Donald Trump has called for a boycott of Apple until the tech giant helps unlock the iPhone of one of the San Bernardino killers.
Apple has clashed with the DoJ over a court order forcing the company to help break the encryption on one of its phones.
On February 19, the DoJ called Apple’s refusal a “marketing strategy”.
Apple said it will not help break into the phone, citing wider privacy concerns for its users.
The phone belonged to one of the two people who opened fire at an office event in San Bernardino, California, in December 2015. Fourteen people were killed in the attack.
Photo Reuters
Speaking at a campaign rally, Donald Trump said: “Boycott Apple until such time as they give that information.”
On February 18, a court ordered the tech giant to help break the encryption.
The government has called the request narrow and argued it is only focused on this particular iPhone.
The DoJ filed another motion in court on February 19 after Apple CEO Tim Cook said the company would continue to refuse the order.
A California court has set March 22 for the hearing.
In a letter to customers published on Apple’s website, Tim Cook called the implications of the order “chilling”.
“While we believe the FBI’s intentions are good, it would be wrong for the government to force us to build a backdoor into our products. And ultimately, we fear that this demand would undermine the very freedoms and liberty our government is meant to protect.”
Syed Rizwan Farook and Tashfeen Malik, who were behind the San Bernardino attack that killed 14 people last week, had target practice days before, the FBI has said.
Tashfeen Malik and husband Syed Farook visited ranges in the Los Angeles area, said David Bowdich, assistant director of the FBI’s Los Angeles office.
David Bowdich said both were radicalized and had been “for some time”.
The US is investigating last week’s attack, which happened at a health care centre, as an act of terrorism.
However, David Bowdich said there is no evidence yet that last week’s tragedy, the most deadly terror attack in the US since 9/11, was plotted from overseas.
The FBI did not have an investigation open on restaurant inspector Syed Farook before he and his wife opened fire on his colleagues at a work event at the Inland Regional Center.
They were both killed hours later in a shoot-out with police.
Investigators said they found 19 pipes that could have been turned into bombs at the couple’s apartment, rather than the 12 previously reported.
A photo obtained by ABC News shows the couple arriving at Chicago’s O’Hare International Airport from Saudi Arabia in July 2014.
According to US officials, Syed Farook traveled to Saudi Arabia and returned about two weeks later with Tashfeen Malik, who was able to come to the country on a fiancé visa.
Syed Farook’s father told Italian newspaper La Stampa his son sympathized with ISIS and was fixated with Israel.
The family’s lawyer said he had recently told them co-workers had mocked his beard, and that the family knew he had two handguns and two rifles.
But they did not know about the arsenal of weapons the couple had amassed.
Tashfeen Malik reportedly praised ISIS on Facebook on the day of the attacks.
The Department of Justice said on December 7 it is monitoring any anti-Muslim sentiments or attacks that may emerge in the wake of the mass shooting.
Donald Trump has called for a ban on Muslims entering the US, in the wake of the deadly San Bernardino shootings.
In a campaign statement, the Republican presidential hopeful said a “total and complete” shutdown should remain until the US authorities “can figure out” Muslim attitudes to the US.
At a rally in South Carolina hours later, Donald Trump repeated the pledge, to loud cheers.
Criticism from the White House and other Republicans was swift.
The Republican frontrunner’s comments were contrary to US values and its national security interests, a statement from the White House said.
Republican Jeb Bush, also running for president, said Donald Trump was “unhinged”.
Donald Trump’s statement was delivered as the US comes to terms with its deadliest terror attack since 9/11.
Photo Instagram
Last week a Muslim couple, believed to have been radicalized, opened fire and killed 14 people at a health centre in San Bernardino, California.
On December 6, President Barack Obama made a rare Oval Office address in response to the attack and warned against the US falling prey to divisiveness.
Donald Trump’s statement to reporters on December 7 said polling by the Center for Security Policy, a conservative think-tank, indicated that 25% of Muslims in the US believed violence against America was justified.
“Without looking at the various polling data, it is obvious to anybody the hatred is beyond comprehension. Where this hatred comes from and why, we will have to determine.
“Until we are able to determine and understand this problem and the dangerous threat it poses, our country cannot be the victims of horrendous attacks by people that believe only in Jihad, and have no sense of reason or respect for human life.”
When asked by The Hill if that included Muslim Americans who may currently be abroad, his spokeswoman said: “Mr. Trump says everyone.”
The director of the Council on American Islamic Relations, Nihad Awad, said Donald Trump sounded like the leader of a lynch mob rather than a great nation.
Soon after his statement was released, Donald Trump’s Republican rival Ben Carson called on all visitors to the US to “register and be monitored” during their stay.
However, his spokesman added: “We do not and would not advocate being selective on one’s religion.”
Another Republican presidential hopeful, Senator Lindsey Graham, urged all those running to condemn Donald Trump’s remarks, which they did.
