Like I speculated in my piece earlier today, it appears as though Syed Rizwan Farook and his wife Tashfeen Malik were both independently radicalized before they met online and began a relationship. Malik came with Farook to the United States in July of 2014, after they met in person for the first time in Saudi Arabia the week before, and they were married shortly after her arrival.
Reports from the FBI released today during a testimony on Capitol Hill state that the Bureau believes the two had been radicalized as early as 2013.
From ABC:
The couple who launched the terror attack in San Bernardino were both radicalized before they met online, the director of the FBI revealed today.
FBI Director James Comey revealed the new information about the couple, who were killed by police following the deadly shooting, during testimony on Capitol Hill.
That revelation means that the couple, Syed Farook and Tashfeen Malik, were radicalized as early as the end of 2013, Comey said.
Comey said they were talking about jihad and martyrdom before they became engaged and started living together.
I think this information is enough to successfully dismiss any possible motive of a workplace dispute, bullying, or postpartum psychosis as the cause of the attack last Wednesday. This was a planned, premeditated attack by two people motivated by radical Islam meant to slaughter as many people as possible.
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Malik and Farook were killed by police after killing 14 of Farook's coworkers. Investigators found explosives both at the scene and at their apartment, where they lived with their six-month-old child.
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