Immigration officials missed terror wife’s jihadist social-media posts

American law enforcement officials said they recently discovered those old – and previously unreported- postings as they pieced together the lives of Ms. Malik and her husband, Syed Rizwan Farook, trying to understand how they pulled off the deadliest terrorist attack on American soil since September 11, 2001.

It is not clear if the background checks cited by the newspaper are the same checks that the State Department officials discussed with CNN.

Divers finished fishing for clues about the San Bernardino terrorist attack after pulling unknown items from a lake Saturday. He didn’t specify what changes were going to be made.

Obama said that while there was no evidence the shooters were directed by a terror network overseas or part of a broader plot, “the two of them had gone down the dark path of radicalisation”.

The K-1 visa program is one of the lowest visa types handled by the authorities. 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”.

This is the vetting process the White house wants America to rely on. With that issue unresolved, the agency has not regularly been using social media references, federal officials said.

Malik later passed two other checks against security databases before her visa was OK’d, the two senior State Department officials said. Specifically, he was asked whether social media activity should be considered in the vetting process. However, The New York Times reports the screenings are trade-offs as the try to lessen the threat of terrorism while keeping the border open for business and travel.

The FBI told ABC News they can go back to the lake if they need to, but have no plans to do so at this time.

Had the authorities found the posts years ago, they might have kept her out of 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. 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 knew what was right and what was wrong”, Fehda said.

Comey replied that “the process requires” an interview, but that he didn’t know if one occurred. In a brief telephone interview, her sister Fehda Malik said that Tashfeen was not an extremist, and she rejected the allegations against her sister. That visa allows a fiance or fiancee to travel to the U.S.to marry his or her USA citizen sponsor within 90 days of arrival. Richard Burr (R-N.C.), chairman of the Senate Intelligence Committee, said on CBS’s “Face the Nation” on Sunday. It could be factual questions not necessarily derogatory about the application. Tashfeen faced three extensive national security and criminal background screenings.

The current system used by the Department of Homeland Security, however, does not routinely review social media as part of its background check.

Search teams in San Bernardino are still trying to trace the digital footprints of Malik and Farook.