T5 B64 Gao Visa Docs 2 Of 6 Fdr- 3-11-03 Gao Interview W Visa Office Coordination Division Re Condor Revocations 587

Prepared by: Kate Brentzel Date Prepared: March 17, 2003 Reviewed by: Type reviewer name here

Index: Type bundle index here DOC Number: 846902 DOC Library: Type library name here Job Code:320172

Record of Interview Title Purpose Contact Method Contact Place Contact Date Participants

Jim Pritchett, Visa Office, Coordination Division To discuss with Mr. Pritchett In-person interview State Department Columbia Plaza March 11, 2003 State: Jim Pritchett GAO: K. Brentzel, J. Jennings, J. McCloskey

Comments/Remarks: We met with Jim Pritchett to determine whether he had additional information on how the Condor revocations were handled in July 2002. We had previously talked with Richard Beer, Mr. Pritchett's supervisor, and he told us that Mr. Pritchett might know more specific events surrounding the Condor revocations. We asked Mr. Pritchett to recollect for us when the Foreign Terrorist Tracking Taskforce (FTTTF) notified the Coordination Division about Condor cases. Mr. Pritchett recollected that the FTTTF first notified State in late May 2002, that it was recommending that certain individuals should not receive visas. He recalled that there was a dispute between State and the Justice Department over whether the FTTTF should provide information as to whyit was recommending these individuals not receive a visa. He said that eventually, State decided that they would not wait any longer to receive the derogatory information from the taskforce. He said that it was probably George Lannon who made the "front office" decision to act on FTTTF's recommendation. The Visa Office then amassed a large group of staff together to process the relevant cases. They pulled all the Consular Consolidated Database (CCD) records to see if visas had already been issued to the people that FTTTF was recommending should not receive a visa. In cases in which they discovered that a visa had already been issued, State revoked the visas. We asked Mr. Pritchett if he had saved the emails from the FTTTF recommending that certain individuals not receive a visa. He said that he had saved those emails for some time but that his computer system had been changed at some point and that he lost those emails. He said that he would try to get State's computer systems staff to retrieve these emails for us. We also asked him when he received emails from the FTTTF that effectively cleared people from the list. He said that those emails had been received more recently, in the fall of 2002, but that he also did not think they had been saved when his computer system changed and that he would see if the computer staff could retrieve them for us. We asked Mr. Pritchett about emails he'd received from posts regarding their efforts to contact the individuals whose visas had been revoked. He said he'd heard from posts that they were unable to contact approximately 5-10 people and that the posts would then email Margaret Cooperman at the FTTTF to let her know that the person with the revoked visa could not be contacted (Ms.

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Record of Interview

Prepared by: Kate Brentzel Date Prepared: March 17, 2003 Reviewed by: Type reviewer name here

Index: Type bundle index here DOC Number: 846902 DOC Library: Type library name here Job Code:320172

Cooperman was, until February 2003, the State liaison at the taskforce. When she left, she was not replaced by another State liaison).

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Record of Interview