Christmas Day Attack: Senate Judiciary Hearing

“Securing America's Safety: Improving the Effectiveness of Anti-Terrorism Tools and Inter-Agency Communication”

We almost missed this one.  The Senate Judiciary Committee held a full committee hearing yesterday related to the Christmas Day attack (January 20, 2010 | 10:00 AM | ROOM: Dirksen-226).  View Webcast

The Honorable Patrick Leahy



The Honorable Russ Feingold

Witness Testimony:

The Honorable Robert S. Mueller, III | PDF

Director

Federal Bureau of Investigation

United States Department of Justice

Washington, DC

The Honorable David F. Heyman | PDF

Assistant Secretary for Policy

U.S. Department of Homeland Security

Washington, DC

The Honorable Patrick Kennedy | PDF

Under Secretary for Management

U.S. Department of State

Washington, DC

Excerpt from U/S Patrick Kennedy testimony:

In the case of Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab, on the day following his father’s November 19 visit to the Embassy, we sent a cable to the Washington intelligence and law enforcement community through proper channels (the Visas Viper system) that “Information at post suggests [that Farouk] may be involved in Yemeni-based extremists.” At the same time, the Consular Section entered Abdulmutallab into the Consular Lookout and Support System database known as CLASS. In sending the Visas Viper cable and checking State Department records to determine whether Abdulmutallab had a visa, Embassy officials misspelled his name, but entered it correctly into CLASS. As a result of the misspelling in the cable, information about previous visas issued to him and the fact that he currently held a valid U.S. visa was not included in the cable. At the same time the CLASS entry resulted in a lookout using the correct spelling that was shared automatically with the primary lookout system used by the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) and accessible to other agencies.

[…]

The State Department has broad and flexible authority to revoke visas and we use that authority widely to protect our borders. Since 2001, we have revoked 51,000 visas for a variety of reasons, including over 1,700 for suspected links to terrorism.

[..]

In addition to revocation efforts, consular officers refused 1,885,017 visas in FY2009. We now are renewing guidance to our officers on their discretionary authority to refuse visas under section 214(b) of the Immigration and Nationality Act with specific reference to cases that raise security concerns. No visa is issued without it being run through security checks against our partners’ data. And we screen applicants’ fingerprints against U.S. databases as well.

[..]

DHS has broad access to our entire CCD, containing 136 million records related to both immigrant and nonimmigrant visas and covering visa actions of the last 13 years. Special extracts of data are supplied to elements within DHS, including the Visa Security Units of Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE).

[…]

We give other agencies immediate access to over 13 years of visa data, and they use this access extensively. In November 2009, more than 16,000 employees of DHS, the Department of Defense (DOD), the FBI and Commerce made 920,000 queries on visa records.

[…]

In 2009 we expanded use of facial recognition from a selected segment of visa applications to all visa applications. We now are expanding our use of this technology beyond visa records. We are testing use of iris recognition technology in visa screening, making use of both identity and derogatory information collected by DOD. These efforts require intense ongoing cooperation from other agencies.

[…]

In addition, we have 145 officers and 540 locally employed staff devoted specifically to fraud prevention and document security, including fraud prevention officers at overseas posts.

[…]

We fully recognize that we were not perfect in our reporting in connection with the attempted terrorist attack on Flight 253. We are working and will continue to work not only to address that mistake but to continually enhance our border security screening capabilities and the contributions we make to the interagency effort.

Patrick F. Kennedy, a Career Minister in the Foreign Service, was confirmed by the U.S. Senate as Under Secretary of State for Management on November 6, 2007. As Under Secretary for Management he is responsible for the people, resources, facilities, technology, consular affairs, and security of the Department of State and is the Secretary’s principal advisor on management issues. He also provides regular direction to the Bureau of Resource Management, and the Chief Financial Officer serves as a core member of the Under Secretary’s senior management team. The Bureau of Consular Affairs reports to him, and he reports to the Deputy Secretary Jack Lew.

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Haiti Consular Assistance: By the Numbers (Updated)

The Consular Bureau with Michele Bond (DAS for Overseas Citizen Services) and David Donahue (DAS for Visa Services) conducted a briefing on January 18 on consular services provided to American citizens (amcits) during the Haiti disaster. The work is ongoing; the numbers below a snapshot of what have been accomplished so far and most certainly will change in the future. Numbers are compiled from the January 18 briefing and from the Spokesman’s briefings on January 19,and January 20. 

