Tuesday 22 December 2015

San Bernardino Killers Met On Marriage Website

Syed Farook agreed to meet Tashfeed Malik face-to-face while he and his family performed the Hajj pilgrimage in October 2013.
Syed Farook and Tashfeen Malik
The couple who orchestrated the mass shooting in San Bernardino, California, met through a "matrimonial website", according to US visa records.
Syed Farook and Tashfeen Malik first met in person and became engaged during the 2013 Hajj pilgrimage in Mecca, Saudi Arabia, Farook wrote in a statement attached to Malik's fiancee visa application.
He wrote: "We decided to have both of our families meet on Thursday, October 3rd, 2013 at the house of my fiance's (sic) relative who lives not too far from the Ajyad Hotel in Mecca.
San Bernardino attacks Syed Farook and Tashfeen Malik
"My fiance (sic) and her family drove from Riyadh to Mecca so that we could meet and it is on this day that we got engaged."
Farook wrote that he and Malik agreed to meet in person "after several weeks of emailing".
US-CRIME-SHOOTINGUS-CRIME-SHOOTING
The statement was signed and dated by Farook on 20 January 2014.
Malik came to the US in July 2014 after being granted the K-1 fiancee visa and married Chicago-born Farook the following month.
FBI Director James Comey has said the couple were discussing martyrdom with each other online before they met face-to-face, and that they were radicalised even before they began their online courtship.
Separate immigration records obtained by Reuters indicated that Malik answered "no" to questions about her background and activities, including whether she had ever received weapons training or engaged in "terrorist activity".
The FBI said the couple visited various gun ranges in Southern California for target practice, including just days before they shot dead 14 people and wounded 21 others on 2 December.
Farook, 28, and Malik, 29, were killed hours later in a gun battle with police.
US officials have said Farook, a county health inspector, may have been plotting an attack on a US target as early as 2011.
A longtime friend, who bought the assault rifles used in the San Bernardino massacre, has been charged with terrorism-related offences for plotting an earlier attack that was aborted.
Saira Khan and husbandSaira Khan and husband
Enrique Marquez Jr, 24, was charged last week with conspiring to provide material support to terrorists.
Authorities said they do not believe Marquez played a role in plotting the San Bernardino shooting.


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