prosecutors file charge against 24-year-old enrique marquez, the friend and former next door neighbor of one of the attackers, syed farook. prosecutors say in late 2011, the two men plotted to attack riverside community college where both had been students with pipe bombs and guns. the fbi said they also talked about throwing pipe bombs to stop trsk on a crowded section of a state during rush hour, then to shoot at people stuck in their cars. marquez is also charged with violating firearm laws when he bought the two assault rifles in 2011 and 2012 that ended up being used in the san bernadino shooting. under federal law it s illegal to buy a gun knowing the purchase is being made for someone else. the form warns you can not buy a firearm for another person. marquez and farook continued to plan for terror attacks by going to firing range, but that the two stopped plotting together in late 2012 after some unrelated terror arrests in southern california. and there s nothing in today s cha
awlaki, became radical and plotted in 2012 to throw pipe bombs on to the sr-91 freeway and then gun down motorists in the aftermath. the pair also planned to target riverside city college by planting pipe bombs in the crowded cafeteria. the deadly plot stopped not by law enforcement but by marquez himself who backed out in fear after other terror arrests around the same time. as time passed marquez says the two then grew apart. the farook and marquez relationship is something that fbi agents and his tor yans and counterterrorism officials will be studying for years because it is very rare to have that kind of intimacy, the radicalization process, the conversion process and then it seems to have marquez walk away from it. three years later as gunfire rang out in san bernardino, marquez would immediately recognize his friend s handy work. just hours after the shooting marquez called 911 telling the
news. terror arrests. the friend and former neighbor of the san bernardino killers just arrested. now facing multiple charges and revealing chilling new details of previous plots. what were their earlier targets. holiday threats. president obama briefed on potential dangers during a rare visit to the u.s. counter-terrorism headquarters. his latest high-profile attempt to reassure anxious americans. are his efforts easing terror fears? the high-tech menace. top terror officials warning of the danger of encrypted messaging, readily available apps that allow terrorists to plot and order attacks undetected. are smartphones the ter rick santor santorum. i m wolf blitzer. you re in the situation room. we re following the breaking news this hour. the arrest of a close friend of
local security guard at the walmart. but he had dreams of going to the navy, even trying to lose weight so he could make it through that rigorous boot camp. this is also a young man who federal prosecutors learned converted to islam three years ago and in 2014, married a member of farouk s extended family. again the woman he was married to sister was married to farouk s brother. an interesting web there. they also say they planned an earlier attack in 2012 with s d saesyed faro farook. that was thwarted once they got spooked and scared of unrelated terror arrests happening in california in the inland empire area. federal prosecutors are wait we re waiting for word for that now. thank you. joining me now from washington, with more, nbc news jut correspondent pete williams. we ve been waiting for the moment that we hear he s been arrested. we don t know what he might be
you say this is really important for us to know. why? sandra: these are two huge pieces of news on this story, the fbi is saying the couple was radicalized before they met online. that is one big piece of news out of this. also the fbi in this announcement said they would continue to work to understand the nature of the association with these foreign terror organizations they said they were working with and source of their inspiration which i thought was interesting. moving beyond that, investigators said they planned an attack prior to san bernardino. another news outlet is reporting that the couple was spooked because of the recent terror arrests in california and decided not to carry out that attack. i think going forward that is going to be a huge point, that needs to be made. they were deterred by local arrests. harris: right. which is why we can t back off. how do we go forward if we re not getting information that is 2 1/2 years old at this point? there are a couple of things.