40,000-45,000 | Estimated number of American Citizens in Haiti

15,000 | Approximate number of American registered at the embassy

2 | Number of Task Force in Washington

2 |Number of Call Centers Set-up

300,000 | Number of calls received

9,000 | Number of cases opened in crisis database

12,300 | Number of cases opened and track in crisis database (1/20)

3,500 | Number of people accounted for in crisis database

7,500 | Number of people accounted for in crisis database (1/20)

2,900 | Number of American Citizen (Amcits) evacuated (1/18)

4,500 | Number of American Citizen (Amcits) evacuated (updated 1/19)

6,174 | Total number of Amcits evacuated (updated 1/20)

44 | Number of flights

525 | Number of Amcits in Embassy Compound

136 | Number of Amcits at Haiti Airport

24 | Number of Amcit deaths (private Americans 1/18)

27 | Number of Amcit deaths (private Americans updated 1/19)

33 | Total number of Amcit deaths (1/20)

24 | Number of immigrant visas for orphan children

146 |Children issued visas and humanitarian paroles (1/20)

$23 million | Contribution raised thru Text "Haiti" to 90999 (1/19)

72 | Number of individuals rescued (1/19)

3 | Number of email addresses set up

American Citizen Welfare/Whereabouts: Haiti-earthquake@state.gov

American Citizen W/W in Haiti: ACSPaP@state.gov

Adoption Inquiry: ASKCI@state.gov

Other Foreign Service Numbers:

80 | Number of non-essential/family members evacuated

8 | Total Number of Amcits wounded (official personnel)

4 | Number of Amcits seriously wounded (official personnel)

1 | Number of Amcit death (official personnel)

3 | Official USG Persons Unaccounted for (1/20)

25 | Number of Consular Officers (augment) sent to Haiti

?? | Number of Local Staff at AmEmbassy Haiti

?? | Number of Local Staff Unaccounted for at AmEmbassy Haiti   

I have sent out emails inquiring about the local staff but have not received any response from anyone.  If you have an idea, or an estimate, please zap me an email. Our thoughts and prayers to our folks at the US Embassy in Port-Au-Prince. Take care of yourselves; this is not going to be over quickly.

Updated:

Numbers updated  from DPB on January 20, 2010



Updated 1/21:

On FSNs/local employees:  I'm told that 75% percent of the local staff have called in, and that they're hopeful more will call.

Top Floors Read the Consular Corner

Image via Wikipedia

From FS blog, SassAndSweet "“Observations about working as a Diplomat. Thoughts on living in Israel. Comments on life, the universe and everything.” Extracted from entry What to Write, What to Write?

I have to send a shout out to & word of appreciation LS who kindly congratulated me a couple weeks back via the Consular Corner re: my Olympics Posting to Whistler.

[…]

so my thanks to LS is for posting the word and congrats that I'd heading to Whistler for the Olympics because THAT got noticed by Public Affairs & Consular Affairs and last week an email popped into my inbox at work...

I'm hardly the only one but ... among other imminently more qualified people than myself. I've been asked to write a blog entry to be published by the Department of State about my posting to Whistler. We've negotiated subject and timing so I'll be writing it 48 hours after my arrival - and discussing first impressions, my role up there for the upcoming Olympics, and probably some "Ra Ra State!" wordings. Which I'm cool w/because I like my job and my employer. Most days... :)

Active links added above. The writer has been tapped to open State's first temporary consular office in Whistler, Canada to provide support for the U.S. Olympic Committee and consular assistance to American tourists attending the Olympic Games.



The up floors as much as the down floors probably read Liam's Consular Corner (newsletter and Facebook). Now that's something to think about, ya?

Haiti Consular Assistance: By the Numbers

The Consular Bureau with Michele Bond (DAS for Overseas Citizen Services) and David Donahue (DAS for Visa Services) conducted a briefing on January 18 on consular services provided to American citizens (amcits) during the Haiti disaster. The work is ongoing; the numbers below a snapshot of what have been accomplished so far and most certainly will change in the future. Numbers are compiled from the January 18 briefing and from the Spokesman’s briefing on January 19.    

40,000-45,000 | Estimated Number of American Citizens in Haiti

2 | Number of Task Force in Washington

2 |Number of Call Centers Set-up

300,000 | Number of calls received

9,000 |Number of cases opened in crisis database

3,500 | Number of people accounted for in crisis database

2,900 | Number of American Citizen (Amcits) evacuated (1/18)

4,500 | Number of American Citizen (Amcits) evacuated (updated 1/19)

44 | Number of flights

525 | Number of Amcits in Embassy Compound

136 | Number of Amcits at Haiti Airport

24 | Number of Amcit deaths (private Americans 1/18)

27 | Number of Amcit deaths (private Americans updated 1/19)

24 | Number of immigrant visas for orphan children

$23 million | Contribution raised thru Text "Haiti" to 90999 (1/19)

