'Staggering Incompetence' Aided Terrorist's U.S. Entry, Buchanan Says

SARASOTA, FL – As investigators continue to unravel the backstories of the couple involved in the San Bernardino, Calif., terrorist attack, news that one of the two shooters pledged support for Islamic jihad on Facebook several years prior to the massacre has prompted a number of lawmakers to demand retooling of the country’s visa screening program.

U.S. Rep. Vern Buchanan, R-Florida, has joined the chorus of lawmakers demanding that social media accounts of those wishing to enter the United States through a visa program be fully vetted. The government’s failure to screen Tashfeen Malik’s social media activity prior to her entry into the U.S. is “staggering incompetence” on the part of the government’s screening process, Buchanan said.

Malik, 29, reportedly sent two private messages on Facebook to Pakistani friends back in 2012 and 2014 pledging her support for jihad and expressing her desire to join the fight.

On Dec. 2, she did.

Malik and her husband Syed Rizwan Farook have been identified as the shooters in the Dec. 2 attack in California that left 14 dead and 22 injured.

See Also:

• California Shooter Pledged Allegiance to ISIS: Reports

“We have heard repeatedly that terrorists use social media as a recruitment and communication tool and yet we don’t bother to screen their online activity before allowing them into America,” Buchanan said in a statement. “We should have been tracking their social media all along, but apparently our government was too concerned about political correctness and violating the privacy rights of foreigners. This woman never should have been allowed into our country after pledging Islamic jihad on Facebook.”

Lawmakers, both Republican and Democrat, are pushing for social media reviews for all visa applicants following the revelation that this is not already a standard practice.

The government’s policy of skipping social media postings in background checks has been brought into question in the past. Homeland Security Secretary Jeh Johnson reportedly was asked to end the policy in 2014, but refused, FOX news reported. The refusal, ABC News reported, was prompted by fears of a civil liberties backlash and “bad public relations’ for the Obama administration.

As the policy’s potential pitfalls are brought into the spotlight, the administration is now reviewing its visa vetting process, ABC News reported Tuesday. Johnson, however, has been quoted as saying there are “certain legal limits” on what can be done.

Buchanan isn’t willing to accept that. He is insisting the administration reverse the policy and “put the safety of Americans ahead of the privacy of foreigners.”

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Patch file photo of the aftermath of the San Bernardino shooting