Bush 'stunned' by INS visa gaffe

LOS ANGELES TIMES

WASHINGTON -- President Bush delivered a stinging rebuke to the Immigration and Naturalization Service on Wednesday after the disclosure that the agency confirmed student visas for two of the Sept. 11 hijackers -- six months after they destroyed the World Trade Center.

The revelation not only embarrassed the INS but also underscored the agency's central role in the nation's war on terrorism.

Bush said "I could barely get my coffee down" as he read about the incident in his newspaper.

"I was stunned and not happy," Bush told a news conference. "This is an interesting wake-up call for those who run the INS."

On Wednesday, Attorney General John Ashcroft vowed an investigation of the INS, which is part of his Justice Department. The INS threw up a defensive perimeter of news releases.

The brouhaha began Monday, six months to the day since the hijackings, when a flight school in Venice, Fla., received notification that the INS had OK'd student visas for two alumni: Mohammed Atta and Marwan Al-Shehhi, who are believed to have piloted the jetliners that brought down the World Trade Center's twin towers.

As news spread, the INS released a statement pointing out that the flight school had received a "secondary" notification. Atta's application had been approved July 17, 2001, and Al-Shehhi's on Aug. 9.

"It is important to emphasize that the decisions regarding the request to change status were made in the summer of 2001, prior to the tragic events of Sept. 11," the INS said in the statement.

Those explanations were overshadowed by a hail of derision, and the episode seemed destined to take on the status of a legend in the annals of governmental miscues. On top of that, the terrorists' visa approval quickly became entangled with other grievances between Congress and the White House over homeland security.

Senate Majority Leader Tom Daschle, D-S.D., said the incident underscored the need for Homeland Security Director Tom Ridge to testify before Congress. The White House has resisted requests for Ridge to testify, contending that he is a presidential adviser, not a Cabinet officer, and that he regularly makes himself available to members of Congress on an informal basis.

The Olympian Copyright 2002

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