Quote:The history of accused Times Square bomb plotter Faisal Shahzad “reveals a familiar pattern of a terrorist easily taking advantage of weak spots in America’s immigration system,” the Center for Immigration Studies asserts.

“Shahzad was admitted long before 9/11, but the openings he exploited are still in place today,” according to the CIS.

Born in Pakistan in 1979, Shahzad was issued a student visa in Islamabad in December 1998, CIS’s Jessica Vaughan reports using information provided by a New York Times chronology.

But Shahzad “certainly failed to demonstrate that he had ‘sufficient academic preparation to pursue the intended course of study,’ as the regulations require, or at least they did in the 1990s when I was issuing (and refusing) student visas,” Vaughan writes.

Shahzad was applying as a transfer student, and his transcript from his correspondence studies with [MSCHE accredited] Southeastern University, “a now defunct fourth-rate academic program,” showed several Ds and an F, Vaughan notes in the CIS article headlined “Faisal Shahzad: So Easy, Anyone Can Do It.”

Shahzad also did not disclose how he planned to pay for his education, which is required. Yet he received the visa.

“What on earth was this consular officer thinking?” Vaughan asks. “Probably about how annoyed the embassy senior staff might be if Shahzad’s father, supposedly a prominent military officer, complained about a visa refusal.”

In 2000, Shahzad graduated from the [NEASC accredited] University of Bridgeport in Connecticut with a degree in computer science and engineering. He reportedly had received a grant of $6,700 from the school to help cover his tuition.

In 2001, he began working for a temporary staffing agency, even though he had only a student visa, which does not include permission to work.

Shahzad was issued an H-1B visa for skilled workers in April 2002, and began working for the Elizabeth Arden cosmetics company in a low-level accounting job.

In 2004, he married Huma Anif Mian, a U.S. citizen. Her neighbors told reporters that Shahzad visited her in Colorado only once before she married him.

That same year, he came under scrutiny from the Joint Terrorism Task Force (JTTF), which investigates cases related to national security. But no information has been released explaining why the agency was interested in Shahzad, according to Vaughan.

Shahzad received permanent resident status — a green card — in January 2006 because he had wed an American citizen.

“Marriage to a U.S. citizen is one of the easiest and most popular ways for illegal aliens (and terrorists) to obtain a green card,” Vaughan writes.

Shahzad applied for U.S. citizenship in October 2008, and despite the JTTF probe, he was sworn in on April 1, 2009 — although he did not give up his Pakistani passport.

He left for Pakistan in June 2009, and has said he visited the tribal regions of the country where he received training at a terrorist camp.

Shahzad returned to the U.S. in February of this year, and on May 1, attempted to set off a car bomb in Times Square.

Vaughan concludes that unless policymakers move to close the openings that Shahzad exploited, “they offer a sobering guarantee of job security for counter-terrorism and security personnel for the foreseeable future.”

Martin Eisenstadt Wrote:There are people rotting in jail this very moment because a fake Arab scientist wanted a fake degree to get a fake visa to do fake mischief, or so the fake experts alleged.

Albert Hidel Wrote:So this is not a Doogle Arse thread?  I saw "Bomber" and "Exploited" and just assumed...