By Eileen Buckley
Cheektowaga, NY – U.S. Senator Charles Schumer says terrorist look for the weakest link when plotting an attack. Schumer used the Buffalo Niagara International Airport as a backdrop to unveil his five point plan to address airport security. His proposal is in response to the Christmas Day terror attempt over Detroit in which a Nigerian man carried a bomb on board a flight.
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Schumer is calling on the TSA to hire more agents to monitor foreign airports. He also wants Visas denied to those on a terror watch list and issue penalties on foreign countries who fail to comply with security regulations. Schumer says those penalties would prevent foreign countries from special status or flying their planes into the U.S.
Schumer says foreign airport security is an appalling lax. Schumer says his measures would have avoided the Christmas Day incident involving a Nigerian man carrying a bomb on board a flight into Detroit.
"This incident shows that more than eight years after the 9/11 attacks, there are still gaping holes left in our aviation security system, particularly overseas. There has been a great deal of time and effort spent trying to close these holes but the Christmas Day terror attempt must be a wakeup call to show that more needs to be done. My plan puts forward some common sense solutions to close these gaps in a quick and cost effective way," said Schumer.
Schumer said these proposals do not solve all the problems, but they are common sense steps the government can implement quickly and at minimal cost. Schumer outlined five steps the federal government can take immediately to significantly beef up foreign airport security:
* Call on U.S. Airlines to Threaten to Stop Flying to Foreign Airports Known to Have Lax Security - Schumer said that while federal law requires foreign flights bound for the U.S. to follow U.S. security procedures, enforcement of this rule by the federal government has been lacking. Schumer said that U.S. airlines also have a responsibility to keep their passengers safe and the best way to do that is to ensure that the airlines they fly from follow security rules. Schumer today wrote to the heads of the major airlines asking them to immediately report any known security issues at foreign airports to U.S. security authorities and threaten those airports that they will cease service to and from those airports if security isn't improved.
* Penalties for Foreign Airports that Don't Comply with U.S. Security Rules -- Schumer is also pushing for penalties to be implemented against countries that do not comply sufficiently with U.S. airport screening standards. Schumer says the penalties for non-compliance should be as follows: if the country is part of the visa waiver program, there should be very serious consideration as to whether the non-compliance is serious enough to merit revocation of the visa waiver program. If the country is not part of visa-waiver program, then enhanced screening will have to be done before anyone is given a visa to travel into US from that country.
* Immediate Review of All Travel Visas for Anyone Added to Any Terrorist Database - Schumer today called on the State Department as well as the National Counter Terrorism Center (NCTC) to immediately require that there be an expedited review and mandatory decision on whether revocation of a visa should occur for anyone and everyone who is added to any of the major terrorist databases. Schumer said that this review and decision must be made within 14 days of a name being added to the database. In addition, any person included in the terrorist database should be blocked from receiving a new travel visa pending a thorough review.
* Worldwide Information Sharing of Adjudications of Visa Applications - Schumer today called on the State Department to require all countries in the world to share visa info with U.S. authorities. If any country does not want to share visa info with us, Schumer said no visas for their people coming to U.S. should be granted. The British had denied AbdulMuhammed a travel visa based on visa fraud but never informed U.S. authorities, because the denial was not based on a terrorism ground.
* Foreign Travel Information Sharing - Schumer also said that any country with a travel agreement with the U.S. must share the foreign travel information of anyone seeking to travel to the U.S. This information is critical during any travel visa application process, particularly when authorities are reviewing a visa application of someone who may be included in a terrorist database. Schumer said that any country that declines this information should be denied visa-waiver status or should have its citizens prevented from receiving visas to travel into the US unless compelling circumstances can be shown. Had the US had access to this information, it would have known that Abdulmuttalub had recently traveled to Yemen, which could have raised red flags for NCTC officials to follow.