72 | Number of individuals rescued (1/19)

3 | Number of email addresses set up

American Citizen Welfare/Whereabouts: Haiti-earthquake@state.gov

American Citizen W/W in Haiti: ACSPaP@state.gov

Adoption Inquiry: ASKCI@state.gov

Other Foreign Service Numbers:

80 | Number of non-essential/family members evacuated

8 | Total Number of Amcits wounded (official personnel)

4 | Number of Amcits seriously wounded (official personnel)

1 | Number of Amcit death (official personnel)

25 | Number of Consular Officers (augment) sent to Haiti

?? | Number of Local Staff at AmEmbassy Haiti

?? | Number of Local Staff Unaccounted for at AmEmbassy Haiti   

Our thoughts and prayers to our folks at the US Embassy in Port-Au-Prince. Take care of yourselves; this is not going to be over quickly.

Ambassador Merten: The Embassy is Doing Its Best

Register online and help the US Embassy /Consulate locate you in an emergency

This morning, U.S. Ambassador to Haiti Kenneth Merten speaks with TODAY’s Meredith Vieira about logistical challenges behind search and rescue operations in Haiti. He also said the embassy is doing its best but has no way to check on the 40,000 or more Americans estimated to be in the country. This NBC report says that about 450 Americans have been evacuated since Tuesday's disaster. Ambassador Kenneth Merten said "a steady stream" of U.S. citizens has been showing up at the airport and embassy seeking help leaving the country, but so far not in overwhelming numbers.



I think the main challenge in calamities like this is how do you track or trace a large number of people overseas in an emergency.  Even if you have the local addresses, what do you do when phones are not working, when there are no doors to knock on, or when entire neighborhoods are simply gone?



This city has an estimated population of between 2.5 and 3 million people.  The UN’s initial estimate is that 10 percent of the housing in the Haitian capital Port-au-Prince has been destroyed, leaving some 300,000 people homeless.  The World Food Program is aiming to feed two million people for about 30 days. That's pretty mind-boggling.

The report also says that U.S. soldiers were sorting the Americans for evacuation at the airport. It quotes that people without citizenship were angry and cites one Vladimir Lexus, a 23-year-old musician who lives in Miami who said: "I can't believe this!"  I don't know what the airport set up is like but if 450 Americans have already been evacuated, I'm sure there are Consular Officials at the airport to check on the citizenship of evacuees and prepare evacuation documentation as they are required to do.  

Update 1/17/2010: This one from NDS: Haiti: Some Numbers | Number of consular staff working the massive crowds at Haiti's airport, before reinforcements from Consular Affairs arrived: 4.  That's right. 4.

Visit msnbc.com for breaking news, world news, and news about the economy

This is perhaps also a learning moment for the American traveling public and for those Americans who reside overseas.  First -- as the State Department points out “Millions of Americans travel abroad every year and encounter no difficulties. However, U.S. embassies and consulates assist nearly 200,000 Americans each year who are victims of crime, accident, or illness, or whose family and friends need to contact them in an emergency. When an emergency happens, or if natural disaster, terrorism, or civil unrest strikes during your foreign travel, the nearest U.S. embassy or consulate can be your source of assistance and information.”

If you are overseas now, take a moment to register here with the State Department (https://travelregistration.state.gov/ibrs/ui/). By registering your trip or your presence overseas, you help the embassy or consulate locate you when you might need them the most. Registration is voluntary and costs nothing, but it should be a big part of a traveler or overseas resident's planning and security.

Second – if you have children born overseas, it is helpful to document their citizenship as soon as you are able.  You don’t want to document their citizenship amidst an evacuation.  

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State Dept Sets Up Email Inquiry Address for Haiti Crisis

For people trying to contact U.S. citizen friends and relatives in Haiti 

The US Embassy in Haitihas updated its contact information for inquiries on welfare and whereabouts of American citizens in Haiti. Reprinted in full below: 

During the Crisis in Haiti, calls regarding the welfare of U.S. citizens can be made to the Embassy’s Consular Task Force in Port-au-Prince at 509-2229-8942, 509-2229-8089, 509-2229-8322 or 509-2229-8672. (Prior announcement also urged Americans to contact the Embassy via email at ACSPaP@state.gov to request assistance).

 

The Department of State has received a high volume of calls concerning the welfare of U.S. citizens in Haiti.   To handle these requests most efficiently, the Department has established an e-mail address for people who are trying to contact their U.S. citizen friends and relatives in Haiti. 

Please send your inquiries to:  Haiti-Earthquake@State.Gov and include the following information:

• The full name, date of birth and passport information (if known) of the persons in Haiti you are trying to contact.


