were friends who shared a love of automobiles, according to neighbors interviewed this week, who said Marquez and Farook could sometimes be seen working on cars together in the neighborhood.
Marquez checked himself into a mental health facility Friday. Authorities said he has since checked out and been questioned by the FBI, which is interested in learning about the guns he provided as well as whether he had any knowledge of the plot. The FBI is also investigating whether Marquez and Farook had talked about getting into “badness,” said another of the officials.
An undated combination photo of Tashfeen Malik, left, and Syed Farook. (FBI, left, and California Department of Motor Vehicles via AP)The FBI says it believes that Malik and Farook, the husband-and-wife killers, were radicalized, but they have not determined yet whether had been drawn into violent extremism by someone they knew or whether they had developed those beliefs on their own.
“Both subjects were radicalized and have been for quite some time,” David Bowdich, assistant director in charge of the FBI’s Los Angeles field office, said at a news conference Monday. “How did that happen and by whom and where did that happen? I will tell you right now, we don’t know those answers at this point.”
As part of the investigation, authorities are looking at the financial records of the attackers. The FBI is looking at suspicious financial transactions, including a $28,500 cash loan from an online bank prior to the massacre, an official said.
Fox News first reported that the $28,500 was deposited into Farook’s bank account last month, about two weeks before the shooting.
The FBI was working Monday to confirm reports that Malik, who was born in Pakistan, had ties to Islamabad’s Red Mosque, which is notorious for its connections to Islamic fundamentalism, an FBI official said. Mosque officials have denied any association with her. One of the law enforcement officials familiar with the investigation said the FBI was trying to “firm up” her history in Pakistan.
The evidence gathered so far shows that Farook had expressed extreme and radical sentiments well before the shooting, another of the law enforcement officials said. But the official would not say what has been recovered yet from Farook’s computer or other electronic devices, some of which were found smashed into pieces after the attack. Another official said they found evidence that Malik had dabbled online looking at jihadist propaganda.
The FBI was still exploring whether the bombs left behind at the Inland Regional Center after the shooting were meant to target police officers and other first responders in the aftermath of the massacre, a senior U.S. law enforcement official said. These bombs were “potentially viable,” the official said.
Whatever the roots of their beliefs, the couple had prepared carefully for the attack, Bowdich said during the news conference Monday, visiting local shooting ranges to practice their aim as recently as a few days before the massacre.
John Galletta, a shooting instructor the Riverside Magnum Range, said that Farook had come to the range with an AR-15 rifle on the Sunday and Monday before the attacks took place.
Galletta did not personally see Farook, who came alone, but other staff at the range did.
“It was very brief,” Galletta said. “He was there; he shot his gun.”
Staff at the range did not recall having seen Farook before that, Galletta said. Riverside Magnum is small shooting range in a strip mall just off a freeway. The range allows both pistols and rifles, however, rifle shooting — of the likes Farook had — is for members of the range only.
Galletta said the range gave authorities the security footage.
“We had no idea he was there until they came,” he said, referring to the FBI.
The Dec. 2 shooting was the deadliest act of terrorism on U.S. soil since Sept. 11, 2001. The attack has renewed debate over the nation’s gun laws and sparked criticism of President Obama’s campaign against militant groups.
Bowdich said the federal investigation into the shooting is “massive in scale.” So far, authorities have interviewed more than 400 people and collected more than 300 pieces of evidence.
But critical questions remain. Officials have yet to uncover any indication that the attack was plotted with help from overseas, Bowdich said. Nor do they know whether anyone in this country other than Farook and Malik took part in the planning. The couple died in a shootout with police four hours after they opened fire at a conference center in San Bernardino.
Bowdich also clarified that authorities recovered 19 pipes that could be used to assemble homemade bombs during a search of the couple’s home in nearby Redlands, Calif., along with thousands of rounds of ammunition. Authorities had earlier said that 12 pipe bombs were found.
As the probe expands to sites where Malik lived overseas, friends and family in the United States struggled to piece together clues about what may have led the couple to the violence.
