An ISIS Connection?

Updated information about the San Bernadino shooting has verified that one of the shooters was indeed Syed Farook who worked for the Inland Regional Center and the other was his wife Tashfeen Malik.

There are rumors that Malik, who was Pakistani and met Farook in Saudi Arabia, had "pledged allegiance" to Islamic State leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi in a Facebook posting Wednesday.

Other reports claim that Farook destroyed computer hard drives and other electronics prior to the attack and had left the party at the social services center after an argument with someone who supposedly denounced the "inherent dangers of Islam."

Now, let's note that none of these reports have been substantiated regardless of the fact they are claimed to be from US government sources but Fox News is already broadcasting the Malik pledge as fact.

Assuming that these reports if not 100% accurate are at least close to the truth, then we have a case of radicalized Muslims at least sympathetic to ISIS possibly being set off by a workplace argument.

Whether there was any formal contact between Malik and ISIS is yet to be seen.

This is an attack on a soft target consistent with the attacks in Paris so it wouldn't particularly surprise me if it was at least indirectly related to an ISIS campaign even though the precise target and timing may have been triggered by the argument.

You cannot protect all of the soft targets. There are simply too many of them. You have to focus on not allowing potential terrorists to amass the means to make such an attack.

Unfortunately that's a lot easier said than done.