VZCZCXRO6536
RR RUEHMA RUEHPA
DE RUEHDK #2417/01 3541036
ZNR UUUUU ZZH
R 201036Z DEC 07
FM AMEMBASSY DAKAR
TO RUEHC/SECSTATE WASHDC 9783
INFO RUEHZK/ECOWAS COLLECTIVE
RUEHFR/AMEMBASSY PARIS 1092
RUEHMD/AMEMBASSY MADRID 0167
RUEHRO/AMEMBASSY ROME 0718

UNCLAS SECTION 01 OF 02 DAKAR 002417 
 
SIPDIS 
 
SIPDIS 
SENSITIVE 
 
E.O. 12958: N/A 
TAGS: CVIS KCRM KFRD XY SG GA
SUBJECT: IDENT REVIEW RAISES CONCERNS ABOUT SENEGALESE PASSPORT 
APPLICATION SECURITY 
 
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SUMMARY 
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¶1. (U) Embassy Dakar recently reviewed the cases of refused 
Non-Immigrant Visa (NIV) applicants whose IDENT hits revealed mala 
fide identity changes.  This review identified several instances 
when legitimate Senegalese documents were obtained using fraudulent 
information.  Two patterns of identity change are especially 
apparent: refused applicants from Banjul have changed their identity 
and reapplied - without luck - in Dakar as Senegalese applicants, 
and a number of Senegalese applied for asylum or to adjust status in 
the U.S. using a different identity than in their visa applications. 
 This cable aims to share our findings and these trends. 
 
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THE SENEGAMBIANS 
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¶2. (SBU) A review of IDENT and Facial Recognition (FR) "hits" from 
the last two years shows at least seven applicants with Senegalese 
passports who were previously refused under Gambian identities.  Of 
these, five of the applicants were women, and the alleged age of all 
seven applicants ranges from 25 to 38 years.  In Dakar the 
applicants spoke either Wolof - a local language common to both 
countries - or insisted on interviewing in English.  (Few 
Senegalese, even students with good English, request to interview in 
English.)  Interestingly, most of the applicants changed their names 
only slightly, from the Gambian English to the Senegalese French 
spelling of the same family name.  For instance, Gambian "Rohey 
Gibba" became Senegalese "Rokhayatou Djiba," and "Alassan Demba Joll 
Ceesay" (DPOB: 15-Aug-1970, Banjul) became Alassane Demba Diol (DOB: 
10-Aug-1970, Pikine, Senegal). 
 
¶3. (SBU) In the latter case, the applicant went to creative - if 
futile - lengths to explain the fingerprint match, returning to the 
consulate with a man he claimed was his fraternal twin.   They 
insisted that their mother had given birth to Mr. Diol in Pikine, a 
Dakar suburb, making him a Senegalese citizen, before she traveled 
many hours overland to The Gambia to give birth to his twin brother, 
Alassan Ceesay, in Banjul five days later. 
 
-------------------------------- 
THE SENEGALESE IDENTITY CHANGERS 
-------------------------------- 
 
¶4. (SBU) While at least seven applicants changed from Gambian to 
Senegalese, there are only four NIV applicants we know of with 
Senegalese passports under two different identities.  None of these 
applicants applied with compelling stories under either identity, 
and the officers refused the applicants under section 214(b) before 
receiving the IDENT results.  Only one applicant retained a similar 
name, but changed his date of birth by ten years.  Others changed 
their biographical information dramatically.  For example, Fatou 
Diouf (DOB: 20-Jan-1982) became Diariatou Sakho (DOB: 19-Sep-1984). 
Three of the four applicants actually changed their date of birth to 
make them as much as ten years younger in their second application - 
something which may reveal misguided "wisdom on the street" of how 
to improve one's chances on the visa line. 
 
-------------------------------------- 
THE ASYLUM SEEKERS AND STATUS CHANGERS 
-------------------------------------- 
 
¶5. (SBU) IDENT also exposed at least eight Senegalese (all men) who 
applied for asylum or to change status in the United States using 
one name and/or date of birth while consistently using a different 
identity in all other visa applications In these cases, no CCD 
record exists for the names and dates of birth provided to the 
Citizenship and Immigration Services officer.  In their post-asylum 
claim NIV interviews, Consular Officers' notes indicate some of 
these applicants also insisted on interviews in English, and none of 
them admitted to prolonged stays in their NIV interviews.  The 
timing of the IDENT hits indicates that these individuals filed new 
visa applications almost as soon as they returned to Senegal.  The 
fastest re-application we know of is Ibrahima Taha (DOB: 
03-Jan-1978) who told us on June 26, 2006 that he was going to buy 
goods in the U.S. and had only been there once, in 2001.  In this 
and a later interview in 2007, the officers noted that he did not 
appear to be a legitimate trader and appeared evasive.  After the 
interview, IDENT revealed that he had applied for CIS services just 
six weeks earlier on May 7, 2006 as Ousmane Sangare (DOB: 
23-Dec-1965). 
 
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THE OTHERS 
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DAKAR 00002417  002 OF 002 
 
 
¶6. (U) IDENT shows other individuals with Senegalese passports who 
were previously refused as Guinean, Mauritanian, or Tunisian NIV 
applicants.  We also found two cases of recent Visa 92 (asylee 
follow-to-join) applicants (one applying as a Gambian and one as a 
Senegalese) in their early thirties who changed their identities 
after being refused a diversity visa and an NIV, respectively. 
(Before 207, Visa 92 applicants were not fingerprinted or ru 
through FR.  Now that they are processed in theNIV software, we 
anticipate finding further FR o IDENT matches and identity 
changes.) 
 
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Comment 
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¶7. (SBU) Despite the effortsthese applicants made to change their 
identity, hey did not, apparently, invest the same time and ffort 
in polishing their stories - all but one wre refused 214(b) upon 
the initial interview, andin several cases the interviewing officer 
noted fundamental inconsistencies in the applicant's story or 
excessively nervous behavior on the applicant's part.  Nor did they 
attempt to dramatically change the "qualifications" -- i.e., 
economic and social profiles - which had earned them a refusal in 
their original identity. This unpolished approach to fraud leads us 
to believe that these cases do not represent the efforts of 
organized or sophisticated groups. 
 
¶8. (SBU) We are surprised at the high incidence of Gambians 
perpetrating identity fraud here - 10 of our 18 IDENT cases involved 
an applicant holding at least one Gambian passport, despite  the 
fact that Gambians account for less than one percent of our NIV 
applicants.  As the processing post for Gambian immigrant visa 
applicants, we have long known that Gambian civil documents are 
easily faked or fraudulently obtained.  The IDENT results reviewed 
here have heightened our awareness that Senegal, as well, has 
exploitable weaknesses in the production of its passports or 
"founding" identity documents.  Post raised the issue of 
vulnerabilities in the Senegalese passport application process with 
Ministry of Interior officials in the summer of 2006, when the first 
of these cases came to our attention.  We will seek future 
opportunities to reiterate the message. 
 
PIAZZA