The FBI has said the couple declared they were acting on behalf of
Islamic State. But FBI Director James Comey has said there was no
evidence the militant group was aware of them before the attack.
One of the shooters in the San Bernardino massacre, Tashfeen Malik,
sent at least two private messages on Facebook to a small group of
Pakistani friends in 2012 and 2014, pledging her support for Islamic
jihad and saying she hoped to join the fight one day, the Los Angeles
Times reported on Monday.
The messages were posted
before Malik, 29, entered the United States on a K-1 fiancée visa in
July 2014, the Times said, citing two top federal law enforcement
officials.
The messages were recovered by FBI agents investigating whether she and her husband, Syed Rizwan Farook,
had been in direct contact with foreign militant organizations and were
directed to carry out the Dec. 2 attack in which 14 people were killed,
the Times reported.
The Times said the Facebook
messages indicate for the first time that U.S. law enforcement and
intelligence officials missed warnings on social media that Malik was a
potential threat before she applied for her U.S. visa.
One
of the officials characterized the messages as "her private
communications ... to a small group of her friends," according to the
Times. The official added, "it went only to this small group in
Pakistan." The official said they were written in Urdu, an official
language of Pakistan.
The second official said
Malik "expressed her desire" in one of the posts to become an Islamic
militant in her own right, the Times said. Both officials spoke on
condition of anonymity, the newspaper said.
U.S.
officials have said their investigation has yet to turn up evidence that
foreign militants directed Farook or Malik when they stormed a holiday
gathering of Farook's co-workers and opened fire with assault-style
rifles.
The couple fatally shot 14 people and
wounded more than 20 in a rampage the FBI said it was treating as an act
of terrorism inspired by Islamist militants.
Farook,
the U.S.-born son of Pakistani immigrants, and Malik, a Pakistani
native he married last year in Saudi Arabia, were killed in a shootout
with police hours after the assault in San Bernardino, 60 miles (100 km)
east of Los Angeles.
The FBI has said the couple declared they were acting on behalf of Islamic State. But FBI Director James Comey has said there was no evidence the militant group was aware of them before the attack.
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