Anti-Terror Screening Draws Fire
WASHINGTON — A new anti-terrorist tracking system that will require fingerprinting and photographing tens of thousands of visitors to the United States is prompting an angry outpouring from Muslim nations.
The measures set to begin Sept. 11 have aroused concern inside the State Department that they could antagonize some of the very people whose backing the United States hopes to enlist in its ongoing war against terrorism.
State Department officials said the visitors most likely to be fingerprinted are males between the ages of 16 and 45 from 26 nations where terrorism is deemed to be a concern.
The names of the 26 countries are classified, but they are widely believed to be mainly Muslim nations.
“It’s going to create three lines at the airport: a U.S. citizen line, a non-U.S. citizen line, and a dark people/Arab line,†said James J. Zogby, founder of the Arab American Institute in Washington. “It’s going to contribute to the perception that it’s Muslims we’re after.â€
A State Department official conceded that there had been “friction†with the Justice Department over the issue, adding: “The State Department is concerned with how this procedure will be perceived overseas, particularly in the Middle East.â€
There also are growing concerns that tougher scrutiny of thousands of foreign visitors, if not performed quickly and discreetly, could depress tourism, trade and business.
Already, more stringent visa regulations imposed since Sept. 11 are causing delays of six weeks or more in issuing U.S. visas, causing headaches for the travel industry, international students and even hospitals that are seeing a drop in patients from the Middle East.
Jorge Martinez, a spokesman for the Justice Department, which has been battling the State Department over how to implement the tracking system, vigorously defended the new procedures--imposed under the Patriot Act enacted by Congress after the terror attacks on New York and the Pentagon last Sept. 11--as essential for keeping tabs on foreigners who might do America harm.
Martinez emphatically denied that the National Security Entry-Exit Registration System, or NSEERS, will discriminate against any particular group.
But Martinez refused to say what criteria will be used to single out visitors who deserve extra scrutiny. He would only describe the two main categories: any non-immigrant alien the State Department defines as an elevated national security risk; or any alien the Immigration and Naturalization Service says is a national security threat, based on the latest intelligence about terrorist activities.
An INS spokeswoman, who declined to give her name, said the agency did not expect delays at airports starting Sept. 11, contending that the beefed-up inspection process for certain visitors will only take about 10 minutes per person.
But diplomats and travel industry officials are worried about the potential for long lines and the reaction of foreign travelers who may be unprepared when INS agents take them aside for fingerprinting and further questioning. Some are concerned that other countries may retaliate and impose reciprocal fingerprinting and other restrictions on Americans who travel abroad.
Civil libertarians question whether U.S. intelligence is equipped to analyze all the fingerprints and information it collects or will drown in the data.
And some Arab Americans fear the process could reinforce the perception that America doesn’t want Muslim visitors and that the war on terrorism is being waged through racial profiling that sees all Arabs as potential terrorists.
Editorialists from Egypt to Malaysia are decrying the long waits to obtain U.S. visas, condemning the U.S. decision to fingerprint, and declaring that the policy means Arab visitors--and Arab capital--are not welcome.
“Fingerprinting is a procedure that is normally applied to prisoners, criminals and those with past records,†said the columnist Fahd al-Fanik in Jordan’s Al-Rai newspaper.
The Dubai Gulf News in the United Arab emirates blasted what it called U.S. Atty. Gen. John Ashcroft’s “Big Brother†approach to fighting terrorism as naive and racist.
Saudi Arabia’s English-language Arab News, referring to the U.S. government’s detention of immigrants after Sept. 11, declared:
“Coming after 1,200 Arabs and Muslims have been detained without due process of law, another 8,000 who are legal visa holders questioned, and thousands of cases of individual discrimination, this ill-thought-out, squalid little proposal, which can do nothing to actually improve U.S. security because real terrorists will not register, serves only to convince Arabs and Muslims that the U.S. is targeting them.â€
The toughened process is intended to address Congress’ concern that terrorists could come to the United States on student or tourist visas and then disappear into American society, as happened with the Sept. 11 hijackers.
