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9/11 staff report focuses on immigration Hijackers' visa applications were incomplete - A new report from the now-defunct Sept. 11 commission details the lax controls on immigration and customs that the hijackers exploited to carry out their plot. The report, compiled by the commission’s staff, says 13 of the 19 hijackers applying for visas presented passports that were less than three weeks old, yet their visa applications were met with no increased scrutiny. Two of the hijackers, the report said, lied on their applications “in detectable ways” but were not questioned about those lies. And all 19 of the hijackers’...

Visa express State has by no means been acting as a rogue department in dealing with Saudi Arabia, somehow coddling a nation that various White Houses considered hostile. But the lengths to which State goes to pamper the Saudis is something largely carried out of its own volition. There is no better example of this than Visa Express, the program that required all Saudis (including non-citizens) to turn in their visa applications at private Saudi travel agencies, which then sent them in bundles to the embassy in Riyadh or the consulate in Jeddah. Visa Express was entirely of State’s own...

For the rest of the week, Townhall will be running an exclusive excerpt each day from this explosive expose on the State Department, Dangerous Diplomacy. Joel Mowbray, who scared State so much that they actually detained him after a press briefing last year, was responsible for blowing the whistle on State's Visa Express program, which let all residents of the country that sent us 15 of 19 9/11 terrorists apply for visas at private Saudi travel agents *after* September 11. Congress eventually shut down Visa Express last summer, but only because of Mowbray's tireless investigative journalism. Filled with never-before-told stories,...

The self-described mastermind behind the Sept. 11 terror attacks says it was no accident 15 of the 19 suicide hijackers were Saudis and that they were used for practical and "political" reasons. Khalid Shaikh Mohammed Khalid Shaikh Mohammed told his CIA interrogators the Saudis were initially chosen because it was easier for them to get visas than for recruits from other Arab countries like Yemen, a Saudi official with direct knowledge of Mohammed's interrogations told reporters in Washington this week. The official, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said he learned about the conversation with Mohammed from U.S. officials. CIA...

<p>Accused terrorist mastermind Khalid Shaikh Mohammed has told investigators that al Qaeda chose so many Saudis to carry out the September 11 attacks partly because it was an easy place to get visas, a Saudi official said.</p> <p>Al Qaeda leaders "felt that the nationality that would not ring a bell when it came to security screening at that time would be Saudis," the Saudi official told reporters in Washington this week, on the condition that he not be identified.</p>

NewsMax.com WiresThursday, Sept. 11, 2003WASHINGTON – Alleged terrorist mastermind Khaled Sheikh Mohammed has told investigators that al-Qaeda chose to use so many Saudis in their attacks on Sept. 11, 2001, in part because it was easier for them to get visas than for terrorists from other Arab countries, a Saudi official and a diplomat with direct knowledge of the interrogations have told United Press International. Al-Qaeda leaders "felt that the nationality that would not ring a bell when it came to security screening at that time would be Saudis," the Saudi official told reporters in Washington this week, on...

While most of the attention paid to the recent 9/11 report has focused on the 28 blanked-out pages detailing the actions of the House of Saud, a far more important player has escaped necessary scrutiny: the U.S. State Department. Not because the diplomats at Foggy Bottom did anything overt (aside from issuing visas to the terrorists that never should have been issued under the law), but because they believe “stability”—even stability of tyrants—is always in America’s interests. What that has wrought, though, is a world more amenable to tyranny and terrorism. History shows that the State Department has had an...

November 22, 2002, 10:30 a.m. In the new Homeland Security bill just passed by both houses of Congress, stricter visa controls were enacted for people wishing to gain entry to the United States from one specific country: Saudi Arabia. The only people who lobbied against the policy — taking the Saudi royal family's position — were officials at the State Department. Just two sentences of a 400-page bill spell out the two new requirements. The policy prohibits "third-party screening programs" — the most famous example of which is Visa Express, which allowed Saudi residents to submit their visa applications to...

November 15, 2002, 11:35 a.m. Brushing aside the strenuous objections of the families of 9/11 victims and the parents of abducted American children, Democrats late Thursday pushed through the nomination of Maura Harty as head of the Consular Affairs (CA) bureau at the State Department. She was confirmed as the new assistant secretary of state for consular affairs as part of a compromise package that allowed conservatives to get simultaneous votes through on several judges and another State nominee. Harty's nomination has been embroiled in controversy since it was announced nearly four months ago. Harty has long been a favorite...

October 30, 2002, 10:35 a.m. Controversial State Department nominee Maura Harty is likely to face more trouble in the Senate than she was already headed for a week ago. Even though she has yet to be confirmed by the Senate to take over State's visa office, Harty, for the past week or so, has been assuming control of that position, according to a senior official at the State Department. Someone prematurely making decisions in a Senate-confirmed post — before the Senate has actually confirmed the nominee — is verboten, and possibly against the law. Either way, the mere appearance of...

