The Foreign Service Journal, June 2010

have, I was surprised to learn from the State Department that they thought I did have that [authority],” he said. Susan Collins, R-Maine, the ranking minority member on the Senate Homeland Security Committee, backed him up. “The State Department has this authority. In fact, our law, the Intelligence Reform Act, protects the department from law- suits when its officials revoke a visa overseas. But the State Department failed to act.” The committee chairman, Sen. Joseph Lieberman, I-Conn., warned that he might resurrect the idea of moving responsibility for visa issuance away from State to the Department of Homeland Security. In response, State quickly changed course and acknowl- edged its own mistakes. For instance, there was never any doubt that State could have revoked Abdulmutallab’s visa: Since 2001 it has revoked more that 57,000 visas, some 2,800 of them for suspected links to terrorism. Instead, the case revealed a remarkable hole in the department’s own se- curity systems. Amazingly, the Visas Viper cable — which was created to prevent consular officers from inadvertently issuing a visa to a suspected terrorist — did not require any reporting on whether the individual already possessed a valid visa. That information could have been determined by a computer search, but was not required to be included in the cable. It was the sort of informational black hole that still occurs with disturbing frequency, despite the post-9/11 mantra to “con- nect the dots.” In response, Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton has ordered that every Visas Viper cable sent back to Wash- ington contain information on the current U.S. visa status of anyone identified. The search systems to make sure that visa holders are accurately identified have also been en- hanced. And it is a safe bet that visas will now be revoked for anyone named in such a telegram. Deputy Assistant Secretary for Consular Affairs David Donahue was contrite in a hearing before a March 11 House Homeland Security subcommittee, acknowledging that the failed attack “revealed systematic failures in the U.S. gov- ernment’s efforts to protect the people of the United States,” and adding that State had responded with an overhaul of its visa revocation procedures. Critics of the department may also be assuaged by a further expansion of the visa security program, in which DHS agents are stationed in some con- sulates to help with the screening of visa applications that raise terrorism or security concerns. The threat to strip the department of its visa function ap- pears to have waned. But the attempted Christmas Day bombing was a sharp reminder that the Bureau of Consular Affairs continues to face scrutiny as never before. —- Edward Alden J U N E 2 0 1 0 / F O R E I G N S E R V I C E J O U R N A L 43 like her impressive performance in the 1990s, Ryan was slow to recog- nize the implications of the 9/11 at- tacks for howConsular Affairs did its business. A harsh report by the State Department’s inspector general in December 2002 concluded: “The post-Sept. 11 era should have wit- nessed immediate and dramatic changes in CA’s direction of the visa process. This has not happened. A fundamental readjustment by [State] Department leader- ship regarding visa issuance and denial has not taken place.” The timing of the criticisms could not have been worse for Ryan and the consular service. With the impending cre- ation of the Department of Homeland Security, the White House planned to hand authority over visa policy to the new department. Some in Congress wanted to go much further, giving complete control over visas to DHS. “The State Depart- ment views the issuance of visas as a diplomatic tool,” said Representa- tive Dave Weldon, a Florida Re- publican who chaired one of the relevant subcommittees in the House. “The day is past when it should be viewed that way. It is now clearly a national homeland security function.” Secretary Colin Powell, however, was not going to sit back and watch the dismantling of his department. He reached out to TomRidge, who was in line to be appointed as the first DHS secretary, and quickly persuaded him not to take on the headache of handling visas at nearly 300 em- bassies and consulates overseas. The two decided to present a united front to Congress. F O C U S The attempted Christmas Day bombing was a sharp reminder that the Bureau of Consular Affairs continues to face scrutiny as never before.