Syed Farook, 28, and Tashfeen Malik, 27, Named in #SanBernardino Massacre

Posted on | December 3, 2015 | 79 Comments

The suspects in the shooting rampage were a married couple who had just dropped off their 6-month-old daughter with a grandmother, family representatives said.
Syed Rizwan Farook, 28, and Tashfeen Malik, 27, were married two years ago, according to Malik’s brother, Farhan Khan . . .
On Wednesday morning, Farook and his wife dropped their daughter off with Farook’s mother in Redlands, saying they had a doctor’s appointment, said Hussam Ayloush, executive director of the Council on American-Islamic Relations’ Los Angeles office.
The grandmother grew worried when she heard of the shooting attack in San Bernardino, and “she started calling. No answer,” Ayloush said.
The family was worried the couple were shot in the attacks, but then they started receiving calls from media outlets indicating Farook was a person of interest.
Farook was born in Illinois, and his parents immigrated to the U.S. from Southeast Asia, Ayloush said.

As the holiday gathering got underway Wednesday morning, Syed Rizwan Farook joined dozens of his colleagues from San Bernardino County’s public health department. Farook, an inspector, seemed quiet during the early hours of the event, then vanished just as a group photo was about to be taken.
Shortly afterward, gunfire erupted at the Inland Regional Center where the employees filled a conference room. By the end of the day, police had identified Farook, 28, as a suspect in the massacre and said he was one of two people shot to death in a gun battle with officers. The other was 27-year-old Tashfeen Malik, who a family member said was Farook’s wife. . . .
Co-workers told The Times they were shocked to hear Farook’s name linked to the shooting. . . .
They said Farook recently traveled to Saudi Arabia and returned with a new wife he had met online. The couple had a baby and appeared to be “living the American dream,” said Patrick Baccari, a fellow health inspector who shared a cubicle with Farook.
Baccari and Christian Nwadike said Farook, who worked with them for several years, rarely started a conversation. But the tall, thin young man with a full beard was well liked and spent much of his time out in the field.
They and other colleagues said Farook was a devout Muslim, but rarely discussed religion at work.
“He never struck me as a fanatic, he never struck me as suspicious,” said Griselda Reisinger, who worked with Farook before leaving the agency in May.

(Via Memeorandum.) The talking heads on TV are asking, “Was this terrorism?” As if the word “terrorism” requires an official designation to fit the definition. Given the apparently meticulous planning that went into this attack, and considering that it was committed by devout Muslims, all we need is common sense to say that this was Islamic terrorism. Is there any indication it was anything else?

UPDATE II: Jim Hoft at Gateway Pundit reports:

San Bernardino police announced [Wednesday night] that the Islamic killers who slaughtered 14 people at a community social services building were wearing GoPro cameras.
The male and female were wearing protective vests and carrying several firearms when they were gunned down by police after the massacre. . . .
Local officials reported the name of the female suspect in San Bernardino shooting as – Tashfeen Malik.
They were wearing GoPro cameras when they were killed. The couple were at home when officers arrived and then took off and were followed by police when they were shot dead. . . .
Several jihadists in Europe have worn cameras during their bloody attacks in the past year.

UPDATE III: While it appears the attack in San Bernardino had a religious motive, other attacks had a political motive:

Left Spends Day In Coordinated Attack on
Saying “Thoughts and Prayers” For the Victims

(Hat-tip: Instapundit.) So, while Islam is at war with America, the Democrat Party is at war with Christianity.

Category: Crime, Islam, Terrorism

Comments

79 Responses to “Syed Farook, 28, and Tashfeen Malik, 27, Named in #SanBernardino Massacre”

The #SanBernardino Massacre : The Other McCain
December 3rd, 2015 @ 5:17 am

[…] UPDATE II: Syed Farook and Tashfeen Malik Named in #SanBernardino Shooting […]
smitty
December 3rd, 2015 @ 6:24 am

Obama needs to complete his phrase:
“I mean, I say this every time we’ve got one of these mass shootings; this just doesn’t happen in other countries, where some violent tragedy occurs and then the national leadership gets on television, pisses down the public’s back and then tells us it’s rain caused by global warming. It takes an historically unique piece of work like me to be that sort of panache-hole.”
ErikEssig
December 3rd, 2015 @ 6:30 am

It’s clearly a case of workplace violence, according to Obama’s standards.
John Rose
December 3rd, 2015 @ 7:23 am

So, let’s see if I have this right:

• Shooting occurs.
• Shep Smith has a breakdown on air (figuratively, unfortunately).
• Various news sources report (initially) ‘Arab sounding’ — this is quickly replaced by ‘up to three white males.’
• The fact that a Planned Parenthood is nearby is trumped by lefty news sources and blogs (including Alan Colmes).
• Nearby = 1.3 miles.
With no solid knowledge we get:
• Aargh! Mass Shootings!!
• NRA! NRA!
• Stop praying, you wing nuts, and pass gun control!!

