FBI Concludes Search of San Bernardino Lake, Recovers Items

According to reports, none of the background checks that Tashfeen Malik, one of the perpetrators of the San Bernardino terrorist attack uncovered posts she made on social media declaring her support for ISIS or other forms of violent jihad.

Authorities say Farook and Malik, who came to the USA on a fiancee visa in July 2014 and married her husband the next month, were not known to law enforcement before the shootings.

Immigration officials don’t usually check social media as part of their background checks and the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) remains undecided on whether it is appropriate, the Times reported. “In cases where those lists don’t hit, there’s nothing that distinguishes them from people we would love to welcome to this country”.

“They’re using cameras from the city itself, from convenience stores, trying to recreate exactly where they went and who they might have talked to”, he said.

Others argue, however, that it is impossible to conduct an exhaustive investigation of the social media pages belonging to each of the tens of millions of people coming to the United States annually to work, visit or live.

Tashfeen faced three extensive national security and criminal background screenings.

Ms. Malik also had two in-person interviews, federal officials said, the first by a consular officer in Pakistan, and the second by an immigration officer in the United States when she applied for her green card. Ultimately, she applied for a green card and afterward, her application went through and was completely reviewed.

“Well, clearly, we now know that these individuals were radicalized way before, probably as early as 2010 for him and 2012 for her”, said Sen. Specifically noting that the process did not detect the radicalization. Social media contain is seldom contained.

They are seeking the electronic trail of the killers, whom they interacted with, how they hatched and carried out the plot, and why.

“That assumes, and this investigation is still under way, that there were flags that were raised or should have been raised in the process of her admission to the United States, and I am not prepared to say that and I’m not prepared to make that declaration”, Johnson said. 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. “She had no contact with any militant outfit or person, male or female”, she said.

She said her sister was religious, studied the Quran and prayed five times a day. The date that these types of reviews began is not clear, but it was after Malik was considered, the source said. The family was very anxious and tense, before hanging up the phone, she said.

Malik’s path to the USA immediately highlighted the US government’s immigration vetting practices after she was identified as one of the attackers in San Bernardino, Calif. The Obama administration is reviewing the program, Homeland Security Secretary Jeh Johnson said Monday.