Active Shooter San Bernardino

[elfismiles]

Yeah, less interested in the alleged ARRESTED 3rd shooter than the FIRST REPORTED 3rd Shooter seen at the scene.

ETA:
This just in!
Here’s what happened to the third San Bernardino shooting suspect
http://www.sbsun.com/general-news/20151 ... ng-suspect
Bottom line:

“Initial (information) was chaotic and indicated three may have been involved,” he tweeted on Monday. “Extensive follow up interviews have shown two were involved.”

....
She’s less sympathetic to the people apparently spreading hoax images, repurposed from other terrorist incidents.

“If there’s really more information, the authorities will follow up,” she said. “But just creating fictitious images of attackers, not helpful, not helpful. There are limited law enforcement resources, so you really don’t want law enforcement to engaged in wild goose chases.”

The official story makes sense from Levenson’s experience as a prosecutor.

“In my experience, the most likely explanation is that this person had other small matters involving the law that they didn’t want to get caught up in,” she said. “They’re in shock, they didn’t want to be there. All of those are more likely explanations than they were a third shooter.”

But Levenson said such explanations are unlikely to satisfy everyone:

“People are still trying to find the person on the grassy knoll,” she said. “Some people will make this their life’s work.”

Of course this just shoves the eye witness reports of a third shooter, all being male, and focusing on the report of someone running away from the shooting site...

[AlicetheKurious]

I'm sorry, but I couldn't resist.

[Wombaticus Rex]

Huh. Please bear in mind, these events happened in NC, not CA.

Via: http://gawker.com/nothing-about-this-ar ... 1748092568

Nothing About This Army Exercise During the San Bernardino Shooting Makes Sense

Gabrielle Bluestone

As news of the San Bernardino shooting broke, three soldiers dressed in plain clothes decided it was the right time to start touring North Carolina elementary schools, asking “suspicious” questions and generally freaking everyone out.

It’s a weird story: The men were apparently in the area on official Army business—except no one could confirm it at the time, and officials were never warned in accordance with normal procedure. That oversight, it seems, may have been because the men were never authorized to visit the elementary schools—a vaguely unsettling choice they made “on their own initiative.”

The details, via the Jacksonville Daily News:

"The men had gone to White Oak Elementary and Bogue Sound Elementary schools after noon on Wednesday and were asking questions as to whether the schools were designated as crisis evacuation centers, according to a press release from the sheriff’s office. The men were asked for ID and showed what officials say looked like military style ID cards and said they were from Fort Bragg, according to CCSO. Those IDs, however, were not verified at the time, and local military installations subsequently told investigators that there were not any exercises or security assessments underway in Carteret County."

People were reportedly so concerned that the men might be connected to the San Bernardino attack that the Sheriff’s Office ended up sending out a public press release asking for help in identifying them. Eventually officials were able to confirm the men were part of “an official exercise that deployed teams to gather information in preparation for major disasters including military incidents, hurricane and flooding disasters, and locating food banks and shelter locations.” Except—elementary schools were decidedly not part of the investigation.

“This particular one fell through the cracks,” Carteret County Sheriff Asa Buck said in an understated press release.

[zangtang]

priceless!

[PufPuf93]

Huh. Please bear in mind, these events happened in NC, not CA.

Via: http://gawker.com/nothing-about-this-ar ... 1748092568

Nothing About This Army Exercise During the San Bernardino Shooting Makes Sense

Gabrielle Bluestone

As news of the San Bernardino shooting broke, three soldiers dressed in plain clothes decided it was the right time to start touring North Carolina elementary schools, asking “suspicious” questions and generally freaking everyone out.

It’s a weird story: The men were apparently in the area on official Army business—except no one could confirm it at the time, and officials were never warned in accordance with normal procedure. That oversight, it seems, may have been because the men were never authorized to visit the elementary schools—a vaguely unsettling choice they made “on their own initiative.”

The details, via the Jacksonville Daily News:

"The men had gone to White Oak Elementary and Bogue Sound Elementary schools after noon on Wednesday and were asking questions as to whether the schools were designated as crisis evacuation centers, according to a press release from the sheriff’s office. The men were asked for ID and showed what officials say looked like military style ID cards and said they were from Fort Bragg, according to CCSO. Those IDs, however, were not verified at the time, and local military installations subsequently told investigators that there were not any exercises or security assessments underway in Carteret County."

