The Times reported that on social media platforms, Malik commented openly that she supported violent jihad and wanted to be a part of it. The FBI said these extremist social media posts were “extensive”, according to ABC.
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And the privacy settings only allowed a small circle of friends to see the posts.
But one administration official said the new procedures should help clear up confusion about how far the Department of Homeland Security may go in monitoring the social media activity of visa applicants.
The Los Angeles Times also reported that the search of a San Bernardino lake near the shooting scene turned up nothing that could be linked back to the couple.
Tashfeen Malik, a native of Pakistan, moved to California a year ago with Syed Rizwan Farook, a USA citizen who is thought to have met Malik on a 2013 trip to Saudi Arabia.
Pressing criminal charges against him would cut off “any opportunity to let him lead investigators to any other persons or to an organization with whom he may be or may have been in contact with in the furtherance of the San Bernardino attack or other planned terrorist attacks”, one official said. He has told authorities that he gave the couple two semiautomatic rifles that were used in the attack.
James Comey, director of the Federal Bureau of Investigation, revealed during a Senate hearing last week that the couple may have even become radicalized earlier.
President Barack Obama has cautioned against “a betrayal” of the U.S.’ values when it comes to responding to threats, but he had ordered a review of the K-1 visa programs, which permits foreigners such as Malik to live in the U.S.to marry Americans for permanent residency and eventual citizenship, the New York Times noted. “If a consular officer … feels like it would be valuable or necessary to look at the social media presence of an individual, they can and do conduct those reviews”, the rep adds.
Meanwhile, the bodies of Farook and Malik remained at a local morgue late Monday as the couple’s families continue to try to work out the details of their burial. Records show her visa was approved the day after the interview and she traveled to the U.S.in July 2014.
“Asked for more information, a State Department spokesman sent CNN the following statement: “State relies heavily on the interagency (cooperation) to provide information about terrorist ties or other security concerns.
Speaking in Paris on Saturday, Secretary of State John Kerry fielded a question about the visa-vetting process and whether the policies regarding it needed to be updated.
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Malik was not identified as a threat despite being interviewed at the U.S. Embassy in Pakistan and vetted by five different government agencies that checked her name and picture against a terror watch list and ran her fingerprints against two databases.
