British Authorities Arrest Terrorists Planning to Bomb Airliners Headed to U.S. But Visa Waiver Program Still Alive & Well

By Michael Cutler

Even as FBI and ICE special agents are on the hunt for the remaining 8 Egyptian students who were among the original group of 11 who failed to show up at a school that they were admitted into the United States to attend, a breaking story out of England has captured the world's attention. It may well be that the Egyptian students who have gone missing among us in the United States are not involved with terrorism. It may be that they are not a threat to our safety, but then, nothing is certain other than the fact that the "All clear" has most certainly not been sounded.

International travel has been dealt a severe blow as flights have been canceled and extraordinary measures are being taken around the world to try to thwart any possible terrorist attack that involved the use of liquid explosives that some 21 alleged members of al Qaeda were planning to use to blow a number of jet airliners out of the sky.

Out of a very obvious concern for security, airline passengers are being told that they cannot bring any liquids such as shampoo and other toiletries on board an airliner. Additionally, no carry-on luggage will be permitted. These tough new rules formulated in response to this newest threat to airline safety are making airline travel less attractive and more uncomfortable. The delays are wreaking havoc on airline schedules and, no doubt, will increase the cost of doing business to the airline industry that is feeling the pinch of the soaring cost of fuel.

What is amazing to me, however, is the simple fact that the Visa Waiver Program is alive and well. Under the provisions of the Visa Waiver Program aliens from some 26 countries are able to come to the United States without first applying for and receiving a visa from United States consular officials. I have been told by my friends on Capitol Hill that the continuation of this program is attributable to the concerns of the travel industry, the hospitality industry and the other businesses that depend on international travel for a substantial component of their corporate income. They fear that a visa requirement will discourage the travel that they are dependent upon for profit.

Meanwhile, it is estimated that some 3.5 million illegal aliens in the United States did not run the border but rather violated the terms of their admission in the United States. They either over-stayed the period of time for which they were admitted, got a job they were not entitled to take under the immigration laws, or committed other such violations of law. Among these illegal aliens are those who entered the United States. Richard Reid, the so-called "Shoe Bomber" was a British subject who was able to board an airliner and seek entry into the United States without first applying for and receiving a visa to come to the United States. So, while we are all forced to remove our shoes before boarding an airliner to make certain we are not concealing a bomb or other weapon in our shoes, the Visa Waiver Program continues.

According to the articled I have attached below, the terrorists who were apprehended in England were citizens of Great Britain, meaning that they did not need visas in order to seek entry into the United States. This means that they did not need to have a visa in their passports in order to purchase and airline ticket and take their place on board airliners as passengers. The visa requirement is not fool-proof, nothing is, but it does represent a layer of security. Anyone who is familiar with security will tell you that a layered approach is the most effective. The visa requirement, if administered effectively, provides 3 benefits to law enforcement and security.

First of all, the process of applying for a visa provides an additional opportunity to scrutinize the would-be alien visitor and subject him to an interview. Of course it is essential our visa-issuing officials have the necessary language training, etc., but again, this is a matter of an opportunity to better scrutinize those who are seeking entry into our country and also seeking entry onto an airliner. Additionally, in the process of completing an application for a visa, the alien is also providing photographs and fingerprints as well as answers to questions that can be useful as investigative leads should the alien who applied for a visa become the subject of an investigation. Finally, the law makes it a crime to make false statements on the application for a visa. Simple visa fraud carries a penalty of a maximum of 5 years in prison. When visa fraud is committed in conjunction with drug trafficking the penalty jumps to 20 years in jail and visa fraud committed in conjunction with terrorism raises the maximum penalty to 25 years. None of these benefits to law enforcement and counter-terrorism apply when an alien is able to hop on an airliner and seek entry into the United States under the Visa Waiver program.

We obviously live in a dangerous era and it time our leaders understood the need to change strategies to better safeguard our nation and our citizens. This is one program that needs to end not only to enhance America's security, but the security of other countries as well. When an alien seeks to board an airliner for a flight to the United States, if he does not have citizenship in a visa waiver country, the airline officials will not permit him to board an airliner without a visa in his passport. In effect this helps screen airline passengers as well, provided, of course, that the visa process is administered effectively.

The Visa Waiver Program needs to be ended in the name of security, the only question is whether our political leaders will demonstrate the political courage to do this.

http://www.nytimes.com/2006/08/10/world/europe/11terrorcnd.html?hp&ex=1155268800&en=13f881599701f2d5&ei=5094&partner=homepage

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

August 10, 2006

British Authorities Arrest 21; U.S. Raises Threat Level
By ERIC PFANNER and JOHN O’NEIL

LONDON, Aug. 10 — British authorities said today that they had thwarted a terrorist plot to to blow up airliners traveling between Britain and the United States by constructing bombs in midflight using liquid explosives and detonators concealed in carry-on luggage.

