DAILY CALLER
DHS Monitors Americans’ Social Media Accounts, But Not Visa Applicants’
by Chuck Ross
December 14, 2015

The Department of Homeland Security has operated a program to monitor ordinary Americans’ social media discussions about the agency’s policy directives, even though it had in place another policy prohibiting agents from checking visa applicants’ social media accounts for possible signs of terrorist leanings. The agency’s policy against vetting visa applicants was revealed on Monday by John Cohen, a former DHS under-secretary for intelligence and analysis. Now an intelligence analyst at ABC News, Cohen says that last year, DHS Sec. Jeh Johnson resisted changing the agency’s policy against viewing visa applicants’ social media accounts as part of the screening process to let them into the U.S. Having such a policy in place may have prevented San Bernardino terrorist Tashfeen Malik from entering the country on a fiancee visa last year, Cohen asserted. READ MORE