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| William W. Bittner |
Posted on 03/25/2002 3:27:28 AM PST by csvset
INS moves Norfolk official as 4 crewmen stay missing
By STEVE STONE, The Virginian-Pilot
© March 25, 2002
NORFOLK -- The head of the area's Immigration and Naturalization Service office has been reassigned after four Pakistani crewmen were improperly allowed to come ashore from a cargo ship docked in Chesapeake. The four have since vanished.
William W. Bittner
``We have launched a very substantial investigation,'' Attorney General John Ashcroft said Sunday. ``I'm not going to report on various aspects of the progress of that investigation.'' He said, however, that he found the situation ``maddening.''
A Justice Department spokesman said the INS is conducting the internal review of how officers in Hampton Roads handled the cargo-tanker Progreso.
A key question will be whether the local officer who cleared the Pakistanis was aware of a post-Sept. 11 policy that required a district supervisor to approve issuance of ``visa waivers.'' Those are used to allow visiting merchant mariners ashore while their vessels are in U.S. ports. The officer's name has not been released.
Meanwhile, the INS, as well as local and state police, are\ receiving tips about the four missing men who jumped ship a week ago. But none has led authorities to them.
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``Individuals are entitled to get visas from time to time,'' Ashcroft said. But, ``I believe that these visas were granted in a way which violated the regulations, that appropriate precautions were not taken.''
William W. Bittner, a longtime INS employee who oversaw the agency's Norfolk field office, has been reassigned to the Arlington office, an INS official said Sunday.
``I'm outraged by the INS,'' Ashcroft said. Still, ``I believe we will be able to correct this situation.''
``It's part of the need to renovate the INS,'' he said. ''There may well need to be legislative changes.''
At the center of the situation is the tanker Progreso. Flying under a Maltese flag with a crew of 27, 19 of them Pakistani, it docked in Chesapeake on March 15, carrying a cargo of liquid chemicals used in the production of fertilizer.
In accordance with new rules set after Sept. 11 that require at least four days' notice before a foreign-flag vessel can enter a U.S. port, the ship's Croatian captain alerted the Coast Guard it was coming on or before March 11.
The ship's information, including a list of crew members, was passed to the new National Vessel Movement Center in West Virginia, a joint operation of the Coast Guard and the Department of Transportation.
Crew members' names were checked against various government lists. None appeared on any ``watch lists,'' the Coast Guard and INS have said.
After the ship docked, the names were checked again by the local INS officer, who inspected the papers of all the crew members. This time, the checks included birth dates.
The birthday of one of the crewmen, among the four who later came ashore, was entered improperly, however.
When none of the names set off any alarms, and with all their other papers in order, the INS officer gave the crew visa waivers, a long-allowed courtesy given foreign sailors visiting Hampton Roads and other U.S. ports. They could go ashore on a promise that they return to their ship before it left.
That's when another mistake was made.
Russ Bergeron, a spokesman for the INS in Washington, said the officer should have followed new procedures initiated after Sept. 11 requiring ``consultation'' with an INS district supervisor before granting a waiver.
The captain has been cooperative, authorities said. When the four missing men did not return to the ship by the time it was to leave Hampton Roads on March 17, the captain alerted the Coast Guard.
The men's names, with proper birth dates, were again run through every available federal database, including those of the INS and a CIA-FBI counterterrorism file. The names were passed to Interpol and checked against an international criminal database.
With the corrected birth date, the INS flagged the record of one of the four men. On a previous job, the crew member was in U.S. waters aboard another ship, and had sought to enter the country to join the crew of a ship docked in Chicago. Told then that his papers were not in order, the man withdrew the request and left, the INS said.
It's unclear if the man was ever considered to be ``in custody,'' however, as suggested in some broadcast reports. Also, it appeared Sunday that earlier reports by Fox News Channel that the man was on a terrorist watch list were in error.
INS Commissioner James W. Ziglar has warned agency employees that he has implemented ``a zero-tolerance policy'' for employees who fail to abide by department rules. But there is some confusion about what the exact rules are.
The Justice Department said that, since Sept. 11, Pakistanis as well as nationals of several other countries are prohibited from receiving waivers. But an INS spokesman insisted there is no restriction, only the requirement that waiver requests be treated with extra scrutiny.
INS and Justice Department officials have stressed that there is no evidence that the four men pose a threat or have criminal intent. Rather, it appears the men have simply jumped ship.
The Progreso is now docked in Savannah, Ga., where INS officials have told the captain that none of the crew may leave the vessel.
Before docking there Monday, the Coast Guard stopped the ship four miles offshore. Coast Guard, FBI and INS officials boarded for a three-hour security sweep.
The Coast Guard team again checked all the ship's records and its seaworthiness. A similar inspection was done before it entered Hampton Roads. FBI agents interviewed the crew and inspected their documents. INS agents confiscated documents left behind by the missing crewmen.
Locally, there have been a trickle of reported sightings of the missing men.
One woman said she saw one of them driving in Norfolk on Saturday afternoon.
``It was on 26th Street, crossing Church Street,'' Mary Tidoe said.
She said the man was driving a ``newish, red car'' that she thought might have been a rental. The man, who spoke English poorly, asked her for directions to Norfolk International Airport.
When she got home and saw a newspaper article with pictures of the four men, she was positive one of them was the driver of the red car.
Tidoe shared her information with INS investigators.
Reach Steve Stone at 446-2309 or stone@pilotonline.com
"No sir, I have no bomb ... this is simply a Richard Simmons weight belt to tighten my abs."
"Yes sir, thank you sir."
These two visted the Hampton Roads area before 9/11.
I wonder if the terrorists have a safe house around here? Oh well, we're safe, as Tom Ridge hasn't flashed a red card yet.
I hope they don't pop up again when the terrorists hit again. (Note that I said, "when" not "if").
The INS needs a thorough housecleaning--make that a pressure washing--from the top on down.
Reassignment, that oughtta teach him. (I hope he was seriously disappointed in the meager pay increase.)
And I guess this is supposed to make everything OK huh? If Jack in the Box was run like the government, they would be out of business in a week.
Yes there are a few exceptions -- exceptions prove the rule, do they not?
The second amendments "militia" concept is far more general than just arms -- it applies in all areas of national endeavor and enterprise. No greater thing might be done to assure homeland security than to enable and allow as much non-federal efforts and activities as possible.
Strength in numbers. E pluribus Unum. Kol Echud.
IS there a directive, and is it being defied by the INS? In spite of all the posturing about security, and perhaps the honest effort on the part of some, literally nothing has changed since 9/11: aliens from countries which knowlingly export Jidadists are being admitted to our country, on student visas, travel visas, work visas and temporary "shore visas -- by air, land and sea.
Our government is broken, folks -- the terrorists know it, even if politicians refuse to admit it.
When a private business has an employee screw up like this, he is FIRED.
When the Army has a soldier screw up like this, he is DISCHARGED.
When the Mafia has a "soldier" screw up like this, he is WHACKED.
Reassigned?! Is this any way to run a railroad?
Congressman Billybob
Click here to fight Shays-Meehan.
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