The couple who killed 14 people in San Bernardino terror attacks did not write about their support for Islamic State on social media, contrary to previous reports that they pledged allegiance to ISIS leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi.
According to the FBI, Tashfeen Malik and her husband Syed Rizwan spoke of their goal of carrying out “jihad and martyrdom” in private emails and messages but did not post about it on social media.
Malik and Rizwan opened fire into a large conference room during a company holiday party earlier this month. The couple then fled in a rental SUV where the police chased and eventually killed the pair before making back to their home.
FBI says #SanBernardino attackers didn’t post support for jihad on open social media https://t.co/XvrmBJMfdr
— BBC News US (@BBCNewsUS) December 16, 2015
Homemade pipe bombs, 5,000 rounds of ammunition and equipment to make more were discovered at the home that they shared with a six-month-old baby.
FBI director James Comey said the couple was not apart of an organized cell or had direct contact with terror groups overseas. But they are in fact a new type of inspired terroristsusceptible to jihadist propaganda through social media who is committed to small-scale individual attacks.
“Your parents’ al-Qaeda was a very different model than the threat we face today,” Comey said.
Comey: Farook & Malik communicated in "direct, private messages. We have found no evidence of a posting on social media by either of them."
— Bradd Jaffy (@BraddJaffy) December 16, 2015
Comey said that hundreds of separate investigations are underway in almost every U.S. state into plots potentially inspired by ISIS and new technologies were added in helping to overcome encryption-concealing communication between extremists.
“Twitter works as a way to sell books, as a way to promote movies, and it works as a way to crowdsource terrorism — to sell murder,” Cromey said.
Featured image via nydailynews.
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