The Illinois-born Farook was described as a bright student during his childhood in California. As an adult, those who knew him said, he was a devout Muslim, quiet and private.
Farook brought Malik to the United States on a fiancee visa in July 2014. But friends said they knew little about Farook’s wife. Many weren’t even aware that the couple had welcomed their first child in May 2015, a baby daughter who was placed in the custody of child protective services after the attack.
“At this time I feel like he had a double life,” Saira Khan, Farook’s sister, said in an interview with ABC News. “I feel like he was very good at concealing everything from all of us. The guy that we know, all his co-workers, everybody that knew him at the mosque, they’re all commenting just like we [are]. . . . Nobody knew him any different than how we knew him.”
Much less is known about Malik, who was born in Pakistan but spent at least some time in Saudi Arabia, where her father relocated more than two decades ago. It remains unclear how much time she spent in Saudi Arabia, but she is known to have studied in Pakistan to become a pharmacist.
After arriving in the United States, Malik appeared to have interacted with very few people. Even male relatives said they had never seen her face, which was typically covered by a niqab, or face veil, used by some Muslim women.
Around the time of the attacks, Malik went on Facebook to post the pledge of loyalty to the leader of the Islamic State, which has urged followers to launch attacks wherever they may be as the militant group seeks to expand its reach beyond Iraq and Syria.
The group has called Syed and Malik followers. But it has not linked itself as clearly to the shooting as it has to a recent series of attacks in Paris….

John Johness says
Everyone is desperately getting as much distance between them and Farook and his misses as possible. it’s all part of the script of denial.
Hardly new him..
Secretive sort of guy..
Saw him rarely..
Never really talked….
So now it turns out they have been planning it for a year, had radical views, practiced shooting, took large sums out of the bank, were secretive… and on it goes. not to mention the obvious Islamists get up.
Salafists have certain personal habits as well: no music, no touch females – i.e. hand shake… and a hundred more.
But, of course, there were no indications….
somehistory says
He checked himself into a mental hospital…he’s getting ready for his defense of why he bought the rifles and gave or sold them to farook. Mental problems come to those who don’t actively shoot or who do, but survive being taken into custody.
Shane says
He went insane on Islam; why would anyone want to convert to Islam unless to kill, rape, or rob people with the blessing of Allah.
Adrian says
Well, once again it seems Obama’s hastily set up straw men are being swept away by emerging facts:
a mosque looks like it is being implicated
more and more evidence of a “broader conspiracy”
“moderate” relatives and neighbors were not all that
the rifles were legally purchased
more signs of cold premeditation rather than a magical “radicalization”
…. I have gotten used to this sort of dead-wrong guessing from my local news talking heads, but I expect a bit more from my Commander in Chief
somehistory says
And on FOX, it was reported that farook, the father of the murderer, has been put on a watch list.
Like a pebble thrown in a pond…the ripples go out far and wide.
Baucent says
“At this time I feel like he had a double life,” Saira Khan, Farook’s sister, said in an interview with ABC News. “I feel like he was very good at concealing everything from all of us.”
They are all ducking for cover now. There was no double life, everyone who met him knew he was a “religious” muslim. Even his father said Farook was obsessed with Israel. Which means he hated Israel.
This neighbour, Marquez apparently a muslim convert, checks himself into a mental hospital almost immediately after the attack. He knew he was in trouble and hopefully the FBI are threatening to charge him with being an accessory to terrorism.
Westman says
It’s beginning to vaguely have that Timothy McVeigh-Terry Nichols feeling about it.
Spot On says
McVeigh was not part of an International crime family called Islam.
underbed cat says
McVeigh may not have had a family with ties to a mosque, but somehow I beleive he did have an influence….didn’t he have a person with a middle eastern appearance and name that was in his( McViegh) contact?. Back at that time social media was a phone and computers were not common. But a mosque may have been an influence since Oklahoma was a
“wilderness state”, kind of lots of land, not as populated. Just always curious. But that may never be solved.
Westman says
True, but Nichols wasn’t charged until later. That’s why it’s similar, Nichols was at first an unsuspected connection.
