FBI Looking At ISIS "Sleeper Cells" In San Bernardino After Obama Says There Is No Threat

Investigators work the site of a mass shooting at the Inland Regional Center on Monday, Dec. 7, 2015 in San Bernardino, Calif. The FBI said it's investigating the massacre on Wednesday in San Bernardino, Calif., that killed dozens as a terrorist attack. (AP Photo/Jae C. Hong)

Investigators work the site of a mass shooting at the Inland Regional Center on Monday, Dec. 7, 2015 in San Bernardino, Calif. The FBI said it's investigating the massacre on Wednesday in San Bernardino, Calif., that killed dozens as a terrorist attack. (AP Photo/Jae C. Hong)
The more we are learning about the San  Bernardino shooting the less it is looking like some meek-and-mild Islamic kid went batsh** crazy over beard-mockage by his co-workers, grabbed his wife, a sackful of pipe bombs, and some assault rifles and went off to extract revenge. We know the male shooter, Syed Farook, contemplated a terror attack as early as 2012. We know he asked his friend, Muslim convert Enrique Marquez, to purchase the two rifles used in the attack because he was afraid that he could not pass a background check. We know Homeland Security had an active investigation of the mosque Syed Farook attended because of terrorist connections. We know Farook’s mother was a member of a radical Islamist organization. We know that Tashfeen Malik, Farook’s wife, had terrorist connections at home in Pakistan and lied to get a visa. We know that the constant stream of Middle Eastern men visiting the Farook home at unusual hours alarmed the neighbors but they did not report it for fear of “racially profiling” Farook. We know that Farook and Malik either acted at the direct behest of ISIS or acting in concert with what they thought ISIS wanted to happen in the United State. We know that when the shooting broke out, local law enforcement identified the shooter almost immediately and implied he had recently been under investigation. Absolutely no part of this sounds like a random attack. (links to all those stories and more here.)

Advertisement

Now the New York Times is reporting that Farook may have been part of a “sleeper cell.

The regulars did not take it seriously when Enrique Marquez mused about terrorism at Morgan’s Tavern, a dank dive bar where Mr. Marquez hauled ice, cleaned bathrooms and checked IDs at the door. After a few drinks, he would just start talking — about his money woes, trying to lose weight, wanting to join the Navy. News reports about terrorism were just fodder for more bar talk.

“He would say stuff like: ‘There’s so much going on. There’s so many sleeper cells, so many people just waiting. When it happens, it’s going to be big. Watch,’ ” said Nick Rodriguez, a frequent patron who had known Mr. Marquez on and off for the past two years. “We took it as a joke. When you look at the kid and talk to him, no one would take him seriously about that.”

But nine days after a husband and wife slaughtered 14 people in a terrorist attack at a county health department meeting, Mr. Marquez, 24, a childhood friend of the husband, Syed Rizwan Farook, has become a crucial if unlikely figure in the investigation of the attack — which was just the kind he discussed when terrorism news reports flashed onto the tavern’s television.

Advertisement

(As an aside, I am positive the progressive pro-Islamic-terrorism websites like Slate and Salon and TPM and MMfA will claim it is insane to think a guy would talk to people in a bar about terrorist sleeper cells. Take a few moments and discover how Nathan Hale was identified as a spy.)

This actually dovetails very neatly with the other information that has come out. It is logical to hypothesize that Farook’s mosque drew the attention of authorities, not because of Farook, but because there were indications of significant terrorist activity there.

The irony is that even as the bodies were dropping, the Numbskull-in-chief, Barack Hussein Obama, was telling us we were safe.

President Barack Obama said in an interview that aired Thursday that he is confident the U.S. is safe from a Paris-style attack from ISIS and that American law enforcement is well equipped to protect the nation during the holidays.

“ISIL will not pose an existential threat to us. They are a dangerous organization like al Qaeda was, but we have hardened our defenses,” Obama told CBS. “The American people should feel confident that, you know, we are going to be able to defend ourselves and make sure that, you know, we have a good holiday and go about our lives.”

His comments came amid reports that the FBI is investigating ISIS sympathizers across the nation and a new study shows support for the terrorist group has reached unprecedented levels domestically. But Obama called for calm and said that terrorists and ISIS “only win if we start reacting out of fear.”

The interview was taped Wednesday, as details were still coming out about the shooting in San Bernardino, California, and before the two suspects had been identified. He renewed his calls for gun control measures in a clip from the interview that aired Wednesday.

Advertisement

Right. You’ll be safe during the holidays unless you are gunned down or blown up by Islamic radicals. And the way ISIS wins is for us to do nothing an let them kill us, which seems to be the Administration’s strategy.

Recommended

Join the conversation as a VIP Member

Trending on RedState Videos