By Allan Lengel
ticklethewire.com
Investigators are looking into the possibility that the wife in the husband-wife team that went on the rampage in San Bernardino, Calif., was a ring leader of a terrorist cell, and that she and her husband may have made and distributed bombs to other potential terrorists in America, a source familiar with the probe tells ticklethewire.com.
The couple, Syed Rizwan Farook, 28, and Tashfeen Malik, 27, were shot and killed after the shootings. Authorities believe that Farook met Malik online, then met her in person when he went to Saudi Arabia to perform the Hajj pilgrimage in 2013, CNN reports. She later came to the U.S. on a fiance visa and became a legal permanent resident.
Media reports have said that the couple tried to destroy emails before they went on the shooting spree that killed 14 and wounded 21, and that Farook made contact with known Islamic extremists on social media.
Investigators are looking at their social media and emails to see if others were involved in the plot, and whether the couple communicated with other terrorists and distributed bombs to them that were manufactured at the couple’s home in Redlands, Calif., the source tells ticklethewire.com.
“Us hiding behind the fact that this doesn’t happen here, well, guess what, it just did,” said the source. “This is the first of many.”
Authorities are looking into the potential ties to ISIS.
In the past, terrorist groups have recruited males.
But the source said investigators are looking into the possibility that ISIS recruited the wife and arranged for a marriage with Farook. Authorities believe she may have radicalized her husband.
Law enforcement authorities raided the couple’s home after the attack and found 12 bombs and materials to make a lot more. Authorities fear that some of the bombs made there have already been distributed to other terrorists in the U.S., who may be planning more attacks, the source said.
Some theorize that the husband-wife team left three pipe bombs that were made into one bomb with a detonator at the scene of the rampage in San Bernardino, hoping to detonate the bomb when responders arrived.
