03-Dec-15: In San Bernardino, they're starting to think this perhaps might possibly have been terror

San Bernardino [Source: The Independent]

The killings in southern California yesterday have - as most of us have learned to expect in an era afflicted with the curse of  political correctness - led to some quite foolish theory-propounding and circumlocations. 

But in the past couple of hours, the elephant in the room has gotten noticed by the reporting classes which means there might be some true investigative journalism on its way. (But we're not holding our breaths.) We're not going to do any speculating of our own - yet.

This is from the New York Times ["F.B.I Treating San Bernardino Attack as Counterterrorism Investigation"] today:

The F.B.I. is treating its inquiry into the massacre here as a counterterrorism investigation, two law enforcement officials said Thursday, based on materials the suspects stockpiled — including explosives — their Middle East travels and evidence that one of them had been in touch with people with Islamist extremist views, both in the United States and abroad. 

The suspects, a married couple identified as Syed Rizwan Farook, 28, and Tashfeen Malik, 27, are believed to have opened fire inside a social services center on Wednesday, killing 14 people and injuring 21 others, in the nation’s deadliest mass shooting since the assault on an elementary school in Newtown, Conn., nearly three years ago. The suspects died hours later in a shootout with the police on a residential street. 

Law enforcement officials said Thursday that the couple had thousands of rounds of ammunition in their home as well as 12 pipe bombs. “We do not yet know the motive,” David Bowdich, the assistant director of the F.B.I. office in Los Angeles, said in a news conference... Asked whether there were contacts with possible terrorist suspects, he said “We are still working through that.” Authorities added that there was certain level of sophistication in the explosive devices.

Law enforcement officials said the F.B.I. had uncovered evidence that Mr. Farook was in contact over several years with extremists domestically and abroad, including at least one person in the United States who was investigated for suspected terrorism by federal authorities in recent years...

We're hoping the lives and back-stories of the victims start getting some public attention. The first identifications have started to appear in the media in the past couple of hours. The LA Times ["San Bernardino shooting victims: Who they were"] has a "developing" article that we will be watching. Only a handful of the 14 murdered are documented at this stage.