Sept. 11 Panel Looks at Border Security

http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&cid=514&e=4&u=/ap/20040126/ap_on_go_ot/sept_11_commission

WASHINGTON - A border agent said Monday that the suspected ringleader of the Sept. 11 attacks raised enough red flags at customs — including having the wrong student visa — that he should been prevented from entering the United States.

Customs agent Jose E. Melendez-Perez, testifying at a public hearing on border and aviation security, said lead hijacker Mohamed Atta's age and impeccable clothes also appeared to contradict his story about being a student.

"I would have recommended refusal," Melendez-Perez said.

Atta's improper entry is one of a series of errors by government officials prior to Sept. 11 that could have prevented the attacks, an independent commission investigating the terrorist attacks said Monday in releasing new details about the attack...

... "There has been a lot written about 9-11, but there are a few things that will change our impressions of some of it," said Al Felzenberg, spokesman for the National Commission on Terrorist Attacks Upon The United States, better known as the 9-11 commission.

"This hearing may cause people to rethink the conventional wisdom," he said....