People were reportedly so concerned that the men might be connected to the San Bernardino attack that the Sheriff’s Office ended up sending out a public press release asking for help in identifying them. Eventually officials were able to confirm the men were part of “an official exercise that deployed teams to gather information in preparation for major disasters including military incidents, hurricane and flooding disasters, and locating food banks and shelter locations.” Except—elementary schools were decidedly not part of the investigation.

“This particular one fell through the cracks,” Carteret County Sheriff Asa Buck said in an understated press release.

See: http://www.psywarrior.com/4thpog.html

The 4th Psychological Operations Group (Airborne) at Fort Bragg, NC, is the only active Army psychological operations unit. It constitutes 26 percent of all U.S. Army psychological operations units; the remaining 74 percent being filled by reservists.

The mission of the 4th Psychological Operations Group (Airborne) is to deploy anywhere in the world on short notice, and plan, develop, and conduct Civil Affairs and Psychological operations in support of Unified Commanders, coalition forces, or other government agencies as directed by the National Command Authority.

more at link


USAPO has a facebook and are recruiting:

https://www.facebook.com/FortBraggPSYOP


US Army Psychological Operations (MISO) Recruiting

Yesterday at 10:05am ·
.
To All Fort Bragg Soldiers,
Come and Join us this Thursday the 17th of December for a PSYOP open house at Sport USA, Fort Bragg, NC. The event will be held between the hours of 1100-1900. We dedicated this time for you to get more information about the PSYOP mission and regiment. Both Regional and Tactical PSYOP teams will be on site to answer all questions and concerns IRT PSYOP that you may have. Officers will also be on site to speak to any YG 13 officers that are interested in PSYOP. Come out and join us for this event and as always help us spread the word.

Recall:

http://www.counterpunch.org/2000/03/26/cnn-and-psyops/

March 26, 2000

CNN AND PSYOPS

by CounterPunch News Service

Military personnel from the Fourth Psychological Operations Group based at Fort Bragg, in North Carolina, have until recently been working in CNN’s hq in Atlanta.

CNN is up in arms about our report in the last issue of CounterPunch concerning the findings of the Dutch journalist, Abe de Vries about the presence of US Army personnel at CNN, owned by Time-Warner. We cited an article by de Vries which appeared on February 21 in the reputable Dutch daily newspaper Trouw, originally translated into English and placed on the web by Emperor’s Clothes. De Vries reported that a handful of military personnel from the Third Psychological Operations Battalion, part of the airmobile Fourth Psychological Operations Group based at Fort Bragg, in North Carolina, had worked in CNN’s hq in Atlanta.

More at link.

[Wombaticus Rex]

Thank you for explicating my shorthand implications.

I was perhaps being too obscure / certain of everyone sharing my context.

[PufPuf93]

Thank you for explicating my shorthand implications.

I was perhaps being too obscure / certain of everyone sharing my context.

Never too obscure.

I find that much at RI is above my pay grade and hence over my head.

[MacCruiskeen]

Someone please post one (1) eyewitness account that says the attackers were a giant/midget tagteam.


The Islamist Bonnie & Clyde

[MacCruiskeen]

"She's probably about 90lbs." She would have to be at least ten pounds heavier than that to just-barely enter the lower end of that list [of standard-adult-sized women].

[MacCruiskeen]

I have heard of women putting on weight after pregnancy, but never yet of them putting on height.

[stickdog99]

The Mysterious Four Hours Between Shooting and Getting Shot Up

The killers left behind a long rash of questions, not the least of which is the mystery of the four hours between the 11 a.m. terrorist attack and the 3 p.m. gun battle.

Authorities have not released any information on what Farook and Malik were doing in those four hours. But a law enforcement official said on Monday that investigators do have some information about where the shooters were. The official would not provide specific details other than to say that it involved the use of cellphone data.

Just before the attack, Malik went on Facebook and declared, on behalf of herself and Farook, allegiance to the leader of the Islamic State, officials have said. The shooters apparently smashed their cellphones later and disposed of them. But law enforcement officials have technologies that can triangulate the location of suspects based on where and when a device connects to cellphone towers.

Some rental-car companies have tracking technology on their vehicles, but authorities have not indicated that they have such data in this case.

Law enforcement sources have speculated that Farook and Malik originally intended to shoot up a school or a college. Officials have been quoted in multiple media reports saying that Farook's digital trail included images of schools, but cautioned that this might have been simply part of his job as a county health inspector.

