Editorial: Sharing info vital in struggle

Thursday, Nov. 1, 2001 | 8:46 a.m.

This week President Bush announced steps to beef up immigration controls and crack down on foreigners who have violated the terms of their visas. At least two of the terrorists who carried out the Sept. 11 suicide attacks had overstayed their visas. Another terrorist obtained a student visa to attend an English language course, but he never went to the classes.

The administration still is working out the details of how the crackdown will be carried out, but what the president has disclosed so far shows that he is on the right track. Bush said the number of immigration and customs agents dedicated to fighting terrorism will be increased. In addition, border controls with Canada and Mexico not only will be tightened, but the administration says it also will improve communication with the border nations, including the development of an immigration computer database that could be shared.

It's also encouraging that here at home the Immigration and Naturalization Service said that it plans to create a computer database that could better track foreign students with visas. The New York Times reports that under the system proposed by immigration officials, colleges, the INS and the State Department all would be able to know what classes foreign students are enrolled in and whether they're attending them.

But this is much more than using technology to track down terrorists in our midst. The key is cooperation -- among nations and, within the United States, among federal, state and local agencies. Federal law enforcement agencies, in particular, have had a terrible habit of withholding information. All anyone has to do is look at the failure to track and apprehend two men from Saudi Arabia who hijacked the plane that crashed into the Pentagon. In August 2000 in Malaysia, Khalid Almihdhar and Nawaf Alhazmi met with a terrorist believed to have been the leader behind the bombing of the USS Cole. The CIA knew about the meeting but waited 19 months -- three weeks before the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks -- before it told the INS to put one of the men, Almihdhar, on a terrorist "watch list." By then it was too late to prevent his entry into the United States. Almihd har was already in our country. The FBI also tried finding both of the men on Aug. 23, but the agency didn't inform its off! ice in San Diego -- where both had been living for a long stretch of time -- until two days after the terrorist attacks.

Tom Ridge, the director of domestic security, may feel as if he's just treading water dealing with the anthrax issue. But it is just as important for Ridge to ride herd on the federal government agencies that deal with immigration so that they work together. Our national security depends upon it.