Part Of New 'Immigration Security Initiative'

The United States wants to place its own inspectors at several foreign airports within months to seek out potential terrorists, a plan which some foreign officials say would undermine their sovereignty. Robert Bonner, the U.S. Commissioner of Customs and Border Protection, told Reuters on Tuesday the agency was in preliminary talks with a number of countries about the new "Immigration Security Initiative," under which U.S. inspectors would vet the passports of U.S.-bound travelers.

"They'd be working with the host nation and the airlines ... to make sure they don't board people who have fraudulent travel documents and who might also potentially be terrorists," Bonner said. "I'd certainly like to think that we would be able to start the (initiative) within a few months, at least in a couple of countries."

Bonner would not name the countries, but said Britain, the Netherlands and Australia already had similar programs in place and were among the greatest proponents. Other states are less pleased by the prospect. One European counterterrorism official said the plan was part of U.S. efforts to push threats outside U.S. borders and into other nations. "The United States wants to move border controls forward, i.e. exert sovereign actions on foreign territory. Therein lies the crux of the matter," the European official said. He said the initiative was part of a pattern of U.S. efforts to export their security problems. Other examples cited by critical foreign officials include the Container Security Initiative, which requires participating foreign ports to check containers before they leave for the United States.

But Bonner shrugged off the criticism, saying the plan was based on cooperation and reciprocity with other states, meaning participating countries could place their own inspectors at U.S. airports. He said concerns about sovereignty were unwarranted, since the inspectors had no legal authority to prevent anyone from boarding an airplane and they would not be armed. But he said airlines were generally unwilling to allow a passenger on board who they knew would not be admitted at the destination.

"The general concept is very well-received and not just by other countries, but by the airlines themselves," he said, explaining that carriers were glad to take steps to avoid a penalty of up to $10,000 for bringing a passenger to the United States who is denied entry. "The security benefits are pretty obvious, and that is that you've decreased the prospect that a potential terrorist is going to get on board the airplane, and the economic benefits to the airline are also obvious," Bonner added.

The commissioner said the United States was concerned that militants could try to sneak into the country on forged travel documents -- a lesson the country learned painfully through the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks. Members of the U.S. commission investigating the attacks said earlier this year that at least two, and as many as eight, of the 19 hijackers' passports "showed evidence of fraudulent manipulation."  Bonner said the Immigration Security Initiative was based on a successful pilot project run several years ago by the now-defunct Immigration and Naturalization Service, but would have "a sharper anti-terrorism focus."

FMI: www.dhs.gov