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Senior officials at State have rewarded some 200 senior members of the foreign service with bonuses of $10,000-$15,000 each — including four of the five top officials at Consular Affairs (CA), the agency within the State Department that oversees consulates and visa issuance, as well as the person who helped implement the Visa Express program in Saudi Arabia. The recipients of the "Department Performance Pay Awards" are netting the cash prizes for "outstanding performance" in the 12 months from April 16, 2001 to April 15, 2002 — a period during which at least five of the 9/11 terrorists received visas that should have been denied, according to the law, and during which September 11 happened. This begs the question: Exactly what was done to warrant payouts for "outstanding performance"? When State Department bureaucrats were determining this summer who would receive the $10,000-$15,000 bonuses, it was already clear that State's issuance of the terrorists' visas was at best reckless and at worst "criminally negligent," an assessment made by former consular officer Nikolai Wenzel. But these facts don't seem to make an impression at the State Department. Despite claiming that things have changed and that there have been "improvements," State's actions render its own words empty. As State officials conceded to congressional staffers last Friday at a briefing, no one at State has ever interviewed the consular officers who issued the visas to determine why they were issued to terrorists whose applications didn't even live up to standards that Blockbuster demands from people applying for video-rental cards. But State's top priority shouldn't be to question the consular officers — it should be to grill the top officials at CA who created the "courtesy culture" and implemented programs like Visa Express, which allowed all Saudi residents to submit their visa-application forms to private Saudi travel agents. It was by their design that "consular officers in Saudi Arabia issued visas to most Saudi applicants without interviewing them, requiring them to complete their applications, or provid[e] supporting documentation," according to the GAO report. But State's top officials didn't just act recklessly before 9/11; ; they have stayed the course even after 9/11. In October of last year, State issued a press release in Saudi Arabia to reassure the Saudis that the U.S. had "not changed its procedures or policies in determining visa eligibility as a result of the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, 2001." Indeed, nothing had changed. In the 30 days following 9/11, of the 102 applicants processed by the Jeddah consulate, only two were interviewed and none refused, according to the Wall Street Journal. It wasn't just that State was slow to react to a changing world, either. When criticized for its Visa Express program this past June, State's response was twofold: 1) drop the name "Visa Express," and 2) toughen the description of the now-nameless program on the embassy's website. That was it. There were no actual reforms — and State insisted none were needed. More than one year after 9/11, State is still fighting the Justice Department on behalf of suspected terrorists. According to the GAO, the State Department wants to issue visas to individuals on watch lists if there isn't enough hard evidence to prove the applicant is actually a terrorist. In fact, State did issue visas last year to 79 people whose names were in the FBI's TIPOFF terrorist database, "because [State] determined there was insufficient information linking [the 79 applicants] to terrorism," according to the GAO report. State's one good move — forcing the "retirement" of CA chief Mary Ryan-was only made to stave off congressional efforts to move the visa-issuance function out of State and into the new Department of Homeland Security. And State stopped cold any forward momentum from the Ryan retirement by choosing Maura Harty, her protégé and clone, as Ryan's replacement. As bad as the State Department's track record is, at least the department until now was just stubbornly refusing reforms; now, however, it is heaping praise — and cash — on the officials who violated the law in creating the current mess. Several recipients of the award shouldn't be singled out for anything other than condemnation for their actions. They are:
The State Department doesn't seem to see a problem with rewarding tragic failure. State spokeswoman Nancy Beck actually cheered the news of the bonuses by saying, "We like to celebrate our achievements!" Faced with their record, there's nothing to be celebrating. — Joel Mowbray is an NRO contributor and a Townhall.com columnist. |
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only was no one held accountable for the visas unlawfully issued to the
9/11 terrorists, but now the State Department has rewarded officials responsible
for the lax visa policies — that paved the way for the deaths of
3,000 innocent Americans — with large cash bonuses. These are especially
ill-timed, coming on the heels of a General Accounting Office (GAO) report
condemning State's flouting of the law before 9/11 and its lack of security
protocols one year after 9/11.
Thomas
Furey: Furey was the consul general at the U.S. embassy in Saudi Arabia
from Summer, 2000 to Fall, 2001, and he helped set up Visa Express. He
is known by his colleagues for his catchphrase "People gotta have
their visas." Not surprisingly, 14 of the Saudi terrorists got their
visas during his tenure.
