[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 156 (2010), Part 1]
[House]
[Page 766]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




                              VISA FAILURE

  (Mr. PITTS asked and was given permission to address the House for 1 
minute and to revise and extend his remarks.)
  Mr. PITTS. Mr. Speaker, we know that the best way to prevent an 
attack on U.S. soil is to ensure that terrorists are stopped before 
they reach our shores. Unfortunately, we failed to do so on Christmas 
Day and al Qaeda came close to significant victory. While the terrorist 
Abdulmutallab was noted in a terrorist identity database, he was not 
placed on a separate screening database and his U.S. visa was not 
revoked. Clearly, we did not connect the dots to notice that a man on a 
U.S. watch list also held a current U.S. visa. This has not been the 
first time terrorists have obtained U.S. visas. Several of the 9/11 
hijackers did so as well.
  We need to strengthen the visa application process. We need to 
streamline the intelligence gathering and sharing process. We need to 
end the visa lottery. We need to ensure that terrorists are turned 
around before they get to the airport before they even attempt to go 
through security. Were it not for the quick action of passengers on 
that flight, 288 innocent lives would have been lost. Passengers should 
not have to rely on last-minute heroics in order to travel safely. This 
administration must get serious about addressing this problem.

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