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 While the FBI said it lacked evidence the couple belonged to a
larger organization of extremists, the Los Angeles Times cited a
federal law enforcement source in reporting that the husband, Syed
Rizwan Farook, 28, had contact with at least two militant groups
overseas, including the al Qaeda-affiliated Nusra Front in Syria.
Both the U.S.-born husband and his spouse, Tashfeen Malik, 29, a
native of Pakistan who lived in Saudi Arabia for more than 20 years,
died in a shootout with police hours after Wednesday's attack on a
holiday party at the Inland Regional Center social services agency
in San Bernardino, about 60 miles (100 km) east of Los Angeles.
If the mass shooting proves to have been the work of people inspired
by Islamist militants, as investigators now suspect, it would mark
the deadliest such attack in the United States since Sept. 11, 2001.
Federal Bureau of Investigation officials said mounting signs of
advanced preparations, the large cache of armaments amassed by the
couple and evidence that they "attempted to destroy their digital
fingerprints" helped tip the balance of the investigation.
 "Based on the information and the facts as we know them, we are now
investigating these horrific acts as an act of terrorism," David
Bowdich, assistant director of the Federal Bureau of Investigation's
Los Angeles office, said at a news conference.
Bowdich said the FBI hoped examination of data retrieved from two
smashed cellphones and other electronic devices seized in the
investigation would lead to a motive for the attack.
The couple had two assault-style rifles, two semi-automatic
handguns, 6,100 rounds of ammunition and 12 pipe bombs in their home
or with them when they were killed, officials said. And Bowdich said
they may have been planning an additional attack.
PLEDGE OF ALLEGIANCE
One startling disclosure came from social media network Facebook,
which confirmed that comments praising Islamic State were posted
around the time of the mass shooting to a Facebook account
established under an alias by Malik. However, it was uncertain
whether the comments were posted by Malik herself or someone with
access to her page.
A Facebook Inc spokesman said the profile in question was removed by
the company on Thursday for violating its community standards
barring promotion or praise for "acts of terror." He declined to
elaborate on the material.
But CNN and other news media outlets reported that Malik's Facebook
posts included a pledge of allegiance to Islamic State leader Abu
Bakr al-Baghdadi.
 Asked about a reported Facebook post by Malik on the day of the
attack pledging loyalty to Islamic State, Bowdich said, "I know it
was in a general timeline where that post was made, and yes, there
was a pledge of allegiance."
While Malik and her husband may have been inspired by Islamic State,
there was no evidence the attack was directed by the militant group,
or that the organization even knew who they were, U.S. government
sources said. Islamic State, which has seized large swaths of Syria
and Iraq, claimed responsibility for the Nov. 13 attacks in Paris in
which gunmen and suicide bombers killed 130 people.
Speaking to reporters separately in Washington, FBI Director James
Comey said the investigation pointed to "radicalization of the
killers and of potential inspiration by foreign terrorist
organizations."
But no evidence has been uncovered yet suggesting the killers were
"part of an organized larger group, or form part of a cell," Comey
said. "There is no indication that they are part of a network."
Bowdich said neither Farook nor Malik had been under investigation
by the FBI or other law enforcement agency prior to Wednesday.
And none of the contacts federal agents have since discovered
between the couple and the subjects of other FBI inquiries "were of
such a significance that it raised these killers up onto our radar
screen," Comey said.
Citing an unnamed federal law enforcement official, the Los Angeles
Times reported late on Friday that Farook had "some kind" of contact
with people from the Nusra Front and the radical Shabab group in
Somalia. But the nature of that contact and with whom was unclear,
the Times said.
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The official also was quoted by the Times as saying a key question
in the investigation "is if they had any weapons or terror training
in Pakistan."
FAMILY UNAWARE OF EXTREMIST VIEWS
Farook family attorneys, holding a news conference in Los Angeles,
denied there was any evidence that either the husband or wife
harbored extremist views.
"She was like a typical housewife," lawyer David Chesley said,
describing Malik as "caring, soft-spoken" and a devout Muslim who
prayed five times a day, chose not to drive and "kept pretty well
isolated."
She spoke broken English and her primary language was Urdu, he said,
adding, "She was very conservative."
They said Farook, too, largely kept to himself, had few friends and
said co-workers sometimes made fun of his beard.
Farook, born in Illinois to Pakistani immigrant parents, earned over
$50,000 a year as an inspector for the San Bernardino County
Department of Environment Health, the agency whose holiday party he
and Malik are accused of attacking on Wednesday.
Investigators are looking into a report that Farook had an argument
with a co-worker who denounced the "inherent dangers of Islam" prior
to the shooting, a U.S. government source said.
The couple's landlord in the town of Redlands opened their townhouse
to media on Friday, leading to a flurry of reporters and camera
crews surveying the scene after the FBI had finished conducting its
24-hour-long search of the premises.
The landlord later asked media to leave the home.
The couple and their 6-month-old daughter shared the home with
Farook's mother, in whose care they left the child on Wednesday
morning, saying they had a doctor's appointment, according to family
representatives.
Child welfare authorities have taken custody of the baby, and
Farook's relatives were seeking return of the infant, Abuershaid
said.
Pakistani intelligence officials have contacted Malik's family in
her homeland as part of the investigation, a family member said.
Malik's uncle, Javed Rabbani, said in an interview with Reuters that
the family was "in shock." He also said his brother, Malik's father,
had become considerably more conservative since moving with his
family to Saudi Arabia a quarter century ago.
Tashfeen Malik had not come to the attention of authorities while
living in Saudi Arabia, according to a source close to the Saudi
government. She had moved back to Pakistan five or six years ago to
study pharmacy, Pakistani officials said.
The San Bernardino attacks have raised concerns among
Muslim-Americans of an anti-Islamic backlash. Two days after the San
Bernardino attacks, a Reuters/Ipsos poll showed 51 percent of
Americans view Muslims living in the United States the same as any
other community, while 14.6 percent were generally fearful of
Muslims.
(Additional reporting by Mehreen Zahra-Malik in Islamabad, Idrees
Ali and Doina Chiacu in Washington; Rory Carroll, Tim Reed and
Yasmeen Abutaleb in San Bernardino; Curtis Skinner in San Francisco;
Sharon Bernstein in Sacramento and Suzannah Gonzales in Chicago;
Writing by Scott Malone and Steve Gorman; Editing by Bill Trott,
Lisa Shumaker, Toni Reinhold)
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