• Their contact information in Haiti;  telephone numbers, email address, hotel name or address (if known)


• Your name and contact information, and your relationship to the person in Haiti (parent, spouse, friend etc.)


• Any special or emergency circumstances.

Our task force will work with our Embassy staff in Haiti to locate and, if needed, provide assistance.  We will respond to each message as soon as possible.  If you hear from the person you are concerned about, please be sure to send us an email providing the new information about their location or condition. 

Below is the contact info for the Ops Center from a prior announcement:

The State Department Operations Center has set up the following number for Americans seeking information about family members in Haiti: 1-888-407-4747 (due to heavy volume, some callers may receive a recording). Outside of the U.S. and Canada, call 202-501-4444. 

 

Ushahidi Haiti: Impressive, Inspiring Effort

Image from Ushahidi Blog

I first posted about Ushahidi in July last year when I was captivated by the TED presentation of Erik Hersman. Ushahidi was used in the Kenyan post-election crisis of 2007-2008 where it became a place online to report incidents of violence via the web and cell phone text messages.

In August, Ushahidi stood up “Alive in Afghanistan” and crowdsourced the elections in the country. 

 Less than 24 hours after the Haiti earthquake struck, Ushahidi Haiti, a quad-lingual site is up and running (English, Spanish, French, Kreyol). An impressive and inspiring effort.  When it was 3 a.m. in Boston and the work was still unfinished, the Nigerian team took over.  The initiative is a joint effort between Ushahidi, UN OCHA/Colombia and the International Network of Crisis Mappers (CM*Net).

According to Ushahidi:  “OCHA/Colombia recently deployed Ushahidi for an earthquake response excercise so we're very grateful for their invaluable contribution to this Haiti deployment. We're completing the customization of the platform as fast as we can. Please follow @Ushahidi on Twitter for updates and help spread the word, especially to colleagues inside Haiti. Please do contact us if you want to help. Our thoughts are with the people of Haiti and with our humanitarian colleagues on the ground.”

There are currently 141 reports in Ushahidi Haiti with a good number looking for Haitian American family members. Some reports require medical assistance like a distressed 80 year old American with broken leg; addresses and phone numbers are provided but very few have been responded to so far. The website has verified several reports on hospitals that are operational, as well as the international airport.

Ushahidi is an open source project that allows users to share information during crises. Ushahidi Haiti tracks the current crisis with a map that can be filtered using the reported locations of emergencies, threats, vital lines/logistics (road blocks, water shortage, power outage), response (medical, search and rescue, shelter, others). It also features a filter for mapping survivors and deaths.  It aggregates tweets, and streams from You Tube and Flick. Ushahidi has previously done 4 major alpha deployments, including the War on Gaza, Vote Report India (to monitor the recent local elections) & Pak Voices (to map incidents of violence in Pakistan).  Ushahidi was also used to track crime in the Atlanta metro area in Atlanta Crime Maps.     

The Huffington Post reports NPR and the New York Times are both looking for ways to integrate the Ushahidi platform to cover the unfolding disaster after the Haitian earthquake.  Check out haiti.ushahidi.com. The Ushahidi team also blogged about their work in Our Efforts in Response to Haiti’s Earthquake. 

I hope the brainiacs at the Consular Affairs Bureau would take a look at this platform for the next crisis which could happen anywhere in over 200 posts worldwide. Note that OCHA/Colombia recently deployed Ushahidi for an earthquake response exercise. This could be an extremely useful addition to post-specific crisis management or table top exercise. Ushahidi could also be used to track incidents in high crime posts like South Africa, El Salvador, or Papua New Guinea.  

Please pass this on to the Secretary’s Sounding Board.

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US Embassy Haiti and the Hard Work Ahead

 Map from Relief Web

From the Special Briefing yesterday on the situation in Haiti with Cheryl Mills, State Dept Counselor, USAID Administrator Raj Shah and U.S. SOUTHCOM Commander General Douglas Fraser (Washington, DC | January 13, 2010) with updates on the US Embassy and staff in Haiti. 

Cheryl Mills, State Dept Counselor:

[T]here are approximately 45,000 U.S. citizens who are in Haiti. The Embassy Port-au-Prince has activated its Early Warning System to connect with those citizens and establish, one, how they are doing and, two, what support they might need. We have received a number of reports of injured U.S. citizens, so we are working through those to be able to make sure that we are getting everybody the assistance that they need.

There have been a number of calls that have come into our Consular Affairs here at the Department seeking information about loved ones who are in Haiti. For those people who are seeking information, the President gave out this number. I just want to give it one more time, and that is 1-888-407-4747. And that’s a number that you can call into if you are seeking information or seeking to make a request with respect to someone who is – that you are trying to connect with that’s in Haiti.

