Chertoff: European terrorists trying to enter US

WASHINGTON - European terrorists are trying to enter the United States with European Union passports, and there is no guarantee officials will catch them every time, Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff said Thursday.

As I know you all know, under a law passed by the U.S. Congress last year at the urging of the President, we are pursuing two important goals with respect to the visa waiver program -- expanding the program to include additional countries which are strong allies and friends of the United States, and at the same time enhancing the security features of the visa waiver program for all countries who participate in the program.

Under the law passed by Congress, all existing or aspiring visa waiver programmers are required to carry out the kinds of cooperative elements that are laid out in the agreement we've signed and the interim declaration we've signed today. And today's declaration's is an important step, but it's still only one step toward realizing these goals.

The interim declaration outlines multiple security enhancements, including required exchange of information on known or suspected terrorists, reporting of lost and stolen passports, developing an air marshal program and allowing our air marshals to operate on direct flights, and of course there are other requirements such as having secure passports and things of that sort.

I also want to emphasize that we're respectful of the fact that with regard to those issues that fall within the domain of the European Union, obviously we deal with the European Union on those matters. But we're also gratified that the European Union recognizes the need for bilateral arrangements on matters with a national competency, and particularly on the technical implementation of a lot of these measures.

Those matters that fall within national responsibilities will be obviously implemented with national authorities, and any that fall within EU responsibility will be dealt with through the EU authorities.

We want to continue to work collaboratively with our international partners as we enter into agreements with other new and aspiring VWP countries, and we very much look forward to the day when Bulgaria is able to achieve visa waiver status, meet all the requirements, and we welcome the first Bulgarian into the United States without a visa. That will be a very, very important milestone in the relationship between our countries.

And we also look forward to continuing to work with other nations, including others in Europe, to increase and expand our visa waiver program, but without compromising the security which benefits all of us.