President Obama on San Bernardino: It Is "Possible" Attack Was Terrorist-Related

[riversedge]

Source: motherjones.com

President Obama on San Bernardino: It Is "Possible" Attack Was Terrorist-Related

—By Inae Oh


| Thu Dec. 3, 2015 11:52 AM EST


In the wake of the deadly rampage in San Bernardino, California, President Obama spoke from the Oval Office on Thursday to say that while it was "possible" Wednesday's attack was related to terrorism, authorities have yet to determine the motivations behind the shooting. The president also announced that the FBI has officially taken over the investigation.

"At this stage we do not yet know why this terrible event occurred," Obama said, surrounded by members of his National Security team. "We do know that the two individuals who were killed were equipped with weapons and appeared to have additional weaponry in their homes. But we don't know why they did it. We don't know at this point the extent of their plans. We do not know their motivations"


"It is possible this was terrorist related but we don't know," he added. "It's also possible this was work related."

The president concluded his remarks by urging lawmakers to enact legislation aimed at making it more difficult for potential mass shooters to obtain weapons...................

Read more: http://www.motherjones.com/mojo/2015/12/president-obama-san-bernardino

[global1]

1. As Always The President's Statement Was Well Thought Out And Heartfelt.....

Now just picture a president Trump having to make a statement after such a tragedy. I shudder to think.

[valerief]

2. Workplace related vs. terrorist. I don't know they don't say

personal vs. terrorist.

[Abouttime]

3. I don't see terrorism here

The fact the killers were Muslim is irrelevant, this is a classic case of workplace violence and we need to treat it as such.

[DCBob]

5. It could be combination of both.

They could have been trying to make a statement and just used the workplace to carry it out.

[leftynyc]

7. You have no way of knowing that

as we don't know the motive. If you think the fact he became much more religious the last two years and brought a wife from Saudi Arabia over is meaningless, that's your choice and only your opinion.

[Codeine]

9. Oh get real.

Twist yourself into any more pretzel shapes on this and you'll need to make an appointment with a chiropractor.

The guy was in contact with foreign radicals. He was armed with bombs and assault rifles. Let us not be deliberately obtuse.

[Abouttime]

16. Really?

A person targets his coworkers= workplace violence, it's black and white here.
If they would have shot up a mall, sports complex, entertainment venue=terrorism as in Paris.
I just heard there was no GoPro or filming by the killers, another reason so many cried terror.
I can't believe so many here falling for the "terrorism!" Fox News explanation of this tragedy.

[Codeine]

23. "Fox News explanation" my ass.

I guess this is our equivalent of climate change denial.

[Throd]

39. +1 Caliphate denial

[SylviaD]

41. Caliphate denial indeed. I honestly thought ISIS was not a threat...

...to my home town, to my country.

I am rethinking my position.

What is wrong with the world?

[SylviaD]

40. Yes, unfortunately. I am very sad and very angry. Maybe I was wrong. n/t

[Igel]

47. Try spllitting the difference.

Unfortunately, 1/2 terrorism is still "terrorism."

Knew a guy in grad school. Dropped out after a year.

Ranted about oppression and persecution. The course schedule was anti-Muslim because it didn't have gaps for Muslim prayers. If a group had reserved a room on a Muslim holy day that the MSA needed, it was persecution. They served pork at school events, to corrupt Muslims. The school year wasn't set up properly for Muslim worship. Faculty didn't cut him sufficient slack for his personal devotions. It was all intentional. To persecute Muslims.

Even if it was that way for decades before there was more than the occasional Muslim student on campus. The entire system was set up to be anti-Allah and anti-Muslim. It hated Muslims.

It hated him. Personally. The goal of the entire system was to corrupt him.

Even when he was at a meeting in which we set a summer retreat date for an organization's steering committee, when that date came along he insisted it be changed. To accommodate his faith. Because otherwise it meant we hated him.

We had to change the menu, he said, even if all the plans were made and long-since set in stone. Not just to have a non-pork option--we did (heck, there were even vegetarian options). But to remove the offensive non-food from the table so he wouldn't have to be near others eating it, have his perfect sensibilities offended by seeing others consume the foul flesh of the swine.

