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From: charlie
Date: 3/25/02
Time: 8:54:06 AM
Jean, What I Meant to say here is that they DO apply in their home country but the background check, etc. is done by our State Dept before the Visa is OK'd by the State Dept thru the INS.
It makes NO sense to me that if I applied to go to school--say in England or some other country and then applied for a Visa that they would allow me to gone on into the other country and do and complete school BEFORE the visa is OK'd.
It seems to me that the visa must come thru before I ever go to that country.
So in Atta's case and the case of the other guy (there were 2 for that flight school) they came to this country, did the training, and finished it before they were ever granted the visa and permission to do so.
I know of no other country that has the reputation (and widely known and used against us) where the visas are so badly handled.
A country where the person is already here and completed traing that might be denied if the background check is done Prior to it.
Had the visas been denied (they weren't in the long run), the "denied" training was already complete and there was nothing that could bring it back. The men knew how to fly the planes by then.
The very reason you went early for the passport is so that it would be in your hand when the trip came up. You had NO expectation that you would be allowed to go on the trip while your passport was being processed.
The same would be true if your trip was planned to a country where a visitors visa was required. You would not be allowed into the country because you had applied but not received a visa.
But Atta was.
And that brings me to the most recent MESS. The 4 Pakistanis allowed into the country on a shore visa. If the agent on the scene had entered the correct birth date on one, he would have shown up on the terrorist watch list. But barring that, the policy now is for NO Pakistanis to be allowed into the country. The agent just calmly disregarded the policies and didn't check with anybody above his level and handed them a shore visa and said "have a nice visit and spend lots of money". Of course, they haven't been seen since.
THIS is what I mean when I say the INS can't be the Welcome Wagon and be the Last line of defense in National Security. They can't be the WalMart Greeter and be the Security Guard at the same time.
charlie