Hmm, the NSA has been spying on US citizens for how long..?, listening to everything from cell calls (even building their own fake cell phone towers), to emails to God knows what else, BUT our Govt. is forbidden to read foreigners social media who are applying for a VISA for fear of civil liberties repurcussions? WOW. Can't let the Obama looking bad ya know.
Secret US Policy Blocks Agents From Looking at Social Media of Visa Applicants, Former Official Says
"The State Department today said that “obviously things went wrong” in the visa background check for one of the San Bernardino shooters -- comments that came in the wake of an ABC News report that said officials by policy generally do not check social media postings of applicants due to civil liberties concerns and therefore would not have seen purported evidence of Tashfeen Malik’s radicalization online.
“It’s difficult to say exactly what [went wrong] and how, but for an individual to be able to come into this country – one who the FBI has maintained had terrorist tendencies or affiliations or sympathies at least for a couple years, and then to propagate an attack like that on our own soil, obviously, I think it’s safe to say there’s going to be lessons learned here,” State Department spokesperson John Kirby told reporters.
Fearing a civil liberties backlash and "bad public relations" for the Obama administration, Homeland Security Secretary Jeh Johnson refused in early 2014 to end the secret U.S. policy that prohibited immigration officials from reviewing the social media messages of all foreign citizens applying for U.S. visas, according to a former senior department official..."
https://gma.yahoo.com/secret-us-policy-blocks-agents-looking-social-media-122017778--abc-news-topstories.html
Secret US Policy Blocks Agents From Looking at Social Media of Visa Applicants, Former Official Says
"The State Department today said that “obviously things went wrong” in the visa background check for one of the San Bernardino shooters -- comments that came in the wake of an ABC News report that said officials by policy generally do not check social media postings of applicants due to civil liberties concerns and therefore would not have seen purported evidence of Tashfeen Malik’s radicalization online.
“It’s difficult to say exactly what [went wrong] and how, but for an individual to be able to come into this country – one who the FBI has maintained had terrorist tendencies or affiliations or sympathies at least for a couple years, and then to propagate an attack like that on our own soil, obviously, I think it’s safe to say there’s going to be lessons learned here,” State Department spokesperson John Kirby told reporters.
Fearing a civil liberties backlash and "bad public relations" for the Obama administration, Homeland Security Secretary Jeh Johnson refused in early 2014 to end the secret U.S. policy that prohibited immigration officials from reviewing the social media messages of all foreign citizens applying for U.S. visas, according to a former senior department official..."
https://gma.yahoo.com/secret-us-policy-blocks-agents-looking-social-media-122017778--abc-news-topstories.html
