The US has screened more than 125,000 visa applications under a cumbersome new security procedure designed to keep terrorists out of the country, but has not denied a single one of those applications, a top State department official said on Thursday. The revelation will embolden critics who charge that the web of new restrictions imposed on visitors to the US since September 11 2001 has produced little additional security at huge costs to the country’s economy and image in the world. Janice Jacobs, deputy assistant secretary for consular affairs, told a Senate Foreign Relations subcommittee that the US had found no terrorist ties among any of the visitors vetted under the so-called Visa Condor programme, which requires security reviews for any male aged between six and 45 from a list of 26 mostly Muslim countries. Full Story
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