The TERROR VISAS: Waving Them Through.

For more than a year, the CIA and FBI have suffered much criticism for the intelligence breakdowns leading up to September 11, and specifically for their failure to "connect the dots." Surely these agencies have much to answer for. So does the Department of State, which has escaped similar scrutiny. It is responsible for letting those deadly "dots"-i.e., the 19 terrorists-into the country in the first place.

As Joel Mowbray reported in the last issue of NR, at least 15 of the visas issued to the hijackers should have been denied under laws existing at the time. An independent investigation by the General Accounting Office has now confirmed this sobering fact-and added a few appalling details to the picture. In fiscal year 2001, for instance, the State Department granted visas to 79 people it knew to be on the FBI's terrorist watch list because "it determined there was insufficient information linking [these visa applicants] to terrorism." The State Department shouldn't second-guess the judgments of the FBI, let alone act like a coven of ACLU staff attorneys fretting over whether "suspicions" are grounds for exclusion.

Secretary of State Powell has called the consular officers who issue visas the "first line of defense in protecting ourselves from those who would come to our shores." This is true only if consular officers and their superiors regard themselves as defenders tasked with keeping terrorists out. As it stands, the people who issue visas are overworked junior-level bureaucrats who receive little training and perform without incentives to keep out risks. If they deny too many visa applications, they are assumed to be doing something wrong. They are so neglected, in fact, that as of last spring the State Department still had not interviewed any of the individuals who actually approved the 9/11 terrorists' visas-including the one who approved ten of them. This is not the sign of a department desiring to improve its abysmal performance.

Neither is the selection of Maura Harty as the next head of Consular Affairs. Rather than finding a candidate with a proven commitment to change, the administration has reached within its bowels for a departmental insider. At least one senator has placed a hold on her nomination, and rightly so.

Consular officers should be guards first and diplomats second. Their primary duty is to keep out immediate and potential threats, rather than worry about how foreigners view our rules and procedures. If current State Department officials aren't interested in meeting their obligations, we need some new officials.