The second federal official added that Malik had “expressed her desire” to become an Islamic jihadist herself in one of her social media posts.
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Washington is now placing increased pressure on DHS to heighten security measures surrounding the global travel process, in wake of the shocking terrorist attack on San Bernardino, California which left 14 people dead.
The Times said Malik’s Facebook messages indicate for the first time that USA law enforcement and intelligence officials missed warnings on social media that she was a potential threat before she applied for her us visa.
That statement directly contradicts a claim made by a former government official, who told ABC News that social media postings of applicants are, as a matter of policy, not checked due to civil liberties concerns. Both officials spoke on condition of anonymity, the newspaper said. Malik entered the USA on a K-1 fiancée visa, despite a history of making incendiary and radical comments on social media.
ABC news has learned a secret USA policy prevented immigration officials from searching social media as part of the screening process.
Certain Department of Homeland Security officials are now allowed to look at social media posts as part of law enforcement investigations. Investigators were also examining the couple’s money trail, which they say leads outside the United States.
But St. Petersburg immigration attorney Ahmad Yakzan says social media is being screened.
FBI Director James Comey said authorities found online discussions about jihad between Farook and Malik from late 2013, before they began dating.
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.
Sen. Charles Schumer, D-N.Y., demanded Sunday that the USA immediately initiate a program that would check the social media sites of those admitted on visas.
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President Barack Obama has ordered a review of the K-1 visa program, which will look at whether immigration officials could conduct more extensive background checks without significantly slowing down the process, according to The Times. They pulled multiple objects from the water, but it is unknown if they recovered a computer hard drive that Farook and Malik may have discarded in the lake before they were killed in a shootout with police.
