Last month, the House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence issued a report detailing the failings of the federal government to implement one of the 9/11 Commission’s most vital recommendations to prevent another 9/11-style attack on American soil: A fully automated biometric entry-exit system for foreign travelers.
The 9/11 Commission Report recommended that Congress and presidential administrations adopt several dozen policies to prevent a terrorist attack akin to September 11, 2001, when nearly 3,000 Americans were murdered in New York City; Washington, DC; and Shanksville, Pennsylvania, by foreign terrorist hijackers.
WATCH — President Trump Participates in 9/11 Observance at the Pentagon:
On August 31, the committee issued their report on which recommendations had been implemented, which ones had not, and which have been a “work in progress” for the government.
Among those recommendations, and perhaps most important, is the 9/11 Commission’s request that an automated biometric entry-exit system be fully implemented to screen and vet foreign nationals traveling in and out of the United States.
“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,” the committee report, led by Reps. Rick Crawford (R-AR) and Jim Himes (D-CT), states:
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. [Emphasis added]
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The Commission ‘found that as many as 15 of the 19 hijackers were potentially vulnerable to interception by border authorities’ and further stated, ‘Analyzing their characteristic travel documents and travel patterns could have allowed authorities to intercept 4 to 15 hijackers and more effective use of information available in U.S. government databases could have identified up to 3 hijackers.’ The Commission continued, saying that ‘the routine operations of [U.S.] immigration laws…inevitably shaped al Qaeda’s planning and opportunities.’ [Emphasis added]
Congress and presidential administrations have made progress on implementing a biometric entry-exit system for foreign travelers since 9/11, such as the Trump administration’s most recent regulations to allow the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) “to collect facial biometrics from all noncitizens upon entry and exit at airports, land ports, seaports, and other authorized points of departure.”
House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence
While the committee notes that air and sea ports of entry, along with pedestrian land ports of entry, all have fully implemented biometric systems, the government has still not fully implemented a biometric exit system.
“Despite efforts by Congress and the executive branch, the current biometric entry-exit system has not been fully implemented, largely due to infrastructure and practical challenges,” the committee writes. “Consequently, there remains a gap between the current biographic entry-exit system and the biometric entry-exit system envisioned by the 9/11 Commission.”
John Binder is a reporter for Breitbart News. Email him at [email protected].
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