October 3, 2002, 12:00 p.m. The Senate Foreign Relations Committee Thursday is holding a perfunctory hearing in advance of a likely rubber stamp for the nominated replacement of the pioneer of Visa Express, former Assistant Secretary of State for Consular Affairs Mary Ryan, with her protégé, Maura Harty. Unless a senator on the committee is willing to stand up to the State Department, Harty could soon be confirmed as the head of Consular Affairs (CA), the agency within State that oversees consulates and sets policies for visas regarding who gets in this country — and who does not. Harty has...

July 26, 2002, 11:00 a.m. The full House of Representatives today has the opportunity to enhance our border security by stripping visa authority away from the State Department entirely and placing it into the Department of Homeland Security. Among the dozens of amendments being offered to the bill creating Homeland Security, an amendment from Rep. Dave Weldon (R, Fla.) provides the best shot for strengthening our borders by taking the broken visa process out of the hands of the people who created the current mess. The Weldon amendment would remove visa powers from State and place them in the new...

July 17, 2002, 12:50 p.m. Visas for Suspected Terrorists? State defends the indefensible. The State Department is fighting a terrorism task force's recommendation that suspected terrorists be denied visas — this is the same department that wants to hold onto the visa-issuance power in a time of war when our enemies want nothing more than entry into the United States. Deputy Secretary of State Richard Armitage responded to the recommendation by writing to the Justice Department that "[believing that] an applicant may pose a threat to national security... is insufficient [grounds] for a consular officer to deny a visa." No,...

AT LAST, a head has rolled since the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks. Mary Ryan, assistant secretary for Consular Affairs, has “retired” from the State Department. She was pressured out on July 9 after suffering severe criticism for a program she pioneered called Visa Express. Unique to Saudi Arabia, it fast-tracked visa applications for Saudi citizens and alien residents hoping to come to America. Rather than visit U.S. diplomatic posts, visa applicants were expected to hand their papers to Saudi travel agents who would deliver them to American consular personnel. So long as they could afford passage and did not have...

WASHINGTON (AP) - People who want to visit the United States from Saudi Arabia no longer can apply for visas at travel agencies, the State Department said Saturday. Saudi Arabia was the home country of 15 of the 19 Sept. 11 hijackers. Three of them got their U.S. visas using Visa Express, the travel-agency shortcut that has come under fire in Congress. Some lawmakers have been on the attack largely because of news reports of laxity by U.S. consular officers in Saudi Arabia and allegations of a visa fraud at the U.S. Embassy in nearby Qatar. Clark Kent Ervin, the...

<p>High-level State Department officials have circulated e-mails accusing Rep. Dan Burton and Bush administration officials of McCarthyism and neo-Nazism for criticizing the visa system's failure to keep the September 11 terrorists out of the country.</p> <p>The internal e-mails, copies of which were obtained by The Washington Times, come as the State Department announced that it has reprimanded two staffers for earlier e-mails criticizing a member of Congress.</p>

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Consular officials liken visa critics to neo-Nazis Ben Barber THE WASHINGTON TIMES Published 7/18/2002 High-level State Department officials have circulated e-mails accusing Rep. Dan Burton and Bush administration officials of McCarthyism and neo-Nazism for criticizing the visa system's failure to keep the September 11 terrorists out of the country. The internal e-mails, copies of which were obtained by The Washington Times, come as the State Department announced that it has reprimanded two staffers for earlier e-mails criticizing a member of Congress. Chuck Keil, the consul general in Rome, complained to several State Department officials — including Deputy Secretary of...

Official Inquiry Ordered for All Visa-Issuing Foreign PostsBy George Gedda Associated Press WriterPublished: Jul 16, 2002 WASHINGTON (AP) - The State Department's inspector general has ordered a survey of all U.S. foreign posts that issue visas to determine whether any are being approved for unqualified applicants. Clark Kent Ervin made known his request in a letter to Sen. Chuck Grassley, R-Iowa, a senior member of the Senate Judiciary Committee, and to Rep. Dave Weldon, R-Fla., chairman of a House Government Affairs subcommittee. The two lawmakers on Tuesday made public a letter Ervin wrote concerning the survey. They had told Ervin...

U.S. Probes Visas Issued Abroad WASHINGTON (AP) - The State Department's inspector general has ordered a survey of all U.S. foreign posts that issue visas to determine whether any are being approved for unqualified applicants. Clark Kent Ervin made known his request in a letter to Sen. Chuck Grassley, R-Iowa, a senior member of the Senate Judiciary Committee, and to Rep. Dave Weldon, R-Fla., chairman of a House Government Affairs subcommittee. The two lawmakers on Tuesday made public a letter Ervin wrote concerning the survey. They had told Ervin earlier that they were "very troubled" by reports suggesting that some...

July 16, 2002, 2:45 p.m. State Accounting Congress gets involved in the Mowbray retention saga. By Sen. Charles Grassley & Rep. Dave Weldon. July 16, 2002 The Honorable Colin Powell Secretary Department of State 2201 C Street, NW Washington, DC 20520 Dear Secretary Powell: We are writing to express our concern about the detention and questioning of reporter Joel Mowbray at the State Department on Friday, July 12th. As a senior member of the Senate Judiciary Committee and chairman of the House Government Reform Subcommittee on Civil Service, we have concerns that government agencies not take inappropriate actions that cast...