San Bernardino terrorist Syed Farook is suspected to have planned a terror attack in 2012, according to new reports.
Though President Barack Obama told the nation on Sunday evening that there was “no evidence” that Farook and his wife, Tashfeek Malik, were part of a “conspiracy,” CNN reports that Farook “conspired in 2012” with someone else to commit a terrorist attack, and that “a specific target was considered.”
Ultimately, CNN cites sources as saying, Farook became afraid and did not launch the attack as planned.
Breitbart News noted earlier Wednesday that local news sources indicated that Farook had focused on a specific local high school, Carter High School, taking several pictures of it on his cell phone. It is not known if the school was targeted in the 2012 attack.
The year of Farook’s earlier conspiracy is significant. Farook was hired by the county health department as an environmental health specialist trainee in 2012. That raises the possibility that he may have taken the job with terrorist attack in mind–either at his workplace, or at the schools and restaurants to which his job as a restaurant health inspector would provide him easy access.
Reports on Tuesday indicated that Farook had visited 11 local school cafeterias. More recent reports indicate that those schools have been checked for security risks. In addition, Stephen F. Hayes of the Weekly Standard points out, police scanner chatter during the race to find the terrorists last week mentioned that Farook had been the target of a Los Angeles police investigation.
One officer asked: “I just got some info from that LAPD that they have information on one of your suspects. I heard that somebody was trying to INV that guy. Can you find out who I can give this information to?”
The reply: “I had received a call [garbled] that had some information that they had ran the guy or something last week and I was going to give it to your intel guys.”
Neither Farook nor Malik were on terror watch lists.