Who knows how many other filaments go out from this pair? It will most likely be shocking! (But only typical for JW readers).
Westman says
LA FBI on Farook couple becoming radicalized: “How did that happen and by whom and where did that happen? I will tell you right now, we don’t know those answers at this point.”
As “Duke” Ellington once said about Jazz, “If you have to ask, you’ll never know…”
Try reading the Quran and selected Hadith using Robert Spencer’s, “The Complete Infidel’s Guide to ISIS”, and voila, there will be a burst of perception. You’ll never be able to control a lion if you think it’s a house cat.
Michael Copeland says
Go straight to Koran 9, the “Sura At-Tawba”:
9:5 Kill the non-muslims wherever you find them
9:29 Fight those who do not believe in Allah….
9:111 for theirs (in return) is the garden (of Paradise): they fight in His cause, and slay and are slain:
No need to buy a copy: consult it online.
RC says
AR-15’s–are NOT military grade rifles–the US military does NOT use the AR-15! Telling lies about guns is NOT helping!
Mr. AR-10 says
Indeed they are not military grade in the slightest, they are in fact one of the most common non military rifles purchased legally in this country. They are simple semi automatic rifles, just like almost any hunting rifle, except they are black and have all kinds of scary attachments to make anti gun liberals nervous.
That said
“The neighbor, Enrique Marquez, legally purchased the rifles — semiautomatic AR-15s manufactured by DPMS and Smith & Wesson — in California, officials say. The FBI is still investigating whether Marquez sold these rifles to Farook, his former neighbor, according to the officials.”
According to California law (not that I am a lawyer) it is illegal to sell a firearm from one person to another without making the transaction through an FFL, which means filling out ATF form 4473 and undergoing a background check, which would produce records of the transaction. That is to say, if these rifles were indeed purchased legally by Farook then the ATF would have records of this background check and the dealer who performed the transaction would have records of this transaction also.
It seems clear that this was a straw purchase, which is completely illegal – so I do not understand why we keep seeing news reports indicating that these rifles were legally purchased. Yes, this neighbor may have originally purchased them legally, but how they ended up in the hands of these two terrorists was not legal.
If this was a straw purchase then this neighbor should be under arrest at this time. If they were purchased legally, then why do we see the statement that “The neighbor, Enrique Marquez, legally purchased the rifles”, because clearly, they were not purchased by Farook.
“Marquez, […], could become a subject of the investigation depending on what the FBI learns”
Huh? Could? This man owned the rifles used in this massacre, They were either stolen from him, in which case he had to have reported the theft to the police, or they were legally sold meaning he wasn’t the owner, *or* he was party to a straw transaction meaning he should be in prison now. And we are reading that he could be investigated? This makes no sense at all.
Thus;
Military grade rifles – lie.
Purchased legally – lie
These are very important details, why is this reporting getting these things wrong?
Baucent says
There was an early report that the rifles had been modified (presumably illegally) to fire fully automatic, but that they only functioned semi automatic. Who did the modification, Farook or Marquez? One thing we know is Marquez is in deep sh*t.
PrayerWarrior says
The deepest sh*t of his life, Baucent. He’s now admitting to knowing about a prior attempted attack that Farook aborted.
http://www.foxnews.com/us/2015/12/09/investigators-believe-syed-farook-planned-attack-prior-to-san-bernardino/
“The mysterious pal of Syed Rizwan Farook who bought the rifles used in last week’s deadly terror attack in Southern California has told authorities Farook aborted an earlier attack, Fox News has learned. … It was not immediately clear when the scuttled attack was planned or what its target was. CNN, citing two U.S. officials, reported earlier Tuesday that Farook and another unidentified individual may have conspired to carry out an attack in 2012. However, one official told CNN that the pair “got spooked” and decided not to go through with their plan after a series of terror-related arrests in Southern California.”
More info on this Marquez:
“information about the prior planned attack was revealed in interviews with Marquez, who Reuters reported last year married Mariya Chernykh, whose sister is the wife of Syed Raheel Farook, the shooter’s brother.”
