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Recommendation: Targeting travel is at least as powerful a weapon
against terrorists as targeting their money. The United States should
combine terrorist travel intelligence, operations, and law enforcement
in a strategy to intercept terrorists, find terrorist travel facilitators,
and constrain terrorist mobility.

Since 9/11, significant improvements have been made to create an integrated

watchlist that makes terrorist name information available to border and law
enforcement authorities. However, in the already difficult process of merging
border agencies in the new Department of Homeland Security--"changing the
engine while flying" as one official put it

--new insights into terrorist travel

have not yet been integrated into the front lines of border security.

The small terrorist travel intelligence collection and analysis program cur-

rently in place has produced disproportionately useful results. It should be
expanded. Since officials at the borders encounter travelers and their documents
first and investigate travel facilitators, they must work closely with intelligence
officials.

Internationally and in the United States, constraining terrorist travel should

become a vital part of counterterrorism strategy. Better technology and train-
ing to detect terrorist travel documents are the most important immediate steps
to reduce America's vulnerability to clandestine entry. Every stage of our bor-
der and immigration system should have as a part of its operations the detec-
tion of terrorist indicators on travel documents. Information systems able to
authenticate travel documents and detect potential terrorist indicators should
be used at consulates, at primary border inspection lines, in immigration serv-
ices offices, and in intelligence and enforcement units. All frontline personnel
should receive some training. Dedicated specialists and ongoing linkages with
the intelligence community are also required.The Homeland Security Depart-
ment's Directorate of Information Analysis and Infrastructure Protection
should receive more resources to accomplish its mission as the bridge between
the frontline border agencies and the rest of the government counterterrorism
community.

A Biometric Screening System
When people travel internationally, they usually move through defined chan-
nels, or portals.They may seek to acquire a passport.They may apply for a visa.
They stop at ticket counters, gates, and exit controls at airports and seaports.
Upon arrival, they pass through inspection points.They may transit to another
gate to get on an airplane. Once inside the country, they may seek another form
of identification and try to enter a government or private facility. They may
seek to change immigration status in order to remain.

Each of these checkpoints or portals is a screening--a chance to establish

that people are who they say they are and are seeking access for their stated
purpose, to intercept identifiable suspects, and to take effective action.

WHAT TO DO? A GLOBAL STRATEGY

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