And allowing the women on the committee to sit next to him! Often he had to stand--intentional persecution--because the only available seats were female-adjacent. One of the women made it a sport--she'd move to make sure it was boy-girl, or get up from sitting next to another woman to sit next to him. She controlled him because she knew which levers he'd handed over to her. She considered him atavistic and patriarchal. She, of course, was right.

When he learned I didn't eat pork, he called me a dirty Jew and never again spoke to me. If I sat next to him, he'd get up and move. (I'm not Jewish. Oddball Xian group was in my past, so I still observe Passover as when Jesus was crucified. And don't eat shellfish. When I told him this, he called me a liar because "all Jews are liars." Idjit.)

He was Saudi. Isolated. And a complete loon.

So I can imagine Farouk hearing one more slur against Islam or Muslims--some comment about how the good folk in Paris were disparaged after they killed a few Frenchies--and having him both deal with it as a grudge and also in a way that makes it terrorist. To strike terror into the hearts of the infidel so they learned their place as subordinate.

[pocoloco]

10. DU in denial!!

WTF

Muslim with known terrorist connections.
Filmed the massacre!

[Abouttime]

32. SB chief of police said NO gopro

This couple targeted coworkers, it's workplace violence.

[OneCrazyDiamond]

11. Classic case with a husband and wife as the attackers.

If this is not terrorism, it is a new kind of workplace shooting. They both left behind an infant.

[Bernardo de La Paz]

24. There has been no manifesto from the killers or outside groups. nt

[RKP5637]

26. It's interesting there has been nothing revealed about what the argument was

about at the center. It would seem to me that would be revealing. Maybe they just don't know.

[Stevepol]

31. I hate to say it, but IMO it's Saudi-related

just as 9/11 was Saudi-related. Nearly all the perpetrators of 9/11 were from Saudi Arabia. I'm not saying the idea came from the Saudi government, but I think there are elements in Saudi Arabia that are committed to carrying out terrorist crimes in the US and elsewhere. There are plenty of non-state actors who have access to large sums of money and who can recruit and carry out extra-governmental terrorism. They are able to act via the internet of course. They are likely very religious but with secular objectives. Islam on one side is grounded on a militaristic self-image, just as Islam is and was. Theoretically, there is not much space between the government and the mosque. The links might be hard to trace, but I think they're there. The 9/11 criminals were nearly all talented, intelligent Saudis. Somebody or some group was doing the coordinating and bankrolling. Osama Ben Laden is just one of many Saudis capable of playing that role.

I think that's what happened here. When the guy visited Saudi Arabia where he met his wife, he was likely approached by someone allied with the cabal or whatever it is (there may be several actually) who gave him the idea and the modus operandi.

As I say, this is my opinion. It would be hard, even if the FBI or CIA really pulled out all the stops, to root out the actors behind these two events, but I think it could be done.

[philosslayer]

38. The jury is still out, but at this point it still looks workplace related to me.

But again, we don't know all the facts.

[Codeine]

46. Really? Even with the pipe bomb stockpile,

the metric fuckload of ammunition, the communication with foreign terror operatives, and the RC car IED left at the shooting location?

What will it take to break the DU Wall of Obtuse Denial?

[PeteSelman]

4. It could be either or both.

We don't know the wherefores of this incident. Anyone claiming that it's 100% one thing or the other is full of shit. We don't know.

[MowCowWhoHow III]

6. Farook was in touch with more than one international terrorism subject

San Bernardino, California (CNN)(Breaking news update at 12:13 p.m. ET)

San Bernardino shooter Syed Rizwan Farook was in touch over the phone and via social media with more than one international terrorism subject who the FBI were already investigating, law enforcement officials said.

It appears that Farook was radicalized, which contributed to his motive, though other things -- like workplace grievances -- may have also played a role, other law enforcement sources said.

http://edition.cnn.com/2015/12/03/us/san-bernardino-shooting/index.html

[leftynyc]

8. You can expect excuses

for that or for it to be ignored completely. The same people who have no problem trashing Christianity when a Christian does something awful will find excuse after excuse when it comes to Islam. lather, rinse, repeat.

[MowCowWhoHow III]

12. I find the mental calisthenics darkly amusing

[leftynyc]

14. I used to

Now I'm sick of the cowards who refuse to acknowledge what's right in their faces in the name of political correctness. Bill Maher was absolutely right.

