FBI Hunts for Electronic Trail That Could Link San Bernardino Shooters to Foreign Terror Groups – LA Times

This article originally appeared in the Los Angeles Times:

As FBI divers continue to paddle the murky waters of a lake in San Bernardino, the federal investigation into the massacre at a county health department gathering is reaching a critical juncture: Whom were the two shooters in contact with?

Officials have described Syed Rizwan Farook and his wife, Tashfeen Malik, as “self-radicalized” terrorists since they killed 14 people and wounded 21 in the Dec. 2 attack.

But several federal law enforcement officials, speaking confidentially Friday and Saturday because the investigation is ongoing, are also concerned that the two shooters could have been jointly or independently in direct contact with members of one or more foreign terror operations.

The Islamic State group has described both shooters as “supporters” but has not claimed responsibility for the attack, unlike its immediate move to do so after the Paris terrorist assaults last month. The couple had pledged allegiance to the terror organization shortly before they launched their assault on the Inland Regional Center.

Whether Farook and Milk were ordered to carry out a terrorist attack may well be determined based on what the divers bring up from the bottom of Seccombe Lake.

Read the rest at the Los Angeles Times.