Almost Paris

It took America for four days to admit-the tragedy in San Bernardino, who had taken away 14 lives, was a terrorist attack. Radio of the Islamic State* called two killed terrorists their "martyrs"

People came to carry flowers in memory of the dead, San Bernardino, California, December 5, 2015

The provincial California San Bernardino, the city of the Sustim of the Russian Volga region in the Nizhny Novgorod region, the Americans from the first minutes associated from the November tragedy in the capital of France, although the US authorities stubbornly avoided this parallel.

14 dead, over 20 wounded-this ended the pre-holiday meeting of employees of the San Bernardino Department of Health, appointed three weeks before Christmas. The twenty -eight -year -old Said Faru, who worked in the Non -Profit Organization of Inland Regional Center, was among the invited. The holiday for the best by profession was arranged in the hall of this agency, which covers about 30 thousand people - children with developmental disabilities and their families. There is also a school for the blind.

Faru left the hall at the very beginning and looked angry, later they would remember the survivors. He returned at about 11 in the morning of the time of the western coast instead of his wife-27-year-old Tashfin Malik. They took their daughter for six months from the family on the road to their grandmother, assuring that they were going to the doctor. Doctors, of course, were also among more than a hundred present, when a couple hiding faces under masks and dressed in camouflage began to discharge their machines in them.

Faruk and Malik died four hours later in a shootout with two dozen police officers, two of whom were injured. The married couple managed, according to the police, to release 76 bullets before it was neutralized. The explosive device they laid in the hall-three tied together bombs-samplers-did not work. Probably, the explosion was planned for a later time, when the police and rescuers arrive at the place of shooting. The detonator was mounted in a children's toy, soon found in a car.

“They were armed and could make another attack. We intercepted them before that, ”said Jarrod Barguan, head of the police department of San Bernardino. The rented black jeep of the Ford brand was in a residential quarter only 6-8 minutes from the place of the tragedy. Two automatic rifles were discovered in the car, which are a kind of M-16, two pistols and more than a thousand rounds of cartridges in the US Army. Later, an additional combat arsenal will be found in their house and garage, including thousands of combat cartridges, 12 homemade bombs and components to create new ones.

"Nice in communication"

On December 5, it became known that before going to the conference room, Tashfin Malik posted on her Facebook page a message about what is an adherent of the views of IG * . Facebook confirmed this fact, without adding details and removing the post due to the fact that he called for violence.

Faruk was personally acquainted with many of his victims. When the police announced the names of the suspects in the massacre the day after the tragedy, Julia Svan-Pazhiza, who was in a hospital with bullet wounds, did not believe her ears. "Can't be! After all, everyone was congratulated on the birth of a child! " - The woman of Los Angeles Times cited the words of the woman. Faruk, whose parents - people from Pakistan, was born in the USA in Illinois and grew up in California. He did not have a criminal past, he acquired all the weapons on quite legal grounds and loved to practice in shooting at his leisure. He was “pleasant in communication,” the acquaintances of the USA Today newspaper described. A graduate of the local college was a specialist in environmental hygiene, had a stable income, and lived in a prestigious area. His wife, Pakistani roots, moved to America in 2014 on a bride’s visa, in the summer of this year she received a temporary Grinkart, having passed all the formalities of the background check.

“The handwriting of the deed is very similar to the type of (terrorist) attacks characteristic of the Middle East. And the resistance provided by the police suggests that, most likely, they underwent special combat training "

Faruk, according to the released information of the FBI, at least twice visited the Middle East, for the last time - in 2013 he performed Hajj in Saudi Arabia, a Muslim religious pilgrimage to Mecca and Medina. The day after the tragedy from official sources, it became known that the deceased maintained contacts with persons - who were in the United States and outside, were known to the special services with radical Islamic views. “The handwriting of the deed is very similar to the type of (terrorist) attacks characteristic of the Middle East. And the resistance provided by the police suggests that, most likely, they went through special combat training, ”Robert Baer, ​​a former employee of the CIA in the Middle East, said in hot pursuit of events. According to him, radical Islamic groups are actively recruited to their ranks of Muslims who come to Hajj from Europe and the USA.

Not found out the motives

The reaction of US President Barack Obama to the tragedy in San Bernardino looked sluggish. Only on the evening of December 6, his conceptual appeal to the nation regarding the terrorist threat to America was assigned. “The motives of the deed remain not clarified,” Obama said on December 3, the next morning after the crime that shocked America. He did not exclude that it could be a terrorist attack, although he also allowed a “production conflict”.

“It is possible that this was due to terrorism, but we do not know. It is also possible that this was due to (conflict) relations at work, ”the president said. Obama urged to pray for the dead and the wounded, and once again raised the topic of the availability of military weapons in the United States. In his appeal, he did not identify the religious and national affiliation of spouses, appearing as suspects and did not utter their names. This was done by billionaire Donald Trump, a contender for the nomination as a US presidential candidate from the Republican Party. “Look at their names. And tell me what happened, ”Trump reacted to the tragedy in California, turning to his supporters in Washington. Trump and the rest of the Republicans even more actively raised the calls to strengthen the support of the army and special services. In the country, anti -immigrant hysteria is inflated.

“ *Look at their names. And tell me what happened *"

Democrats with Hillary Clinton, at the head,, in turn, called for limiting the sale of weapons. However, the two amendments to the legislation made by them in hot pursuit of the tragedy are to tighten the personality of buyers of firearms and prohibit the sale of combat weapons of high damaging power, were rejected by the Senate on Thursday.

The people are armed

San Bernardino, located 100 kilometers south of Los Angeles and, by the way, the twin of the Russian Volga region in the Nizhny Novgorod region, is not the most prosperous city in the United States. In July 2012, he declared himself bankrupt. According to the (last) census of 2010, more than 60% of the population of the city-two hundred-immigrants from Latin America, almost every third lives outside the poverty line. In the early 2000s, the city occupied the second place in crime after the action. However, in general, an inconspicuous California town in America is now mentioned in conjunction with Paris.

"Like in Paris!" - the Asian waitress shook her head in the New York restaurant of Japanese cuisine, passing by the television screen. On the plasma display, it is not the first day that the direct broadcast from San Bernardino is constantly turned on.

“Yes, it’s true, like in Paris,” visitors who look more at the screen nod their heads than at their plates.

The nation has split again - some support the position of Obama, intending to limit the turnover of weapons, others, on the contrary, begin to arm themselves. In the north of New York, in the county of Alster, the Sheriff asked all the owners of the trunks to carry them with him to repulse in case of attack

The parallel between what happened in California and the November terrorist attack of the Islamists in France, whose victims were over 100 people, determines the mood of the Americans. In the Metro of New York, a mechanical voice now and then calls for vigilance if the left bags are detected. The city created a special police unit to respond to terrorist attacks and extreme situations. “The next one after Paris will be New York,” one of the former police leaders twisted in November. But the shots were heard on the other coast, proclaiming the era of provincial “self -radical” terrorists who choose convenient objects at the place of residence. The nation has split again - some support the position of Obama, intending to limit the turnover of weapons, others, on the contrary, begin to arm themselves. In the north of the state of New York, in the county of Alter, the sheriff asked all the owners of the trunks to carry them with him to repulse in case of attack. “In the light of what happened in the USA and is happening around the world, please, if you have a license, carry weapons with you,” the appeal says. Has anyone used to expect a terrorist attack in Alster? ..

* "Islamic state"

- The organization prohibited in Russia

Photo: Reuters