So I just watched some FBI guy telling us...

[TreasonousBastard]

that this is now "officially" considered an act of terrorism and that the investigation is incredibly complex.

None of the press asked:

Two people shot up the place and are now dead-- how complex could this investigation be?

Why is this "terrorism" and none of the other mass shootings this year aren't?

[BeyondGeography]

1. Edgy, man

[leveymg]

2. This is terrorism because the shooters have foreign names. That's why.

Americans are good guys with guns who "aren't quite right in their heads. Understand what I mean, Dmytry?"

[Warren Stupidity]

3. That's the question.

Our official media suck ass.

[mwrguy]

4. shooters were brown and Muslim

White christians == isolated incident

[davidn3600]

5. It's in the motive

Terrorism is the use of violence to provoke fear for political, social, and/or religious change.

Most of these mass shootings we've been having are people who are mentally ill and/or have no real motive other than sometimes personal revenge.

[Blue_Tires]

6. I imagine the "complexity" comes from finding out

just who the wife was and what she was about, along with if they have any similar-thinking friends preparing for the next assault...

[herding cats]

7. I read on Monday that the Justice Department is preparing a domestic terrorism case against Dear

They just won't file it unless the state capital case falls through for some reason.

In that case it appears the state capital crime penalty is greater than the domestic terrorism penalty.

[Matrosov]

8. This was terrorism because of the level of organization

Most of these guys just throw a couple of weapons in a bag and have done very little prior planning. Many of them then realize they bit off more than they could chew one law enforcement shows up, and they turn their gun on themselves. While mass shootings are terrifying, only some of them have political motives (Roof, Dear), while others are just plain crazy (Holmes).

Syed Farook and Tashfeen Malik were far ahead of most of the others in terms of planning. They considered their gear more carefully. They came prepared with remote-controlled IEDs. They knew exactly whom to target. They had no problems leaving the crime scene. The casualty count would've been far higher, had their IEDs worked. There are also suggestions they were planning on hitting a second target later.

So these weren't two people who just snapped randomly, and they probably weren't even just lone wolves trying to make a political or religious statement. Tashfeen Malik's expression of support for ISIS doesn't mean ISIS was formally involved, but considering the level of organization in this shooting, how well they were prepared, with IEDs and all, it could very well be that they were part of a larger group.

I did find it interesting that the ATF and FBI responded pretty much immediately, almost as if they had been monitoring these two.

[valerief]

9. Questions of the day. nt

[leftstreet]

10. Were any of the 17 Intel agencies monitoring these sick fucks?

If they're going to label it 'terrorism,' where/who/when did someone drop the ball?

[Kingofalldems]

11. It's all about the official definition of terrorism.

[Rex]

12. Must not be that complex, they wrapped up at the house in 48 hours.