Obama Administration Policy Led To Homeland Security Not Checking Social Networking Pages Of Terrorists Coming Into America

Barack Obama

A policy implemented by U.S. President Barack Obama, barred Homeland Security from searching social media in vetting visa applications. In the wake of the San Bernardino terrorist shooting that left 14 defenseless, innocent people dead and 20 injured, questions are being asked regarding why Obama banned Homeland Security from accessing the social media pages of immigrants, such as Tashfeen Malik, who with her husband, Syed Farook, went on to commit the San Bernardino terrorism based killings.

Tashfeen Malik and Syed Farook

Malik’s social networking pages bore the signs of radicalization. According to reports, there are others seeking entry into the United States who harbor pro-terrorism leanings, as evidenced by posts on their social networking pages espousing sport for terrorists and extremism. However, Homeland Security is claiming its hands are tied due to Obama’s policy.

STORY SOURCE

Secret US Policy Blocks Agents From Looking at Social Media of Visa Applicants, Former Official Says 

Dec 14, 2015, 7:18 AM ET - Fearing a civil liberties backlash and "bad public relations" for the Obama administration, Homeland Security Secretary Jeh Johnson refused in early 2014 to end a secret U.S. policy that prohibited immigration officials from reviewing the social media messages of all foreign citizens applying for U.S. visas, a former senior department official said.

"During that time period immigration officials were not allowed to use or review social media as part of the screening process," John Cohen, a former acting under-secretary at DHS for intelligence and analysis. Cohen is now a national security consultant for ABC News. One current and one former senior counter-terrorism official confirmed Cohen's account about the refusal of DHS to change its policy about the public social media posts of all foreign applicants.

A spokesperson for the DHS, Marsha Catron, told ABC News that months after Cohen left, in the fall of 2014, the Department began three pilot programs to include social media in vetting, but current officials say that it is still not a widespread policy. A review of the broader policy is already underway, the DHS said.

The revelation comes as members of Congress question why U.S. officials failed to review the social media posts of San Bernardino terrorist Tashfeen Malik. She received a U.S. visa in May 2014, despite what the FBI said were extensive social media messages about jihad and martyrdom.
Sen. Charles Schumer, D-N.Y., demanded Sunday that the U.S. immediately initiate a program that would check the social media sites of those admitted on visas." "Had they checked out Tashfeen Malik," the senator said, "maybe those people in San Bernardino would be alive."...

http://abcnews.go.com

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FBI Knew About One Of The San Bernardino Terrorists In Advance But Allowed Her To Roam Free In America

Tweet from Reuters' Twitter page indicates the FBI had terrorists under surveillance, who were in telephonic communication with, Tashfeen Malik, who is one of the terrorists from the San Bernardino terrorist attack that occurred on December 2, 2015 at a disability center, killing 14 and wounding 20

The FBI has again let a radicalized person communicating with terrorists roam free in America, to terrible results, leading to the deaths of innocent people. Previously, the FBI watched as Nidal Hasan became radicalized in email exchanges with a terrorist cleric. Hasan then murdered innocent people at the Fort Hood military base in Texas. The FBI also had advance information on terrorists Anwar Al Awlaki and Umar Farouk AbdulMutallab (among others), but engaged in negligent conduct that allowed them to commit acts of terrorism.

Tashfeen Malik

Press reports on Reuters today reveals, the FBI was aware of one of the shooters in the San Bernardino terrorist attack, prior to the massacre occurring, as having communicated with terrorists. Tashfeen Malik, the 29-year-old wife of fellow terrorist Sayed Farook, was in America on a marriage visa and actively communicating with terrorists in her native Pakistan, over the phone. Malik has been linked to Pakistan's most notorious cleric, Maulana Aziz of the Red Mosque. On the day of the terrorist attack, Malik pledged her allegiance to ISIS on her Facebook page.

Maulana Aziz (left) and Syed Farook (right)

Farook met Malik when he spent many months in Pakistan. It is now also believed he received terrorist training while there. Over the past several years, in reading U.S. and international legal indictments by western governments, to write articles for this column on news events, the charging documents in terrorism cases reveal the criminals leaving their home nation in the west, going to the Middle East for many months, then returning to commit acts of jihad. There exists a pattern of behavior in this regard.

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