Author:
Publication: ANI
Date: August 14, 2002
The United States has decided to
fingerprint and photograph tens of thousands of visitors from the Middle
Eastern and Muslim countries entering the country after Sept 11, according
to a Dawn report.
Sept 11 has been chosen as the starting
date for the new programme because of its symbolic importance as the day
when America faced the worst terrorist attack in its history.
"After an initial 20-day period
for testing and evaluating the system at selected ports of entry, all remaining
ports of entry - including land, air and sea - will have the new system
in place on Oct 1," said Attorney General John Ashcroft while announcing
the first phase of the National Security Entry-Exit Registration System
on Monday.
He said: "The visitors will be selected
according to intelligence criteria reflecting patterns of terrorist organizations'
activities."
Since all the 19 hijackers responsible
for the Sept 11 disaster were Arabs and the on-going campaign against terrorism
is also focused on Muslims, it is obvious that the new programme will mostly
affect those from the Islamic countries. However, the US government has
identified five countries - Iran, Iraq, Libya, Sudan and Syria by name.
All visitors from these countries, considered sponsors of terrorism by
the State Department, will be photographed and fingerprinted.
The programme will also apply to
non-immigrant aliens whom the State Department determines to present an
elevated national security risk, based on criteria reflecting current intelligence.
Aliens identified by Immigration and Naturalization Service (INS) inspectors
at the port of entry, using similar criteria, will also be scrutinized.
"The vulnerabilities of our immigration
system became starkly clear on Sept 11," said Ashcroft.
The new programme, which will be
implemented by the INS, will correct some of the problems that led to the
Sept 11 attacks, he said.
