WASHINGTON, October 22 (IslamOnline & News Agencies) - New visa procedures implemented after the September 11 attacks are still not adequate to prevent suspected terrorists from obtaining documents to enter the United States, according to a report released Monday, October 21.

The General Accounting Office (GAO), the investigative arm of Congress, found that State Department consular officers, who issue visas at U.S. embassies abroad, are not receiving enough training on how to screen applicants and are often getting conflicting instructions.

“Since September 11, 2001, the U.S. government has implemented several changes to consular operations, but weaknesses remain in visa policies and procedures that limit the effectiveness of the visa process as an anti-terrorism tool,” the GAO said in a report to lawmakers.

In addition to insufficient training and problems with guidance, the GAO said many consular offices were inadequately staffed to handle the stricter visa guidelines.

“The State Department needs to improve its implementation of the visa process to improve its effectiveness and consistency among posts,” it said.

The report was commissioned by Congress last November amid moves to prevent suspected terrorists entering the United States in the aftermath of September 11.

The 19 hijackers who committed the attacks in New York and Washington legally received a total of 23 U.S. visas from five different embassies and missions.

The U.S. has alleged that fifteen hijackers were Saudi nationals, 11 of whom were granted visas at the U.S. consulate in Jeddah and four of whom were given visas by the U.S. embassy in Riyadh.

Two United Arab Emirates citizens allegedly received visas at the U.S. embassy in Abu Dhabi and at the U.S. consulate in Dubai. The remaining two hijackers obtained visas at the U.S. embassy in Berlin.

Since those facts became public, the United States has vastly increased the number of names on its terrorism watch lists and required more detailed information from visa applicants.

But the GAO, whose investigators traveled to a number of missions, including the five that approved the hijackers’ visas, said more needed to be done “to strengthen the visa process as a tool to prevent terrorists from entering the United States.”