What's striking is the couple's movements in their final, mad dash when chased by police.

The police were tipped, soon after the mass shooting at the Inland Regional Center, that Farook had been at the training session there that morning and had left roughly 20 minutes before two masked killers came into the room and started firing. Police then staked out Farook's rental apartment in Redlands, which is about seven miles by car from the IRC.

The Los Angeles Times, in a reconstruction of the chase and gun battle, reported that several hours after the massacre, two plainclothes detectives saw a black SUV do a slow drive-by of the apartment.

Police had been searching for a black SUV for hours. Multiple officers, led by one from the Redlands police department, pursued the SUV on the Interstate 10 freeway, going west - back into the city of San Bernardino.

Then the SUV, with Farook driving, exited the freeway at Tippecanoe Street, going north. Tippecanoe is the last exit prior to Waterman Avenue, which is where the IRC is located and which had been blocked off by police. The SUV reached San Bernardino Avenue and turned back to the east.

The movements are enigmatic, but it is possible that the terrorists contemplated returning to the scene of their earlier atrocity. Hundreds of first responders had gathered there, along with members of the media. The second attack might have been at the same location as the first one - a kind of suicide mission meant to inflict maximum casualties and add to the list of victims many people who wear a uniform.

Until the FBI, which is running the investigation, provides more information to the public, the movements of the terrorists in those four hours will remain mysterious. But in the meantime, there is mounting evidence that Farook and Malik were hardly criminal masterminds.

In addition to the most obvious mistake - returning to the home where they lived with their baby and Farook's mother, and being seen by the stakeout - the killers struggled with their gear.

Authorities say they tried to make one of their military-style semiautomatic rifles fully automatic - converting it into a machine gun. They failed. They assembled a pipe bomb and left it at the conference room, among the bodies of their victims, but authorities described the remote-control device they hoped to use as a "toy" remote and said it proved to be a dud.

They tried to cover their digital tracks, smashing two cellphones. But they apparently threw them into a trash can near their home, and they were quickly found and are being examined by FBI forensic researchers.

The FBI believes that they tried to dispose of a computer hard drive and other items by throwing them into a pond in a park about two miles from the massacre. Divers retrieved material that is now being examined as possible evidence in the case.

Authorities do not yet know the scope of the conspiracy to carry out the terror attack, or even if anyone other than Farook or Malik knew about it. Enrique Marquez, a 24-year-old neighbor of Farook's who bought the rifles, has been extensively interrogated but not yet charged with a crime.

Victoria Landeros endured the terrifying gun battle. She was told by her daughter, Rosalind, that there was gunfire outside. Victoria, who has lived in her home for 60 years, called 911.

"Stay indoors! Do not go outside!" the dispatcher told her.

Her house still has a bullet hole in the frame of the living room window. The police had come along after the shooting and given the bullet hole a number: "120."

John Situmeang, 71, who has lived in his home for 22 years and boasts citrus trees loaded with ripe fruit at this time of year, said Monday that on Dec. 2 he and his wife had just finished lunch when the gunfire erupted. They saw police cars line up along their side yard. They lay down on the carpet in their living room, trying to make themselves as flat as possible.

"Even now, I'm scared - if I hear helicopters or police," he said.

Crime tourists drive by the scene and stop to look around. The asphalt has been treated in the place where the SUV stopped and where Farook died.

There are nuggets of automobile glass, but no sign of blood. Police have collected the bullets and shell casings. Ngo said he's contacted his insurance company about the bullet-riddled fence.

[MacCruiskeen]

The movements are enigmatic, but it is possible that the terrorists contemplated returning to the scene of their earlier atrocity.

The lengths these hacks will go to to avoid even thinking the thinkable!

[stickdog99]

We Mind Very Much What You Post

WASHINGTON -- The Obama administration is reviewing procedures for vetting would-be immigrants, with an eye toward examining applicants' online presence, to close security gaps in the U.S. visa system, the White House said Monday.

White House spokesman Josh Earnest said the Homeland Security and State departments have been asked to review the process for screening people who apply for visas and to return with specific recommendations.

The Homeland Security Department said it is specifically reviewing policies on when authorities at U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services can look at social media posts as part of the vetting process for would-be immigrants applying for certain visas. ...

