“A garble” (They didn’t plaster their plans all over Facebook after all)
by digby
Comey gave a briefing this morning:
The two attackers who opened fire in San Bernardino, Calif., earlier this month had not posted publicly on social media sites about supporting jihad, FBI Director James B. Comey said Wednesday.
The husband-and-wife duo were “showing signs in their communication of their joint commitment to jihad and to martyrdom” through private messages, rather than publicly visible postings, Comey said.
“Those communications are direct, private messages,” Comey said during a news conference here. “So far, in this investigation we have found no evidence of posting on social media by either of them at that period in time and thereafter reflecting their commitment to jihad or to martyrdom. I’ve seen some reporting on that, and that’s a garble.”
There is no evidence a married couple who killed 14 people in California this month were part of a terrorist cell, the head of the FBI said on Wednesday, confirming that investigators believe the pair were inspired but not directed by Islamic State.
The Islamist militant group has “revolutionized” terrorism by seeking to inspire such small-scale attacks, FBI Director James Comey said, noting the group uses social media, encrypted communications and slickly produced propaganda to recruit followers around the world.
In other words what ISIS has “revolutionized” is the use of the everyday All-American model of mass shootings. Smart of them to recognize that Americans would only be freaked out by Muslims doing what other Americans do to them every day. They’re good.
So, the media will excitedly report every mass shooting at least until we find out if it was perpetrated by a Muslim. If it wasn’t we’ll all just shrug our shoulders and move on. If it was, we’ll work ourselves up into a hysterical frenzy and shred another piece of the Bill of Rights (except for the 2nd Amendment, of course. The terrorists can’t have their constitutional right to bear arms infringed.)
It’s amazing how ISIS and the authoritarians work so well together to achieve their discrete goals.