Boko Haram Links: US Embassy Beefs up ICT Gadgets

The fear of terrorists appears to be the beginning of wisdom for the US embassy in Nigeria, as Nigeria CommunicationsWeek learnt the consular has augmented the capacity of her ICT device to contain any member of the dreaded sects, from migrating to the country.  
For instance, the case of Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab, a failed underwear bomb attack on North West Delta Airline in Detroit on December 25, 2009, coupled with the insurgencies of the Boko Haram sect forced the United States to adopted stringent measures on its visa issuance procedures and policy.
The introduction of the Consular Lookout and Support System (CLASS) and the State Department controlled Terrorist Identities Datamart Environment, TIDE, were among tough measures technology assisted method of cross checking the bio-data and profile of the prospective visa applicants to determine if there are implicating information about such applicants.
Source revealed that: “These databases allow a number of U.S. government agencies to make input into the back ground check on visa applicants and decision on the visa issuance process”.
Presently, CLASS has become an integral part of the Interagency Border Inspection System (IBIS).
Likewise, US has introduced what is called the Diplomatic Security Service (DSS) that is aimed at identifying documentation fraud, such as cases of stolen identities, tampering with US passport, false declarations etc. Vanguard learnt that agents have since been has long assigned to Nigeria to investigate cases of passport and visa fraud.
 “The idea of sending DSS to Nigeria came after the Abdulmutallab episode; of course, one of the charges preferred against him was that he conspired with other people at large to come into America to kill Americans, so if you want to come to the US to become a threat to its citizens, the best thing would be to stop you in your country,” the source added.
The measures, probably, stemmed from sets of reforms announced on January 10, 2010 by President Obama who felt embarrassed by the Abdulmutallab incident. US government outlined a number of new policies as the Department of Homeland Securities had to tighten things up a bit and unfortunately.
Before then, the US had in its quiver the “Intelligence Reform and Terrorism Prevention Act of 2004,” under which the Congress ordered the State Department to establish a visa and passport security programme in its missions abroad including Nigeria which was singled out for special attention as far back as 2006 and later declared as a country of interest in terrorist activities in 2009.
In line with the Intelligence Reform and Terrorism Prevention Act of 2004, the Congress, thus mandated the State Department to establish a visa and passport security programmers overseas.
A US congressional report on Wednesday, November 30, 2011 tagged Boko Haram Islamist sect as an “emerging threat” that could represent an eventual security risk to the United States and its interests.
 “Boko Haram has quickly evolved and poses an emerging threat to US interests and the US homeland,” said the 28-page report written by the panel.
 “The United States should work with the government of Nigeria to build counterterrorism and intelligence capability to effectively counter Boko Haram,” it said.
The ICT device are expected to checkmate cross-border crime, like the Intelligence Border Inspection System (IBIS); isa United States computer-based system that provides the law enforcement agencies with files of common interest. IBIS provides access to such agencies as the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), the National Crime Information Center (NCIC) and allows its users to interface with all 50 American State via the National Law Enforcement Telecommunications System (NLETS).