And now…

It seems they’re not ‘white’, after all, and there’s only two. A man and a woman. Both with, shall we say, names that suggest a certain heritage, possibly even a certain religion…

With that knowledge, I’ve already heard local newsmen expressing the opinion that we dare not jump to a conclusion… the motive could be ANYTHING!

Is that about right?
Our Son Made It Through : The Other McCain
December 3rd, 2015 @ 7:32 am

[…] our family is making a road trip and, given the current state of national alert, readers can understand why considerations of operational security limit me from saying much more […]
NeoWayland
December 3rd, 2015 @ 7:43 am

After the Chattanooga shootings a few months back, a very small number of bloggers had an idea. It might be time to take a closer look.

One thing we know is that the mass shootings count on their names becoming infamous to strike fear into people’s hearts, even if they weren’t involved in the shootings. The shooters want to live in infamy.

So why don’t we take that away from them? Forever? Let them be remembered as cowards who dared only attack unarmed victims.

Talk about the victims in detail, but never mention the cowardly attackers by name. We should talk about the victims and the lives cut short, but the mass killers do not deserve that. They haven’t earned a place in our fears. They should be forgotten, their history eradicated from human memory.

I am indebted to Cara Schultz’s outstanding author’s note for the idea.
Woman XX
December 3rd, 2015 @ 9:22 am

I have come to the conclusion that the media is a bigger problem than gun control. They are saying what caused the shooting is something happened at a party so this guy went home got his wife and their AK47 and maybe his brother and starting killing. No he was planning it just not down to the exact moment and that was his opportunity and there will be another and another. This is what perhaps Americans do not understand their mentality and we are screwed. This is going to be the gun equivalent of the stabbing thing in Israel. They are mocking us. They take our issues and fears and snap them back at us. So while we parse the question of who kills people guns or not. They are saying it does not matter. Guns here, knives in Kiryat Gat. They are saying they are here there and everywhere and we are over and done. The illusion of peace or power or that guns kill people is what we are mired in and they are celebrating cheering and passing trays of candy in celebration in every pit stop from Turkish border to whatever is left of Syria, free beer in Gaza City. And the press here thinks the guy went postal because his was dissed at the company party. He was just waiting till he had a chance to do it. And my bet is they have other trained people here waiting to the same thing. And they all know it and they are watching us have are dumb American argument about guns. This could be the start of a gun version of the Israel knife terrorism and take the guns out of the equation there are still knives or explosives or acid. Call me crazy but that’s what I think. I have a relative a close one who was a commando in the IDF he called us and asked if we had a gun. “Me a gun are you nuts? I hate guns”–John Lennon Imagine playing in my head. He told me to buy 2 or move to Israel because it maybe safer. I wonder if he is right–Jihad American style.
Dana
December 3rd, 2015 @ 9:38 am

But we have to mention the assailants by name: these two had obviously Islamic names. Not mentioning the names lets the left get away with the workplace violence and gun control memes.

I can see not mentioning the names of the mentally ill people trying to commit suicide by cop, and splashing their names across the headlines for a last 15 minutes of fame, but this is not the same thing.
marcus tullius cicero
December 3rd, 2015 @ 9:59 am

…those crazy religious Mormon terrorists at it again!
NeoWayland
December 3rd, 2015 @ 10:16 am

The New York Post did it on their front page with two words and no names.

“Muslim Killers.”

This morning I went looking for the names of the 14 victims to put on my political blog. I couldn’t find them. I can’t tell you how many times I saw the killer’s names and ages.

Limbaugh jokes about living rent free in Obama’s and the Clinton’s brains. This is the same thing. We’ve Named The Monsters. We now have something to fear for years to come. The killers are going to live on in the news stories long after we’ve died. The victims won’t.

