San Bernardino Attackers’ Friend Spoke of ‘Sleeper Cells’ Before Rampage
RIVERSIDE, Calif. — The regulars did not take it seriously when Enrique Marquez mused about terrorism at Morgan’s Tavern, a dank dive bar where Mr. Marquez hauled ice, cleaned bathrooms and checked IDs at the door. 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 Mr. 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, Mr. Marquez, 24, a childhood friend of the husband, Syed Rizwan Farook, has become a crucial if unlikely figure in the investigation of the attack — which was just the kind he discussed when terrorism news reports flashed onto the tavern’s television.
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 after waiving his right to remain silent and not incriminate himself, officials say.
Federal investigators believe that, more than any other witness, Mr. Marquez, a convert to Islam, has “held the keys” to understanding Mr. Farook and his wife, Tashfeen Malik, and to shedding light on whom they were in contact with in the years leading to the attack, according to one senior law enforcement official. The couple were killed in a shootout with the police.
On behalf of Mr. Farook, Mr. Marquez bought the two assault rifles used in the attack, the authorities say. He told investigators he had done so, in 2011 and 2012, because Mr. Farook believed he could not pass a background check, officials said. Mr. Marquez has also described in detail how he and Mr. Farook had been planning another terrorist attack together in 2012, the authorities say.
They appear to have been scared off by arrests related to a separate terrorism ring in Riverside County that was prosecuted in 2012, the authorities said, sending two men to federal prison for a scheme to kill American troops in Afghanistan.
Mr. Marquez’s cooperation with investigators could turn out to be very detrimental to his future. His purchase of the assault rifles for Mr. Farook and his planning of an attack in 2012, if proved, would be federal crimes that come with stiff sentences, according to law enforcement officials. While the authorities say they are grateful for his cooperation, they will almost certainly charge him, officials said.
Mr. Marquez has not yet been charged with any crime, and he has told investigators he did not know that the couple were plotting the shootings at the Inland Regional Center in San Bernardino. But Mr. Marquez’s role is particularly concerning because counterterrorism officials believe that he represents a strand of impressionable people at life’s margins with no obvious connections or sympathies with terrorist groups, who can be goaded or enticed toward violence.
http://www.nytimes.com/2015/12/12/us/enrique-marquez-san-bernardino-attacks.html?_r=0
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