Already, INS border agents photograph and fingerprint citizens of Iran, Iraq, Sudan and Syria--states deemed to sponsor terrorism--upon arrival in the U.S.
Starting Sept. 11, a small percentage of other entering foreign visitors will also be asked to step aside into the “secondary inspection†area where INS agents will record digital images of both index fingers, take a digital photograph, and have visitors fill out an extended form detailing where they plan to stay in the United States, what they will do, and when they will leave, said the Justice Department’s Martinez.
The fingerprints will be matched against databases of known criminals and terrorists, and the records will be used to ensure that the visitor departs the U.S. as scheduled.
The criteria for deciding who will get the extra screening are classified, he said.
“We don’t discriminate or target anyone because of their race, religion or ethnic heritage,†Martinez said.
“How do you assume that terrorists who come to attack our country are going to be Middle Eastern people? I understand that the Middle Eastern community is concerned, but this is the farthest from the truth,†he said. “If you pose an elevated national security risk, you will go through the ... system whether you’re a white person with blue eyes or a Middle Eastern person or a Hispanic person or whatever.â€
Citing security reasons, the Justice Department would not say which airports will be the first to implement the new system, but Martinez said all ports of international entry will have it running by Oct. 1.
Since the Sept. 11 attacks, a huge effort has been made to expand and improve the databases, which include FBI data and sanitized intelligence information that might have been obtained covertly, that consular officials use to check out visa applicants.
About 135,000 men from the 26 suspect nations were affected by an automatic 20-day waiting period for visas imposed during the summer to allow more time for background checks of applicants.
However, about 25,000 of these visa applicants, whose files caused no concerns but fit certain classified criteria, were sent to Washington between July 1 and Aug. 2 for a further “security advisory opinion request†under a program called “Visas Condor,†State Department officials said.
Condor applications are circulated to the FBI and various intelligence agencies whose analysts attempt to “connect the dots†to uncover suspected terrorists or associations that might not pop up in records checks, officials said. It is the Condor visa applicants who will likely be targeted for secondary inspection at the airport, officials said.
Because of the time this type of analysis needs, the State Department has been warning foreign nationals to expect delays of six weeks or longer in getting visas. And U.S. embassies cannot say for sure how long it will take to give applicants any answer at all.
The delays are creating problems for some travelers, including students and people coming to the U.S. for medical treatment, though it is difficult to quantify the extent of the situation. The State Department does not release statistics on the number of people denied visas from each country, and it is impossible to confirm or refute anecdotal reports that a disproportionate number of Middle Easterners are being refused visas or made to wait so long they abandon their travel plans.
Overall, international travel to the U.S. was down 11% in 2001, nearly all of it in the fourth quarter, representing a loss of nearly $10 billion in revenue, according to Cathy Keefe, spokeswoman for the Travel Industry Assn. A slight rebound was forecast for 2002, but the number of international visitors is not expected to recover until well into 2003, she said.
The Mayo Clinic, which provides medical care to up to 10,000 foreigners a year, has seen a 50% drop in the number of patients coming from the Middle East--about 1,000 people since the visa restrictions were imposed, said the clinic’s Stephen Gudgell.
Shibley Telhami, the Anwar Sadat professor for peace and development at the University of Maryland, said that even prominent Middle Easterners who have been frequent visitors to the United States have had trouble securing visas.
“It’s become so difficult for them ... and some are so disgusted by the process itself that they don’t want to come, and some are genuinely fearful,†said Telhami, who was part of a recent Council on Foreign Relations task force that concluded the U.S. was losing the international public relations war.
“It’s understandable that you want to make it harder for the bad guys to come in ... yet these steps are alienating them and making it harder to build ... bridges,†Telhami said. “You don’t want in the process of fighting terrorism to take steps that will play into the terrorists’ hands.â€
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