Report: Calif. attacker’s posts went unnoticed during screening

Tashfeen Malik cleared an extensive immigration vetting for a U.S. visa even though she was already openly discussing her support for terrorism on social media, The New York Times reported on Sunday.

{mosads}U.S. immigration officials said they recently discovered that Malik, who with her husband killed 14 people and injured 21 others during the attack in San Bernardino, Calif., was posting about her desire to get involved with violent jihad, according to the newspaper.

Law enforcement reportedly is using the previously unreported postings to build a profile of the lives of the couple, Malik and Syed Rizwan Farook, as they planned the terrorist attack at Farook’s workplace.

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.

Malik passed three background checks when she moved to the United States from Pakistan in July 2014, according to the newspaper. The DHS checked national databases, and the State Department examined her visa application along with her fingerprints.

She reportedly went through another round of questioning in the United States when she applied for her green card and cleared all immigration hurdles.

“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. Richard Burr (R-N.C.), chairman of the Senate Intelligence Committee, on CBS’s “Face the Nation” on Sunday.

“We want to look at how our immigration process for a visa for a spouse broke down, that they didn’t notice the radicalization,” Burr added.

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

“They didn’t just overnight learn how to make 19 pipe bombs.”

The State and Homeland Security departments have said all procedures were carefully followed during the process in the granting of Malik’s K-1 visa.