The House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence recently released a report detailing the federal government’s failure to implement critical safety measures preventing another 9/11-style attack from occurring.
The report, led by Reps. Rick Crawford (R-AR) and Jim Himes (D-CT), calls for stricter biometric screenings for foreign travelers, among other recommendations. “The Committee would be remiss if it neglected to address recommendations contained in the 9/11 Commission Report related to screening foreign nationals traveling in and out of the United States — and the serious threat unvetted travelers can pose to the homeland,” it says. It went on to declare that the Committee believes a “fully automated biometric entry-exit screening system is of utmost importance.”
Recalling events ahead of the September 11, 2001, attack, the Committee wrote, “Indeed, the 9/11 story itself is one of known terrorists moving freely across borders, skirting screening protocols, and altering identification documents to evade law enforcement.” Had the immigration system at the time set a higher bar for individuals, the report explained, it could “potentially have excluded, removed, or come into further contact with several hijackers who did not appear to meet the terms for admitting short-term visitors.”
The final 9/11 Commission report from 2004 asserted that the terror attack “should not have come as a surprise.”
“Islamist extremists had given plenty of warning that they meant to kill Americans indiscriminately and in large numbers,” the report said. “Although Usama Bin Ladin himself would not emerge as a signal threat until the late 1990s, the threat of Islamist terrorism grew over the decade.”
