Islamic extremists ‘ignored California gun massacre wife’s contact attempts’

Islamic militant groups ignored contact attempts from gun killer Tashfeen Malik in the months before she and her husband killed 14 people at a California holiday party. The extremists refused to talk to her probably because they feared getting caught in a law enforcement sting, U.S. officials said. The groups almost certainly included al Qaeda’s Syria-based official affiliate, the Nusrah Front. However, investigators have little, if any, evidence that Pakistan-born Malik, 29, or her husband, Syed Rizwan Farook, 28, had any direct contact with Islamic State, one source said.

The current impression is that these two people were acting alone.

U.S. senator Angus King

Disclosures of her overtures surfaced as the investigation into the shooting rampage in San Bernardino appeared to take a new turn with divers searching a small lake near the scene of the massacre. FBI officers spent the day at Seccombe Lake, which the couple visited in the days leading up to the shooting two miles away on December 3. The FBI declined to specify what the divers were looking for. "We have indications through leads that at some point they came to this park,“ said David Bowdich, assistant director in charge of the Los Angeles field office. However, there were reports that they were looking for electronic devices, including a computer hard drive, linked to the killers, who were shot dead by police in their car as they fled the carnage.

We don’t have any indications right now that the screening process for Miss Malik was any different than it is for any fiancée or that there were any things missing inside this very vigorous screening process.

State Department spokesman John Kirby defends claims that Malik’s visa screening was inadequate

Americas seccombe lake