Does Student Visa Program Open U.S. To Deadly Risks?(ISSUES & INSIGHTS)(NATIONAL ISSUE)

Byline: BRIAN MITCHELL

Lenin once assured his Bolshevik comrades that "the capitalists will fight among themselves to sell us the rope to hang them with."

Osama bin Laden might have said the same. But his band of suicide bombers didn't need rope -- they needed know-how and entry visas. They got both.

Five of the Sept. 11 hijackers learned to fly at U.S. flight schools. Six if you count Zaccarias Moussaoui, the alleged would-be 20th hijacker, who is now in jail.

Two of the five used their status as students to re-enter the U.S. without a visa before Sept. 11. One was ringleader Mohamed Atta.

Now, critics of the State Department's student visa program say, the program needs a thorough overhaul to cut out corruption and cut down on foreign students.

Redistribution Scheme

The program is "so large, so corrupt and so ineptly run" …