Visas for Suspected Terrorists? Mowbray: The State Dept. fights for the right to issue U.S. visas

National Review Online ^ | 7-17-2002 | Joel Mowbray

[Havisham]

Go to it Freepers!

[old school]

"State believes that all foreigners should be treated with "fundamental fairness..."

Powell doesn't squat without the approval of the President. If the President seeks to grant amnesty to illegal aliens, he can hardly oppose the doctrinaire asses at State who belive in "fundamental fairness." Can he?

[2 Kool 2 Be 4-Gotten]

Going back to Alger Hiss, the State Department has had its share of traitors. I can see that 50 years later not much has changed. Seems to me someone needs to go through the State Department with a large and efficient broom. We knew that GWB had to clean out the Justice Department after the clintonistas had burrowed in. I don't know to what degree that purge has been carried out, but the problem with State is going to be that much harder, as the rats have had that much more time to make their nest.

[goldstategop]

Colon Bowell being a PR agent for Al Qaeda? Sometimes I think the State Department doesn't know who its supposed to be defending as its dumb insistence on issuing visas to foreigners regardless of their threat risk to the U.S shows. And after 911 one thought things finally changed for the better. Joel Mowbray is doing excellent work, which is no wonder why Foggy Bottom hates that man.

[Shermy]

Lose out on bribes too.

[RWG]

Let them have the visas but immediately deport them at whatever port of entry they use. Let them spend money, let state have its way, and then send them home without ever letting them step onto US ground.

[Cachelot]

Of course they're fighting. They're fighting for their masters.

In Saudi Arabia.

[valkyrieanne]

How about NO visas from Saudi Arabia, period? No travel visas, no student visas, no H1-Bs. Nada. Zip. And also, how about we fly the women and girl US citizens OUT of there, and tell the Saudis what they can do with their "exit visas?"

[lwoodham]

No, I say shoot them until you run out of ammo and then hoist their bullet riddled underware as a warning to what ever dumb bastard may want to try it next.

[browardchad]

Deputy Secretary of State Richard Armitage responded to the recommendation by writing to the Justice Department that "[believing that] an applicant may pose a threat to national security... is insufficient [grounds] for a consular officer to deny a visa."

Comment self-censored.

[fredtaps]

I wish it was that easy to deny entry at the border. The govt. actually makes INS prove that there are Grounds of Inadmissiblity applicable for each denial. Because the LAWYERS fight for the rights? of applicants for admission into the US? We SHOULD have a "you are not right" charge for inadmissibility, but they still haven't passed that one into effect.
Preventing them from landing on US soil is much better, except that State doesn't want to offend any one and do their job. they are scared, maybe cuz they Live there and are intimidated to say NO on visa applications when surrounded by foreigners on foreign soil.
bizarre, pathetic and sad.
At least the HEAT is finally on for the state debacle.

[piasa]

State believes that all foreigners should be treated with "fundamental fairness

This is an absurd idea since not all countries are equal. Our ability to evaluate the character of a person seeking entry is dependent upon the transparency and integrity of the system from which they come; a closed system where immigrants can easily or even routinely bribe officials to get paperwork needed to come to the US is not equal to a system where such bribery is very difficult and where there is a lively free press to report on news relating to crime and other activities. In the former system it is impossible to clear a person as a person of character; in the latter we have more reliable information, from various perspectives, on a person's background to compare with the individual's claims.

[LibWhacker]

bttt

Un - !$%$@$%#$^% - believable!

[Itzlzha]

We are frickin' DOOMED!

The bitch of it is, the next terrorist incident in the US will NEVER be targeted at the State Department, or at ANY media outlet!

Even Islamzis know where there ALLIES are...

Again...we are FRICKIN' DOOMED!

[Betty Jo]

Ohhhh,I like you!

[Betty Jo]

Yep,doomed!

[Betty Jo]

And this is supposed to make me want to support ANY politician who says the "War on Terrorism" is real and deserves the billions of tax $$$$$$ being spent on it ?

If this was World War II, and we were letting in military aged men from Japan and Germany, would no one get hysterical?

Are we sooo informed and nfo-teched that we have lost all reason?

[Betty Jo]

FYI

[Iwentsouth]

The State Department is a 5th Column in our country.

[Betty Jo]

Now, now,is that nice?