The Face of a Terrorist Mastermind?

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Enrique Marquez may not look like a terrorist, but he is now a focus of the FBI investigation in San Bernardino:

As federal officials scour the backgrounds of the couple who went on a terrorist rampage here last week, they are looking carefully at Enrique Marquez, a childhood friend and relation by marriage of the husband, Syed Rizwan Farook. It was Mr. Marquez, 24, who bought the two assault rifles that Mr. Farook and his wife, Tashfeen Malik, used to carry out the attack, which killed 14 people and wounded 21 others.
Mr. Marquez, who works at a Walmart store, bought the weapons legally in 2011 or 2012 and either gave or sold them to Mr. Farook, federal officials said. Investigators have spoken with Mr. Marquez and were keeping close tabs on him; although they have not named him as a suspect, they believe he has knowledge about the Farook family and its recent activities.
In November 2014, Mr. Marquez married Mariya Chernykh, whose sister, Tatiana, is married to Syed Raheel Farook, brother of Syed Rizwan Farook. Tatiana Farook is a hairstylist and makeup artist who also goes by the name Tatiana Gigliotti. She and her husband were witnesses at the wedding of Mr. Marquez and Ms. Chernykh, according to a marriage certificate released by the California Department of Public Health.
Another of Mr. Farook’s siblings, Saira, is married to Farhan Khan. For some period of time the Khans attended the same mosque as Mr. Marquez, who is a convert to Islam, according to people who know them.
Mr. Marquez could be crucial in helping the Federal Bureau of Investigation determine when the couple began their plot and understand more about their thinking.

Meanwhile, we learn more about these disciples of the Religion of Peace:

Syed Rizwan Farook, the man at the center of last week’s massacre in San Bernardino, Calif., might have plotted an attack as far back as 2012 with one of his longtime friends, senior law enforcement officials said Wednesday.
In addition, the F.B.I. revealed Wednesday that Mr. Farook and his wife, Tashfeen Malik, were discussing jihad and martyrdom online in 2013 before they were married and she came to the United States.
The new timeline suggests that the couple were considering violent action before the Islamic State rose to prominence in 2014 and began trying to inspire sympathizers to carry out attacks in the West.
And the disclosures raise questions about how thoroughly American law enforcement and immigration officials vetted the wife before giving her a visa to enter the United States from Pakistan a year before the shooting, which left 14 dead and 21 wounded.
“ISIL inspiration may well have been part of this, but these two killers were starting to radicalize towards martyrdom and jihad as early as 2013,” the F.B.I. director, James B. Comey, said during testimony before the Senate Judiciary Committee, using an acronym for the Islamic State. . . .
Mr. Marquez has been cooperating extensively in recent days with federal authorities, discussing at length his relationship with Mr. Farook. . . .
The authorities are still seeking to corroborate what Mr. Marquez is telling them. Because he provided two of the four weapons used by the attackers, some investigators have questioned his credibility, thinking that he might exaggerate what he knows about the couple to win favor with the authorities.
Mr. Marquez is also said to have mental health issues. Shortly after the attacks, he checked himself into a mental health facility in California.

So, he’s crazy? I repeat: Crazy People Are Dangerous.




 

65 comments

  1. Mr. Marquez is also said to have mental health issues. Shortly after the attacks, he checked himself into a mental health facility in California.

    It’s a smart move if the goal is to limit his exposure to the authorities and to force them to waste time checking everything he says three times. After all, he’s crazy/depressed/psychotic/anxious/all of the above. Also helps him to establish a defense if the authorities decide to prosecute him. It won’t work in the end but it’s the best card he has in his hand.

  4. “…how thoroughly American law enforcement and immigration officials vetted the wife before giving her a visa to enter the United States from Pakistan…”
    But, but, she presumably has a vagina, and according to the “new” US Alien Spouse Laws…(we all KNOW about THOSE…RIGHT?)
    .Pakistan? Hasn’t the current administration, and pundits “as seen on tee vee….” told us why Pakistani folk um…merit “golden tickets”?

  8. “So, he’s crazy?”
    .
    Well, it *does* say he’s a convert to Islam. If that’s not a sign of being crazy, I don’t know what is.

  9. If someone chooses murder and martyrdom over raising their own child, I don’t know how you can possibly stop them other than stop them from coming into the country in the first place. Otherwise they will find a way. The question is: is the Obama administration letting people like this in due to incompetence, or are they deliberately bringing them in?

  10. I don’t know the ins and outs of California (anti-) gun laws, but I understand that Mr. Marquez at least violated state gun transfer and registration laws. This is above and beyond the obvious straw man purchases he made for the murderous Muslim couple, a violation of federal law.

    And he’s still walking free. Which suggests that this “investigation” is a checking-the-box exercise. Wouldn’t want to upset the Muslim community, now would we? (/sarc)

    Oh, and that Senator Boxer is full of s**t. California anti-guns do not work.

  11. Are we surprised?

    Unrestricted immigration which allows criminals and terrorists into the country?

    Check.

    Turning a blind eye, while said criminals and terrorists engage in criminal and terrorist behavior?

    Check.

    Use the criminal and terrorist behavior to advocate for disarming law-abiding Americans?

    Check.

    This sort of thing has been planned for years.

    A Dark Age is upon us.

  13. Unless California is very different than New York, someone on the attending list would have had to have admitted him, so unless these characters have among them a shrink who functions like mafia in-house counsel, it’s likely there’s a reason for this. Psychatrists under 60 commonly went through their residency after the implosion of psychoanalysis as an intellectual subdiscipline. They take inventories, try to stabilize the patient with milieu and prescriptions, and turn ’em loose. I’d wager he’ll be in for a time period measured in days and no more.

  19. I think that Gilbert Chesterton had a wonderful riff on that, let me duck over to google and try to find it.

  23. OT: muhammad ali rebukes Trump

    Trump should hit back with something like this:

    http://youtu.be/Axk9GmCPSlQ

    I love how ali said “I ain’t got no quarrel with the vietcong… no vietcong ever called me nigger,” but he and the noi made peace and allied with the kkk.

  30. He’ll probably get cut loose and get an SSI disability check for Post-Hanging-Out with Barbarians Syndrome.

  35. Silly! You confused 16 Candles with Pretty in Pink. I sentence you to a night of binge-watching John Hughes movies.

  40. Don’t care. Never felt the need for it, and the world around me seems to agree I didn’t anything of the sort.

  41. Don’t care. Never felt the need for it, and the world around me seems to agree I didn’t anything of the sort.

  49. I say again, he is free. He is not in the custody of law enforcement. Voluntary medical confinement is not jail.

    He is free.

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