The Foreign Service Journal, February 2004

entry procedures, the real challenge lies ahead for what is arguably one of the largest non-defense integration projects ever. Mandated by Congress in 1996, the U.S. Visitor and Immigrant Status Indicator Technology programwas put on an accelerated timetable by the U.S. Patriot Act of 2002, which also stipulated that the program include biometric data ( www.dhs.gov/ ). It is to be phased into all land ports over the next two years, along with exit technology to track foreign visitors leaving the country. The first phase involves an improvement of existing systems — such as the immigrant and photograph database IDENT, the Arrival and Departure Information System and the Interagency Border Inspection System — with the addition of a scan of two fingerprints and a digital photo- graph of each arriving foreigner. The data is checked against terrorist watch lists, and the visitor’s identity is verified against State Department records. Exit technology — kiosks where departing visitors are required to scan their travel documents and which will later incorporate biometric data — is expected to be in place in 2004. US-VISIT does not affect travelers from the 26 visa-waiver countries, whose deadline for adopting machine- readable passports with biometric iden- tifiers has been extended to Oct. 26, 2004. At that time, bothDHS and State must be issuing only machine-readable documents that use biometrics. By May 2004, DHS expects to choose a “prime integrator” — Lockheed Martin, CSC and Accen- ture teams are in the running — who will be charged with delivering the entire system by 2006 ( www. fcw.com ). T he real challenge will be integrating all the entry and exit data systems and ensuring interoperability with other relevant databases in differ- ent agencies. The system will have to be able to access data from as many as 19 separate networks already in exis- tence, such as existing fingerprint databases and fast passes for workers who commute to the U.S. from Canada. Privacy concerns and worries that tourist and business travel will be damp- ened have been raised, but budget con- straints are perhaps the more serious worry. Appropriated $380 million in 2003, the project’s 2004 budget request for $440 million was cut to $330 mil- F E B R U A R Y 2 0 0 4 / F O R E I G N S E R V I C E J O U R N A L 7 C YBERNOTES Ever want to find out the reac- tion of Americans to a particular policy initiative, or do a reality check on American attitudes to for- eign policy issues? If so, this Web site is a good candidate for your favorites’ list. The Program on International Policy Attitudes carries out regular research on public attitudes on international issues. It is a joint program of the Center on Policy Attitudes and the Center for Inter- national and Security Studies at Maryland, School of Public Affairs, at the University of Maryland. The group’s latest study, an early December report on American views on Iraqi reconstruction, found the public impatient, with seven in 10 respondents saying the U.N. should take the lead. Fully three-quarters felt Iraq was less important than pursuit of Osama bin Laden and al-Qaida. The site also contains compre- hensive analyses of public opinion on international issues ranging from biotechnology and globaliza- tion to regional topics such as Africa, China and Israel and the Palestinians. Besides a complete list of its own reports and publications, the site has very useful links to other polling sources such as Harris, Gallup and Public Agenda, as well as media polls and professional and academic polling organizations. Site of the Month: www.pipa.org 50 Years Ago... Fear is playing an important part in American life at the present time. … But it would be tragic if this fear, expressing itself in an exaggerated emphasis on security, should lead us to cripple the Foreign Service, our first line of national defense, at the very time when its effectiveness is essential to our filling the place which history has assigned to us. — From a Jan. 17, 1954, letter to the New York Times by five former diplomats, FSJ , February 1954