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 Information in the documents could bolster complaints of critics
in Congress who said flaws in the immigration system meant Malik was
not thoroughly investigated. The papers also showed that statements
by Malik and her husband and fellow shooter Syed Rizwan Farook did
not raise any alarms among authorities that they were potential
Islamic State militants.
U.S.-born Farook said they first met in person and became engaged
during the October 2013 Haj pilgrimage to Mecca with their
respective families, according to other documents released by a
congressman on Tuesday.
They showed precisely what Malik and Farook stated to immigration
officials when Malik went to the United States in December 2013, two
years before their deadly shooting rampage in California that killed
14 people and wounded 21 at a municipal holiday party.
Discrepancies in the application raise questions about whether the
two could have met in Mecca, Saudi Arabia on the date stated in
Malik’s visa application. Farook stated the couple met in person, as
required under U.S. visa policy for a K-1 fiancée visa, on Oct. 3,
2013 in Mecca.
Information on the documents also shows Pakistan-born Malik did not
receive her visa to enter Saudi Arabia until Oct. 5, 2013, however,
two days after Farook claimed the two met. Farook held a Haj visa,
dated Sept. 16, which allowed him to enter the Muslim holy city
during the annual pilgrimage. But Malik did not hold a Haj visa,
meaning she would have been barred from entering Mecca during the
time claimed in the U.S. visa application.
A review of Malik's U.S. visa application by the Congressional
Research Service, made at the request of the House Judiciary
Committee, raised different questions. According to a CRS
translation, the entry stamp on Malik’s passport shows she entered
Saudi Arabia on June 4, 2013. Her 60-day visa would have required
Malik to leave Saudi Arabia nearly two months before Farook’s
passport shows he arrived, on Oct. 1, 2013.
A congressional aide familiar with the documents stated some
confusion about dates could have arisen because Saudi Arabia and
some other Muslim countries use the Islamic calendar, while the
Gregorian calendar is in wide use elsewhere in the world.
U.S. Representative Bob Goodlatte, a Republican from Virginia and
chairman of the House Judiciary Committee, in a statement said
Malik's application needed a more careful review than it received.
"Visa security is critical to national security, and it’s
unacceptable that U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services did not
fully vet Malik’s application and instead sloppily approved her
visa," Goodlatte said.
In other parts of Malik's immigration file, described to Reuters by
congressional sources, she denied anything in her background and
activities that might have raised suspicions, including answering no
when asked if she ever had used or sold weapons or engaged in
"terrorist activity."
The questions were included as part of a permanent residence
application, a Form I-485 used by the Department of Homeland
Security's immigration unit. The process began in January 2014 and
it was approved on July 27 the same year.
Officials familiar with the investigation have said that it was
discovered after the Dec. 2 shootings that Malik began sending
private messages by social media expressing sympathy for Islamist
militancy before her U.S. visa was granted. Farook, 28, and Malik,
29, parents of a six-month-old child, were killed in a shootout with
police after their attack.
Malik's initial visa application, posted on the Internet by
Goodlatte on Tuesday, was part of a form Malik submitted to U.S.
authorities to obtain a K-1 visa allowing her to enter the country
as Farook's fiancée. The administration of President Barack Obama
has not made the documents public.
[to top of second column]
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ENGAGEMENT IN SAUDI ARABIA?
In the application Malik said the couple first met over the Internet
on a "a matrimonial website."
According to an accompanying statement Farook filed, the couple
first communicated online and then agreed to meet in person, along
with their families, during the October 2013 Muslim pilgrimage to
Mecca.
The initial visa application released by Goodlatte includes a
two-paragraph narrative "Intention to Marry Statement" in which
Farook claims that he, a U.S. native, and Malik, a native of
Pakistan, first met in Mecca during the haj in 2013.
"My fiancée's parents reside in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia and she was
visiting them during the month of October (2013). During the same
month, my parents and I decided to perform the Hajj pilgrimage to
Mecca Saudi Arabia," he wrote.
"We decided to have both of our families meet on Thursday October 3,
2013 at the house of my fiancée's relative who lives not too far
from the Ajyad Hotel in Mecca. My fiancée and her family drove from
Riyadh to Mecca so we could meet and it is on this day that we got
engaged,” Farook added.
To support this narrative, Farook told U.S. authorities that he had
included a copy of his Haj visa to show that he was in Saudi Arabia
in October 2013 and that he also included copies of his fiancée's
passport pages to show she was also there that month. He makes no
mention of Malik's visa, which also is included, and does not appear
to be the Haj visa required for visits to Mecca during the Haj.
"My fiancée and I intend to marry within the first month of her
arriving in the United states," Farook's statement said.
The file, described to Reuters but not made public by Goodlatte,
contains a marriage license issued to Farook and Malik in Riverside,
California, dated Sept. 8, 2014.
Reuters reported last week that U.S. consular authorities in
Pakistan could have sought, but did not seek, a more thorough
background investigation of Malik before granting her an initial
visa to enter the United States as Farook's fiancée.
Also in the material made available to Reuters was a standard
questionnaire completed by Malik, which asked her numerous
potentially revealing questions about her background and intentions.
Asked what organizations she belonged to, Malik replied, "none."
Malik also answered "no" on the form when asked if she had ever
belonged to a military unit or rebel or vigilante group, or whether
she had ever used or sold weapons, and whether she had ever
undergone paramilitary training. Altogether, Malik answered "no" to
more than a dozen additional questions about her background,
including whether she sought to overthrow the U.S. government.
(Reporting by Mark Hosenball; additional reporting by Idrees Ali;
editing by David Greising, Howard Goller and Grant McCool)
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