Way back when, the National Enquirer used to sell papers by publishing pictures of dogs eating the remains at car accidents. This is the same thing.

We’ve honored the killers and ignored the victims.
Ronald J. Ward
December 3rd, 2015 @ 10:18 am

I’d say we’ve come to the point that your solution has fixed itself. Mass shooting have become such a norm and occur with such frequency that many folks don’t pay a great deal of attention anymore.

It’s kinda like Sen Mitch McConnell receiving around a million bucks from the NRA and anti-gun restriction groups and Sen Ron Johnson getting about $1.5 million and the long long list of elected officials getting tens to hundreds of thousands of dollars.

It’s old news and no one cares anymore.
NeoWayland
December 3rd, 2015 @ 10:24 am

I was wondering if you would chime in.

News flash: The U.S. violent crime rate is down and has been for decades. Gun crime is also down.

The reason why these things made headlines is because they are the exception and not the rule.

Short of totally disarming the American populace by force and conducting regular house to house searches, there is no way to prevent these mass shootings before they happen.

However, since the killers went after someone they knew was unarmed, maybe arming people and teaching them to use guns responsibly might work better.
Fail Burton
December 3rd, 2015 @ 10:30 am

Saudi Arabia and Wahhabism – again. ISIS sometimes claims to be Wahhabi though it appears it may be an even more older and fundamental form of Ibadi Khwajerism. Neither have any love for Muslims who’ve strayed and far less for non-Muslims. When you see this many people on the same page that is not mental illness or sociopathy but a concise and feral ideology. The astounding part of that is it has more anti-Western grass roots support among Third Wave Feminists than Timothy McVeigh had among Americans. The apologists already out in force using the “lone wolves” scenario proves that.
Durasim
December 3rd, 2015 @ 10:36 am

Oh, look. Salon says that America is still to blame, even though the shooter turns out not to be their preferred demographic.

http://www.salon.com/2015/12/03/syed_farooq_is_an_american_lets_stop_the_muslim_vs_christian_debate_and_take_a_look_at_ourselves/
Art Deco
December 3rd, 2015 @ 11:46 am

I think Glenn Reynolds pointed to this cartoon a while back. The humor may be tasteless in context, but one might give some thought to the gist of it.

https://plus.google.com/+ChristianBuggedei/posts/HcTVkeWQcjK
Fail Burton
December 3rd, 2015 @ 11:55 am

“Motive Still a Mystery in San Bernadino Shooting…” – NBC News.

LOL
NeoWayland
December 3rd, 2015 @ 12:06 pm

That works.
texlovera
December 3rd, 2015 @ 12:17 pm

“…said Hussam Ayloush, executive director of the Council on American-Islamic Relations’ Los Angeles office.”

Funny how quickly CAIR got out in front of this story, @MartiniShark had some interesting observations on how CNN’s coverage was shaped by these slimeballs.
Finrod Felagund
December 3rd, 2015 @ 12:21 pm

The names of the victims might not all be released yet pending notification of their families.

Look at the 9/11 anniversaries, where the walls read the names of the victims and their names are read out loud each year. I’ll bet you could ask 20 random people if they could name any of the 19 attackers and none of them would be able to name any.
Finrod Felagund
December 3rd, 2015 @ 12:26 pm

If it hasn’t already happened yet, I predict that soon some asshole leftist is going to start whining about how the San Bernardino massacre has taken focus off Colorado Springs and Planned Parenthood.
NeoWayland
December 3rd, 2015 @ 12:49 pm

That’s a good point about the victim’s names.
Steve Skubinna
December 3rd, 2015 @ 12:56 pm

I knew it! Typical right wing terrorists! Tea Partiers, NRA members, PP haters!

Now maybe you fascist wingnuts will wake up and realize that we must destroy democracy in order to save it. We can no longer live with your so-called “freedoms!”
Steve Skubinna
December 3rd, 2015 @ 12:56 pm

Historically unique is spot on.
Evi L. Bloggerlady
December 3rd, 2015 @ 12:57 pm

That is a long standing idea. I think it is impossible not to mention their names, but I agree the OTT profiling of killers after the fact is insane.

