Visas for Terrorists

ON June 18, 2001, Abdulaziz Alomari filled out a simple, two-page application for a visa to come to the United States. Alomari was not exactly the ideal candidate for a visa. He claimed to be a student, though he left blank the space for the name and address of his school. He checked the box claim-E ing he was married, yet he left blank the area where he should have put the name of his spouse. This “student” indicated that he would self-finance a two-month stay at the “JKK Whynd-ham Hotel”—and evidently provided no proof, as required by law, that he could actually do so.

Despite the legal requirement that a visa applicant show strong roots in his home country (to give him a reason to return from America), Alomari listed his home address as the “ALQU-DOS HTL JED” (a hotel in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia) . Alomari didn’t even bother filling in the fields asking for his nationality and sex, apparently realizing that he didn’t need to list much more than his name to obtain a visa to the United States. He was right: He got his visa.

JM

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Joel Mowbray

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ON June 18, 2001, Abdulaziz Alomari filled out a simple, two-page application for a visa to come to the United States. Alomari was not exactly the ideal candidate for a visa. He claimed to be a student, though he left blank the space for the name and address of his school. He checked the box claim-E ing he was married, yet he left blank the area where he should have put the name of his spouse. This “student” indicated that he would self-finance a two-month stay at the “JKK Whynd-ham Hotel”—and evidently provided no proof, as required by law, that he could actually do so.

Despite the legal requirement that a visa applicant show strong roots in his home country (to give him a reason to return from America), Alomari listed his home address as the “ALQU-DOS HTL JED” (a hotel in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia) . Alomari didn’t even bother filling in the fields asking for his nationality and sex, apparently realizing that he didn’t need to list much more than his name to obtain a visa to the United States. He was right: He got his visa.