Earnest did not provide specifics of the security review for visas, but said one consideration going forward is resources. The government approved more than 9.9 million visa applications during the 2014 budget year. The department said three pilot programs to specifically incorporate "appropriate" social media reviews into its vetting process were launched in the last year and the department is looking at other ways to use social media posts. ...

"We want to look at how our immigration process for a visa for a spouse broke down, that they didn't notice the radicalization," Burr said. Certain DHS officials are currently allowed to look at social media posts as part of law enforcement investigations. The possible policy changes are being considered at USCIS, the DHS agency in charge of managing immigration benefits cases and interviewing green card applicants.

[stickdog99]

http://www.cbsnews.com/news/could-polic ... t-attacks/

Following the Dec. 2 San Bernardino massacre that left 14 people dead and 22 injured, authorities have been trying to piece together the background of husband-and-wife shooters Syed Rizwan Farook and Tashfeen Malik and the digital trail they left online. Authorities say Facebook posts by Malik dating as far back as 2012 -- well before her marriage to Farook -- expressed her support for radical, violent jihad.

CBS News has learned that Malik had private chats on Facebook with her sister where she pledged support for violent jihad and said she wanted to participate. These post began before Malik came to the United States and continued after she arrived.

Yet those warning signs were never seen by U.S. officials who granted Malik a K-1 "fiancée" visa to enter the country, prompting new questions about what the government and tech companies should be doing to prevent such threats from slipping through the cracks. ...

How feasible is it to evaluate posts on Facebook or Twitter as part of a screening process -- especially if people aren't posting under their real names? It's possible, but complicated. Individual investigations would slow down the visa process, potentially hurting business and tourism. And the tech industry has pushed back against past efforts to enlist it in reporting users' content to the government, citing privacy concerns. ...

Facebook has managed to block ISIS-related accounts and posts more effectively than other sites, Steve Stalinsky, executive director of Middle East Media Research, told Wired magazine last month: "Of all the companies, they're the leader and the best at removing content." ...

"From a technical point of view, analytics, natural language artificial intelligence, and sentiment analysis software have all reached the stage that given a body of information (like Facebook postings), it is reasonable to expect them to be able to identify threatening communication," Gewirtz wrote in an email. "That said, it's far from 100 percent and there would also be false positives. Even so, the 'that doesn't seem right' postings could be flagged."

From the legal point of view, Gewirtz added that there are regulations that "require or compel" companies to participate in criminal investigations with the government.

But ethically, companies do face some murky waters.

"How do you separate a high-vitriol comment in the heat of an election season from legitimate threats?" Gewirtz asked. "And is it right for all of us to be watched and potentially flagged to the government? Would we then use or trust these services?"

Gewirtz suggested that one way of dealing with these concerns would be to adjust "the parameters for who to watch." For example, "recent immigrants from certain nations might be reasonable to include in a scan," he said, "while cranky 'Uncle George' in Alabama has been there for 70 years and there's no reason to scan his discussions."

Further complicating things in a case like Malik's is that she published these posts under an alias account, a U.S. law enforcement source told CBS News.

"Facebook does its best to generate accurate identity information," Gewirtz said of trying to identify people who post under false names. "While this is far from perfect ... the 'friending' system of Facebook does provide a data-based bank of raw material with which such a validation could be performed." (He also pointed out that many people want to protect their identities on social media for legitimate reasons -- perhaps because they have health issues, fear persecution, or were the victim of a stalker.) ...

While we may not want to be defined by our Facebook profiles, and people are more complicated than a collection of status updates and "likes," social media could still hold clues worth investigating further.

"Sometimes, social media can be a better representation of who a person is than anything else," Tyler Cohen Wood, a cyber security advisor for Inspired eLearning, told CBS News.

[MacCruiskeen]

WASHINGTON -- The Obama administration is reviewing procedures for vetting would-be immigrants, with an eye toward examining applicants' online presence, to close security gaps in the U.S. visa system, the White House said Monday. [...] The department said three pilot programs to specifically incorporate "appropriate" social media reviews into its vetting process were launched in the last year and the department is looking at other ways to use social media posts.

Damn. I had planned to retire to Death Valley.

In fact, I guess this means many of us posting here will never be allowed to enter the USA again. (And those of you who live there already may never be allowed to leave it, unless you agree to wear a uniform.)

Kali Yuga, here we come!