[Elmergantry]

13. You aint kidding

It was quite telling to see all the frothing at the mouth here with many already blaming white Christians without knowing the facts...Christaphobes

[leftynyc]

15. I stayed off DU last night

because it was around 8PM (NYT) that I heard about the pipe bombs, then 1/2 hour later I heard one of the perps was a woman. I KNEW then it was Islamic extremism at play. I knew I would get 100 fucking choruses of how I'm an Islamophobe for even bringing it up. I'm tired of so many cowards in my party.

[Elmergantry]

17. I hear Ya

And they wonder why Trump is getting so much support. If the PTB are unwilling to man up and address this issue, many will turn to someone you may not want in power. Think of the weak and ineffectual Weimar Republic and who replaced it.

[leftynyc]

18. Scary comparison

but extremely valid. If our party doesn't smarten up and address this issue head on, we're done. And I, for one, am not willingly handing over supreme court nominations in order to be politically correct. Fuck that.

[Angel Martin]

37. it's like Bill Clinton said:

"they'ed rather have somebody who is strong and wrong than weak and right."

(and there is even less support for weak and in denial)

[leftynyc]

42. Amen to the Big Dog (n/t)

[840high]

20. I know. I'm tired, too.

[pediatricmedic]

28. The Christianphobes are making this place look like just like the con sites

Same irrational hatred and fear.

[rockfordfile]

44. What does that mean?

Conservative Christians are a problem in our country. So can other religious extremists be a problem in our country.

[Democat]

19. It will be Bush's fault, or America's fault, or someone other than the people with the guns

And someone will bring up The Inquisition.

[leftynyc]

21. Yup

Political correctness is going to be the end of the Democratic party if we don't wise up.

[earthside]

30. I'm glad to see this pointed out.

'Political correctness' or whatever you want to call it is the same concept that kept Democrats out of the White House from 1969 to 1993 (except for Pres. Carter's four years as a reaction to Watergate).

If there is one way to make demagogues like Trump look acceptable to a majority of the electorate in 2016, it is for Democrats, liberals, progressives, etc., to look and sound like they are living in a 'politically correct' world of hypersensitivity and that they cannot deal with or accept obvious truths and facts.

Every minute that goes by is revealing that the San Bernardino massacre was terrorism perpetrated by militant Islamist jihadists. Pres. Obama's refusal to use direct, plain language in describing what happened in Paris and San Bernardino and Syria makes a Trump presidency more possible.

[leftynyc]

43. Absolutely

If we look and sound weak - and frankly not calling it Islamic terrorism is idiotic - we're done. Just watching on cnn that this couple had a bomb making factory and thousands of rounds of ammunition in their home. Anyone denying this is terrorism is living with their heads squarely up their ass.

[Blue_Tires]

22. +1

[840high]

25. When the PP shooting happened the

main page of DU was loaded with articles. Seems strange it's not = 14 people dead and DU is quiet.

[leftynyc]

33. No - not strange

If you've been here a while. This board is evidence Bill Maher was absolutely right. Many liberals have a problem with taking on the darker aspects of Islam in a way they don't have with any other religion.

[840high]

34. Thank you - you are right. Guess

I'll get my news from other sites first. BBC is one of favorites.

[leftynyc]

35. DU is a great resource

for a lot of things - it reports latest breaking news almost immediately, pulls from resources all over the world. I've been here over 10 years. But it does have a blind spot for Islam (as many liberals do).

[humbled_opinion]

27. and so....

The president concluded his remarks by urging lawmakers to enact legislation aimed at making it more difficult for potential mass shooters to obtain weapons...

The wingnuts will probably pass legislation that forbids Muslims from owning weapons....

[Iliyah]

29. It could have been a combination of both.

His wife may have an influence on him as well. They were prepared to do damage. Someone at his job could have prematurely set off the alarm and they went berserk on his co-workers.

Guns control is imperative tho.

[rockfordfile]

45. I think it's both at this point

[blueman mmxvi]

36. it WAS terrorism!!!

Jesus, this drives me nuts! I don't care if the shooters were motivated by religious extremism, workplace anger or what happened on the latest Game of Thrones episode! It's still terrorism, just like the Oklahoma City bombing was terrorism! ARRRRRRRRRRRGH!!!!!