"It's The Visas, Stupid"
Joel Mowbray writes in the Wash Times about what the Abdumutallab report ignored -- the fact that the Panty Bomber had a valid visa when he boarded his Detroit-bound flight. That his father's report didn't result in the immediate revocation of his visa, but only his being put on the watch list, per our policy requirements. The visa thing seems to be a real problem -- one the president needs to deal with:
As part of this larger power struggle, DHS has been thwarted in many of its attempts to open Visa Screening Units (VSUs), which were mandated for every visa-issuing post as part of the Homeland Security Act of 2002. Nearly eight years later, there are only 14 VSUs, or just over 5 percent of all embassies and consulates. There is no VSU in Nigeria, even though DHS has wanted to establish one.Lack of funding is partly to blame, but several ambassadors have successfully rebuffed efforts to create VSUs in their countries - fearing that enhanced security enforcement would slow visa processing, angering local government officials.
State shouldn't need encouragement to understand the crucial role of visas for foreign terrorists who wish to strike on U.S. soil. As we learned from the Sept. 11 Commission report, al Qaeda wasn't even able to recruit 30 operatives for 9/11. Their good fortune - and our tragedy - was that they recruited mostly in Saudi Arabia, a country which enjoyed 98 percent visa approval rates before Sept. 11.
What the Sept. 11 Commission acknowledged - but strangely shrugged off as insignificant - was that not one of the terrorists whose applications we could review afterward actually qualified for the visas that they all received. (Four of the application forms were destroyed by regular policy before Sept. 11.) In other words, had the visa law been followed, at least 15 of the terrorists wouldn't have gained entry to the United States in order to carry out the attacks.
Yet with that painful history, State's sole response to the warnings from Mr. Abdulmutallab's father was to "nominate" the young Muslim fanatic for inclusion on the terrorist watchlist. While this led to him being named a "possible terrorist," State's policy is to deny or revoke visas only for known terrorists.
And while it is welcome that Mr. Obama has ordered a review of "visa issuance and revocation criteria," a more decisive step must be taken.
Any probable cause of terrorist connections needs to result in visa denials and revocations unless the evidence can be disproved or reasonably deemed illegitimate. Even when we have no specific information, as was the case with most of the 9/11 terrorists, State should enforce the visa laws as strictly with young Muslim men from known terrorist hotspots as it does with, say, poor (or even middle-class) Filipinos.
"What the Sept. 11 Commission acknowledged - but strangely shrugged off as insignificant - was that not one of the terrorists whose applications we could review afterward actually qualified for the visas that they all received."
The State Department used to grnat visas to Saudis without even the interview they required in every other country in the owrld. Visas were granted basically over the phone or by mail. Visas were a diplomatic goody to hand out in SA.
State Department control of the visa process is a relic of an earlier time before there was even an immigration service of any kind. State dealt with all the foreigners back then, and now it's an anachronism. But they cling to it because visas come in handy as goodies to hand out.
But there's a deeper problem, and it is part of the Abdulmutallab screw-up too. There is a very entrenched caste system within the executive branch - State and CIA and certain other agencies look down on certain other agencies. State and Defense for instance have been having Cabinet level catfights for decades - back in Reagan's time Cap Weinberger and George Schultz just about came to blows over something right in a meeting.Stae thinks of Defense as a bunch of snuff-dipping yahoos, "Not really our sort of people, you know...." - well, maybe not the Navy, but all the rest. CIA doesn't like to share; hell, they even keep shit from each other and are heavily factionalized internally. And mostly that's a good thing. If the intelligence community doesn't hold each other in check, no one can. It's like the way we fracture our law enforcement effort int his country. It may not eb intentional, but it's sacred by now. Think of it as a form of small government.
Jim at January 11, 2010 6:35 AM
This kind of stuff irks me no end. This stuff is "low hanging fruit" as they say. You wanna stop people from stealing from your house? Start by locking the damn door! I wasn't aware that state was so lax with visas... There should be a basic requirement that even state can't violate. Basically it sounds like it is harder for me to get a passport or DL, than it is to get a Visa to come here.
It's a first line of defence, BEFORE you start worrying about what kind of shoes people are wearing.
There's your problem right there. Travel documents are the first item in security. "does the person have the right to be here?"
SwissArmyD at January 11, 2010 9:50 AM
In all fairness, when I went to China, they granted me a visa by mail.
If visas can be revoked based on hearsay, it would be used as a denial of service attack, so there should be some investigation.
Separating the issuing of visas from the State Department sounds like a good idea. Passports too, perhaps.
Pseudonym at January 11, 2010 12:53 PM
Visas seems like an immigration matter to me. After all CIS does all the status adjustment after the initial visa is granted and in effect issues new visas when they do that - you go from one status or kind of visa to a new one. Passports - yeah, why should that be State's look-out, but then too it's not so obvious who else should do it. The diffenrence is that visas deal with foreginers coming in and passports don't.
"I wasn't aware that state was so lax with visas... "
State was lax only with visas for Saudis, who have always had a special status called oil. With other countries there is another problem, local employees taking the visa applications. God knows how many kids that has put through good schools way off in America.
Jim at January 11, 2010 2:01 PM
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