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American Morning
Six Months After WTC Attacks, Flight School Notified Visas for Two Hijackers Had Been Approved
Aired March 13, 2002 - 07:32 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
PAULA ZAHN, CNN ANCHOR: This morning, a story about the workings inside the Immigration and Naturalization Service. Ever since 9/11, the INS has come under criticism for issuing visas, especially student visas, to terrorists. That included visas for some of the hijackers who took training at a Florida flight school.
Well, on Monday, March 11, six months to the day after the World Trade Center attacks, the school was notified that visas for two of the hijackers had been approved. So why, after all that happened, did this letter still go out? CNN's Mark Potter visited the school in Florida to find out.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
MARK POTTER, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): It was at Huffman Aviation International, a flight operations and training center in Venice, Florida where Mohamed Atta and Marwan al-Shehhi received flight lessons. They entered the United States on tourist visas and trained at Huffman on this plane from July, 2000 until early January, 2001.
Nine months later, they each flew a jet into the towers of the World Trade Center. Huffman's owner, Rudi Dekkers, spent months afterward answering questions from investigators and reporters, although recently things had begun to slow down.
(on camera): But only this week, on the six month anniversary of the September attacks, Rudi Dekkers got a big surprise. In the mail, he received two envelopes from an INS processing center. Inside were documents showing that the INS had granted student visas to Mohamed Atta and Marwan al-Shehhi. They had been granted permission by the U.S. government to take flight lessons.
(voice-over): The letters from the Immigration and Naturalization Service showed the student visa requests were made at the end of August, 2000, but weren't approved until almost a year later, last July and August, long after both men had completed their flight training and before the September attacks. The letters arrived six months after their deaths.
RUDI DEKKERS, PRESIDENT, HUFFMAN AVIATION: That's why we don't understand why visas came in today, and why is this not done a year ago. POTTER: A spokesman for the INS blamed the slip up on a huge backlog of cases and paperwork, involving millions of applications a year. He said: "It's certainly embarrassing that the letters showed up at this date. But it does serve to illustrate what we have been saying since 1995 -- that the current system for collecting information and tracking foreign students is antiquated, outdated, inaccurate and untimely."
A former INS district director says the letters should never have been sent.
TOM FISCHER, FMR. INS DISTRICT DIRECTOR: I see this as characteristic of an agency and free for all that really doesn't have a control over the databases.
POTTER: The INS spokesman says a new computer system for tracking and monitoring international students has been tested and will be available to schools, including flight schools, this fall.
Mark Potter, CNN, Venice, Florida.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
ZAHN: So are the critics right? Should the INS be scrapped? Well, "Time" magazine's Michael Elliot is here to help us out on a whole range of issues -- good morning -- welcome back.
MICHAEL ELLIOT, "TIME" MAGAZINE: Good morning, Paula.
ZAHN: All right. Among other things, you have Representative Conyers calling....
ELLIOT: Right.
ZAHN: ... this INS gaffe a rank in competence. You have Representative Sensenbrenner calling for the complete dismantling of the INS and the process of rebuilding it. How serious of a credibility problem does the INS have this morning?
ELLIOT: Well, a huge one this morning, but frankly, I'm not surprised. I mean, anyone who has come in contact with the INS over the last years, I have -- over the last few years knows that this is an agency that is just notorious for getting things wrong. This latest incident, I think one congressman said it would be -- I'd call it Mickey Mouse if that wasn't an insult to Mickey Mouse.
ZAHN: Ouch!
ELLIOT: And I think it's going to raise the whole question of whether fundamental reform should be undertaken.
Now, if you remember when Tom Ridge was appointed director of Homeland Security back at the end of September, the INS was front and center as one of the things that he was going to look at and bring under a new umbrella. Now, we haven't heard an awful lot about what he planned to do with it since then. But right back then, problems with the INS, because of the student visa problem that we have seen today, were very much things that Ridge was going to take under his wing. So we'll see what he says now.
ZAHN: But to be perfectly fair here, the processing of these applications for these two hijackers took over a year. And in the INS' defense, and I'm just reading...
ELLIOT: Well, yes.
ZAHN: ... what the INS defender said this morning, that there was no linkage made at that time at the beginning of the process to any terrorist organization.
ELLIOT: You know, Paula, you really are nice, you know.
ZAHN: No, no, no, I'm just reading.
ELLIOT: I mean, there is...
ZAHN: Someone has got to read what the INS is saying this morning.
ELLIOT: ... you know, there is no one -- there is no one in that process between now and then, you know, who doesn't see this piece of paper with Mohamed Atta on it, and think...
ZAHN: Look, no one knew who Mohamed Atta was before September 11.
ELLIOT: So what's been happening to the piece of paper between now and then, unless they...
(CROSSTALK)
ZAHN: They said they forgot to notify a subcontractor.
ELLIOT: Oh, yes, yes.
ZAHN: The letter should have never gone out.
ELLIOT: Yes. I mean, this is a huge custard pie in the face for the INS.
ZAHN: So who will take the fall?
ELLIOT: Well, I think it's less a question of who will take the fall than it is a question of what do we expect Ridge to do now. I mean, I had always expected when Ridge was appointed that there would be some pretty fundamental restructuring of the Customs Service, the INS, the Coast Guard, you remember, there was a lot of talk about that. And we have sort of been waiting to hear what it is that he is going to propose in terms of a new umbrella structure, so that our borders can be secure. And I guess now the ball is firmly in his court.
ZAHN: Let's move on to the Middle East now. Israeli Television is reporting now that some 20,000 Israeli troops are engaged in military action either in the West Bank or the Gaza Strip. Now, you have the U.N. chief, Kofi Annan, saying that it must end the illegal occupation of Palestinian lands. Have you ever heard Mr. Annan say that publicly before?
ELLIOT: No, I don't believe he has used that word before. I do not believe that he has used the word illegal before. I think it's an indication what happened last night at the U.N. Security Council Resolution, the secretary general's comments is an indication of the extent to which people really think that we are on the brink of something truly catastrophic here -- that the situation is spiraling out of control, that it's open war. What was it -- 37 Palestinians killed yesterday, something like that?
ZAHN: Hard to keep up the count.
(CROSSTALK)
ELLIOT: That it is plainly diminishing the administration's ability to put together a new front in the war on terrorism against Iraq. This is really, really big stuff, and I think what you are seeing now is a sense by everyone that something has to be done to stop the violence.
ZAHN: I want to close this morning on the issue of the detainee situation at Guantanamo Bay. We are going to listen to what one of those detainees had to say about his situation.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
We are in a hunger strike. We have been on a hunger strike for 14 days and nobody cares. We need the world to know about us. We are innocent here in this place. We have got no legal rights. Nothing. So can somebody know about us? Can you tell the world about us?
(END VIDEO CLIP)
ZAHN: You know, a lot of Americans out there think that's just fine.
ELLIOT: Yes.
ZAHN: Is there any empathy for this guy?
ELLIOT: Well, I think there probably is. I mean, I think in Europe there isn't any empathy at what has he done, but I think there is still a substantial group of people who think that the conditions in Guantanamo Bay are not perfect. That the prisoners need legal representation, and that they need to be treated beyond fairly for everyone to show to the Islamic world that we have right on our side as well as might on our side.
ZAHN: We are going to leave it there this morning. Michael Elliot, as always, good to spend some time with you -- Michael Elliot of "Time" magazine.
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