Did DHS End Program Tracking San Bernardino Attackers?
Political correctness trumps national security.
Could U.S. law enforcement stop Tashfeen Malik — the woman who helped carry out the San Bernardino attack — after she applied for a visa, before she even entered the states? Former Customs and Border Patrol analyst Phil Haney told Fox News that it was possible, if the State Department and DHS’ Office of Civil Rights had not stepped in over concerns that the program was politically incorrect. Haney had been tracking the Deobandi Movement, a group of fundamentalist Muslims, putting thousands of names and locations into a database, tracking the members as they traveled in and out of America using the visa waiver program. Both attackers were associated with the movement, and the wife’s entry attempt might have been flagged had the investigation continued.
Haney received a letter of commendation after his work identified 300 terrorists. But then the PC police stepped in and said Haney was profiling Muslims. Records were deleted. When he spoke up, Haney lost his security clearance in September 2014. Haney said, “The administration was more concerned about the civil rights and liberties of foreign Islamic groups with terrorist ties than the safety and security of Americans.” This administration can’t be trusted with national security issues. It shut down a program trying to prevent terrorist acts before they happen, but it wants to expand background checks on firearm purchases to prevent mass shootings before they happen. Go figure.
In related news, there are reports that Obama instructed law enforcement to downplay the terrorism angle in the immediate aftermath of the attack, as it undercut his preferred narrative.