Time to Get 'Plenty Hot' Over Safety

But the belated issuance of student visas to two of the Sept. 11 terrorists was an embarrassment, plain and simple.

CNN revealed March 12 that visa approval letters were recently mailed to a Florida flight school for Mohammed Atta and Marwan al-Shehhi, men believed to have piloted two planes into the World Trade Center twin towers.

The news came, ironically, as Americans across the nation were remembering the six-month anniversary of the attacks.

In a news conference, President George W. Bush said he was "plenty hot" after learning that Atta and Al-Shehhi's visas had been approved -- as well he should be.

We should all be plenty hot here.

There is absolutely no reason why steps were not taken to track down government documents linked to the 22 terrorists to ensure that, of all things, they were not issued a visa after causing the deaths of thousands of Americans.

But as incomprehensible as the visa scandal is right now, perhaps something good can come out of all of this.

Perhaps the nation will finally awaken from its "Everything the government does to stop terrorism is perfect" trance and figure out what in the world went wrong here.

As this column is being read, steps already are being taken to launch a full-scale investigation of the Immigration and Naturalization Service to determine what happened in this case and whether there are any other blunders waiting to happen.

Some have speculated that the INS could be broken up into smaller divisions, with the handling of student visas being the sole responsibility of one. Some have even predicted the complete demise of the INS.

And it is almost a given that the entire process for issuing student visas will be evaluated and re-evaluated until the method is smooth and watertight.

However, we should be careful not to forget that this mistake happened during a time when our government was supposed to be nearly flawless.

And we should not make INS officials shoulder the blame for this incident solely. Yes, the INS is ultimately responsible for deciding who receives a student visa.

But when the Office of Homeland Security was created, it was charged with overseeing "the exchange of information among such agencies relating to immigration and visa matters," according to Bush's executive order establishing the agency.

So technically, the office should be watching over the INS and helping the agency undo any kinks in its operations. It possibly could have spotted the delay in Atta and al-Shehhi's paperwork and made sure that the approval notices were never mailed.

It's just strange that no one has thought to raise the issue of what the office's role was in the fiasco and how effectively it has been operating during the past few months.

But then again, someone has.

For a while now, Senate Majority Leader Tom Daschle, D-S.D., has considered forcing Homeland Security Director Tom Ridge to answer questions on issues involving his office. And the visa debacle has only added fuel to Daschle's fire.

But for the past six months it seems that anyone, whether it be the average citizen or a top congressional leader like Daschle, is deemed a traitor or un-American if he dares question the actions of Bush, the military or the Office of Homeland Security. But there is nothing un-American about holding our government accountable for its actions. In fact, challenging politicians has long been a part of our society.

So when INS Commissioner James Ziglar is called to explain what went wrong with these two visas, it is only fair that Tom Ridge stand right beside him and field questions also.

We should insist that Ridge stop hiding behind Bush and respond to inquiries from Daschle and anyone else who wants to know about OHS affairs.

Anything less is, well, un-American.

And that is something to be plenty hot about.

Columnist April Bethea can be reached at adbethea@email.unc.edu.