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To: Lane3 who wrote (2479)	3/13/2002 1:36:37 PM
From: Lane3	Respond to of 21057

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 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 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 while the visa applicants wait for an INS decision, 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

To: Lane3 who wrote (2479)	3/13/2002 1:38:17 PM
From: Neocon	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 21057

We were primarily talking about his national security team being fairly mainstream.

To: Lane3 who wrote (2479)	3/14/2002 5:45:11 AM
From: thames_sider	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 21057

it feels unpatriotic to criticize the President on other matters while the war is ongoing 'feels'... that's how it's being spun, and I'd say this is a deliberately inculcated feeling, HUAC-style. "Whoever is not with us is against us", so if you disagree you are not only unpatriotic but favouring terrorism. Great propaganda. Whatever happened to freedom of speech, freedom to dissent? (What was the name of that comedian who got sacked again? has he found work since?) Plus every policy is packaged for whatever tangential 'antiterrorist' or aim it can get (ICBM defence is ant-terrorist? shure... tax cuts for the rich? whatever) so if you disagree, see above. Hence my disquiet.