• Among its key features, the Presidential Directive:

  • Creates a Foreign Terrorist Tracking Task Force: The Task Force will coordinate Federal programs designed to:  (1) deny entry into the U.S. of aliens associated with, suspected of being engaged in or supporting terrorist activity; and (2) locate, detain, prosecute, or deport any such aliens already present in the U.S.  The Task Force will be established by the Attorney General by November 1.  Experts from the State Department, FBI, INS, Secret Service, Customs Service and the intelligence community will serve on the Task Force.
  • Orders a Thorough Review of Student Visa Policies: International students add greatly to the vitality and quality of our nation's colleges, universities and other institutions of learning.  The Presidential Directive orders the Secretary of State and the Attorney General - working with the Secretary of Education, Secretary of Defense, Secretary of Energy and the Director of the Office of Science and Technology Policy (OSTP) -- to institute tighter controls and ensure that student visas are being issued appropriately.  A goal of the program is to prohibit the education and training of foreign nationals who would use their training to harm the United States and its Allies.
  • Better Coordinates Immigration and Customs Policies with Canada and Mexico: Millions of people and billions of dollars of goods move legally between the United States, Canada and Mexico each year.  The United States seeks to deny potential terrorists easy entry into the country from Canada or Mexico, while ensuring that legal travel and commerce continues with minimal border restrictions.  The Directive orders the Secretaries of State and Treasury and the Attorney General to increase the sharing of customs and immigration information with Canada and Mexico, and work with our neighbors to develop a shared immigration and customs control database.  These efforts will ensure the maximum possible compatibility of immigration, customs and visa policies.

The Presidential Directive also:

  • Directs the Attorney General and Secretary of the Treasury to enhance the investigative and intelligence analysis capabilities of the INS and the Customs Service, and to increase INS and Customs special agent personnel assigned to Joint Terrorism Task Forces
  • Directs the Office of Science and Technology Policy to work with the Attorney General and the Director of Central Intelligence to make recommendations on advanced technology that could be used to aid immigration enforcement
  • Directs the Office of Management and Budget to work with the Attorney General, the Secretary of State, the Secretary of the Treasury and the Assistant to the President for Homeland Security to develop a budgetary plan to support this effort

  • President Bush believes that better information sharing, improved technology and increased coordination can vastly improve the ability of our immigration system to prevent terrorists from entering or operating in the United States.

For More Information, Contact White House Communications at 202-456-2777

EXCERPTS FROM PRIME MINISTER BLAIR'S SPEECH ON THE WAR AGAINST TERRORISM


Prime Minister Blair in a major speech today Wales set out the moral case for pursuing the war on terrorism, and recommitted the UK and the whole coalition to seeing this action through to the end.  He said:

"The Taliban regime in Afghanistan protect Al Qaida and help them. That is a fact.  According to the latest evidence we have, they are virtually a merged organisation.  The Taliban regime are cruel, dictatorial and oppressive, causing 4½ million refugees to be on the move before 11 September.

"Usama Bin Laden and Al Qaida have said they consider it their duty to commit further terrorist acts.  We gave the Taliban an ultimatum to deliver up Usama Bin Laden.  They refused.

"They lead to one inescapable conclusion:  that if we do not act against Al Qaida and the Taliban, Al Qaida will have perpetrated this atrocity, the Taliban will have sheltered them, and we will have done nothing.  We will have done nothing despite the fact, also inescapable, that they intend to commit more atrocities unless we yield to their demands which include the eradication of Israel, the killing of all Jews and the setting up of fundamentalist states in all parts of the Arab and Moslem world.

"It is important we never forget why we are doing it.  Important we never forget how we felt watching the planes fly into the twin towers.  Never forget those answering machine messages.  Never forget how we felt imagining how mothers told children they were about to die.
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