By Hugo Odiogor
SINCE the Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab failed underwear bomb attack on North West Delta Airline in Detroit on December 25, 2009, the United States has adopted stringent measures to on its visa issuance procedures and policy, thereby making it a matter of providence to gain access to the document.

Notable among tough measures were the introduction of the Consular Lookout and Support System, CLASS, and the State Department controlled Terrorist Identities Datamart Environment, TIDE, and other technology assisted method of cross checking the background identities and profile of the prospective visa applicants to determine if there are incriminating information about such applicants.

*Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab

According to a source: “These databases allow a number of U.S. government agencies to make input into the back ground check on visa applicants and decision on the visa issuance process”.

Visa issuance process

For instance, CLASS is tied into the Interagency Border Inspection System, IBIS. The US has also introduced what is called the Diplomatic Security Service, DSS, which is charged with identifying documentation fraud, such as cases of stolen identities, tampering with US passport, false declarations etc. Vanguard learnt that agents have since been has long assigned to Nigeria to investigate cases of passport and visa fraud.

The source added: “The idea of sending DSS to Nigeria came after the Abdulmutallab episode; of course, one of the charges preferred against him was that he conspired with other people at large to come into America to kill Americans, so if you want to come to the US to become a threat to its citizens, the best thing would be to stop you in your country.”

President Obama was very upset and embarrassed that the Abdulmutallab incident that on U.S. January 7, 2010. He outlined a set of new policies in response to the Abdulmutallab incident as the Department of Homeland Securities had to tighten things up a bit and unfortunately, it is the innocent people that are bearing the brunt.

Before the January reforms, the US had introduced what it called the “Intelligence Reform and Terrorism Prevention Act of 2004,” under which the Congress ordered the State Department to establish a visa and passport security programme in its missions abroad including Nigeria which was singled out for special attention as far back as 2006 and later declared as a country of interest in terrorist activities in 2009.

With the Intelligence Reform and Terrorism Prevention Act of 2004, the Congress equally mandated the State Department to establish a visa and passport security programmers overseas.

Diplomatic community

On assumption of office the Minister of Foreign Affairs, Mr. Olugbenga Ashiru, had told members of the diplomatic community that Nigeria will observe the principle of reciprocity in the conduct of foreign policy and diplomatic practice, but efforts to speak with the Minister and the Ministry was frustrated  when officials of the Ministry resorted to the well known red tape to avoid the media, even in the era of FOIA.

An official of the Ministry told Vanguard that government official the lack of political will to make good their threats and boasts when it comes defending the interest of the country and its citizens, especially when these countries threaten to expose them.

Vanguard learnt that the Minister specifically instructed officials of the Ministry to frustrate all media enquiries by requesting that it must be formally written and directed to the Minister; thereafter the letter is tossed around until it ends up in the morgue called research and documentation.

The adoption of this tactics by the Ministry is likened to pre-1914 era when diplomatic practice was shrouded in secrecy. This is anathema to the Wilson Woodrow doctrine of open diplomacy which is in tandem with democratic practice.

It is the method reserved for such secretive states like North Korea and failed Soviet Union.

Sources said “the increased presence of DHS officers at Consular posts has increased cost of personnel and administration of visa in Nigeria and it is doubtful prevent people who want to commit malevolent acts in the United States.”

Diplomatic sources said that “the problem in the Abdulmutallab case was not in the issuance of his visa in 2004 but borne out of bungling of intelligence when the CIA mishandled the interview of Abdulmutallab’s father when he walked into the embassy in November 2009 to report that his son had become radicalized and that he feared his son was preparing for a suicide mission.”

The source said “the CIA did not share the information gleaned from that interview in a terrorism report cable (TERREP) and there was no follow up, so why should the Americans want to punish Nigerians for the ineptitude of their security agencies?”

The adding of another layer of DHS involvement in overseeing visa issuance and investigating visa fraud at diplomatic posts abroad is simply not going to assist in the flow of information in visa cases, whether criminal or terrorist in nature, rather, having another U.S. law enforcement agency interfacing with the host country police and security agencies regarding visa matters will only serve to cause confusion and hamper efficient information flow”.