United States law enforcement officials announced on Monday that Tashfeen Malik, one of the suspects identified in the San Bernardino shootings, had expressed her support for Islamic jihad through two private Facebook messages she sent to her friends in Pakistan in 2012 and 2014.
New details regarding the investigation indicate that federal intelligence and law enforcement agencies failed to identify warnings posted through social media that Malik could pose a threat to public security even before she was able to enter the U.S. in 2014 using a K-1 fiancée visa.
The private messages were retrieved by agents of the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) who were investigating Malik and her husband's potential involvement with foreign terrorist groups before they conducted their attacks on Dec. 2.
According to one of the federal officials, the Facebook messages are considered to be Malik's private correspondence to a small group of her friends in Pakistan and that they were the only ones to receive them. The messages were also written in Urdu, Pakistan's official language.
The second federal official added that Malik had "expressed her desire" to become an Islamic jihadist herself in one of her social media posts.
The two officials, who preferred to remain anonymous, discussed the current investigation regarding the San Bernardino shootings that killed 14 people and wounded 22 others.
As of the moment, the FBI has discovered that Malik and her husband, Syed Rizwan Farook, became radicalized separately before they met online sometime in 2013.
James Comey, director of the FBI, revealed during a Senate hearing last week that the couple may have even become radicalized earlier. The federal official, however, did not divulge any information regarding Malik's Facebook messages.
Both Malik and Farook made use of Facebook in order to declare their allegiance to the Islamic State on the day of the attacks at the Inland Regional Center. The post has since been taken down from the social media network.
The FBI also sent divers to search for possible clues at a San Bernardino lake close to Malik and Farook's home. Officials said they were able to recover a few items but none of them could be linked to the couple.
Following the San Bernardino shootings, the U.S. Department of Homeland Security stated its plan to scrutinize the social media posts of visa candidates to determine whether they pose any threat to national security.
Despite frequently posting pro-jihadist sentiments online, Malik's social media accounts were not investigated for suspicious activity by authorities during her visa review.
