Monday, 7 December 2015

Obama Orders Review of Visa Program That Admitted California Shooter

President Barack Obama ordered officials Sunday night to review the "fiancée" visa program under which one of the San Bernardino, California, terrorists entered the country.In an address to the nation, Obama said the terrorist threat to the United States is evolving to one that makes use of home-grown terrorists radicalized by jihadi propaganda and persuasion."It is this type of attack that we saw at Fort Hood in 2009, in Chattanooga earlier this year and now in San Bernardino," he said — referring to the November 2009 assault on Fort Hood, Texas, in which a U.S. Army psychiatrist killed 12 people and the attack in July on military facilities in Tennessee, which killed four people.Tashfeen Malik, the Pakistani wife of Syed Farook, was admitted to the United States through what's called a K-1 visa for foreigners engaged to U.S. citizens — sometimes called the fiancée visa.In the two years since they married, Farook and Malik began plotting their deadly attack, authorities said.In his address, Obama said he has ordered the State Department and the Department of Homeland Security to review the visa program — as several of the leading presidential candidates have demanded.Democratic candidate Hillary Clinton — Obama's first secretary of state — called for a "hard look" at the program in a speech Friday in Des Moines, Iowa."It's a calculated balance between wanting to keep our country open for people coming and going and reciprocity with other countries, and being sure that we are being vigilant in protecting ourselves," Clinton said. "I think we have to make sure we do more to get the balance right."

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