San Bernardino shooter Tashfeen Malik’s USA visa was given without full

The Obama administration has struggled to explain why it does not screen the social media accounts of people trying to enter the US from countries with a large terrorist presence, and why Malik was approved for a K-1 fiancée visa. The Department of Homeland Security is said to be working on a new plan to consider social media posts for visa reviews, says a report from The Wall Street Journal.

The Homeland Security Department said it is specifically reviewing policies on when authorities at U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services can look at social media posts as part of the vetting process for would-be immigrants applying for certain visas.

Officials from federal law enforcement agencies revealed on Monday that one of the shooters in the deadly San Bernardino attacks had sent messages to her Pakistani friends through Facebook expressing her support for Islamic jihad.

In order not to spoil the “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 attack”, no charges were pressed against Marquez, said an official.

Any review of public social media activity as a part of the visa process seems destined to snare only travelers posting political dissent about the United States – and potentially having an extremely chilling effect on free speech for those with business or family interests in the country.

This morning on ABC News, John Cohen, a former acting under-secretary at DHS for intelligence and analysis, confirmed just how mind-boggling these policies are.

Authorities have said Malik and Farook exchanged messages about jihad and martyrdom online before they were married and while she was living in Pakistan.

The Pakistani woman who carried out the attack with her husband came to the US on a fiancé visa.

ISIS has always been known for its social media savvy, often using Twitter, Facebook, and other more surreptitious methods to recruit new followers and spread its gospel.

Cohen said the disclosures by Edward Snowden about National Security Agency (NSA) surveillance policies fed concern of bad public relations that would affect the US government’s standing with civil rights groups and European allies.

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.

Law enforcement has been cautious about trawling social media during terrorist investigations because of privacy, but after the San Bernardino shooting, they began developing procedures to search individual social media accounts, although they have not released specific details for fear of compromising the investigations.

Legislators considered harnessing the power of social media to fight terrorism even before the December 2 shooting.

“It was primarily a question of optics”, said Cohen.

The Los Angeles Times, citing two federal law enforcement officials, reported that one of the messages was sent in 2012 and the other in 2014. “They would be able to best assess the optimal way to incorporate the review of – for example – social media postings into screening process”.