San Bernardino shooter passed background checks despite social media zealotry

US officials have said their investigation has yet to turn up evidence that foreign militants directed Syed Rizwan Farook, 28, or Tashfeen Malik, 29, when the married pair stormed a holiday gathering of his co-workers at a regional center in San Bernardino on December 2 and opened fire with assault rifles. Immigration officials don’t usually check social media posts as part of their background checks, according to the newspaper.

In a brief telephone interview on Saturday, the sister, Fehda Malik, said Tashfeen Malik was not an extremist, and she rejected the allegations against her sister. He didn’t specify what changes were going to be made. They believe that was when she was radicalised.

“That presumes, and this investigation continues to be under way, that there were flags which were raised or should have been lifted in the procedure for her entry to America, and I’m not ready to say that and I am not ready to make that statement”, Johnson said. A couple must prove they have physically seen each other within the past two years, unless meeting in person would violate “strict and long-established customs” or cause an “extreme hardship”.

“Somebody entered the United States through the K-1 visa program and proceeded to carry out an act of terrorism on American soil, ” the White House spokesman, Josh Earnest, said on Thursday. Social media contain is seldom contained.

The FBI has said the couple declared they were acting on behalf of Islamic State. She said she supported it. And she said she wanted to be a part of it, the New York Times reported on Sunday.

“More importantly, what we’ve got to know is who they might have had conversations with relative to their planning, access to the weapons”.

“Had the authorities found the posts years ago, they might have kept her out of the US”.

Malik was vetted by three separate American agencies before entering the country. And there is an extra layer of scrutiny for Syrians, who are referred to a national security and fraud office at the Department of Homeland Security for a final look. The Department of State then reviewed her fingerprints against other databases and she was thoroughly reviewed once more after she applied for a green card. They cautioned that such searches, particularly one in a bustling public park, tend to dredge up debris from many sources, and that investigators still have to determine the value of what was found.

Because she was applying for a fiancee visa, the interview primarily sought to prove she knew Farook and really was in a relationship with him. But she declined to say what those were or whether they appeared to be tied to the mass shooting. Records show her visa was approved the day after the interview and she traveled to the U.S.in July 2014. “That is the existing practice as we speak”.

Neither the State Department, the Department of Homeland Security, or the Federal Bureau of Investigation commented about the process, as there is a continuing investigation into the couple following the terrorist attack.

In order for Malik to gain permanent residency in the United States, she faced three extensive national security and criminal background screenings – two of which were conducted in-person.