VISAS VIPER: JUNE 2005 MONTHLY ACTIVITY REPORT

S E C R E T BUCHAREST 001518 SIPDIS VISAS DEPT FOR CA/VO/L/C AND INR/TIPOFF STATE PLEASE PASS TO NCTC WASHDC/TIG AND DSH/HQINT WASHDC E.O. 12958: DECL: 07/08/2015 TAGS: ASEC CMGT CVIS KVPR LE PINR PTER RO KANSOU TALAL MOHAMAD SUBJECT: VISAS VIPER: JUNE 2005 MONTHLY ACTIVITY REPORT REF: A. A) STATE 124726 ¶B. B) BUCHAREST 01341 ¶C. C) DONKEY BCH 000038Q00 ¶D. 15 JUNE 2005 ¶E. D) 2003 STATE 055649 Classified By: CONSUL GENERAL BRYAN DALTON FOR REASONS 1.5 B, C AND D ¶1. (U) Visas Viper ¶2. (U) Embassy Bucharest's Visas Viper Committee met on 28 June 2005. Consul General Bryan Dalton chaired the meeting. No new names were submitted to the committee at the meeting. Since May,s Visas Viper Report (Ref B),post submitted no additional names for consideration by the Department. After the 28 June meeting, the committee received a name for consideration by the Department (see below). ¶3. (U) KANSOU, Talal Mohamad; Male; Married; 20 August 1968; Mazeraa, Lebanon or El Mazraa, Lebanon or Beirut, Lebanon; Father,s name: Kansou, Mohammed; Mother,s name: Jbeily, Samirah; Passport data: Lebanese passport no. 0721319, issued 08 April 1993, expires 04 October 2007; Physical description: black hair, 180 cm, weight 110 kg; Current occupation: Business owner (restaurant). ¶4. (S) Post has uncorroborated information indicating that subject has connections to Lebanese Hizballah and may in fact have provided support to active Hizballah members in Romania. Subject has ongoing business connections with Lebanon. Further, the Romanian Ministry of Justice has implicated subject in drug trafficking. On 18 February 2005, the Romanian government rejected subject's request for permanent resident status in Romania. ¶5. (U) Subject was born in Lebanon, lived in Qatar with his family for several years in the late 1980s, and moved to Romania in 1991. He is a part-owner of a popular upscale Lebanese restaurant in Bucharest. From 1984-89, he had LPR status and was living in Orlando, Florida. He continued to maintain his LPR status through regular travel to and from the U.S. until early 2004. Because he has now been outside the U.S. for more than one year, his AmCit wife recently filed a new I-130 immigrant visa petition for him at post. ¶6. (U) Post submitted Visas Donkey (Ref C) on subject because it was interested in a DPT 00 hit that for some reason no longer shows up when doing a namecheck on this subject (but did show up a couple of months ago when the first namecheck was done, and is still in CLASS if you enter the name exactly as it appears in the hit). The hit post was interested in is: NAME: KANSOU, JALAL DOB: -- POB: LEBN REF SITE: DPT 00 REF DATE: 27-FEB-1997 UID: TSC 37255 REF COMMENT: NONE 32291 LONG COMMENTS: NONE 32291DOSVODPT19970228000352800 This hit differs from subject only by the first letter of the first name (J instead of T). Given the very close similarity between subject's name and DPOB and that of the hit, post is concerned in general that the most recent revision of the namecheck algorithm may prevent applicable hits from showing up during a CLASS namecheck. Post requested that the Department review the hit. ¶7. (U) This fulfills Embassy Bucharest's Visas Viper reporting requirement for the month of June 2005. TAPLIN