Prepared by: Jody Woods Index:

Ste: 8/8/02 DOC Library: Goal 2

Bob Code: 320087 DOC Number: Type document number here

John Arriza, INR-TIPOFF, 8/8/02

Reviewed by: Type reviewer name here

Review Date: Type review date here

Record of Interview
Purpose We met with John Arriza, director of the Intelligence and Research
Bureau's TIPOFF program.

Contact Method In person

Contact Place State Department

Contact Date August 8, 2002

Participants State INK

John Arriza

GAP
Jody Woods, Senior Analyst
Kate Brentzel, Analyst
Gabrielle Anderson, Analyst

Documentation Note Mr. Arriza provided us with a power point presentation of the proposed
organization of the new TIPOFF program.

Mr. Arizza stated that after contacting the Department of Homeland

TIPOFF Plans to Security, White House staff now want to consolidate all watch list
Increase Staff databases under an enhanced TIPOFF program. Mr. Arizza stated that the
planning for this enhanced program is preliminary, but as currently
envisioned it would be run out of State INR, have a staff of 85 people
(including 10 from other agencies), and an annual budget of $24 million
over the next 5 years. In addition to remaining an INR entity, the new
program would maintain its current relationship with Consular Affairs and
State would not be required to pay costs beyond what it already pays. The
new program would both give and receive information from State
Department, NSA, DIA, FBI, CIA, INS, Customs, U.S. Secret Service, FAA,
TSA, Coast Guard, Canadian intelligence, Australian intelligence, FTTTF,
and other members of the law enforcement community.

Currently the TIPOFF program receives about $1.4 million a year in

machine-readable visa funds and received an additional $3.1 million in the
wake of September 11th. TIPOFF has increased its staff from 9 who
worked there on 9/11, to 14 today.

Pagel Record of Interview

 by: Jody Woods Index:
Jte: 8/8/02 DOC Library:
'Job Code: 320087 DOC Number:

Results of TIPOFF J12(a)3(b).jniosp that rin not, are issiipHjfTp stated thpi'P
?\
f Mr. Arriza stated that not all TIPOFF true hits result in visa denials under

True Hits reasons^why the hit may be judged to have "insufficientevidence" leading
to a finding of ineligibility, including:

• the agency who provided the information to back up the hit no longer
considers the person a threat,

• the information in the hit is bogus,

• the agency who provided the information wants to let in the

individual for operational reasons, or

• the information does not meet the threshold for "reason to believe"
the individual seeks to commit an act of terrorism or is a member of a
terrorist organization.

Mr. Arizza said that there are certain taglines in a cable's heading that will
Cable Routing to route it to the TIPOFF office. Among these are KVER, ASEC and PTER.
TIPOFF However, cables are also routed to TIPOFF if they contain certain
keywords that have been programmed in. Mr. Arizza said that one reason
why he likes the Visa Viper channel is that his office only needs the word
"viper" to be in the cable once in order to get it.

Mr. Arizza also mentioned that he had spoken with investigators

regarding his office's receipt of a cable on August 23-24,2001. He noted
that this cable, like all cables that come into TIPOFF, received a
timestamp when it got to TIPOFF, when it was entered into CLASS, and
when Mr. Arizza himself hand-carried it over to CA. Mr. Arizza noted that
this cable contained the names of four suspicious individuals, two of
whom (Nawaf al Hazmi and Khalid al Midhar) turned out to be 9/11
hyackers. However, they were not entered into TIPOFF until late August
2001, just after the receipt of the cable containing their names. Mr. Arizza
stated that, as Mary Ryan herself had already testified, the names of these
two hyackers were not in CLASS at the time they applied for their visas.

Page 2 Record of Interview