ABC News reports as many as 20 al-Qaeda terrorists in Iraq planned to slip into the U.S. using student visas in order to launch more 9/11-type attacks. The New York Post’s Andy Soltis notes that the nation’s student-visa policy came under tough criticism because foreign students were not monitored after their entry into the U.S. The post-9/11 policy consists in requiring campuses to report when foreign students fail to show up for and attend classes.
Nonetheless, despite the more sensible vetting of visa applicants and monitoring of attendance by campuses, some security experts warn that terrorists handpicked for their clean records and training could sneak through on student visas.
As I’ve written elsewhere, we need the tightest possible vetting of foreign students. In addition, universities need to know much better who their students, foreign and indigenous, really are, and the professoriate should teach the truth about the origins and history of terrorism.