Ridge: Fingerprinting program is first of many safety steps
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Homeland Security Secretary Tom Ridge
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Homeland Security Secretary Tom Ridge discusses fingerprinting international visitors.
CNN's Elaine Quijano reports on biometric anti-terrorism screening.
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ATLANTA, Georgia (CNN) -- Monday was the first day of a new U.S. anti-terrorism program aimed at fingerprinting and photographing most foreign air and sea travelers arriving in the United States.
CNN's Soledad O'Brien spoke with Department of Homeland Security Secretary Tom Ridge, who was overseeing the operation at Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport.
O'BRIEN: The US-VISIT program essentially is fingerprinting and then photographing some of the foreign visitors who enter the nation's airports, also, the seaports, as well. Then you take those, that information and compare it with terror watch lists. But there are some loopholes and I want to start by talking about some of those loopholes this morning.
First, 500 million border crossings into the United States every year. US-VISIT really will only focus on a fraction, 24 million.
Isn't that fraction way too small to really make a difference?
RIDGE: Well, first of all, I think you need to accept the notion that US-VISIT is a first significant step, really just the first significant step in a series of steps that we're going to take in order to keep our borders open, but our country more secure.
By October of this year, everybody coming across our borders is going to have to have a machine-readable passport with some other form of biometric identification.
So you're right with regard to the number of people that will be affected by the system today, but the number will grow and grow in the months and years ahead.
O'BRIEN: Another loophole, the US-VISIT tracks arrivals, but not departures. And to some degree, isn't departures half the problem?
RIDGE: Well, we have begun today a couple of pilot programs to determine the kinds of technology we want to use to gather departure information.
We've set up a kiosk at the Baltimore-Washington Airport. We've got another pilot program at a seaport down in Miami. So, again, it's the first step in a process. We are going to capture departure information, biometric information. We just want to see what's the best location in the airport and what's the best technology to capture the information.
O'BRIEN: Twenty-eight countries are exempted. Why not check everyone? Why exempt some people?
RIDGE: Well, for the time being, we just, as a matter of principle, we're going after those countries where they need visas and we're working with our consular affairs offices, because they are beginning to take photographs and finger scans, as well.
But these visa waiver countries that you referred to, they're going to be required to have these machine-readable passports with biometric identifiers by October of this year.
So, again, it's a series of things we're going to do. We want to welcome people who want to visit and to study and to work in the United States. But we also want to have an accurate record of when they arrive and when they depart. And there are several things we'll be doing in the months and years ahead to complete that record.
O'BRIEN: In the last several weeks, you've had two flights from Air France canceled. You've had two British Airways flights canceled. An Aero Mexico flight was turned around and sent back.
Do you think that this is highly unusual or do you think this is the new normal and we're going to see something like this and passengers can expect to see something like this from now on?
RIDGE: I think when you have very specific information relative to a flight and the kind of information we had, the credibility associated with it, that is the last resort. And we erred on the side of caution, not unlike a pilot who chooses not to take off because their warning light says they've got a mechanical difficulty or not unlike the airline that said we're not flying because the storm is so bad.
So whether it's a mechanical problem, whether it's a weather related problem or a potential terrorist problem, public safety comes first. And I think we will probably see more and more of this in the future. As long as the intelligence pushes us in that direction.
O'BRIEN: So there were specific threats. Because there were some reports that said that the British Airways pilots balked at having an armed air marshal on board and that's the reason those flights were canceled. Is that not accurate?
RIDGE: Well, I think that the officials in the British government and even the French government have validated the intelligence reporting both by what they've said and what they've done in canceling those flights.
I do think the British airline pilots have mixed opinions as to whether or not they want armed air marshals. We obviously in this country think it's another layer of defense and down the road, hopefully, more countries will join us in that belief, that adding another layer of defense in addition to hardening the cockpit doors and intensive baggage screening. But on occasion, on targeted flights, putting air marshals is just another way of adding additional security to these passengers.
