Political correctness kills: Obama admin prohibits reviews of social media postings by visa applicants

First we learned that a neighbor of Tafsheen Malik and Sayed Farook saw them acting suspiciously – working late at night in the garage – but did not report them for fear of being accused of Islamophobia.

Now we learn that the Obama administration failed to properly screen Malik before allowing her into the country – also in the name of political correctness.

Barack Obama chairs a National Security Council meeting on the counter-Islamic State campaign, accompanied by U.S. Vice President Joe Biden (L) and U.S. Defense Secretary Ash Carter (R) at the Pentagon in Washington December 14, 2015. REUTERS/Carlos Barria.

Over the weekend, the New York Times broke the news that San Bernadino terrorist Tashfeen Malik was cleared to enter the United States even though she had posted her support for violent jihad on social media:

Tashfeen Malik… passed three background checks by American immigration officials as she moved to the United States from Pakistan. None uncovered what Ms. Malik had made little effort to hide — that she talked openly on social media about her views on violent jihad. 

She said she supported it. And she said she wanted to be a part of it.

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 Sept. 11, 2001.

Had the authorities found the posts years ago, they might have kept her out of the country.

So how did immigration officials miss jihadist social media postings?

Simple. They did not look for them.

In a story entitled “Secret US Policy Blocks Agents From Looking at Social Media of Visa Applicants,” ABC News reports:

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.

So the Obama administration was more concerned about “bad public relations” and not offending the sensibilities of visa applicants than about preventing terrorists from entering the country.

Had they bothered to look at Malik’s social media profile, they would have found her jihadist postings … and they would have blocked her from entering the country … and 14 people in San Bernadino would be alive today.

And yet President Obama continues to insist Republicans are “betraying our values” for raising legitimate security concerns about his ability to screen Syrian refugees?  If his administration can’t vet a terrorist who publicly posted her desire to participate in violent jihad, how are they going to vet 10,000 Syrian refugees?

Yet more evidence that political correctness kills.

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