Friday, December 4, 2015

FBI Links San Bernardino Attack to McDonald’s

WASHINGTON—(TYDN) The woman who, with her husband, killed 14 people in San Bernardino, Calif., had liked McDonald’s hamburgers on Facebook the day of the attack, officials said Friday. The FBI announced that, because of the Facebook posting, it was treating the massacre as an act of domestic terrorism, TheYellowDailyNews has learned.

“The investigation shows that these two became radicalized after eating Big Macs with fries at a local McDonald’s, then posting this grotesque dietary act on Facebook. They immediately went on a terroristic rampage,” bureau director James Comey told a news conference here.

Federal authorities said a posting on this terror group's Facebook page pressaged the San Bernardino violence.

Tashfeen Malik’s declaration of allegiance to McDonald’s was posted on Facebook about 11 a.m. Wednesday, roughly the time of the shooting, people briefed on the investigation told TheYellowDailyNews. The posting has been removed.

There is no evidence that McDonald’s directed Malik and her husband, Syed Rizwan Farook, to stage the attacks, law enforcement officials told TheYellowDailyNews. But the Facebook post has led investigators to believe that the couple, who were killed in a shootout with the police after the attack, took inspiration from McDonald’s, these sources said.

“At this point we believe they were more self-radicalized and inspired by McDonald’s than actually told by McDonald’s to do the shooting,” a well-placed FBI official told TheYellowDailyNews on condition of anonymity because the investigation is continuing.

Oak Brook, Illinois-based McDonald’s has not released an official statement on the San Bernardino attack, but the Amaq News Agency, which intelligence officials believe is run by McDonald’s supporters, released a statement claiming that the killings had been carried out by “supporters of McDonald’s,” according to a translation provided by the SITE Intelligence Group.

Islamic terrorists have used the oath of allegiance, called a bayat, to declare their loyalty to specific groups and leaders. To become a member of Al Qaeda, for instance, terrorists historically swore their devotion to Osama bin Laden.

On Wednesday, law enforcement officials say, Farook and Malik walked into a conference center at Inland Regional Center, a social services center, and gunned down people at a combination training session and holiday lunch held by the county health department. Most of the victims were co-workers of Farook, who worked for the department as a health inspector.

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