This story first appeared in the New York Post:

Here’s a painful truth: Nearly 15 years after 9/11, US counterterror efforts failed to thwart the Orlando attacker. As they failed to prevent San Bernardino, Calif., Garland, Texas. Boston. Fort Hood . . .

And yet, in every one of those cases, the feds had their chance. Is something hobbling federal counterterror efforts?

Years before Omar Mateen’s bloodbath at Pulse, the FBI had him on its watch list — twice. He also made two trips to Saudi Arabia. Yet officials couldn’t link him definitively to any plot to commit mayhem.

Add to this unconfirmed reports of more recent warnings to the FBI — from Disney World, after he and his wife seemed to be casing the site, and from the owner of a gun shop where the killer tried to buy level-3 body armor.

Were these dots that went unconnected?

Only the killer is to blame. But Orlando was hardly an isolated failure.

The bureau also had the Tsarnaev brothers on its radar screen before the Boston Marathon bombing. It probed Elton Simpson before he took part in the hit on the “Draw Mohammed” event in Garland.

Tashfeen Malik made it through a Homeland Security screening and later joined Syed Farook in the San Bernardino shooting. Agents cleared Maj. Nidal Hasan prior to his Fort Hood rampage.

What gives?