Speech #1100060410

Mr. Chairman. my amendment simply suspends the Visa Waiver Program for fiscal year 2008. The Visa Waiver Program was established in 1986 as a temporary. and I underline temporary. program to allow tourists or shortterm business visitors to enter the United States for 90 days or less without obtaining a visa. The program was later made permanent by Congress and currently allows nationals of 27 countries into the United States with a simple stamp. The Visa Waiver Program ill advisedly trusts the security of our Nation to the background check capabilities and passport procedures of foreign governments. There are numerous instances of terrorists and wouldbe terrorists who have exploited this program. or easily could have. September 11 conspirator Zacharias Moussaoui is a great example of this. He exploited the Visa Waiver Program to travel to the United States. The 9/11 Commission stated that "a maximum U.S. effort to investigate Moussaoui conceivably could have unearthed his connections. Those connections might have brought investigators to the core of the 9/11 plot." Its an interesting case because. of course. he was actually under investigation at the time by the French Government. by their secret service. Had we required a visa program that allowed for us to conduct that kind of background check. we may very well have identified those connections and not allowed him the visa. It seems clear that a maximum effort would include a thorough vetting of those seeking access to the United States. Wouldbe "shoe bomber" terrorist Richard Reid exploited the Visa Waiver Program to board the flight he tried to bomb. The London subway bombing was executed in large part by British citizens with known ties to terrorism. Under the Visa Waiver Program. any British citizen can travel to the United States without having to apply for a visa and without giving our government the ability to do even a cursory investigation as to whether he or she may have ties to a terrorist group. British citizen Hemant Lakhani is just such an example. He was busted in a sting in New Jersey in 2003 when he tried to sell shoulderfire surfacetoair missiles to a Federal operative who he believed to be a Somali terrorist plotting against American jetliners. Mr. Chairman. we cannot give those who wish to harm us open access to America under the cloak of the Visa Waiver Program. We need to suspend the program until we are equipped to check the criminal and terrorist background of every visitor who arrives at any port of entry to confirm the identity of each visitor using the biometric identifiers. Mr.