Of course, Truman Capote is to blame. Ok, the media certainly loved Jesse James and Bonnie and Clyde too.
Steve Skubinna
December 3rd, 2015 @ 12:58 pm

Stop doing violence to The Narrative with your cisheteroniormative “facts!”
Steve Skubinna
December 3rd, 2015 @ 1:00 pm

I like the perennial headline suggested at Tim Blair’s blog a few years ago:

“Muslim leaders fear backlash from tomorrow’s attacks”
NeoWayland
December 3rd, 2015 @ 1:05 pm

I admit, it appeals to my faith. Recognizing and honoring the Mighty Dead is pretty important.

These cowardly bullies don’t deserve that. Consider this the spiritual equivalent of grinding them to dust and salting the field where you spread their remains.

Their notoriety is the one thing that they expected to leave in this world as a final blow against their victims.
DrGreatCham
December 3rd, 2015 @ 1:20 pm

It’s an old idea.

It doesn’t work:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Herostratus
DrGreatCham
December 3rd, 2015 @ 1:23 pm

Do you remember the name of Herostratus?
Evi L. Bloggerlady
December 3rd, 2015 @ 1:35 pm

But it is not about the past, it is about the future. The seduction of celebrity (which is immortality in the secular world) tends to suck in the insane and delusional.

Of course, Islamic terror is different in they are going for spiritual immortality and their audience for their crime are on encrypted chat rooms, social media, and kids reading Palestinian text books and going to schools paid for by the west.
Evi L. Bloggerlady
December 3rd, 2015 @ 1:37 pm

I am not for censoring facts and names. I am for the media showing some voluntary restraint in the OTT post mortem profiling of the perpetrators (i.e., Huff Puff, People, etc.) and us quickly forgetting the victims.
physicsnut
December 3rd, 2015 @ 1:44 pm

Is The NATION going to EAT CROW ?
Is SALON going to apologize ???

// the Nation is at it again – day after Bernardino
http://www.thenation.com/article/how-the-roberts-court-undermined-sensible-gun-control/
http://www.thenation.com/article/why-we-cant-have-nice-things-like-gun-control/
http://www.thenation.com/article/whatever-happened-gun-control/
http://www.thenation.com/article/happy-birthday-national-review-too-bad-you-havent-grown-any-wiser-with-age/
// SALON outdoes itself – AN AMERICAN ? They want to blame it on 3 white guys ? Workplace Violence ?
http://www.salon.com/2015/12/03/syed_farooq_is_an_american_lets_stop_the_muslim_vs_christian_debate_and_take_a_look_at_ourselves/
http://www.salon.com/2015/12/03/the_second_amendment_already_screwed_us_the_guns_are_here_to_stay/
// oh – here we go again with ISLAMOPHOBIA
http://www.salon.com/2015/12/03/the_new_york_post_has_no_shame_the_ugly_truth_about_its_outrageous_muslim_killers_cover/
http://www.nytimes.com/2015/12/03/opinion/on-guns-were-not-even-trying.html?ref=opinion
http://www.slate.com/articles/news_and_politics/jurisprudence/2015/12/gun_violence_and_child_labor_are_not_the_price_of_liberty.html
Matt_SE
December 3rd, 2015 @ 1:51 pm

I expect the Muslim savagery. I didn’t expect the progressives would be so open with their contempt of American values, right after an attack.

I’m guessing the frenzied feeling of their rhetoric is driven by guilt, or the prospect of being blamed. And to be honest, that’s exactly what I’m in the mood for: to start attacking progressives directly as a 5th column of Jihadi-loving sympathizers.
Matt_SE
December 3rd, 2015 @ 1:52 pm

Pieces of shit, all of them.
Fail Burton
December 3rd, 2015 @ 2:29 pm

“Motive Still a Mystery in Burnt Out Churches Throughout Egypt.” – Moron Daily Express.
‘I Can Feel The Fear In The Western World’ | The Camp Of The Saints
December 3rd, 2015 @ 2:32 pm

[…] at The Other McCain, commentator Woman XX remarks [re-paragraphing and punctuation additions […]
Fail Burton
December 3rd, 2015 @ 2:42 pm

“Motive Still a Mystery in WW II Nazi Extermination Camps.” – The Daily Lying Idiot Tribune
Delaney Coffer
December 3rd, 2015 @ 3:22 pm

Piece of work? Piece of shit is more like it. This guy is evil. Incompetence doesn’t explain this.
Ronald J. Ward
December 3rd, 2015 @ 3:37 pm

Okay Neo, you win. There really is no mass shooting problem in the USA. It’s all a left liberal conspiracy to make people just think that maniacs are gunning down their kids at school and universities and on the streets and in movie theaters. It’s all a scam.. Those parents and friends of those allegedly shot? All part of the left liberal machine who want to implement mass gun confiscations.
NeoWayland
December 3rd, 2015 @ 3:58 pm

No, I don’t win. And neither do you.

