-Caveat Lector-
>From http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A16787-2002Mar12.html
>>>Because they, the INS / Gov't, doesn't know what the F*** they're / it's doing. To
have this bunch of incompetents try to round up 9 million people when they can't
even screen for two of the most famous "dead" men in American history, that would
be like having drug addicts on the narco squad or sex addicts on the vice squad or
bureaucrats in the gov't. They're addicted to the politics and the bennies. A<>E<>R
<<<
}}}>Begin
Terrorist Pilots' Student Visas Arrive
Officials Blame 'Antiquated' System for Delay of Paperwork
By Dan Eggen and Mary Beth Sheridan
Washington Post Staff Writers
Wednesday, March 13, 2002; Page A01
Exactly six months after terrorists Mohamed Atta and Marwan Alshehhi flew two
jetliners into the World Trade Center, the Florida flight school that trained the men
received paperwork showing that their student visas had been approved.
The two suicide hijackers had applied for the visas through their flight school,
Huffman Aviation International, in August 2000. But because of backlogs and an
antiquated processing system at the Immigration and Naturalization Service,
notification of the approval did not arrive at the Venice, Fla., flight school until
Monday.
The belated receipt of the documents underscores the chronic problems that
continue to plague the beleaguered INS -- the target of strenuous reform efforts
since the Sept. 11 attacks -- and prompted howls of outrage yesterday from Capitol
Hill.
"This shows once again the complete incompetence of the immigration service to
enforce our laws and protect our borders," said U.S. Rep. F. James Sensenbrenner
Jr. (R-Wis.), who has co-sponsored legislation to break up the agency. "If you look at
the chronology of this, it shows why the INS has to be dismantled and put back
together again."
INS and Justice Department officials acknowledged yesterday that the delayed
mailings were embarrassing, but stressed that the change to student visas for Atta
and Alshehhi was actually approved last summer. The pair had entered the United
States on tourist visas.
In addition, the INS said in a statement, "when the applications were approved, the
INS had no information indicating that Atta or Alshehhi had ties to terrorist
organizations."
The records received by Huffman, first reported by CNN, show that Atta's visa was
approved on July 17 and Alshehhi's was approved Aug. 9. The visa approvals came
well after the two would-be hijackers had completed their training course at Huffman,
which cost $27,300 each and ended in January 2001.
That means it took the INS nearly a year to process the visa applications after they
were submitted by a Huffman official in August 2000, and seven months more to
return the forms to the flight school. The schools are not required to deny instruction
to foreign nationals once the application has been filed, officials said.
Huffman owner Rudi Dekkers said he feels vindicated by receipt of the forms,
because they prove his school followed INS guidelines.
"It's very strange," Dekkers said. "I have no idea why it took so long."
INS officials said in a statement last night that the agency "regrets the late arrival
of
notifications to the school," and blamed the delay on an "antiquated, inaccurate,
untimely" and inefficient paper-based processing system. The INS is switching over
to a computer- based system, which was first mandated by Congress as part of an
immigration reform package in 1996.
"How can these guys get training before they're approved to get training? That's a
legitimate issue," one senior Justice official said. "But it's important to note that
these
guys were approved long before anyone in law enforcement knew they had ties to
terrorist groups."
Rep. Tom Tancredo (R-Colo.), head of a congressional caucus that seeks reduced
immigration, said the agency is "completely and totally dysfunctional.
"The INS is the Mickey Mouse Club of federal agencies, but this actually would
indicate that's an insult to Mickey Mouse," Tancredo said. "I do not know what straw
is possibly going to be the one that will break this back. The pile is so high now you
can't see over it."
A spokeswoman for ACS Inc., the contractor that runs the London, Ky., processing
center that mailed the paperwork to Huffman, said that INS rules allow the company
to wait six months before sending approved student visa applications to flight
schools. "There was no delay," said Lesley Pool. "We perform our services according
to their dictates."
INS and Justice officials said last night that the company's latest contract, announced
last fall, reduces the deadline to 30 days, officials said.
Ben Ferro, a former INS district administrator who now runs a consulting firm, said
the Atta and Alshehhi cases reflect how the immigration service has lost control of its
own documents.
"What happened here is an embarrassment and worse," Ferro said. "Clearly INS
doesn't discriminate in its backlogs and delays. Everyone gets delayed, even dead
people."
© 2002 The Washington Post Company
End<{{{~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
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