“Marquez is being described by investigators as a very important witness who is providing significant information to federal agents about acquaintances of Farook and Malik. Marquez has not been charged with any crime in connection with last week’s rampage.”
“Law enforcement sources have also told Fox News that Marquez was in the process of converting to Islam and had begun using an Islamic name, making it more difficult for authorities to get in touch with him. Authorities said Marquez had checked himself into a Los Angeles-area psychiatric facility soon after the shooting.”
If he knew about the previous attempt and never reported it, then its assured that he completed his ‘process of converting – or was simply too chicken because he knew he would be killed if he stopped his conversion and reported them.
Here’s an earlier picture of him. I’m going with the ‘he was too chicken theory.”
http://www.thedailybeast.com/articles/2015/12/08/neighbor-shot-guns-and-studied-islam-with-syed-rizwan-farook-friend-says.html
David Pimentel says
Thank you. The persistence of these lies is only intended to “make them true” in the public’s eyes. Everything is politically motivated — especially the lies.
Michael Copeland says
“Whatever the roots of their beliefs, the couple had prepared carefully for the attack”.
Ah yes, roots. Hint: the Latin for root is “radix”. The couple had become acquainted with the radical – the “core”, or “fundamental”- elements of their ideology.
Most muslims are not educated about these: “Ninety per cent of muslims know absolutely nothing about the Koran”, says A.Q. al Rassooli, Arabic-speaking Iranian, who has studied Islamic texts for over thirty years, and is no longer a muslim (http://www.al-rassooli.com/).
“The couple had prepared carefully for the attack”. They were following instructions:
“And prepare against them whatever you are able of power and of steeds of war by which you may terrify the enemy of Allah….” Koran 8:60
Who is the enemy? The non-muslims, “Allah is the enemy of the unbelievers.” 2:98
“Prepare”, by the way, is on the logo of the Muslim Brotherhood.
“for theirs (in return) is the garden (of Paradise): they fight in His cause, and slay and are slain.” 9:111
The couple had prepared what they could. They terrified the enemy. They killed non-muslims. They killed and were killed. They earned Paradise.
Devout, observant, they knew the basic, root, texts of their ideology. They were true-to-their-instructions followers of Islam – ordinary, basic, Islam.
Matthieu Baudin says
“…The FBI says it believes that Malik and Farook, the husband-and-wife killers, were radicalized, but they have not determined yet whether [they] had been drawn into violent extremism by someone they knew or whether they had developed those beliefs on their own…”
With this current fashion for inclusive euphemisms perhaps we could rename WW2 as The War Against Badness. It would be quite an achievement spreading the focus of our attention and avoiding judgement of any specific groups.
Matthieu Baudin says
“Ninety per cent of muslims know absolutely nothing about the Koran”, says A.Q. al Rassooli, Arabic-speaking Iranian, who has studied Islamic texts for over thirty years, and is no longer a muslim (http://www.al-rassooli.com/).
Thank god for apostates from Islam, where would we be without them?
Michael Copeland says
The puzzlement of the FBI investigators as they search for the baffling motive is the direct product of the Obama administration’s interference. At the request of the Muslim Brotherhood front group CAIR they carefully scrubbed all mention of Islam, Jihad, and Shaheed (martyr) from the FBI’s training materials. This bafflement is the predictable fruit of that policy. Unalertness means unawareness of the signals and leaves communities open to just such attacks.
Perhaps the couple had “talked about getting into “badness,””? Shock!
The FBI says it “believes” that they “were radicalized”. Shock!
The couple “had been drawn into violent extremism”. Shock!
“How did that happen and by whom and where ..? we don’t know…”
Investigators “have not determined yet …whether they had developed those beliefs on their own.”
These are all unhelpful clichés that obscure the nature of Islamic jihad: “Jihad means to war against non-Muslims”, and is a “communal obligation” (“Reliance of the Traveller”, o9.0, o9.1).
The information about Islam that was removed from the FBI training manuals would have furnished the answers they are looking for. They would be able to see that Islam itself, in its basic root teachings, expresses “extreme and radical sentiments”, and “jihadist propaganda”. No other ideology has jihad. Islam itself is violent:
“Violence is the heart of Islam”, says Ayatollah Yazdi of Iran.
