15,000 Potential Spies and Terrorists

Date: Tuesday, September 10, 2002 12:23 PM

*** H-1B NEWSLETTER ***

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The GAO report said that adequate background checks were not made on about
15,000 immigrants living in the United States on H1-B visas to work with
U.S. technologies. This number is very conservative because our government
doesn't require security background checks for H-1Bs. The true number is
probably more like 1,500,000 visas. Bush and his cohorts say they care about
national security but their first priority is to help their bottom feeding
CEO friends that want cheap labor at any cost.

Even using the GAO's conservative figures of 15,000 there is a vast
potential for spies and terrorists to use H-1B visas to operate in the US.
H-1Bs are allowed to work in sensitive areas within our government and in
private industry. H-1Bs have access to infrastructure systems that would be
very valuable for terrorist infiltrators.

Perhaps this lack of security is one of the reasons that the national
terrorist alert was elevated from Yellow to Orange.

http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&u=/ap/20020909/ap_on_hi_te/computer_exports_2

Report Criticizes Tech Oversight
Mon Sep 9, 3:42 PM ET
By TED BRIDIS, Associated Press Writer

WASHINGTON (AP) - The government failed to screen requests by thousands of
immigrants in the United States seeking permission to work with sensitive
technology that hostile nations could use to develop new weapons,
congressional investigators found.

The study released Monday by the General Accounting Office ( news - web
sites), the investigative arm of Congress, was the second within weeks to
criticize the Bush administration's oversight of U.S. export restrictions on
technology, such as the latest generation of powerful computer chips.

The report said the government "does not provide adequate assurance that
U.S. national security interests are properly protected." Oversight problems
could help hostile governments build military capabilities by using
sensitive technologies.

The GAO report said the Commerce Department ( news - web sites)'s Bureau of
Industry and Security, which enforces export limits, failed to conduct
adequate background checks on about 15,000 immigrants living in the United
States who sought a special category of visa, called an "H1-B," to work with
U.S. technologies, among other jobs.

Investigators said the agency focused instead on screening requests by
immigrants who sought H1-B visas while living overseas, and identified about
160 requests out of 54,000 that deserved closer scrutiny.

The agency also lacks an adequate system for tracking such cases that
deserve further investigation, the GAO said, although U.S. companies
received warning letters in three of those 160 cases.

"Commerce may be missing opportunities" to find U.S. companies where
immigrants may be working on sensitive technology in violation of export
laws, the report said.

The Commerce Department was working with the Immigration and Naturalization
Service to find ways to review all visa requests in the future, said Michael
J. Garcia, assistant Commerce secretary for export enforcement. Garcia also
said a better tracking system already has been developed and will begin
operating by December.

The earlier GAO report said President Bush ( news - web sites)'s decision
early this year to relax export limits on powerful computers wasn't
justified under U.S. law, and relied too heavily on flawed predictions from
some of the same companies that benefit financially from lesser
restrictions. Both Commerce Secretary Donald Evans and an industry group,
the Computer Coalition for Responsible Exports, defended Bush's move as
proper.

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