In terms of Embassy personnel on the ground there, we have about 172 personnel who are there under chief-of-mission authority. As of 8:00 a.m., we had accounted for just about all of them. There were eight personnel who were wounded, four who had been seriously wounded. We have already had U.S. Coast Guard heels on the ground to be able to medevac them to get appropriate care. And so we are beginning to see that happen as well.

We have ordered the departure of approximately 80 Embassy spouses, children, and non-essential personnel. Those will begin happening later today so that we can ensure that the infrastructure and resources that are there can be properly concentrated on those who are in need. The Coast Guard will have planes actually arriving, I believe, this afternoon. And I’m sure General Fraser will be able to speak to that to help and assist in that evacuation process.

The Embassy structure has remained intact and so it has become a point of support. And it has been providing medical support and other support for Haitians and Americans and others who have been able to reach the Embassy.

The Skeptical Bureaucrat on the embassy structure that survived the earthquake: “Those Fortress Embassies occasionally have their uses. The U.S. Mission in Haiti is fortunate to have moved into a new office complex last year, a nice seismically-resistant one with lots of infrastructure support and located close to the airport.”

I don’t know if those 172 employees under chief of mission authority mentioned above include local employees. The embassy in Haiti issued 35,000 visas in FY2008 but had a refusal rate of 61.4% in FY 2009. I imagine that the consular workload there is not insignificant; which would also mean we have a large number of first tour officers serving at post. Our American staff will be dealing with the evacuation of their own families as well as the demands at work.  They will most certainly be working in shifts as they account for American citizens in country, help those injured, assist our citizens with contacting families back home, process them for evacuation, and identify and confirm American casualties.  I can’t even begin to imagine the magnitude of the work especially on dealing with casualties – visiting hospitals and mortuaries, if those survived the calamity ... bodies on the streets …. all can quickly be overwhelming.     

One other thing to remember with this kind of devastation -- the local employees who make up a significant number of mission employees will also be dealing with possible casualties in their very own families. The earthquake occurred approximately at 5:30 p.m. So the local staff would have been home or on their way home; which make casualties among the local employees also a real possibility.

The Embassy’s Consular Task Force was set up with four local phone lines for an approximate American population numbering 45,000.  It’s hard to tell how much of the phones and the cell towers are actually working.  And if only a fraction of those individuals have registered at the embassy or have kept their contact information current, the work of tracing them would be doubly hard. And with limited local staff support, that work would be even much harder.  I hope TDY consular personnel from the neighboring missions are on their way to Port-au-Prince. I hope, too that PA personnel get some additional help; Anderson Cooper is in Haiti and a whole lot of folks from the big news media are on their way there.         

Meanwhile, in the State Department’s later briefing yesterday -- the Spokesman said that a small number of American citizens were at the airport and that there were two C-130s on the ground to evacuate Americans.  The Coast Guard has also evacuated a small number of injured Americans. 

He also reported that as of 4 o'clock yesterday, more than 82,800 donors texted their help and $828,000 had been raised so far. By simply texting “Haiti” to "90999" a donation of $10 would automatically be added to one’s cell phone bill. PJ Crowley said that this was an arrangement worked out by the State Department with mGive Foundation Mobile Accord, the Wireless Association and the American Red Cross.

Finally, I should mention that our US Ambassador to Haiti Kenneth Merten is a career diplomat.  He has served as a Deputy Executive Secretary to Secretary Clinton and earlier to Secretary Rice. His Washington experience also includes two assignments in the State Department Operations Center. 



The Executive Secretariat (S/ES), comprised of the Executive Secretary and four Deputy Executive Secretaries, is responsible for coordination of the work of the Department.  The Operations Center (S/ES-O) is the Secretary's and the Department's communications and crisis management center. Working 24 hours a day, the Operations Center monitors world events, prepares briefings for the Secretary and other Department principals, and facilitates communication between the Department and the rest of the world. The Operations Center also coordinates the Department's response to crises and supports task forces, monitoring groups, and other crisis-related activities.  It should be comforting to know that our top guy on the ground in Haiti is not a stranger to crises.

Contact Information

US Embassy Haiti

Americans are urged to contact the Embassy via email at ACSPaP@state.gov to request assistance. Americans in Haiti can call the Embassy’s Consular Task Force at 509-2229-8942, 509-2229-8089, 509-2229-8322, or 509-2229-8672.

