On December 2, 2015 at the Inland Regional Center in San Bernardino, California, American-born Syed Farook and his wife Tashfeen Malik, a green-card holder born in Pakistan, shot down Robert Adams, Isaac Amianos, Bennetta Betbadal, Harry Bowman, Sierra Clayborn, Juan Espinoza, Aurora Godoy, Shannon Johnson, Larry Daniel Kaufman, Damien Meins, Tin Nguyen, Nicholas Thalasinos, Yvette Velasco, and Michael Wetzel.
Isaac Amanios, 60, immigrated from Eritrea to California in 2000 to escape violence and repression. Bennetta Betbadal, 46, fled to America with her family to “escape Islamic extremism and the persecution of Christians that followed the Iranian Revolution.” Adams, Espinoza, Johnson, Velasco and Wetzel were alumni of Cal State San Bernardino, which recalls the attack every year.
California’s attorney general at the time was Kamala Harris, a former San Francisco district attorney and girlfriend of Democrat queenmaker Willie Brown. In a December 17, 2015 statement Harris said, “we must seek justice for those who lost their lives in the recent attacks in Paris and San Bernardino.” How, exactly, the victims “lost their lives” the attorney general did not explain.
Harris warned of “the dangers of Islamophobic rhetoric” but failed to name Farook and Malik. California’s attorney general offered no insight on what motivated the two Muslims to kill 14 people and wound more than 22 others. Their victims included African Americans, Asians and Hispanics, but no word whether Farook and Malik could have been motivated by racism or hatred.
Harris brought along officials from the Muslim Public Affairs Council and CAIR, whose Los Angeles director Hussam Ayloush said “Islamophobic and xenophobic rhetoric by certain public figures has made Muslim communities an easy target for hate crimes.”
For Harris in 2015, the real problem was “Islamophobia,” an incantation to ward off any criticism of jihadist violence. As on 9/11 and Nidal Hasan’s 11/5/09 attack at Fort Hood, the FBI failed to stop the terrorists. Local police, not the FBI, tracked down the terrorists’ SUV in nearby Redlands. Farook and Malik fired at least 81 rounds at the officers, who took them down with no loss of civilian life.
As a police report notes, Farook and Malik deployed two .223-caliber rifles and 1,879 rounds of .223 ammunition. Magazines had been taped together for rapid switching and continuous fire. Police also found a 9mm handgun, 484 rounds of 9mm ammunition, and control devices for an explosive device (IED) left at the Regional Center, “for the purpose of injuring and/or killing first responders.” Along with the trigger device, police found medical supplies such as quick-clot agents, tourniquets, and emergency bandages.
Syed Farook and Tashfeen Malik had been trained, armed and financed, all without detection by the FBI. The Muslims carefully planned their attack, also without detection by the FBI, which played no role in taking down the mass murderers.
Two days after 12/2, FBI boss James Comey proclaimed “this is now a federal terrorism investigation, led by the FBI.” As Comey explained, “We are trying to understand the motives of these killers and trying to understand every detail of their lives.” Comey and attorney general Loretta Lynch did not name the “killers” whose motives were obvious to all but the willfully blind.
The Islamic State had been telling Muslims abroad to take deadly action. In January, 2015 in Paris, Islamic terrorists attacked the Charlie Hebdo satirical magazine, killing 17 people, including 11 journalists. In November, 2015, Islamic terrorist attacks in France claimed at least 130 victims. The 12/2 gathering in San Bernardino gave Farook and Malik the opportunity to murder as many non-Muslims as possible.
“A tragedy occurred,” said the composite character president David Garrow profiled in Rising Star: The Making of Barack Obama. He professed not to know “why this terrible event occurred.” No mention of terrorism, and the president failed to name Farook and Malik. He did refer to “the two individuals who were killed,” without naming any of the people the two Muslims had killed and wounded.
“It is possible that this was terrorist-related, but we don’t know,” the president said. “It’s also possible that this was workplace-related,” an echo of the “workplace violence” pronouncement of 11/5. The FBI was on it, and it’s all about “access to weapons,” and so on, in classic style.
Kamala Harris, who protested “Islamophobia” and failed to name a single victim, is now vice president. On December 2, anniversary of the San Bernardino massacre, Harris called Hamas a “brutal terrorist organization” but failed to name a single American or Israeli killed or held captive by Hamas.
For the vice president and the composite character, those killed or captured by Islamic terrorists are second-class victims. Watch for more 12/2 and 10/7 attacks in days ahead.