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| US Lacks Intel to Vet Syrian Refuge |
| US Lacks Intel to Vet Syrian Refugees: Officials
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| UNITED STATES OF AMERICA
, 12-February-2015
6:26:8 AM |
| US authorities are facing a difficult task screening Syrian refugees for potential extremists because of a shortage of intelligence from the war-torn country, officials told lawmakers Wednesday.
Michael Steinbach, assistant director of the Federal Bureau of Investigation, said the US government had data and intelligence to draw on when it performed background checks on refugees from Iraq in recent years but in the case of Syria, there was "a lack of information."
"The difference is, in Iraq, we were there on the ground collecting, so we had databases to use," Steinbach told the House Homeland Security Committee.
"The concern is in Syria, the lack of our footprint on the ground in Syria, that the databases won't have the information we need," he said.
"You are talking about a country that is a failed state, that does not have any infrastructure so to speak, " he said.
Washington has decided to let in more Syrians displaced by the civil war and announced plans in December to review about 9,000 refugee cases referred by the UN refugee agency.
US officials told AFP on Wednesday that nearly 11,000 cases referred by the UNHCR will be examined.
Since the conflict erupted in 2011, the United States has admitted 512 Syrians into the country, according to the State Department.
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Lawmakers at the hearing voiced dismay at the possibility that some of the male refugees heading to America could be potential jihadists.
The US was already working to stop foreign fighters from returning to America and admitting large numbers of refugees "would be a federally sanctioned welcome party, if you will, to potential terrorists in the United States," said Michael McCaul, Republican chairman of the committee.
Such a move would be a "huge mistake," he said
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