A police official in London called it a plan for “mass murder on an unimaginable scale.”

In a briefing at Scotland Yard, the police said they had arrested 21 people in connection with the plot. Later, Nasir Ahmed, a member of the House of Lords who is of Pakistani origin, said the police had told him that all 21 suspects were British Muslims.

After the arrests, short-haul flights into London’s Heathrow Airport were canceled and carry-on luggage was banned on all departing planes, causing chaos and long delays during one of the busiest weeks for summer trans-Atlantic travel.

The alert level for aviation in Britian was raised to “critical,’’ the highest level. In the United States, federal officials raised the security warning level for all aviation to high, and to severe, the highest level, for flights arriving from the United Kingdom.

They also put in place new regulations barring passengers from carrying any liquids, gels or lotions onto planes, except for milk or juice for young children and medicines.

Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff said the restrictions reflected the belief of investigators that the plotters planned to bring liquids on board, “each one of which would be benign, but mixed together could be used to create a bomb.’’

The liquids were to be disguised as beverages and the detonators as “electronic devices or other common devices.’’ Britain banned all cellphones and portable music players from flights.

Mr. Chertoff called the plot “a very sophisticated plan and operation’’ that was close to fruition. “They had accumulated the capability necessary and they were well on their way,’’ he said at a televised news conference in Washington.

In London, Peter Clarke, the head of the counterterrorism branch of the metropolitan police, suggested that the group had not yet built any bombs. “The intelligence suggested that the devices were to be constructed in the United Kingdom and taken through British airports,’’ he told reporters.

Aviation experts have long known that planes could be vulnerable to explosive devices put together on board or from hazardous liquids, said Robert W. Mann Jr., an industry consultant based in Port Washington, N.Y.

“Yes, it could have happened,’’ he said.

Mr. Chertoff said that the plot appeared to have been aimed at American carriers flying out of Heathrow. He did not name specific airlines, but the principal ones serving those routes are American Airlines, Continental Airlines and United Airlines. The three airlines had six flights scheduled today leaving within an hour and a half, bound for New York and Los Angeles.

The director of the Federal Bureau of Investigation, Robert S. Mueller III, said that the plot “had all the earmarks of an Al Qaeda plot,’’ but he said there was no direct evidence linking the suspects to the terrorist organization.

In 1994, Al Qaeda members in the Philippines planned to blow up airliners in simultaneous attacks over the Pacific, a plot that was disrupted by the arrest of its ringleader.

Mr. Clarke of the London police said the plot had “global dimensions.’’

The police in London did not identify the suspects or their origin, though Paul Stephenson, the deputy metropolitan police commissioner, said “community leaders” had been alerted about the police action, using a code word for the British Muslim community. Authorities in London did not say how many aircraft had been identified for attack. Sky News put the number at six, while other reports said between three and 10. Mr. Chertoff spoke of “multiple explosions in multiple planes.’’

Mr. Stephenson spoke of “an extraordinarily serious plot.’’

“We are confident that we have stopped an attempt to create mass murder on an unimaginable scale,” he said.

He said the people had been arrested in and near London and Birmingham, and added that the searches would continue.

“We have been very successful in arresting those we were targeting, but this is a lengthy operation, and no doubt there will be further developments,” he told reporters.

Britain’s home secretary, John Reid, said that “we think that the main players are already in custody.”

“But we should always err on the side of caution,” he added, explaining why the threat level remains elevated.

Mr. Stephenson said that “a critical point” was reached last night that indicated “an urgent need to take action,” but he declined to say what information led to that decision.

Mr. Chertoff said that “some threads had been pursued for some time’’ by investigators in Britain, but that in the last two weeks or less evidence had arisen suggesting that the plotters were targeting American carriers.

He said there was no evidence of any related plots in the United States, or any threats against other modes of transportation.

Mr. Clarke told reporters that the investigation had “already lasted for several months and will undoubtedly last long into the future.’’

He said the investigation had involved “an unprecedented level of surveillance.’’

“We have been looking at meetings, movement, travel, spending and the aspirations of a large group of people,’’ Mr. Clarke said.

The British Broadcasting Corporation reported that the police were evacuating homes in High Wycombe, about 30 miles from London, near one of the houses being searched.

The arrests came while Prime Minister Tony Blair is on vacation in the Caribbean. The government said he has spoken to President Bush about the situation. White House spokesman Tony Snow said today that Mr. Bush was briefed on the arrests at his ranch in Crawford, Tex., where he is on vacation.

