State admits: ‘Things went wrong’ in San Bernardino visa process

Still, State spokesman John Kirby said that some mistakes appear to have been made with how the department handled the visa of Tashfeen Malik, one of the shooters in the Dec. 2 massacre. The FBI quickly revealed that Malik, who entered the country on a financee visa, pledged allegiance to the terrorist group.

“Obviously, things went wrong, it’s difficult to say exactly what and how,” he said. “Obviously, I think it’s safe to say there’s going to be lessons learned here. By whom and for whom, I just don’t know right now.”

On Monday, reports surfaced that the Department of Homeland Security doesn’t look at social media accounts of visa applicants. Kirby admitted Monday that his department, which shares responsibility for reviewing visas, is also not required to look at social media.

“If a consular officer … feels like it would be valuable or necessary to look at social media, the social media presence of an individual, they can and do conduct those reviews,” Kirby said. “But it’s not absolute in every case.”

Kirby said that if information is found showing an applicant sympathizes with terrorists, that can be enough to scuttle an application.

“I think it’s safe to assume that if we have an indication that an individual applying for an application maintains contact with terrorist organizations or expresses terrorist sympathies or desires … that information would obviously have a derogatory effect on decisions that we might make, as you might expect,” he said.

But when asked if State would have rejected Malik’s application if it knew of her Islamic State sympathies, Kirby declined to answer the hypothetical question.

Kirby also refused to say that State would review all social media accounts for future applicants, despite the Dec. 2 shooting that left 14 people dead.