State Department Ops Center | Haiti Task Force

The State Department has also created a task force to monitor the emergency. People in the U.S. or Canada with information or inquiries about U.S. citizens in Haiti may reach the Haiti Task Force at 888-407-4747. Outside of the U.S. and Canada, call 202-501-4444.

Locate Relatives Through ICRC



The International Committee of the Red Cross has opened an online page called FamilyLinks.icrc.org which aims to accelerate the process of restoring contact between separated family members.  You can check The List to see if your relative's name is on the list, Register yourself if you want to inform your relative of your whereabouts, Register your relative if the relative you’re looking for is not on the list.



The ICRC cautions that it has no means of verifying the information sent through this open network. “The information given on this website is not confidential and can be consulted by everyone. It is the responsibility of the persons publishing information on this website to ensure that no harm can result from this publication. The ICRC cannot be held responsible for any possible negative consequence that might arise from the publication in this website.”

Updated @9:58 pm

Info on Ambassador Merten added.

On Abdulmutallab: The Dots Were Never Connected

Image by Mel's ATCs via Flickr

The White House released yesterday the preliminary review of the December 25 attempted terrorist attack of flight 253 from Amsterdam to Detroit. Excerpted below.

The preliminary White House review of the events that led to the attempted December 25 attack highlights human errors and a series of systematic breakdowns failed to stop Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab before he was able to detonate an explosive device onboard flight 253. The most significant failures and shortcomings that led to the attempted terror attack fall into three broad categories:

• A failure of intelligence analysis, whereby the CT community failed before December 25 to identify, correlate, and fuse into a coherent story all of the discrete pieces of intelligence held by the u.s. Government related to an emerging terrorist plot against the U.S. Homeland organized by al-Qa'ida in the Arabian Peninsula (AQAP) and to Mr. Abdulmutallab, the individual terrorist;
  
  

• A failure within the CT community, starting with established rules and protocols, to assign responsibility and accountability for follow up of high priority threat streams, run down all leads, and track them through to completion; and
  
  

• Shortcomings of the watchlisting system, whereby the CT community failed to identify intelligence within u.S. government holdings that would have allowed Mr. Abdulmutallab to be watchlisted, and potentially prevented from boarding an aircraft bound for the United States.

The most significant findings of our preliminary review are:

• The U.S. Government had sufficient information prior to the attempted December 25 attack to have potentially disrupted the AQAP plot-i.e., by identifying Mr. Abdulmutallab as a likely operative of AQAP and potentially preventing him from boarding flight 253.
  
  

• The Intelligence Community leadership did not increase analytic resources working on the full AQAP threat.
  
  

• The watchlisting system is not broken but needs to be strengthened and improved, as evidenced by the failure to add Mr. Abdulmutallab to the No Fly watchlist.
  
  

• A reorganization of the intelligence or broader counterterrorism community is not required to address problems that surfaced in the review, a fact made clear by countless other successful efforts to thwart ongoing plots.

FAILURE TO WATCHLIST

Although Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab was included in the Terrorist Identities Datamart Environment (TIDE), the failure to include Mr. Abdulmutallab in a watchlist is part of the overall systemic failure. Pursuant to the IRTPA, NCTC serves "as the central and shared knowledge bank on known and suspected terrorists and international terror groups.,,4 As such, NCTC consolidates all information on known and suspected international terrorists in the Terrorist Identities Datarnart Environment. NCTC then makes this data available to the FBI-led Terrorist Screening Center (TSC), which reviews nominations for inclusion in the master watchlist called the Terrorist Screening Database (TSDB). The TSC provides relevant extracts to each organization with a screening mission.

Hindsight suggests that the evaluation by watchlisting personnel of the information contained in the State cable nominating Mr. Abdulmutallab did not meet the minimum derogatory standard to watchlist. Watchlisting would have required all of the available information to be fused so that the derogatory information would have been sufficient to support nomination to be watchlisted in the Terrorist Screening Database. Watchlist personnel had access to additional derogatory information in databases that could have been connected to Mr. Abdulmutallab, but that access did not result in them uncovering the biographic information that would have been necessary for placement on the watchlist. Ultimately, placement on the No FIy List would have been required to keep Mr. Abdulmutallab off the plane inbound for the U.S. Homeland.

VISA ISSUE

Mr. Abdulmutallab possessed a U.S. visa, but this fact was not correlated with the concerns ofMr. Abdulmutallab's father about Mr. Abdulmutallab's potential radicalization. A misspelling of Mr. Abdulmutallab's name initially resulted in the State Department believing he did not have a valid U.S. visa. A determination to revoke his visa, however, would have only occurred ifthere had been a successful integration of intelligence by the CT community, resulting in his being watchlisted.

Read the whole thing here.

