Scary

This isn't exactly comforing:

Nearly 10,000 foreigners from states sponsoring terrorism have obtained permanent residency in the United States in the past seven years, congressional investigators say.

The GAO focused on the issue after the State Department inspector general pointed to the risk in allowing foreigners from countries designated as state sponsors of terrorism to obtain visas under the special diversity visa program.

The State Department IG recommended that the Bureau of Consular Affairs propose changes that would bar from the diversity visa program aliens from states that sponsor terrorism.

The bureau agreed with the recommendation in principle, but was concerned about the effect of permanently barring aliens who may be fleeing oppressive regimes of states that sponsor terrorism.

[. . .]

The GAO report cited a 2002 cable from the embassy in Dhaka in Bangladesh highlighting the ease with which people can obtain genuine identity documents in any assumed identity, including passports.

This, said the cable, creates an open door that would enable terrorists wishing to enter the Untied States to gain legal status.

The State Department has taken steps to strengthen the security of the diversity visa program, but the GAO said the department does not have a strategy to address the pervasive fraud reported by consular officers at some posts.

Why should a terrorist try to sneak in the back door across the border if the front door is wide open? I can understand wanting to help people who may be fleeing from oppressive regimes, but if we don't have a strategy for dealing with fraud that happens "with ease," these bureucratic idiots are being suicidally stupid.