PrintWhy did Syed Farook take out $28,500 in loans shortly before terror attack?
With this new evidence, I think we can put to rest the notion that the San Bernardino terrorists acted on the spur of the moment due to something someone said to Syed Farook at the luncheon.
About two weeks before the attack that killed 14, $28,500 was deposited into the terrorist's bank account. Investigators believe the money was a loan from WebBank, an online consumer loan company. Over the next several days, Farook made several large withdrawals.
What did he do with the money?
On or about Nov.20, Fox News is told Farook converted $10,000 to cash, and withdrew the money at a Union Bank branch in San Bernardino. Afterwards, in the days before the shooting, there were at least three transfers of $5,000 that appear to be to Farook’s mother.
The loan and large cash withdrawal were described to Fox News by the source as “significant evidence of pre-meditation,” and further undercut the premise that an argument at the Christmas party on Dec. 2 led to the shooting.
Fox News is also told that investigators are exploring whether the $10,000 cash withdrawal was used to reimburse Enrique Marquez, the man who bought the two semiautomatic rifles used in the San Bernardino shootings. Marquez is now reportedly answering investigators’ questions.
“Right now our major concern at the FBI, the ATF, and the JTTF (Joint Terrorism Task Force) is determining how those firearms, the rifles in particular, got from Marquez to Farook and to Malik,” assistant special agent in charge with the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms, John D’Angelo, told reporters in California Monday.
At the same news conference, authorities said the weapons were all legally purchased in California between 2007 and 2012.
The source, who was not authorized to speak on the record about the federal investigation, said there is further evidence of pre-meditation with a charge for the SUV rental processing on Farook’s account Nov. 30, two days before the shooting.
Did Farook's mother put her house up as collateral for the loan? The terrorist made $53,000 a year, which would have made securing a loan of that size difficult. More to the point, what did he do with that $10,000? Terrorism is an expensive enterprise, and there are any number of things – or people – Farook might have had to pay off.
One thing is absolutely certain: the attack was not because some evangelical messianic Jew insulted Islam at the luncheon. This was a cold-blooded, carefully planned assault designed to kill as many people as possible in the shortest period of time. And there are growing indications that others may have knowingly – or unknowingly – assisted the terrorists in carrying out the attack.
