[IP] Still more on Fascinating Airline Security Story
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Dave Farber +1 412 726 9889
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From: Hiawatha Bray <watha@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
To: dave@xxxxxxxxxx, Ip <ip@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
Date: Fri, 23 Jul 2004 15:23:56 -0400
Subj: Still more on Fascinating Airline Security Story
>From the MSNBC talk show Scarborough Country, there's an interview with a
TV
news reporter who reveals something previously unreported--the Syrian band
members were traveling on expired visas.
Yet it seems none of the law enforcement people noticed.
http://msnbc.msn.com/id/5496938/
Here's an excerpt from the show's transcript:
SCARBOROUGH: With me now is WNBC reporter investigative report Scott
Weinberger.
Scott, FBI member and immigration people sat down with these men. They
questioned them. And, of course, afterwards they said, hey, everything
checked out. But everything didn't really check out. These people missed
something as simple as visas that were expired. How did that happen?
WEINBERGER: Well, Joe, let's talk about what we know happened right before
the plane landed. We know that several of the passengers talked to the
flight attendants and gave them information. That information was then
given to the pilot. The pilot called ahead and told authorities that when
the plane lands, they need help. They need people to come to the aircraft
and take care of the situation.
When the aircraft landed in Los Angeles, it was met by several agents of the
JTTF, joint terrorism task force, as well as ICE, which is Immigration
Customs Enforcements. They took the gentleman off the plane. They did what
they called an interview. It was not an interrogation. There was no
criminal activity, not a reason to do the interrogation part of it. But
they interviewed them all individually.
And it went on, Joe, for probably almost two hours. Now, they looked at the
big picture. Is this a situation of terrorism? Are these people at all
possibly connected with any form or links of terrorism? They went through
various lists that they have in a database which is stored in all the major
law enforcement computer.
After going through all those things, now, Joe, looking at the big picture
of terrorism, something like a visa would be an easy question to ask. We
know and my sources are telling me that each individual member that they
talked to, these 12 people or so, the 14, they took their visa and made
copies of them and put them as part of an investigative file.
But my sources are telling me that the investigators never looked down to
check the date. The expiration was three weeks prior to the flight ever
taking off.
SCARBOROUGH: That's remarkable. So you have immigration officials there.
You have FBI officials there.
WEINBERGER: That's right.
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