A couple of senior State Department officials also conducted a background briefing yesterday following the release of the WH security review. You can read it here. 

I’m sure this is not the end of it. There will be hearings on Capitol Hill.  This being an election year, well -- who knows what surprises are in the cookie jar for us.  But I expect we’ll see some of the following officials over State’s role on this and the visa angle before too long.

• HRC (maybe)
  
  


• Jacob J. Lew: Deputy Secretary of State for Management and Resources; he oversees “M” which has direct oversight of the Bureau of Consular Affairs.


• Patrick F. Kennedy: Under Secretary for Management or “M”; the Bureau of Consular Affairs reports to him.


• Janice L. Jacobs: Assistant Secretary of the Bureau of Consular Affairs; top boss of BCA


• David T. Donahue: Deputy Assistant Secretary for Visa Services

The New Enhanced Screening Directive: In Numbers

The four countries (Cuba, Iran, Sudan and Syria) designated as “state sponsors of terrorism” have a collective total population of 141 million people (2007 estimate | WolframAlpha).  The ten “countries of interest” have a collective total population of 468.1 million people (2007 estimate | Wolfram Alpha).

The new directive mandates that “every individual flying into the U.S. from anywhere in the world traveling from or through nations that are state sponsors of terrorism or other countries of interest will be required to go through enhanced screening.”



I do not know how many non-citizen travelers actually originate/transit/travel through these 14 countries en route to the United States.  But I was curious at how many nationals from these countries could be impacted by the new directive.  So I went digging for numbers.

Below is the grand total of nonimmigrant visa issuance and admission by nationality on the reported countries covered by the new TSA enhanced screening directive.  The “ISSUED” data come from published statistics of the Bureau of Consular Affairs of the State Department, covering the period October 2007-September 2008.  (See the FY2008 NIV Detail Table on nonimmigrant visa issuances by visa class and by nationality). Issued visas can be as short as 3 months with one entry or can have the maximum validity of 10 years with multiple entry.  Which actually means, you can use it to travel to any US port of entry or border crossing and apply for temporary admission into the country while it is valid.  The validity of the visa is not the length of authorized stay in the United States.  Read more here. 

The “ADMITTED” column below comes from the Department of Homeland Security.  DHS maintains the records of admittance to the United States of foreign visitors by citizenship, country of residence, gender, age, etc.  Even with a visa, the authority to admit an alien into the US is still under DHS.  The length of stay that immigration officers grant foreign visitors can vary, but the normal length of stay authorized as I understand it is usually six months.  Check out its Yearbook of Immigration Statistics here.  You might also want to check out this April 2009 Annual Flow Report from DHS on admission.  The DHS numbers below are extracted from Table 26 (XLS, 54 KB Nonimmigrant Admissions (I-94 Only) by Region and Country of Citizenship: Fiscal Years 1999 to 2008).

COUNTRY	ISSUED DOS FY 2008	ADMITTED DHS FY2008
Cuba	13,108	15,130
Iran	12,635	11,479
Sudan	2,502	2,319
Syria	6,421	7,441
Nigeria	59,748	88,732
Pakistan:	32,666	57,922
Saudi Arabia	36,224	46,853
Lebanon	19,888	28,669
Algeria:	5,947	6,215
Libya	5,375	4,313
Iraq	3,714	3,351
Afghanistan	2,454	2,323
Yemen	1,573	1,616
Somalia	227	24

                         Sources: FY2008 NIV Detail Table (State)

                                        and  Table 26 (DHS)

It is important to note that the number of issuance and number of admission above have no real correlation because an applicant issued a visa in 2008 may have decided to travel/apply for admission at a port of entry in the United States in 2009. Or a visitor who applied for admission for entry in the United States in 2008 may have been issued a visa a year or two previously. To see the trends in the number of admission to the United States, check out DHS’s Table 26, an excel spreadsheet that details total admission by country from FY 2009 FY 1999 – FY 2008.        

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Watch out! This is going to get louder, folks...

This Week had Terry Moran with Deputy National Security Adviser John Brennan and a congressional panel with Representatives Pete Hoekstra and Jane Harman, Sens. Susan Collins, and Joe Lieberman. Excerpted from the transcript.  

COLLINS: The problem with profiling is, if you take that approach, you're going to miss the Richard Reids, who do not fit the profile. But what we have in this case was a failure to act on a very credible report from the terrorist's father that should, at the very least, have caused the State Department to revoke his visa.

To me, that is the biggest question. Why wasn't this individual's visa revoked once we had such a credible report that he posed a threat? That, to me, is an even bigger failure than the failure to screen him effectively.

