Visas of U.S.-bound Foreigners Are Not Checked Until After Their Flights Are Airborne

[CWOJackson]

U.S. officials are acknowledging that, according to the standard procedure used by federal agencies on and before Christmas Day of last year, the visa status of foreign airline passengers en route to the U.S. was not routinely checked until after their flights had already left the ground for their American destinations. According to the officials, who asked for anonymity when discussing sensitive information, this meant that nobody in the U.S. government—in the State Department, in the intelligence community, or at the Department of Homeland Security—checked the U.S. visa status of Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab, the alleged would-be transatlantic underpants bomber, until his Christmas Day flight from Amsterdam to Detroit was already in the air.

http://blog.newsweek.com/blogs/declassified/archive/2010/01/22/visas-of-u-s-bound-foreigners-are-not-checked-until-after-their-flights-are-airborne.aspx

Watching a few minutes of the Congressional inquiries into this fiasco is like watching a couple of five year old boys sitting quietly on the couch as you ask them who broke the lamp...

I don't know.

It wasn't me.

It wasn't me.

:doh:

[Panthera Pardus Nigresco]

Interesting that we're just now discovering this in 2010....

[RickN]

Interesting that we're just now discovering this in 2010....

From what I understand ( could be wrong ) it is one of the things changed around the first of last year. Supposedly when the new admin took over they changed a bunch of things like this partly to appear more reasonable to other countries and partly because of pressure from left wing groups.

My source on this is not the most reliable being a former state department employee. He was fired when the new admin took over so is not real happy with them.

[Panthera Pardus Nigresco]

From what I understand ( could be wrong ) it is one of the things changed around the first of last year. Supposedly when the new admin took over they changed a bunch of things like this partly to appear more reasonable to other countries and partly because of pressure from left wing groups.

My source on this is not the most reliable being a former state department employee. He was fired when the new admin took over so is not real happy with them.

So it's currently unsubstantiated at the moment....

[RickN]

So it's currently unsubstantiated at the moment....

Correct. I do know Dear Leader changed a bunch of rules when he took office, but I only have my friends word this was one of them.

[CWOJackson]

Seems like EVERYTHING is currently unsubstantiated and all the heads of the various agencies and departments are playing dumb.

[CWOJackson]

Just when you thought it couldn't get any better...

Newsweek: Did U.S. Intel Officials Mislead Congress About Christmas Day Bombing?

Moreover, when President Obama convened his national-security team on Jan. 5 to discuss the Christmas incident, the decision to charge the suspect in federal court was specifically discussed, and again nobody present raised any objection to it. In fact, Secretary of Defense Robert Gates made the point that even if Abdulmutallab had been transferred to military custody, it is unlikely that any more information could have been gleaned from him, since “enhanced interrogation techniques” have been banned by the administration.

http://blog.newsweek.com/blogs/declassified/archive/2010/01/22/did-u-s-intel-officials-mislead-congress-about-christmas-day-bombing.aspx