NCJ Number
235748
Date Published
June 2011
Length
42 pages
Annotation
This report to the U.S. Congress presents information from the Government Accountability Office on Federal Government efforts to identify foreign countries' capacity to prevent terrorist travel overseas.
Abstract
The Government Accountability Office (GAO) found four key gaps in the ability of foreign countries to prevent terrorist travel overseas: 1) sharing information about known and suspected terrorists; 2) addressing the use of fraudulent travel documents; 3) ensuring passport issuance security; and 4) combating corruption in passport issuance and immigration agencies. The GAO also found that the U.S. Government does not have the performance measures necessary to assess the progress of government-wide efforts to close the identified gaps in foreign countries' efforts to prevent terrorist travel overseas. The report by the GAO contains three main sections: description of key gaps identified by the U.S. Government in foreign countries' abilities to prevent terrorist travel overseas; an evaluation of how U.S. capacity-building efforts address the gaps; and an assessment of the extent to which the U.S. Government is measuring progress in its efforts to close the identified gaps. The report includes the following recommendations from the GAO: 1) development of a mechanism by the U.S. Department of State to improve various agencies' efforts to provide fraudulent travel document training to foreign partners; and 2) development of a mechanism by the National Security Council to measure, track, and report on overall progress towards the goal of enhancing foreign partners' ability to prevent terrorist travel overseas. Figures, tables, and appendixes