Posted on 12/16/2001 3:59:17 PM PST by sarcasm
Anyone looking for an explanation of why it was so easy for the September 11 terrorists to enter the United States need only look to the U.S. visa-processing program in Saudi Arabia. Of the 19 suspected hijackers, 15 were Saudi nationals who obtained visas at the U.S. Embassy in Riyadh or at the consulate in Jidda. And for three of them, it really required no sweat at all.
Advocates of tighter controls say the disclosure shows that the State Department has sacrificed security in favor of efficiency. Visa Express "is a bad idea," says Jessica Vaughan, a former consular officer. "The issuing officer has no idea whether the person applying for the visa is actually the person [listed] in the documents and application."
The State Department says security is most important. Since the attacks, procedures have been tightened in Saudi Arabia and elsewhere. One official says there has been "a substantial falloff" of visa applications in Saudi Arabia. In the past, officials say, fewer than 3 percent of Saudi applicants were denied visas.
Visa Express was started last spring with promises it would speed up the process. Instead of visiting a U.S. mission, applicants for nonimmigrant visas could submit their papers through 10 travel agencies. The embassy in Riyadh said applicants no longer would "have to wait in long lines under the hot sun." In some cases, applicants are still interviewed.
Three amigos. The three hijackers who used the express program were not questioned, however. The American official who provided that information identified them as Abdulaziz Alomari and Salem Alhamzi, who arrived in the United States last June, traveling on tourist visas, and Khalid Al-Midhar, who came here in July, on a business visa.
The State Department says the names of all 15 hijackers who obtained visas in Saudi Arabia were run through a database that contains regularly updated records and intelligence on foreign nationals. The checks turned up no derogatory information. Christopher Lamora, a department spokesman, says that, regardless of whether applicants are interviewed, their names are checked in the database.
As the terrorist attacks demonstrated, information in the database was far from adequate; some law enforcement and intelligence agencies weren't anxious to share information with consular officers. Improvements now are underway. "I don't really care how they do it," Mary Ryan, a senior State Department official told Congress last October, "but they have to give us the information."
Saudi Arabia should be tossed from our little "coalition". These people must be kept out of our country. All of them, insofar as I'm concerned.
Paging Pat Buchanan! Oh no, wait, he's worried about the Mexican workers. I'm NOT worried about the Mexican workers, I'm worried about the Muslim Terrorists.
We need to make student/tourist/business visa issuance the number one issue in this country. We need to stop all entry from Middle Eastern nations.
It should now become easier for a camel to pass through the eye of a needle than a Muslim to enter the United States.
My first thought was Visas R Us. sheesh
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