if they determine wasn t that and just a violation of california murder statutes, then ultimately that would go back to the local officialment it doesn t matter a great deal what we just learned that based on the information collected this will be a federal-led terrorism investigation going forward. and in terms of the other people who might have been involved, i mean, we heard from local law enforcement an hour ago that they know who provided two of the guns, to farook, they were little cagey about whether that person is in custody or not. all they would say is not under arrest. but they know who that person is. there s been a lot of speculation about whether there were other people supporting them. i think what we heard from the director is not they don t see indications that there was a cell but there still might have been other people who indirectly or perhaps unknowingly supported their operation. right. i want to be precise about that. you used the word support.
going to be a method that will play as a possibility that it contributed to the terrorism. i understand what you re saying, that it s a difficult bar, to get that particular type of visa. but if it turns out that she had radical ideas before coming to the united states, certainly people will raise questions about how she was able to travel freely here. sure, but at that time, she was a citizen of saudi arabia. living in saudi arabia, she could have just flown to the united states on a regular tourist visa and come into the united states. so much higher bar, but i m not sure how it will play out in the end. hold on one moment, malcolm, because we want to go to pete williams who has been inside that press briefing with the fbi director, with the attorney general. they continued to ask questions after our cameras were turned off. pete, what did you learn? reporter: i can tell you what the fbi director told us. he said the reason they ve decided to call this a terrorism
picture to get about this couple is that they are somehow radicalized. not sure if they are just completely isis inspired or somehow isis directed. it seems to be that the fbi would be leaning to the prior of just being inspired and wanting to connect themselves to isis. but also, trying to figure out which was the person more radical than the other. was it the wife who was pakistani born? met her husband in saudi arabia. and then came to the u.s. on that fiancee visa. or was it the chicago-born husband of syed farook who as i talked to people in his community and mosque, a quiet, young guy and never imagine this is something he was capable of but as you point out the big clarification from the assistant director of the fbi l.a. division is the fact that they are investigating this now as an act of terrorism, based on the connection that is they ve been
authorities determined and pete williams reporting throughout the day regarding the isis statement and other information that presents this picture so that s what they re looking at. they are not looking at yet according to what we just heard just now from director comey the kind of plot to suggest anything operational or connected, that is to say, other people, working in tandem, what in federal law is a conspiracy sy or we think of as a sort of militarized type operation. the home grown issue, of course, is one they ve pushed for sometime. 70 indictments in 2 years either for homegrown terrorism or attempts at foreign fighters, that is to say they would argue they have a track record of catching many of these kind of people even if they re radicalized at home and the big news, of course, kate, this is operating as an investigation of an act of terror. he also said he wants americans to be on the lookout. he asked at the end there, the fbi director saying in almost every case we inv
online that seems off, it will get to the right people. and we ll investigate quickly and responsibly. we investigate in secret so that we don t smear innocent people. we don t bang or your neighbor s door. we investigate. if there was nothing there, no harm done. if there was something there, great harm may be avoided. so we would ask you, please channel that sense of fear into something healthy just an awareness of surroundings and let us do the work you pay us to do which is to investigate and fight terrorism while you live the lives that are so wonderful in this great country of ours. thank you for this. we ll take your questions. all right. the reason that went to color bars there is because they just said they d make statements to the press and then closed doors for questions from reporters and i can tell you our pete williams with nbc is in that room and as soon as he comes out, we will be talking to him and find out what