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March 17, 2006
I Am Starting to Like My Senator Part 6
Senator Cornyn has a few good things up on his webiste right now. The first is a letter he sent to Secratary of Homeland Security Michael Chertoff questioning Yale having former Taliban spokesman Sayed Rahmatullah Hashemi as a student. How an american university thought letting Hashemi attend would be a good idea is beyond me, but he should never have been allowed a student visa in the first place:
Mr. Hashemi was an official spokesman for the Taliban, which gave safe haven and other material support to Al Qaeda and Osama bin Laden, and continued to do so even after the terrorist attacks of September 11th. Yet the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) admitted him into the United States on an F-1 student visa. I would like to know what steps the Department of Homeland Security is taking to determine whether Mr. Hashemi was properly admitted and whether the Department of Homeland Security will seek to deport Mr. Hashemi under one of the terror-related grounds of removal.I am also concerned about the Department of Homeland Security's role in reviewing Mr. Hashemi's student visa application prior to its issuance. The report of the National Commission on Terrorist Attacks Upon the United States concluded that the key officials responsible for determining alien admissions (consular officers abroad and immigration inspectors in the United States) were not considered full partners in counterterrorism efforts prior to September 11, 2001, and as a result, opportunities to intercept the September 11 terrorists were missed.
Congress subsequently passed the Homeland Security Act, and section 428 allows DHS to assign staff to consular posts abroad to advise consular officers, review visa applications, and conduct investigations. Yet it is not clear that DHS officials were afforded an opportunity to review Mr. Hashemi's visa application prior to its issuance. Please provide an update on the progress DHS is making in assigning officers to the consulate in Islamabad and whether those officers are fully integrated into the visa screening process.
Then there is Cornyn's Feingold Censure Resolution count website located here. So far the count of Al-queda communications intercepted because of Fiengold's Resolution is still at 0.
Previous like my senator post.
Posted by Pete at March 17, 2006 05:27 PM
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