Mr. Snow described the plot as “a direct threat to the United States,’’ according to The Associated Press.

News of the latest apparently foiled plot comes little more than a year after terrorists killed 52 people in an attack on subway trains and a bus in London.

But Mr. Chertoff drew a distinction between the suspects arrested today and the kinds of homegrown, relatively amateur plotters who carried out the London transit attacks or those who were arrested more recently for scheming to blow up buildings in Florida or tunnels in New York.

“This was a very sophisticated plan and operation,’’ he said. “It was not a circle with a handful of people sitting around and dreaming.’’

Disclosure of the plot also came one day after Mr. Reid, the British home secretary, gave a speech in which he warned that Britain faced “probably the most sustained period of severe threat since the end of the Second World War.”

The British government has come under criticism for anti-terrorism measures imposed in the wake of the July 7 bombings last year.

Also today, Jordanian officials said that a man tried to force his way into the cockpit of a Qatari Airlines plane, but the flight returned safely to Amman, The A.P. reported.

Kip Hawley, a U.S. Transportation Department official, said at the news conference that the new security measures went far beyond the heightened searches and new restrictions that would be visible to travelers.

He suggested that travelers “leave liquids at home or drink them’’ before passing through security checkpoints and “declutter” carry-on baggage. If airport screeners have a clear view through their X-ray machines of the contents of carry-on luggage, “you’ll pass right through,’’ he said.

Liquids for children are allowed on board, as are liquid prescription medicines with the traveler’s name on the bottle and non-prescription medicines like insulin. Parents were being asked to take a sip of the juice or milk to prove it is what they say it is.

Mr. Hawley said the ban on liquids was temporary until new screening measures could be developed.

The heightened security measures sent ripples of disruption across Europe and America and caused chaos at Heathrow, where travelers were sometimes given little explanation.

Joanne Weslund, 68, a retired schoolteacher from Hubbardston, Mass., was critical of the way the situation had been handled by the airlines as she waited for a British Airways flight.

“It’s been terrible,’’ she said. “We are waiting in Disney-like lines. The only thing BA has said is it’s a security breach. We are told we can bring nothing on the plane, only passport and cash. If there is a threat, people should not be on planes, but how they handled this is atrocious.’’

A customer service agent for British Airways told passengers, “The only thing we know for sure is Christmas Day falls on Dec. 25.”

At Newark Liberty International Airport, passengers generally appeared to take the increased delays stoically.

David Charters of Princeton, who arrived around 6:30 am for a 9 am flight to Calgary, was unsure he would make his flight, but was not making a fuss. “If you’re not patient, you shouldn’t be flying because things like this happen,’’ he said. “That’s why they have bars here."

Airline workers tried to speed things along by circulating among the passengers with plastic bags in which bottles, deodorant containers and shampoo could be discarded. A woman with a bottle of medicine was allowed to bring it on board after it was checked to see that her name was on the pharmacy label.

Security lines at Detroit Metropolitan Airport, which normally move swiftly, stretched from inside the airport back to the parking structure across the street this morning. The scene was orderly, but trash cans were filling up with bottles of water, sunscreen, eyeglass cleaner, contact lens solution, hand lotion and mouthwash.

In London, OAG, the travel information company, estimated that 400,000 people in Britain would be affected by the security alert. On a typical day, the firm said, 3,800 flights take off from Britain, though only about 3 percent of those are trans-Atlantic.

Officials were requiring passengers to check everything except personal items like keys, wallets, and passports, which they had to carry in plastic bags. Drinks and other liquid items were banned.

Travelers were required to remove spectacles or sunglasses from their cases, and those traveling with infants were required to taste any baby milk in front of security officials.

Britain’s Department for Transport said it was requiring secondary searches of travelers headed for the United States, with a particular eye to removing any liquids they might have with them.

“We hope that these measures, which are being kept under review by the government, will need to be in place for a limited period only,” the department said in a statement.

.

Ann Keating, a private investigator from Salem, Mass., who landed at Heathrow this morning, said that because of the chaotic conditions, ’’the ones I fell most sorry for are the kids.’’

’’I wish it was socially acceptable to throw yourself on the floor and scream at age 40, but it’s not.’’

Eric Pfanner reported from London for this article and John O’Neil from New York. Reporting was contributed by Micheline Maynard from Detroit, Fara Warner from Romulus, Mich., Karla Adam and Dexter Filkins from London and Derrick Henry from Newark.

Home

Copyright 2006 The New York Times Company

TrackBack