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I was detained at the State Department on Friday, several of my sources
suggested to me that it was not surprising that State reacted as it did:
The confidential cable I cited, though not sensitive from any security
standpoint, was highly inconvenient for two simple reasons.
The first, most immediate reason State wanted to prevent discussion of the cable was that it showed, in black and white, that travel agents are not, in fact, mere document collectors. But the far more disturbing reason is that State wants Visa Express to be implemented elsewhere around the world.
State has always defended the deputization of private Saudi travel agents to handle the first step in the visa-collection process by arguing that the agencies do no more to applications than, say, Fed Ex would. But the cable, written by the U.S. ambassador to Saudi Arabia, proves otherwise.
"Using the travel agents to assure that documentation is complete and in compliance with guidelines saved the consular officers from spending valuable time pre-interviewing applicants whose paperwork was not in order," the ambassador wrote.
That's what State didn't want to get out: Travel agents are being used to "pre-interview" and to ensure "compliance," something Fed Ex would never do. As it has done repeatedly when confronted with a truth it would rather not face, State lied.
At Friday's press briefing, top State press flack Richard Boucher brought up the contents of the now-infamous cable, characterizing it as a simple request for more resources. Yes, the ambassador did request more resources, but it was to make up, in part, for the extra work caused by eliminating the role of travel agents. (The remaining additional funds and personnel were requested so that all visa applicants could actually be interviewed — in other words, the ambassador wanted help so that he could end Visa Express in Saudi Arabia.)
Travel agents save consulates time and money — that's not my assertion, that's in the ambassador's own words. But if travel agents were merely handing off the applications to consulates in the same way the individuals would do themselves, why in the world would the ambassador need more resources to make up for the loss of travel agencies in the visa process? After all, it should take the exact same effort to receive an application sent in by an individual as one turned in by his travel agent.
The obvious answer — obvious to anyone outside State, at least — is that travel agents are not near-bystanders in Visa Express. They do work that otherwise would be handled by consular officers. In other words, private Saudi travel agents are deputized by the State Department under Visa Express. As the ambassador himself wrote in the cable, "Eliminating the role of travel agencies… will certainly require additional resources."
But travel agents are doing even more than just paperwork on behalf of consular officers — they are serving as the only face that most Saudis receiving visas will ever see. Only 30 percent of Saudis issued visas — today, post-9/11 — are interviewed before receiving a visa. And State sees nothing wrong with this.
Even minimal contact with people can often lead to weeding out bad guys. Take, for example, U.S. Customs agents. They often find drug mules simply because someone looks apprehensive or nervous, triggering follow-up interviews. Saudi travel agents not only have no incentive to report suspicious characters, they have a strong disincentive to do so. Would you want to be the travel agency with the reputation for turning in visa applicants to the U.S. government? Business would plunge, and not just with travelers seeking to come to the United States. That travel agency would become persona non grata with the traveling Saudi public.
Sadly, minimal contact with applicants is the best consular officers can hope for, even when there is an interview. The typical interview lasts a mere two-to-three minutes. As many of current and former consular officers have told me, officers — many of whom have the best intentions — are under such intense pressure to grant as many visas as possible in as short a time as possible, that questionable applicants are simply issued visas. As one current consular officer told me, "Issuances take far less time and hassle than refusals."
Rendering the interview almost worthless is the paltry training consular officers receive on interrogation — less than five hours total, none of which is spent learning law-enforcement techniques. Even State admits that most "training" is done in the field, where upon becoming consular officers, they are immediately making decisions about who gets into the United States — and who doesn't. Do we really want people "training" after they've already started serving as our front line of defense against terrorists wishing to do us harm?
In spite of record of failure — that included a free pass into the U.S. for three 9/11 terrorists — State not only wants to keep Visa Express open in Saudi Arabia, but to expand the program to other countries. "State still wants to get through as many people as possible with a minimum of hassle," notes a senior State Department official.
As bizarre as it might seem, the State Department decided to make Saudi Arabia — the nation that sent us 15 of 19 9/11 terrorists — the only country in the world where citizens and non-citizens alike were expected to submit visa applications through travel agents. So, if Visa Express dies an ignominious death in Saudi Arabia, the odds of the program popping up elsewhere drop dramatically — and State sees that as a bad thing.
With intentions to further undermine our border security by expanding Visa Express, State is the last department that should be entrusted with the authority to issue visas. This week, the House of Representatives is in the final stages of a bill to create the new Department of Homeland Security, yet State has successfully maintained visa-issuance powers under the bills that passed out of several committees last week.
Secretary of State Colin Powell has made retention of visa authority his top priority, and he has been burning up the phone lines to pressure lawmakers. Let's hope he doesn't succeed.
— Joel Mowbray is an NRO contributor and a Townhall.com columnist.