A little over a week ago, President Obama was making the case that the most significant security threat was climate change and asserting that ISIS posed no credible threat to the US homeland.

In the wake of the San Bernardino massacre of 14 Americans on the homeland, it is clear that the presidential fantasies and the national realities are quite different. The FBI has formally declared the incident is being investigated as an act of terrorism:

“The San Bernardino, California, mass shooting is now being investigated as “an act of terrorism,” FBI official David Bowdich said Friday. Bowdich said the FBI “uncovered evidence … of extreme planning.” He said some phone conversations between at least one of the shooters and other people are being investigated. The announcement means the FBI has become the lead investigative agency, taking over from San Bernardino police. The announcement came several hours after a revelation about Tashfeen Malik, the female shooter in the Wednesday massacre that left 14 dead and 21 wounded.”

The PBS News Hour offers this clip of the joint press conference At a joint presser with the San Bernardino police and David Bowdich, assistant director of the FBI’s Los Angeles division:

The FBI is focused on recovering the digital footprints erased by the killers:

The Muslim husband and wife behind the mass shooting in San Bernardino began erasing their digital footprint a day in advance of the deadly attack, deleting email accounts, disposing of hard drives and smashing their cellphones, according to law enforcement investigators who are treating the probe as a counterterrorism case. Investigators edged closer Thursday to the conclusion that Syed Rizwan Farook and his wife, Tashfeen Malik, were radicalized by Islamist extremists either in the U.S. or during trips to the Middle East, including Saudi Arabia. …Authorities have tracked down at least four people from the Los Angeles area who were previously under investigation by U.S. counterterrorism officials and were found to have had communication with Farook in the past, said a law enforcement source involved in the investigation. But details about the individuals were murky. The law enforcement source said the last contact any of the four had with Farook was in June, and asserted that nothing fruitful came from the interviews about Wednesday’s attack.

Perhaps the most significant find yet: Malik pledged allegiance to the head of ISIS before carrying out the slaughter.

Tashfeen Malik pledged allegiance to the leader of ISIS just before she and her husband carried out the San Bernardino massacre, law enforcement sources told NBC News. Malik posted a statement of support for Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi on Facebook “just before the attack,” one official familiar with the issue said. Facebook said it pulled the post down after the shooting, CNBC confirmed.

I will simply point out that the vast majority of women who suffer post-partum depression do not embrace terror leaders.

Struggling to offer an alternative explanation for the obvious conclusion of terrorism, CNN’s Erin Burnett on Thursday wondered if one of the killers from Wednesday’s rampage snapped as a result of “postpartum psychosis.” This was after two former FBI agents explained to Burnett just how Tashfeen Malik was radicalized. Despite this, the CNN anchor wondered, “I just have to ask you, could there be something else, anything else, that could have explained her involvement? Something like a postpartum psychosis?” Former FBI profiler Jim Clemente calmly told Burnett that “postpartum psychosis… is typically internal.”

It is gratifying to see at least one federal agency now treating the threat of ISIS to the homeland seriously. On the other hand, it is very troubling to see our press corps descend into some sort of psychosis while reporting:

Cable networks on Friday received swift blowback for broadcasting live footage from inside the apartment of the husband and wife who killed 14 and wounded 21 others in a shooting massacre in San Bernardino, California, on Wednesday. MSNBC, CNN and Fox all showed live footage, saying the landlord of the apartment allowed them into the building, located in nearby Redlands. The networks showed someone using a crowbar to pry a wood board off the door frame of the apartment, as journalists crowded around the entryway. MSNBC, which appeared to be first in broadcasting live footage, showed the room of the 6-month-old baby of the attackers, Tashfeen Malik and Syed Rizwan Farook, who were killed in a shootout with police. NBC’s Kerry Sanders, going through the apartment with a camera operator and jostling with other media, guided viewers through photos of unidentified people, including children, and documentation, such as a driver’s license. At one point, Andrea Mitchell advised Sanders to stop showing footage of photos of children.

Prior to this attack, California Governor Jerry Brown was slated to attend the Paris conference on climate change. Despite the realities now unfolding in his state, he has not cancelled these plans…only delayed them until Saturday. Like Obama, Brown is holding on to his security fantasies.

Locally, San Diego is getting ready to hold its famed “December Nights” celebration this weekend, and security has been maximized for the event that draws over 100,000 holiday revelers. The organizers are adjusting to the new realities:

“We’ve strengthened our communication lines to make sure that we’re communicating with all of our local, state and federal law enforcement partners,” says Lt. Scott Wahl, spokesman for the San Diego Police Department (SDPD). “And what we really ask for is the community to help us with that — if they see something, if they hear something, say something to us. Grab one of the police officers, security guards there and let them know what you’re seeing, what you’re feeling and hearing so we can look into it.”

I suspect the era of race-based-security reporting concerns is over as Americans also adjust to the new security realities.



