Looks like "Visa Express" finally hit the end of the line. From "NRO"
Visa Express Axed
The State Department acts.
Visa Express is finally on the way out. Word of this breaking, and encouraging, development comes as Congress is considering proposals to remove the visa-issuance powers from their current home in the State Department and as the investigation of Middle Eastern men buying illegal visas becomes public.
Bowing to a month's worth of criticism of the program that let in three of the Sept. 11 hijackers in the three months it was in operation in Saudi Arabia before 9/11, the officials in charge of the U.S. Embassy in Riyadh have requested permission to shut down Visa Express.
A confidential memo from the U.S. Embassy in Riyadh yesterday disclosed that within the next week, the U.S. embassy in Riyadh and U.S. Consulate in Jeddah will "move toward interviewing all adult applicants and toward eliminating the role of travel agencies in forwarding visa applications to the Embassy and Consulate."
Additionally, the head of Consular Affairs (CA), the agency within the State Department that oversees consulates and visa issuance, Mary Ryan, is also on the way out. Mary Ryan has been CA chief for nine years, and in that time she implemented a dangerous "courtesy culture" and has scrapped the interview requirement for visa applicants in consulates around the world. According to a senior administration official, "Undersecretary of State Grant Green [Ryan's boss] called Mary Ryan into his office, and he told her it was time she resign."
The news of the departure of both Visa Express and Mary Ryan comes on the same day that two congressional committees are scheduled to vote on bills that would decide the ultimate fate of visa-issuance powers, whether such authority stays with the State Department or moves over to the new Department of Homeland Security. Although the State Department had no official comment last night, several other sources confirmed Mary Ryan's exit.
It's unlikely that the timing of Mary Ryan's exit one day before congressional action was coincidental. "This was Powell's way of saying, 'I can do better.' This is a huge turf war for him [to keep visa issuance], and he's playing for keeps," comments a senior administration official. Congress shouldn't fall for the head-fake, because the problems plaguing visa issuance go much deeper than just Visa Express or Mary Ryan.
Evidence of the corrosion of the visa-issuance process came to the surface again yesterday, with multiple news reports of massive visa fraud at the U.S. Embassy in Doha, Qatar. Reports on "Operation Eagle Strike" note that authorities are investigating the possible illegal sale of up to 70 visas to mostly Middle Eastern men for $10,000 each. So far 31 holders of the fraudulent visas have been arrested.
The Qatar visa-selling scandal is hardly an isolated incident, however. Just last month, former consular officer Thomas Carroll was sentenced to 21 years in prison for selling up to 800 visas for $10,000 to $15,000 each in Guyana. According to prosecutors in his case, at least 26 of those who purchased illegal visas committed crimes in the United States, ranging from disorderly conduct to gang rape. The scariest part of the story is that Carroll was only caught because he was dumb enough to encourage his successor to continue his scheme. If the successor had gone along with Carroll, or simply chosen not to tip off authorities, Carroll might have gotten off.
Just this April, the Dallas Morning News reported that the U.S. Consulate in Ciudad Juarez, Mexico, was under FBI investigation for the illegal sale of visas, following the conviction that month of a consular officer for accepting bribes over several years. This March, a former Drug Enforcement Agency agent was convicted of fraud and bribery for helping several Nigerians acquire fraudulent non-immigrant visas.
If the purchasers of these illegal visas had been terrorists, or worse yet suicide bombers, the damage could have already been done before investigators even knew the visas had been sold.
As the new evidence on Qatar is making disturbingly clear, State has been incapable of closing off gaping loopholes in our border security. Would transferring the visa-issuance powers to Homeland Security be a panacea? No, but anything would have to be better than the untenable situation that now exists.
Given that all 19 of the 9/11 hijackers came here on legal visas, no function could be more central to homeland security than keeping terrorists from reaching our shores in the first place. Having consular officers who have received less than five hours of total interview training conducting cursory, two-to-three minute interviews of less than half of visa applicants is not just absurd ? it's an obvious threat to our border security.
Officials at State still refuse to acknowledge any problems with the way they conduct business. They were defending Visa Express as recently as Monday, still clinging to the belief that there was no security threat in deputizing private Saudi travel agents to handle the first step in the visa-screening process.
The fact that State doesn't understand that every contact with a possible bad guy is important shows that that department just doesn't get it. U.S. Customs agents, for example, often catch drug mules simply because someone looks nervous or antsy, triggering follow-up interviews. With visa applicants dropping off applications at travel agents, not to mention more than half of the time not being interviewed at all, consular officers are denied crucial opportunities to screen out those wishing to do us harm.
The people in the field in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia don't get it, either. The confidential memo requesting termination of Visa Express blames the demise of the program on "uninformed media reports," never mentioning that three 9/11 terrorists gained entry to the United States through the program in just three months. The author, Ambassador Robert Jordan, offered the following reasoning for his decision: "I must be concerned with... the perception of what we are doing." The "perception" was not the problem; the reality was. In the country that sent us 15 of 19 9/11 terrorists, people were still, post-Sept. 11, submitting visa applications to travel agents ? and State saw nothing wrong with this.
The elimination of Visa Express and the exodus of Mary Ryan are heartening, but are only the first step. CA's house must be thoroughly cleaned, since "all of the people there are Mary Ryan's people, and all the policies are her policies," notes a senior administration official.
The only effective method for cleaning house is to rid CA of her cronies and transfer the visa-issuance powers to the law enforcement-focused Department of Homeland Security. The latter action, though, faces stiff opposition from Secretary of State Colin Powell, who is determined to maintain the clout associated with visa powers. Congressional committee votes today and tomorrow are the next battleground, with the ad hoc committee, headed by Majority Leader Dick Armey, taking up Homeland Security issues next week.
Because Powell goes to bat for the bureaucrats in his charge, he will likely pull out all the stops to hold onto the visa-issuance powers. In trying to keep the visa-issuance function within his department, Powell may be fighting for bureaucrats whose livelihoods are on the line, but it's American lives that are at risk.
Joel Mowbray is an NRO contributor and a Townhall.com columnist. |