President Barack Obama has delivered a rare Oval Office address after the last week’s San Bernardino attack that left 14 dead.
Barack Obama said the killings were “an act of terrorism designed to kill innocent people”.
“Freedom is more powerful than fear,” the president said, warning that falling prey to divisiveness in American society would play into the hands of extremists.
Barack Obama also said the US must make it harder for potential attackers to obtain guns.
The president vowed that the US would overcome the evolving threat of terrorism, but warned that Americans “cannot turn against one another by letting this fight be defined as a war between America and Islam”.
“If we’re to succeed in defeating terrorism, we must enlist Muslim communities as some of our strongest allies, rather than push them away through suspicion and hate,” Barack Obama said.
He reminded his audience that Muslim-Americans were part of US society.
“And, yes, they are our men and women in uniform who are willing to die in defense of our country. We have to remember that,” he said.
Barack Obama warned that turning against America’s Muslim communities would be exactly what Islamist extremists in the so-called Islamic State group want.
The president told Americans that terrorism had entered a new phase, from large scale attacks by al-Qaeda to less complicated attacks by radicalized individuals.
He said the US would draw upon “every aspect of American power” to combat ISIS.
Barack Obama underscored that the US and its allies have increased their bombing of Islamic State oil infrastructure and would continue to train and equip moderate rebels in Iraq and Syria.
“Our military will continue to hunt down terrorist plotters in any country where it is necessary,” he said.
Barack Obama added that there are a number of things that can be done on home soil to combat terrorism.
He called for stricter gun control and said he had ordered the Departments of State and Homeland Security to review the K-1 fiancé visa program under which the female attacker in San Bernardino originally entered the US.
This was only the third Oval Office address of Barack Obama’s presidency – they are reserved for events of national importance.
Barack Obama’s speech was in response to a mass shooting by a married couple that left 14 dead.
Syed Rizwan Farook, 28, and his wife Tashfeen Malik, 29, opened fire on an office Christmas party and were later killed in a shootout with police.
In his speech, the president characterized ISIS as “thugs and killers”, adding: “The threat from terrorism is real, but we will overcome it.”
The group said in a radio broadcast that the couple that Syed Rizwan Farook and Tashfeen Malik were ISIS supporters, but gave no indication that ISIS was involved in the attack’s planning.
The FBI is also looking into reports Tashfeen Malik posted a message on Facebook pledging allegiance to ISIS around the time of the attacks.
Syed Rizwan Farook and Tashfeen Malik used handguns and semi-automatic weapons that had been legally purchased in the US, police say.
Bomb equipment, weapons and thousands of rounds of ammunition were later found in their home.
The San Bernardino attack is the deadliest mass shooting in the US since 26 people were killed at a school in Connecticut in 2012.
The authorities said there was no indication so far the killers were part of an “organized group or formed part of a broader terrorist cell”.
Tashfeen Malik – the woman involved in San Bernardino deadly gun attack – pledged allegiance to ISIS leader on Facebook, US officials say.
She made the post under an account with a different name, the officials told US media.
Fourteen people were killed and 21 wounded in December 2 attack.
Tashfeen Malik, 27, and her husband Syed Rizwan Farook, 28, died in a shootout with police after the killings at San Bernardino, east of Los Angeles.
According to the New York Times, there was no evidence that ISIS had directed the couple in the attack.
“At this point we believe they were more self-radicalised and inspired by the group than actually told to do the shooting,” the newspaper quoted an official as saying.
Tashfeen Malik is reported to have posted the message on Facebook in support of ISIS leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi. The post has since been removed.
On December 4, the couple’s landlord opened their apartment to the media, prompting journalists and camera crews to rush in and survey the scene.
After the attack at the Inland Regional Center social services agency, bomb equipment, weapons and thousands of rounds of ammunition were found in the couple’s home.
Tashfeen Malik and Syed Rizwan Farook had destroyed computer hard drives and other electronic equipment before the rampage took place, a US government source said on December 4.
Investigators are also said to be following up a report that Syed Rizwan Farook had argued with a colleague at work who denounced the “inherent dangers of Islam”.
Tashfeen Malik was born in Pakistan and had recently lived in Saudi Arabia.
Intelligence officials in Pakistan have contacted relatives there, a family member quoted by Reuters said.
Syed Farook, who worked as an inspector for San Bernardino’s environmental health department, was the son of Pakistani immigrants and born in the US state of Illinois.
Police said between 75 and 80 people were attending a party at the center when the shooting began.
The identities of the victims have since been released by San Bernardino’s coroner. The youngest was 26 and the oldest was 60.
San Bernardino is the deadliest mass shooting in the US since 26 people were killed at a school in Newtown, Connecticut in 2012.
Police have found bomb equipment, weapons and thousands of rounds of ammunition at San Bernardino shooters’ home.
The attackers killed 14 people and wounded 21 at San Bernardino’s Inland Regional Center in California.
