FBI director says there is no evidence couple who killed 14 people in California were part of terror cell, calling debate over visa applications into question

The fierce debate over screening visa applicants in the wake of the San Bernardino attacks was thrown into question Wednesday after the head of the FBI said the married couple responsible for the shooting did not, as has been widely reported, make public social media posts supportive of jihad.

FBI director James Comey said there is no evidence to suggest the couple, who killed 14 people in California this month, were part of a terrorist cell and that while they had communicated “a joint commitment to jihad and to martyrdom”, those were private messages rather than open social media postings.

Democrats and Republicans have reacted with outrage in recent days to reports that Tashfeen Malik, 29, openly discussed her support for martyrdom in public social media posts that were overlooked due to a policy in the Department of Homeland Security against immigration officials from routinely inspecting the Facebook and Twitter accounts of visa applicants.

Malik, who was Pakistani, traveled to the US in July last year, two months after acquiring her K-1, or fiancee, visa. She later married Syed Rizwan Farook, 28; though the couple is also thought to have married shortly after meeting in Saudi Arabia in 2013.

The couple, who had a child, killed 14 people at a holiday party in the California city last month, an attack that officials have since said was inspired by Islamist terrorists.

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The New York Times reported on Sunday that Malik had “talked openly on social media about her views on violent jihad” in social media “postings” in the months leading up to her visa application – warning signs that might have been picked up, the report said, had immigration officials reviewed the social media activity of visa applicants.

The report, which detailed how three background checks had failed to spot Malik’s online declarations of support for jihad, was widely picked up and fueled calls for reform of the vetting process for visa applicants. “Had they checked out Tashfeen Malik,” said Senator Chuck Schumer of New York, the third-ranking Democrat, “maybe those people in San Bernardino would be alive.”

The DHS is reviewing its policies, while lawmakers are reportedly drafting legislation that would require social media accounts to be reviewed as part of visa background checks. However, Comey said at a news conference Wednesday that extremist language traced by the FBI were not publicly visible social media posts.

“Those communications are direct, private messages,” Comey said, according to the Washington Post. “So far, in this investigation we have found no evidence of posting on social media by either of them at that period in time and thereafter reflecting their commitment to jihad or to martyrdom. I’ve seen some reporting on that, and that’s a garble.”

The FBI director’s remarks bring into question claims made during Tuesday’s Republican presidential debate, which focused on national security in the wake of the San Bernardino attacks.

“We didn’t monitor the Facebook posting of the female San Bernardino terrorist because the Obama DHS thought it would be inappropriate. She made a public call to jihad, and they didn’t target it,” said senator Ted Cruz of Texas. “It’s not a lack of competence that is preventing the Obama administration from stopping these attacks. It is political correctness.”

Former Hewlett Packard CEO Carly Fiorina echoed that claim. “For heaven’s sakes, every parent in America is checking social media and every employer is as well, but our government can’t do it?” she said.