Visa, watch list changes are questioned
Some officials are worried about increased denial of visas and additional security against people coming from 14 nations identified as potential sources of terrorists.
Obama administration officials responsible for air transportation security conceded on Wednesday that the enhanced system established after the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks failed to prevent the "underwear bomber" from getting on a U.S.-bound airliner and said efforts were under way to improve intelligence sharing and the process for putting individuals on the terrorist watch lists.
At a hearing of the Senate Judiciary Committee, FBI Director Robert Mueller and officials from the State and Homeland Security departments acknowledged Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab should not have been able to board a flight to Detroit on Christmas.
Acting on President Obama's orders, changes are being made on how people are added to the terrorists screening and "no fly" watch lists and more visas have been revoked based on review of intelligence information, they said.
But while agreeing that the security system must be tightened, some Democratic members of the committee, including Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Patrick Leahy, D-Vt., expressed concern about increased denial of visas and additional security against people coming from 14 nations identified as potential sources of terrorists.
"Such actions will not solve these issues, they will only isolate us further from the allies we need" and "will ensure that we will miss different threats in the future," Leahy said.
Without using the word "mistakes," Mueller listed a number of changes the FBI is making in how it processes and shares intelligence on possible terrorist threats. "We can and must do more" to prevent events such as the Christmas attempt, he said.
Patrick Kennedy, undersecretary for management at State, and David Heyman, assistant secretary for policy at Homeland Security, were more blunt in acknowledging mistakes in failing to connect the intelligence information on Abdulmutallab to the active visa list or to add him to the "no fly" list.
Under questioning from senators, Kennedy insisted visas are reviewed whenever additional information is received and 51,000 have been revoked since 2001.
Kennedy resisted the proposal from Sen. Charles Schumer, D-N.Y., that no resident of the 14 "terrorist threat" nations should be issued a multivisit visa, as Abdulmutallab was, but said the issue was being reviewed.
Judiciary Committee ranking member Jeff Sessions, R-Ala., directed most of his concerns to the administration's decision to handle Abdulmutallab in the criminal justice system, instead of trying him in the military commissions as a war criminal.
Mueller said the decision to arrest Abdulmutallab was made by agents in Detroit and he had not been consulted. But he did not agree with Sessions that use of the criminal justice system prevented getting useful intelligence.
Leahy and Sen. Russ Feingold, D-Wis., raised the issue of a Justice Department inspector general's report, released Wednesday, that found the FBI violated its own rules after Sept. 11, 2001, in using exigent letters to collect information from Americans' telephone calls without subpoenas.
Mueller acknowledged the errors and said the process had been stopped in 2006 and individuals had been disciplined. He provided no details on the disciplinary action.