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WASHINGTON – The U.S. polity has prevented more than 350 grouping suspected of ties to al-Qaida and another terrorist groups from departure U.S.-bound advertizement flights since the end of 2009, The Associated Press has learned.

The tighter land rules — imposed after the attempted onslaught of an airliner on Christmastime 2009 — expose a land danger that persisted for more than heptad years after the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks.

Until then, even as advertizement passengers were unnatural to vanish their shoes, bounds the amount of shampoo in their carry-on luggage and withstand touching downs, hundreds of foreigners with famous or suspected ties to coercion passed finished land and successfully flew to the United States each year, U.S. officials told the AP. The polity said these foreigners typically told Customs officers they were air to the U.S. for lawful reasons much as vacations or business.

Security practices changed after an admitted al-Qaida functioning from Nigeria was accused of trying to blow himself up on a grace to Detroit on Christmastime 2009. Until then, airlines exclusive kept passengers soured U.S.-bound planes if they were on the no-fly list, a itemize of grouping thoughtful a danger to aviation.

Now before an planetary grace leaves for the U.S., the polity checks passengers against a large check itemize that includes al-Qaida financiers and grouping who attended upbringing camps but aren't thoughtful threats to planes. The polity was checking this itemize before, but exclusive after the grace was en route. If someone on the grace was on the check list, the mortal would be questioned and probable refused to enter the land after the form landed.

"As terrorists ready adapting and changing their approach, so staleness we," Sen. Jay Rockefeller, D-W.Va., told the AP. During a senate hearing presently after the attempted Christmastime attack, philanthropist raised concerns most divisions among the assorted check lists.

Hundreds of grouping linked to al-Qaida, Hamas, Lashkar-e-Taiba and another imp groups hit been kept soured airplanes under the new rules. They include what U.S. officials described as a member of a terrorist methodicalness who received weapons training, recruited others, fought against dweller personnel and had a ticket to control to the U.S. Another traveler prevented from departure a U.S.-bound grace was a member of a terrorist methodicalness whom info officials conceive had purchased equipment for terrorism.

A ordinal case, in January, involved a Jordanian Negro booked from Amman, Jordan, to Chicago, who was thoughtful a danger to domestic security, according to a accumulation enforcement official. The State Department had already revoked his visa. He was on the terrorist check itemize but not the no-fly list. He was not thoughtful a danger to aviation.

After U.S. Customs and Border Protection officers performed the now-routine check, the Negro was kept soured the flight. Before the change, he would hit arrived in Chicago, where he would hit probable been stopped at customs, questioned and dispatched home.

The accumulation enforcement authorised and another U.S. officials insisted on obscurity to discuss huffy land issues. They would not wage the obloquy of the grouping suspected of imp ties or whatever key details most the cases for land reasons.

"We've gotten better with our techniques and applying them predeparture, ensuring we're hunting at as broad a land of possibleness venture as possible," said Kevin McAleenan, deputy supporter commissioner of field dealings at Customs and Border Protection.

CBP said the notch in U.S. land practices wasn't obvious until after the attempted Christmastime attack. Officials were prepared to discourse the accused bomber when he landed in Detroit — but that overturned out to be too late.

"We had the skill set, the systems and the techniques, and we needed to move backwards in time," McAleenan said.

Since the Sept. 11 attacks, the imp check itemize and its derivative, the no-fly list, became whatever of the government's best-known counterterrorism tools. They also became whatever of the most criticized, as clear travelers were inconvenienced when they were incorrect for coercion suspects. Outrage unnatural the polity to minify the lists, which airlines patterned before allowing grouping to fly.

After the attempted Christmastime attack, the info accord took a fireman countenance at the obloquy on the imp check itemize and ordered new standards for adding names. The check itemize and no-fly itemize are constantly reviewed, and obloquy are additional and distant each day. There are most 30,000 grouping on the no-fly itemize and a companion itemize for grouping who staleness obtain extra display at airports, a counterterrorism authorised told the AP.

The more expansive imp check itemize includes most 450,000 obloquy of grouping the U.S. info accord believes are, or could be, a danger to domestic land because of terrorist ties. Some of the grouping on the check itemize are still existence investigated, and there is not enough aggregation for the polity to collar them.

The new policy has not overturned the 450,000-person imp check itemize into the no-fly list. Simply existence on the imp check itemize does not mean a mortal won't be allowed to enter the U.S., McAleenan said. When CBP reviews traveller lists and matches someone on the imp check list, CBP module analyse aggregation acquirable on the mortal before it recommends to the line whether the mortal crapper commission the plane, McAleenan said. In most cases, if CBP recommends against allowing the traveller to board, it's because the mortal would be overturned away upon arrival exclusive the United States due to land concerns.

Most grouping on the check itemize are foreigners. About 6,000 are U.S. citizens.

American citizens who are not thoughtful threats to travel but are on the imp check itemize cannot automatically be prevented from air to the U.S.

Customs officers module probable discourse a U.S. citizen who is on the imp check itemize when he or she comes into the country. But without grounds for arrest, the officers staleness permit them arrive. This also applies to a U.S. citizen who is on the no-fly itemize but who walks or drives backwards into the U.S. finished land-border crossings.

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