The Department of Homeland Security has decided to open special law-enforcement offices throughout the Muslim world, with agents assigned to carry out investigations of visa applicants who are suspected of ties to al-Qaida and other terrorist groups, senior Bush administration officials said on Monday.
About time.
They said permanent offices would be opened early next year in U.S. embassies and consulates in five Muslim nations that were chosen both because of the volume of U.S. visas they process and because of the regional presence of al-Qaida and other terrorist groups. The nations are Egypt, Indonesia, Pakistan, Morocco and the United Arab Emirates. Two other offices were opened in late August, without public announcement, in Saudi Arabia - one in Riyadh, the capital, and another in the commercial center of Jeddah. After the terrorist attacks on Sept. 11, 2001, the State Department and the Immigration and Naturalization Service were criticized for lax visa policies that had allowed several of the suicide hijackers to enter the United States without significant scrutiny. Most INS responsibilities have since been consolidated in the Homeland Security Department. This month, under terms of the 2002 law that created the Homeland Security Department, the agency was given ultimate authority for deciding who is given a visa. Visas previously were the responsibility of the State Department.
Good, now we just have to make sure that Homeland Security really investigates these applicants. |