Thread: HOMELAND SECURITY CHIEF SAYS SOCIAL MEDIA IS ALREADY MONITORED IN IMMIGRATION VETTING

BY REUTERS ON 12/16/15 AT 9:45 PM

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - U.S. Homeland Security Secretary Jeh Johnson said on Wednesday that his department has been consulting social media in reviews of immigration applications since early this year, hitting back at criticism that U.S. authorities are not doing enough to weed out potential security threats.

The Department of Homeland Security has been criticized over reports it did not routinely consult social media during the vetting process for visa applications.

Questions arose after it came to light that one of the shooters in the Dec. 2 killings of 14 people in San Bernardino, California, Tashfeen Malik, entered the United States on a K1 or 'fiancee' visa. The Los Angeles Times has reported she had pledged her support to Islamic jihad in a private Facebook post.

Johnson said his department began consulting social media early this year before granting certain immigration benefits but did not specify which ones.

"We had policies in place regarding consulting social media which in my judgment, particularly in this current environment, were too restrictive," Johnson told reporters at the unveiling of a revamped terrorism alert system.

"Under my leadership as secretary, we in fact began to consult social media in connection with conferring various immigration benefits and we will be doing more of this," he added. "Any reports or partial reports to the contrary are simply false."

He noted DHS consults intelligence community databases and law enforcement databases when it does vetting for "a lot" of immigration benefits but said social media is also useful.

Monitoring of social media as a way to identify potentially violent extremists was hotly debated Tuesday night by Republican presidential candidates, with some candidates arguing for increased scrutiny of social media in terrorism investigations.

While there currently is no explicit order banning visa investigators from trawling applicants' social media accounts, some agencies that process visa applications have been wary about doing so, an Obama administration official said.

Johnson denied reports there was a policy in place in 2014 that prevented agents from screening Malik before she entered the country.

"That would not be accurate," Johnson said. He would not comment on the investigation but noted public reports that Malik made her posts under an alias.

On Tuesday, two dozen Senate Democrats sent a letter to Johnson calling on DHS to require social media background checks as part of the visa screening process.

http://www.newsweek.com/homeland-sec...gration-406234

Is this the left hand doesn't know what the right hand is doing? Or just another lie by another corrupt official.

Exclusive: Homeland Security rejected plan to vet visa applicants’ social media

Top officials at the Department of Homeland Security considered a specific policy to strengthen security screenings for foreign visa applicants’ social media accounts, but the proposal was ultimately rejected,
according to an internal department memo obtained by MSNBC.

While the U.S. visa screening process does not include formal vetting of social media accounts, the memo proposed the Obama administration “authorize” customs officials to “access social networking sites”
to vet applicants.

Such vetting could help catch applicants bent on fraud, crime or “national security” risks, the memo stated.

The federal government considered that policy, according to a former senior official in the Department of Homeland Security (DHS), but officials rejected it in 2011.

“I thought it was a done deal,” said the former official, who would only speak anonymously about internal security discussions.

The memo went through roughly a year of revisions with agency lawyers, privacy officers and senior staff, the official added, and was about it to be published as policy – but was then halted by senior officials.

“It’s unusual to go through the circulation process and revisions,” the official said, and then have a policy “not happen.”

“We are at war now,” the official added, “and we need all the tools we can get.”

The three-page memo, now published for the first time exclusively by MSNBC, outlines how officials could use social media to vet visa applicants abroad and inside the United States. MSNBC is publishing the

internal memo, marked “law enforcement sensitive,” with redactions for selected operational details.

DHS officials did not dispute the internal memo when asked about it, but emphasized more recent efforts to vet social media accounts.

“The Department is actively considering additional ways to incorporate the use of social media review” for vetting, spokeswoman Marsha Catron told MSNBC, noting that the department began

“three pilot programs” for that kind of vetting over the past year.

She said that officials must also ensure any vetting follows “current law and appropriately takes into account civil rights and civil liberties and privacy protections.”

Many in Congress are trying to change current law, arguing vetting should be more robust.

There has been especially harsh criticism from Republicans, but the issue has also cut across partisan lines since the San Bernardino attacks, with Democratic senators calling for a “more rigorous screening process”
this week.

Asked about reports of a DHS decision to scuttle the 2011 proposal, several security experts said that was a mistake.

“The Internet is a treasure trove of intelligence gathering,” said former federal prosecutor Michael Wildes. “It’s shocking that this intelligence wasn’t utilized.”

Wildes, an immigration law expert, told MSNBC that if DHS did spike this proposal years ago, it reflects a “blind spot” for public safety.

As for potential privacy concerns, terrorism expert David Schanzer said that should not even be an issue for social media.

“Social media is on an open forum,” he said. “I don’t see the logic of not using something that’s already in the public space.”

Schanzer, who directs a terror and homeland security program at Duke University, also argued that visa applicants “don’t have constitutional rights” protecting their information, so he was especially
“surprised” the DHS would reject the proposal.

Some customs officials caution, however, that the legal rules can be complex, since screening also affects residents who are inside the U.S. and have various legal protections.

Apart from what’s legally allowed, other security experts said it would be tactically unfeasible to screen every visa applicant’s digital presence.

“Even a cursory look at the social media accounts belonging to the millions of visa applicants would bring the entire system to a halt,” according to a new briefing paper by the Soufan Group, a security and
intelligence company.

Still, the briefing noted that “governments will need to develop some practical way to incorporate” social media intelligence “into a workable vetting system.”

Current U.S. policy does not include a formula for when to vet social media. Administration officials have emphasized they are taking a “very close look” at visa screenings.

In addition, Secretary of State John Kerry recently acknowledged “social media has placed a whole new burden and a whole new set of questions” on the process.

Those concerns have continued even as FBI officials have clarified that Tashfeen Malik, the San Bernardino shooter, did not publicly post support for terrorism on social media, as some originally reported.

Officials familiar with the 2011 social media proposal have not argued that any specific incidents would be prevented had it been implemented, but rather that the current controversy underscores how potential
security reforms have been frozen within the federal government for years.

One source with knowledge of DHS screening said that, for years, employees were prevented from even accessing social media sites because of government firewalls designed to prevent staff from engaging in
personal social networking on the job.

The draft proposal sought to address that concern, stating that customs staff could only visit social media sites for “official government business,” and it sought to address privacy concerns by noting the vetting of
social media information “must be limited” to “publicly available information.”

Even with those negotiated guidelines, however, the policy was never enacted — leaving many security officials stuck in the thicket of conflicting vetting guidance that continues today.

Exclusive: Homeland Security rejected plan to vet visa applicants' social media | MSNBC