Authorities still have not found a motive in the attack by Syed Rizwan Farook, 28, and Tashfeen Malik, 27.
According to police, the attack indicated there had been “some degree of planning”.
San Bernardino Police Chief Jarrod Burguan said it appeared that the duo was prepared to carry out another attack.
“There was obviously a mission here. We know that. We do not know why. We don’t know if this was the intended target or if there was something that triggered him to do this immediately,” said David Bowdich, assistant director of the FBI’s Los Angeles office.
In the shootout with police hours after the attack, Syed Rizwan Farook and Tashfeen Malik fired 76 rounds of ammunition at the officers and the officers fired 380 rounds back.
Two police officers were injured during the pursuit.
San Bernardino attack marks the deadliest mass shooting in the US since 26 people were killed at a school in Newtown, Connecticut in 2012.
Authorities are expected to start releasing the names of the victims on December 3.
President Barack Obama said the FBI had taken over the investigation from local authorities.
“It is possible that this was terrorist-related, but we don’t know. It’s also possible that this was workplace-related,” he said.
“We’re going to have to search ourselves as a society to make sure we can take basic steps that would make it harder – not impossible, but harder – for individuals to get access to weapons.”
Law enforcement officials are also looking at possible “co-conspirators” and have been in touch with the suspects’ relatives.
Syed Rizwan Farook, who was born in the US, was not “on the radar” of law enforcement, Jarrod Burguan said.
He worked for the past five years as a restaurant inspector for the San Bernardino County Health Department. The Los Angeles Times reported that co-workers said he was a devout Muslim but rarely discussed his religion.
He and Tashfeen Malik were recently married and had a six-month-old baby, who they dropped off at its grandmother’s house before the attack.
On December 2, Syed Rizwan Farook and his colleagues were attending a holiday party at the Inland Regional Center.
Co-worker Patrick Baccari said he was sitting at the same table as Syed Farook before he abruptly left, leaving his coat.
Wearing military-style clothing and armed with assault rifles and semi-automatic handguns, Syed Farook returned with Tashfeen Malik a short time later to open fire.
When the shooting started, Patrick Baccari took refuge in a bathroom and was hurt when shrapnel sliced through the wall.
Police have named two suspects killed after a mass shooting in San Bernardino, California, left 14 people dead at a social services center.
The man and woman, Syed Rizwan Farook, 28, and Tashfeen Malik, 27, were killed in an exchange of fire with police.
Syed Rizwan Farook had been a San Bernardino public health employee for five years, police chief Jarrod Burguan said.
The attack took place at an event on December 2 for Syed Rizwan Farook’s colleagues. None of the victims has been identified.
The Inland Regional Center, where the shooting took place, provides services for people with developmental disabilities, but the shooting appeared to be unrelated to its clients.
The incident marks the deadliest mass shooting in the US since 26 people were killed at a school in Newtown, Connecticut in 2012.
Jarrod Burguan, who said another 17 people were wounded, said police were “reasonably confident” that there were just two shooters.
A third person seen running from the scene was detained, but police said it was unclear whether that person was involved.
Both suspects were killed in their vehicle after a shoot-out with police involving 20 officers. A tip-off had earlier led police to a house in nearby Redlands.
The dead man and woman were believed to be a couple, the police chief said. They were armed with assault rifles and semi-automatic handguns and wore military-style clothing.
According to the US Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF), two of the four guns recovered were linked to “an individual associated with this investigation”. They are investigating the origin of the other two guns.
One police officer was injured, but his injuries are not life threatening.
Three possible explosive devices were found at the Inland Regional Center, where the shooting took place.
Jarrod Burguan said that Syed Rizwan Farook had left the event – which was possibly a holiday party for employees or a meeting – “under some circumstances that were described as angry,” and returned with Tashfeen Malik.
Earlier, the FBI said it was not ruling out the possibility of terrorism but the situation was still being investigated.
San Bernardino is a city of about 200,000 people, 60 miles east of Los Angeles.
The attack took place in a conference area where the San Bernardino County Department of Public Health was holding a social event, said Maybeth Field, the center’s president.
Syed Rizwan Farook, who was born in the US, worked for the county as an environmental health specialist, police said. They had no information on whether he had a criminal record, nor further details on Tashfeen Malik.
Colleagues told the Los Angeles Times that Syed Rizwan Farook had traveled to Saudi Arabia and returned with a new wife. The couple had a young baby, they said.
His brother-in-law, Farhan Khan, told a press conference he had “absolutely no idea” what could have prompted the shooting.
The mass shooting comes just days after three people were killed at a Colorado Planned Parenthood clinic.
President Barack Obama said in response to San Bernardino shooting: “One thing we do know is that we have a pattern of mass shootings in this country that has no parallel anywhere in the world.
“There are some steps that we could take, not to eliminate all incidents, but to make sure they happen less frequently.”
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