“Extremism”, if it is understood as the UK government have defined it, neatly fits Islam itself:
“Extremism is vocal or active opposition to fundamental British values, including democracy, the rule of law, individual liberty and mutual respect and tolerance of different faiths and beliefs. We also include in our definition of extremism calls for the death of members of our armed forces, whether in this country or overseas.”
(http://libertygb.org.uk/v1/index.php/news-libertygb/6183-extremism-there-is-a-problem-within-islam)
The killings may have been plotted with help from overseas, and quite probably from neighbours and family. These are not pre-requisites. All that is needed is devout adherence to the Koran’s commands (part of Islamic law) in chapter 9, the famous “Sura At Tawba”.
9:5 Kill the non-muslims wherever you find them
9:29 Fight those who do not believe in Allah….
9:111 for theirs (in return) is the garden (of Paradise): they fight in His cause, and slay and are slain:
Remember the Woolwich killer, a recent convert to Islam, said:
“We are forced by the Koran, in Sura At-Tawba….”.
Farook was described as “a devout Muslim, quiet and private”. Maybe that is one of the clues.
underbed cat says
All this apparent cluelessness from the media..which is getting less clueless by the day is exactly the problem that Robert Spencer talks about, and John Guandolo knows first hand and wrote about in the book, ‘Raising a Jihadi Generation” ,Stephen Coughlin wrote about, the scrubbing of intelligence in regards to islam, sharia law and the doctrine, the Holy Land Trial evidence. All this work, put aside due to the influence of the Muslim Brotherhood in our government which used brilliant long term planning, to establish a massive number of islamic organizations throughout our entire country, including schools, mosques, learning centers, all interconnected and some funded by ME money. JG, had laid out the organizations in his presentations and book. All this scrubbed away, at the request of mb operatives with influence and fianancial power. The only influence that Malik and Farook needed was the ideology, doctrines of the religion of peace and our “clueless diversity” to spread it.
Matthieu Baudin says
“…The FBI says it believes that Malik and Farook, the husband-and-wife killers, were radicalized, but they have not determined yet whether [they] had been drawn into violent extremism by someone they knew or whether they had developed those beliefs on their own…”
With this current fashion for inclusive euphemisms perhaps we could rename WW2 as The War Against Badness. It would be quite an achievement spreading the focus of our attention and avoiding judgement of any specific groups.
Beckwith says
Robert, I read your stuff all the time, but you have to be careful writing about guns, because you clearly don’t understand the subject matter.
AR-15’s are civilian, not military-grade weapons.
BlueRaven says
There is another obvious glaring fact that she never talked to anyone or saw anyone before she sprayed bullets through tens of innocent defenseless people who were minding their business and enjoying a few moments together. How can anyone with a micro-gram of decency respect Muslims and Islam? There is something strange about Obama the way he is doing his best to protect the image of Islam. A good President remains neutral, factual and objective which he is obviously not.
Oliver says
I thought that these types of rifles were illegal in Cal.
Now, they suddenly became legal? So Gov. Moonbeam and Nobrainer could try and confiscate weapons form Americans WHO ARE NOT MUSLIMS AND/OR (OR IS THAT REDUNDANT) TERRORIST?
Oliver says
I am confused. Prior, it was said (I think also in JW, not sure) that these were ILLEGAL rifles in cal. Now saying that they might have been legally purchased.
Or, is this some misdirection form Nobrainer and Gov. Moonbeam and their liberturd allies to confiscate guns from non terrorist?
On a comment-re: selling the guns—etc. Could M. not merely say ( unless receipts or something like that-cancelled check that says for the rifles) he gave the rifles as gifts? Would that not negate the need to file the forms, etc? Just asking
Manuel Franco says
Shocker! How could the intelligence and law enforcement agencies in the US could’ve remain so in the dark about such high level of organizational thought and masterminded criminals. I guess we will never know exactly how could they have missed to make such indepth investigations and difficult and hidden connections :/