[I'd be curious to know if the INS information security staffers are as asleep at the wheel as the rest of the organization? :) - WK] http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A16787-2002Mar12.html 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 U.S. 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. [...] - ISN is currently hosted by Attrition.org To unsubscribe email majordomoat_private with 'unsubscribe isn' in the BODY of the mail.
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