WASHINGTON — The United States must do more to strengthen the “weak link” in the chain of efforts to keep terrorists from crossing international borders, a new report finds.
While domestic initiatives have improved detection of terrorists trying to enter the United States, many foreign countries have trouble preventing terrorists from traveling. A lack of coordination among U.S. agencies working with vulnerable countries such as Pakistan is making the problem worse, according to the U.S. Government Accountability Office.
The report by the GAO, Congress’ investigative arm, will be discussed today at a Senate Committee on Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs hearing on terrorist travel, one of a series of hearings examining homeland security issues since 9/11. The report was requested by U.S. Sen. Susan Collins, R-Maine, the committee’s top Republican, and U.S. Rep. John Tierney of Massachusetts.
“The U.S. is spending billions of dollars to increase our security by preventing suspected terrorists from traveling to this country,” Collins said Tuesday in a statement.
“But as the GAO report shows, we must also rely on the systems of our partner countries, which are hamstrung by troubling gaps ranging from corruption to counterfeit documents to poor record keeping.”
The GAO found several problems in other countries, including a lack of information-sharing about terrorists, inability to curtail travel-document fraud, and weak passport security in general.
For instance, Pakistan has a fingerprint database, but the data isn’t shared among all Pakistani law enforcement agencies.
“Events of the past few years demonstrate that the international travel system is only as secure as its weakest link,” the GAO report states.
The U.S. has helped some foreign countries shore up their defenses. U.S. officials helped Paraguay use fingerprints, photographs and signatures to improve passport and travel document system security, the GAO says.
But U.S. agencies could also coordinate better, the GAO found. The State and Homeland Security departments planned separate antifraud training for a Pakistani agency earlier this year without knowing that they were duplicating efforts.
Collins said the report shows the U.S. must make improvements.
“GAO found a real lack of coordination and wasteful practices among the agencies working to improve the systems of foreign countries,” Collins said.
In addition to Pakistan, GAO investigators also traveled to Kenya, the Philippines and Thailand to study U.S. efforts to help foreign governments prevent terrorist travel.
MaineToday Media Washington Bureau Chief Jonathan Riskind can be contacted at 791-6280 or at: jriskind@mainetoday.com
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