I just think an armed and polite populace is a better deterrent than government control of guns. We’ve had government control of guns for decades, they’ve produced some of the most dangerous cities in history.

But don’t you see? These killers go to where the guns aren’t.
NeoWayland
December 3rd, 2015 @ 3:59 pm

Yes, but I am talking about custom instead of law.
NeoWayland
December 3rd, 2015 @ 4:01 pm

Legally, no.

But it has had some success.
Ronald J. Ward
December 3rd, 2015 @ 4:06 pm

I’ve never disagreed with the argument of an armed populace other than in the hands of the deranged and proven violent offenders.

I understand that in a free society, you’ll never make that fool proof.

My argument is that today’s so-called conservative legislators are uninterested in any attempts to at least address reasonable arguments to prevent the nut jobs and felons and FBI terror suspects and straw sales of guns because it conflicts with the wishes of their campaign donor bosses.
NeoWayland
December 3rd, 2015 @ 5:36 pm

First, I am not conservative. Nor do I wish to be. I consider conservatives marginally preferable and better allies.

Second (and we keep coming back to this), who decides?

The IRS went after tea party types. I may not be on a terror watch list, but I promise you my faith and my politics have raised a few flags. I know people on “sex offender registries” for incredibly minor crimes. The government made straw sales of guns (see Fast & Furious).

Government can’t be trusted to make those choices because they haven’t made them well.
trangbang68
December 3rd, 2015 @ 7:34 pm

Hey Sparky try to keep up, the anti gun zealots b.s. was shown to be that when Akmal and Fatima, the perfect terrorist couple from hell were unmasked.
trangbang68
December 3rd, 2015 @ 7:35 pm

It’s an Islamic terrorist problem
trangbang68
December 3rd, 2015 @ 7:38 pm

Katrina Vanden Stalin apologizes to no one
Ronald J. Ward
December 3rd, 2015 @ 7:40 pm

For starters, I’m not questioning your ideologies nor are they relevant to my argument.

Again, bad decisions of government doesn’t justify continued bad decisions nor does it rationalize not making good decisions.

The people of this country are the government. Legislators are elected by the people to represent them. That answer is so simplistic, so elementary, that somehow I’m sure I’m missing your repeated question of “who decides?”. The people decide.

You again seem to advocate a riddance of the people, the IRS, and so on and so on because you found an error, something amiss rather than correcting the problem.

Is our judicial system great? No. Can we simply shit can it? No. We should try to fix it.

Your argument seriously makes no rational sense in the real grown up world. And I’m seriously not trying to come across as condescending. It’s just simple basic common sense.
NeoWayland
December 3rd, 2015 @ 8:30 pm

It’s not what you decide. It’s what Someone Official® decides. That’s when it becomes very relevant to the argument. The minute you start making exceptions and say gun freedom EXCEPT for these circumstances, that’s when officials bend over backwards to make sure that as many people as possible aren’t allowed.

Do you remember back in the 1980s when civil forfeiture was expanded to go after the “big drug dealers?” Do you think they knew that people with less than a gram in their car would lose their cars?

Should we try to fix it? The courts and the cops and the other various government functionaries don’t want it fixed and will fight like blazes to keep and expand their own power. We see it every day.

It starts with the exceptions.
Ronald J. Ward
December 3rd, 2015 @ 8:42 pm

Aside from your drug dealer scenario being another non sequitur and just another example of legislative failure, it offers no remedy.

Government has failed on policing drug dealers, actually giving them a free ride while targeting the peon carrot chasers. I understand that. I’ve seen it. I agree.

But other than pulling up a chair at the pity party table, what precisely do you prescribe? Getting rid of the police? End the narcotic investigations? Just let em go cause there’s always gonna be drug dealers. Hope the Mafia does nice things? I mean, you just can’t beat these types so, uh, roll over and die? End government? What are you suggesting?

And then, let’s focus back on mass shootings becoming somewhat of a weekly sport.