A fine end to a fine week for federal law enforcement. Someone, either the NSA or the FBI, obviously dropped the ball on sniffing these two degenerates out before they made their move. Then the FBI declared Farook’s apartment clear despite the fact that it was still “stuffed full of documents, notebooks, photos, business cards, IDs,” which freed the media to go trampling through the crime scene. Now this.
It’s a good day for Donald Trump and his message that we’re governed by imbeciles, particularly on immigration, says Ross Douthat. And so it is.
Malik came to the U.S. on what is known as a “fiancé” visa, which allows an American fiancé to petition for his or her partner’s temporary entry before marriage. For the visa application, the address she listed in her Pakistani hometown, ABC News discovered today, does not exist. Malik received a her Green Card this summer, U.S. officials said…
The official close to the Saudi Arabian government said that Saudi intelligence officials did not have her on any of their watch lists and she did not appear to have any link to extremists in the region. Neither Malik or Farook were on the FBI’s radar in the U.S., officials said…
FBI Special Agent David Bowdich said today it’s also unclear who in the relationship led the other down the violent path.
Malik spent her whole life bouncing around between Saudi Arabia and Pakistan, two countries with the most fanatic Salafists on Earth, so obviously there was no reason to closely scrutinize her visa application to make sure all of the information on it was true.
If you missed it earlier this afternoon, here’s the Farook family lawyer upping the ante after flirting with a false-flag theory of the crime yesterday by dismissing the news that Farook looked at jihadi propaganda online. Just because someone looks someone up Britney Spears on the Internet, he notes, doesn’t mean they’re a Britney Spears fan. Right, but posting that you’re a huge Britney Spears fan and then killing a bunch of people to prove your love for Britney probably does prove it, I’m thinking. That’s the first clip below; the second clip is of this same guy noting that someone at work teased Farook about his beard, which means … what? Finish that thought, bro.
Update: This is what I get for trusting ABC.
Correction (Dec. 5): An earlier version of this report said Tashfeen provided a nonexistent address to U.S. officials when she applied for a fiance visa. Local residents say the version of the address provided is not precise, but the family does own a house in the neighborhood.
A lingering question: How was Malik radicalized? The Daily Mail suggests she was connected somehow to Islamabad’s radical Red Mosque; Reuters emphasizes that her father was “hardline.” Interesting that the media’s looking at ways Malik might have been radicalized independently from her husband rather than simply chalking up her jihadism to his influence.
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