The militant Islamic State (IS) group or Daesh ignored contact attempts from Tashfeen Malik in the months before she and her husband killed 14 people at a California holiday party, probably because they feared getting caught in a United States (US) law enforcement sting, US government sources said on Thursday.
The number of organisations that Malik, 29, tried to contact and how she sought to reach them were unclear, but the groups almost certainly included al Qaeda’s Syria-based official affiliate Al-Nusra Front, the government sources said.
One source said investigators have little, if any, evidence that Malik or her husband, Syed Rizwan Farook, 28, had any direct contact with IS, which has seized control of large swaths of Syria and Iraq and claimed responsibility for the Nov 13 Paris attacks that left 130 people dead.
Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) Director James Comey has said Malik and Farook declared around the time of their attack that they were acting on behalf of IS ─ which in turn has embraced the couple as among its followers. But US government sources have said there was no evidence that the IS even knew of the couple before the killings.
Militant groups sought out by Malik likely ignored her approaches because they have become extremely wary of responding to outsiders they do not know or who have not been introduced to them, sources said.
Disclosures of Malik’s overtures to extremists abroad surfaced as the investigation of the Dec 2 shooting rampage in San Bernardino took a new turn with divers searching a small lake near the scene of the massacre.
On Thursday a team of divers from the FBI and San Bernardino County Sheriff’s Department began searching the waters of Seccombe Lake Park, about 2-1/2 miles north of the Inland Regional Center, seeking additional clues in the mass shooting.
The search of the lake, which could last for days, stemmed from an unspecified lead “indicating that the subjects came into this area” on the day of the attack, said David Bowdich, assistant director in charge of the FBI’s Los Angeles field office.
“We put a dive team into the lake as a logical part of that lead.” Bowdich said he would not discuss the “specific evidence we’re looking for”, but said it was essentially “anything that had to do with this particular crime”. He added: “We may come up with nothing.”
CNN reported they sought a computer hard drive that belonged to the couple.
My dream is to walk around the world. A smallish backpack, all essentials neatly in place. A camera. A notebook. A traveling paint set. A hat. Good shoes. A nice pleated (green?) skirt for the occasional seaside hotel afternoon dance.
Few things we can do in this world are so well worth doing as the making of a beautiful and happy home. He who does this builds a sanctuary for God and opens a fountain of blessing for men.
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