Friend Talked of Sleeper Cells Before Rampage

Mangalore Today News Network

California, Dec 12, 2015:  The regulars did not take it seriously when Enrique Marquez mused about terrorism at Morgan’s Tavern, a dank dive bar. After a few drinks, he would just start talking - about his money woes, trying to lose weight, wanting to join the Navy. News reports about terrorism were just fodder for more bar talk.

"He would say stuff like: ’There’s so much going on. There’s so many sleeper cells, so many people just waiting. When it happens, it’s going to be big. Watch,’" said Nick Rodriguez, a frequent patron who had known Marquez on and off for the past two years. "We took it as a joke. When you look at the kid and talk to him, no one would take him seriously about that."

But nine days after a husband and wife slaughtered 14 people in a terrorist attack at a county health department meeting, Marquez, 24 - a childhood friend of the husband, Syed Rizwan Farook - has become a crucial if unlikely figure in the investigation.

While he initially checked himself into a mental-health facility after the Dec. 2 massacre in San Bernardino, he has been speaking for hours with federal investigators.

Officials believe that, more than any other witness, Marquez, a convert to Islam, has "held the keys" to understanding what motivated Farook and his wife, Tashfeen Malik, and to shedding light on whom they were in contact with in the years leading up to the attack, according to one senior law enforcement official. The couple was killed in a shootout with the police.

On behalf of Farook, Marquez bought the two assault rifles used in the attack, authorities said. He told investigators he had done so, in 2011 and 2012, because Farook believed he could not pass a background check, officials said. Marquez has also described in detail how he and Farook had been planning another terrorist attack together in 2012, authorities said.

While authorities are grateful for his cooperation, they will almost certainly charge him, officials said.

As investigators burrow into Marquez’s life, they now suspect that Farook and Malik were in the final planning stages of an assault on a location or building, perhaps a nearby school or college, according to a congressional official.

 

Courtesy: NDTV