IV
103D CONGRESS
1ST SESSION
H. CON. RES. 119
To urge the Secretary of State to provide to the Congress an emergency
plan to vastly improve the visa issuance process of the Department
of State to prevent terrorists from entering the United States.
IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES
JULY 13, 1993
Mr. GILMAN submitted the following concurrent resolution; which was referred
to the Committee on the Judiciary
CONCURRENT RESOLUTION
To urge the Secretary of State to provide to the Congress
an emergency plan to vastly improve the visa issuance
process of the Department of State to prevent terrorists
from entering the United States.
Whereas recent terrorist acts in the United States have made
it abundantly clear that terrorism has come to American
soil, and now threatens the very security of the Nation;
Whereas it is evident from recent revelations that the State
Department’s current visa operations and procedures are
not adequate to provide a modern front line defense to
prevent terrorists from entering the United States under
visas provided by United States embassies and consular
posts around the world;
•HCON 119 IH
Whereas many overseas State Department posts are still
using outdated and inefficient microfiche systems to
maintain visa lookout and watch lists for known or sus-
pected terrorists who may seek United States visas to
travel to the United States;
Whereas the lookout list microfiche system is outdated, not
easily maintained or updated in a timely fashion, is labor
intensive and easily subject to human error, and is totally
inadequate and outmoded in this era of modern commu-
nications and travel;
Whereas many United States embassy and consular posts are
still on the outdated microfiche system in many areas of
the world where the threat is great from terrorists and
drug dealers or narcotics traffickers who may desire visas
to enter the United States;
Whereas the microfiche visa lookout system has already re-
sulted in the unfortunate and mistaken entry of radical
Sheik Omar Abdel Rahman into the United States on a
United States visa, despite his links to known terrorist
activities prior to issuance of the visa;
Whereas the mistaken issuance of the visa to Sheik Rahman
in error in Khartoum in 1990, despite the fact he was
on the State Department’s lookout list on microfiche at
this post for possible terrorist links, has created numer-
ous and serious problems for the United States, including
his possible inspiration and encouragement of terrorism
following his entry into the United States, both here and
in Egypt by his followers;
Whereas several of Sheik Rahman’s followers have been ar-
rested in connection with the New York Trade Tower
bombing or relating to a terrorist plot to attack the
•HCON 119 IH
United Nations complex, New York City commuter tun-
nels, the Secretary General of the United Nations, and
political leaders in the United States, and many of those
arrested entered the United States with visas issued by
the State Department;
Whereas the entry of Sheik Rahman into the United States
by the mistaken issuance of a visa by the State Depart-
ment has even reportedly strained our relations with the
Government of Egypt;
Whereas it is also evident that the necessary information
sharing within the State Department, and with other
United States law enforcement and intelligence agencies
on possible terrorists or other criminal elements, is not
being conducted on an appropriate basis to make the visa
lookout system current and effective enough to prevent
possible terrorists from entering the United States with
visas;
Whereas the shortcomings and failures in the current visa
processing system at the Department of State have been
well known by the Department for many years and no
major overhaul, improvements, or recommendations to
overhaul the system are forthcoming from the Depart-
ment of State, the Inspector General, or the General Ac-
counting Office for several months;
Whereas a 1991 Department of State Inspector General
audit of the visa referral system at the Department found
serious shortcomings in the automated visa lookout sys-
tem (AVOLS), including ‘‘Information regarding foreign
nationals with serious grounds for visa ineligibility’’ was
not always in the automated visa lookout system even
though government agencies had this information avail-
able;
•HCON 119 IH
Whereas the same 1991 audit also found that ‘‘At one post
visited it was determined that not all convicted drug traf-
fickers in the Drug Enforcement Agency local data base
were in AVOLS’’;
Whereas the same 1991 audit went on to find that ‘‘The ab-
sence of this information (law enforcement data) poses a
serious problem to the nonimmigrant visa process since
it can result in the issuance of visas to dangerous and
undesirable individuals.’’;
Whereas the Department of State, on the basis of the 1991
audit, has been on notice of the shortcomings in the visa
lookout system for more than 2 years, and apparently lit-
tle or no progress has been made to improve the system;
Whereas recently the Secretary of State has personally ac-
knowledged the need to modernize the visa system to
meet the new threat of terrorism directly targeted at the
United States;
Whereas the American people demand and expect the Depart-
ment of State to maintain an effective and modern sys-
tem to prevent terrorists from obtaining visas to travel to
the United States and threaten property, institutions,
and lives in the United States; and
Whereas the current visa processing system and procedures
at the Department of State are totally incapable in meet-
ing the new threat of international terrorism to the Unit-
ed States and threaten the very security and safety of the
United States: Now, therefore, be it
Resolved by the House of Representatives (the Senate
concurring), That it is the sense of the Congress that the
Secretary of State, within 60 days after the date of adop-