LIEBERMAN: We know from past experience that some of them will be back in the fight against us. The leader of Al Qaida in the Arabian Peninsula broke out of a jail there until we killed him, apparently, in the raid Christmas week.

So we've -- we've got a lot to investigate. But I think we've learned a lot already about how to close some of the holes. I believe, incidentally, that we ought to take a look at taking that visa application and admission responsibility from the State Department. It doesn't really fit with foreign policy anymore. And in an age of terrorism, I think the Department of Homeland Security ought to be handling visas abroad.

I also think that we ought to be very much tougher about terrorism watch list. If somebody -- somebody's father comes in and -- and says he may be an extremist, he ought to go on a list that is -- is alerted any time he approaches, as Abdulmutallab did...

Vroom…vroom….

Visa Officers as Future Perfect Scapegoats

“U.S. consular officers are instructed to issue full-validity visas as often as possible. In an act of reciprocity, we issue visas of the same duration as those issued to Americans by the host government. The challenge in training new consular officers, however, is that because of this popular misunderstanding of what a visa actually is, many fear "being on the hook" for the next ten years (a common visa validity). Sure, the applicant looks qualified now. But what if he becomes a jihadi in seven years? He's still got the visa, and Uncle Sam and the general public may look for a scapegoat if he tries anything stupid. And that scapegoat may very well be me.”

NDS

from Attacking a Strawman

FS Blog: Calling a Spade a Spade

“Rants of a Foreign Service Officer on the things that matter to you -- and matter to you not at all”

US Embassy Jakarta Issues Warden Message on Bali Warning

Image by FriskoDude via Flickr

On December 31, 2009,
the US Embassy in Jakarta issued the following Warden Message on Bali. Reprinted
in part below:

The Bali Tourism Board widely distributed this message: “The
Governor of Bali Mr. Mangku Pastika wishes to share a message with all of us:
‘There is an indication of an attack to Bali tonight,’ but please don’t panic,
but put your security system to full alert.”  This message is shared
verbatim for your information. The safety and security recommendations in our
Consular Information Sheet, quoted below, remain valid.

“Indonesian police and security forces take active measures
against both ongoing threats posed by terrorist cells, including Jemaah
Islamiyah (JI), a U.S. government-designated terrorist organization that
carried out several bombings at various times from 2002 to 2009 and outbreaks
of violence elsewhere.  While Indonesia’s counterterrorism efforts have
been ongoing and partly successful, violent elements have demonstrated a
willingness and ability to carry out deadly attacks with little or no warning. 
Most recently, in November 2009, unknown assailants shot at foreigners in Banda
Aceh, North Sumatra, an area that was devastated by the 2004 tsunami and the
scene of a long-running separatist conflict that ended in 2005.  The
gunfire wounded a European development worker.  A house occupied by U.S.
citizen teachers was targeted and hit by gunfire, but there were no U.S.
citizen casualties.  In July 2009, attacks by armed assailants in Papua
resulted in several deaths, including security personnel and one Australian
national.  Also in July, suspected JI elements bombed two Western hotels
in Jakarta, killing nine Indonesians and foreigners and injuring over 50,
including six U.S. citizens.  U.S. citizens in Indonesia must be
physically and mentally prepared to cope with future attacks even as they go
about their normal daily routines.

Extremists may target both official and private interests,
including hotels, clubs and shopping centers.  While it may be difficult
to modify one’s behavior to counter risks in a country where places in which
U.S. citizens and other Westerners must congregate to live and work are well
known and few in number, it is also extremely necessary.  In their work
and daily living activities, and while traveling, U.S. citizens should be vigilant
and prudent at all times.  We urge U.S. citizens to monitor local news
reports, vary their routes and times, and maintain a low profile.  U.S.
citizens must consider the security and safety preparedness of hotels,
residences, restaurants, and entertainment or recreation venues that they
frequent.”

Americans living and traveling in Indonesia are urged to register and update
their contact information with the U.S. Embassy in Jakarta, U.S. Consulate
General in Surabaya, U.S. Consulate Medan or U.S. Consular Agency in
Bali.  Registration facilitates the U.S. Mission’s contact with Americans
in emergency situations, and may be done on line and in advance of
travel.  Information on registering can be found at the U.S. Department of
State’s Consular Affairs website at http://travelregistration.state.gov
and at the Embassy’s website at http://jakarta.usembassy.gov.  All Travel Warnings,
Travel Alerts, Worldwide Cautions, and recent warden messages are posted on the
Embassy website.

Read the whole thing here.

Note that Warden
Messages are not easily visible on the main page of the US Embassy’s website.  When checking for updates, click on American Citizen Services,
and select Notices
to Americans.