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Memo to Snyder: Don’t stop the radical reforms now!Surprised Flight 253 terrorist was allowed to fly? I’m not. Here’s why.
December 27th, 2009 | 
Author: 
Gregory D. Lee
On Christmas Day, 23-year Nigerian national Abdul Farouk Abdulmutallab boarded a Detroit-bound Northwest Airlines plane in his home country with the intent of killing 278 passengers and crew members aboard. The Associated Press reported that he was on a U.S. terrorism watch list, but he wasn’t on the “no fly” list.
How can this be?
Next gig: State Dept. visa screener
Doesn’t it make sense that if someone is suspected to have terrorist ties, he should not be allowed to fly on a commercial airliner, let alone be given a U.S. visa? This is apparently what happened in Abdulmutallab’s case.
Before a passenger can board a U.S.-bound airliner from anywhere in the world, the airline is required to ensure he has a valid U.S. passport or visa.
If the person arrives without a visa, the airline is subjected to a large fine and the passenger is sent back home. So how did Abdulmutallab get a U.S. visa despite being on a government terrorism list?
When I worked as a DEA Supervisory Special Agent in Pakistan between 1994 and 1998, I was amazed how the visa process worked. I got the impression the State Department was more inclined than not to issue a visa, and it only turned down people who clearly had no intention of returning home. I was a member of what was called the “Visa Viper” committee to discuss giving certain risky individuals a visa or not. Almost without exception, I was outvoted by other Karachi Consulate department heads, and visas were issued. In one case, an individual had a police record of burglary. I asked why we would knowingly allow a burglar in the United States. But because the committee members felt the Karachi police were generally incompetent and corrupt, these were sufficient reasons to grant the man’s request.
When the visa section reopened at the Karachi Consulate after being closed for extensive remodeling, State Department employees celebrated the event. Now, they said, visa applicants wouldn’t have to travel 800 miles to the embassy in Islamabad to file their phony applications.
At the beginning of a State Department employee’s career, he or she is almost always assigned to the visa section with the responsibility of screening people who will never return to their home country, seek employment instead of tourism, or intend to commit terrorism or other criminal acts. These employees are frequently right out of college and have no real life experience. Yet they are our first line defense.
Al-Qaeda’s method of operation has transformed from setting explosives on airplanes with timing devices, hijacking aircraft, to individual suicide bombers on board. In the early 1990s, Ramzi Yousef and his uncle, Khalid Sheikh Mohammad, devised the “Bojinka plot,” wherein they were going to plant explosive devices on 12 U.S. airliners that were set to explode simultaneously over the Pacific Ocean. That plot could have caused more deaths than the events of 9/11. Fast forward to Richard Reid, the infamous “shoe bomber.” His foiled suicide bombing attempt led the Transportation Security Administration to require all passengers to remove their shoes to be X-rayed for explosives. Then came the London plot to mix explosive chemicals on airliners bound for the U.S., which resulted in severely limiting the liquids and gels passengers could carry on board planes. This latest event will undoubtedly bring more restrictions on the traveling public.
It was no accident that Abdulmutallab waited until Northwest Flight 253 was about to land before attempting to set off his explosive device. The flight from Amsterdam took the polar route and had just entered U.S. airspace when he ignited the device. He hoped to crash the airliner in a populated area in Detroit as opposed to destroying the plane as it taxied on an isolated runway.
Combining the terrorism watch list with the no-fly passenger list would be a good start to improving security. Mandating the airlines report to the FBI when someone on both lists attempts to purchase an international airline ticket would also help track these people and gather credible intelligence about al-Qaeda’s intentions.
These changes with vigorous screening of visa applicants will go a long way in making air travel safer for Americans.
Gregory D. Lee is a syndicated columnist and was personally involved in the capture of Ramzi Yousef. He can be reached through his website: www.gregorydlee.com.
Posted in Gregory D. Lee
22 Responses to “Surprised Flight 253 terrorist was allowed to fly? I’m not. Here’s why.”
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Abdul Farouk Abdulmutallab had been denied a visa by the UK in May 2009 because he was applying for a student visa to re-enter the UK and the course he said that he would follow did not exist. Don’t the US and UK authorities inform each other of visa denials? If you are denied a visa in one western country shouldn’t that at least be cause for concern when a visa is applied for in another western country? At the very least when he applied for a US visa, the US officials should have been made aware that he was already known to have been dishonest to UK officials. Let’s have some more joined-up thinking please, and don’t give me any rubbish about data protection – falsifying a visa application is a crime in any country, and even if the offender is simply denied entry rather than prosecuted, the information should be broadcast.
I have never flown, but I hate stereotyping people, and I guess that I see how stuff like this is a slippery slope that all of us had better be careful about, lest it is your right to fly or travel that is taken away next? Especially when you know that you are an innocent bystander that only wants to go sightseeing or go and do your business in some place that isn’t America. If you don’t care about that then don’t worry about it.
You got your facts wrong. The man got his visa in 2008. At that time, he was not on a watchlist, nor did the officials reviewing his visa have any information suggesting he was a terrorist. Fast-forward to Nov. 2008. The same Visas VIPER process you lambast was the only source of duragatory information the US government had on Abdulmutallab. The process itself was put into place after the first World Trade Center attack. Now fast-forward again to Dec. 2008. The man was watchlisted, but boarded a plane. Something happened in between. If you’re going to play childish name-calling editorial games, play them elsewhere. There are lives at stake here.
Jim I believe that Mr. Lee is a LOY more informed then you will ever be, what is Your background?
It would be nice if the 10,000 strong dea staff was fighting the war on terror.Instead they continue 4 decades of less than 5% yearly interdiction rates .
you and your fellow underacheivers are killing americans by wasting needed resources!
Mr. Lee,
I was employed by the DOS as a consular official in several countries before becoming a consultant in the Caribbean. Your comments are shocking and represent the ultimate form of rightwing sophist propaganda. If law enforcement agencies and intelligence organizations provide weak information on an individual, he or she will not be denied a visa or have it cancelled. If we start denying visa to individuals based on weak criteria nobody would ever get the opportunity to visit the USA and trust me our economy depends on tourism as a viable component.
Also there are several different watchlists, all of which are independently compiled and not shared. Therefore proposing that a consular official’s ineptitude or laziness would cause a terrorist to be issued a visa is utter nonsense. I have known of several instances where law enforcement agents posted overseas were involved in procuring visas for lovers, friends and prostitutes under fraudulent circumstances. Yet I would not impugn the honor or integrity of the thousands of federal law enforcement officers stationed abroad as attaches.
I have also read several books about the arrest of Yousef Ramzi, the role of the DEA in the arrest was honorable and represented the highest example of inter-agency cooperation. I must add the DEA’s contributions reportedly were no more significant than the actual Department of State Diplomatic Security Special Agents who led the operation leading to the arrest of Yousef.
Mr. Lee I think it demeans your professionalism when you seek to make scapegoats out of thousands of career diplomats serving as consular officials. Our consular officials have to make very difficult decisions often with only a five minute interview and the perusal of a visa application forms. The do a pretty good job.
Maybe if federal law enforcement agents and those in the intelligence community were able to come up with actionable intelligence, terrorists would never get a US visa. These agencies might want to start by diversifying their ranks and getting people who can engage intelligence sources in the slums of Karachi or Lagos. One of America’s strengths is its diversity. Maybe in those agencies we need more Asians, Africans, and Latinos in thier professional ranks so that efforts of these agencies can be more effective and stop terrorist plots before they can mushroom.
I am hoping to see more money going into research into better materials to be used in home building and renovation.
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