The government is keeping track of possible entry into the country by individuals suspected of involvement in international terrorism and is planning to set up biometric identification systems to strengthen security at its borders, National Immigration Agency Director-General Hsieh Li-kung (謝立功) said yesterday.
Hsieh made the remarks while fielding questions from Democratic Progressive Party Legislator Chen Ou-po (陳歐珀) at a meeting of the Foreign Affairs and National Defense Committee at the legislature in Taipei.
The agency has access to a list of suspected terrorists and maintains regular contacts with its counterparts in other countries, Hsieh said.
Hsieh said that a biometric identification system for foreigners would be installed at Kaohsiung International Airport in December in a pilot project for a plan to have the facility set up in all airports in the country. The agency has asked for NT$180 million (US$6 million) for the project, he said.
Since March 2011, the e-Gate system, which utilizes biometric identification technology to identify people through fingerprints and facial features, has been operating in several major airports. The system applies only to Republic of China passports holders and those holding permanent residence permits.
Separately, National Security Bureau Deputy Director-General Wang Teh-lin (王德麟) said the Presidential Office is capable of intercepting any letter containing toxic substances that is addressed to President Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九).
Wang made the remarks following reports that letters addressed to US President Barack Obama and other US officials have recently tested positive for the poison ricin.
Wang said the Presidential Office has a unit charged with handling such matters.
“All correspondence to the Presidential Office has to pass security tests in accordance with the regulations,” Wang said in response to media queries before attending a meeting of the Judiciary and Organic Laws and Statutes Committee meeting at the legislature discussing strengthening anti-terrorism measures.
The bureau added that the government, in the wake of the Boston Marathon bombing on Monday, would step up its counterterrorism measures for the 2017 Universiade in Taipei.
Saying that international sports events and activities are easy targets for terrorists, Wang added the bureau would work closely with the Cabinet and the Taipei City Government to tighten security for the Universiade and ensure that the event proceeds safely and peacefully.
So far, the bureau has not detected any recruitment activities in Taiwan involving foreign extremist organizations, nor are there cases in which Taiwanese have received terrorist training.
However, there have been several terror hoaxes, including a 2011 e-mail threat, claiming to be from the US white supremacist group Aryan Nations, to carry out a chemical attack on Taipei 101, Wang said.
The failed explosive devices placed on a high-speed train and outside a legislator’s office on Friday last week are not considered attempts at terrorism, given that the suspects did not have any contact with or received training from any extremist organization, he said.
Deputy Minister of Transportation and Communications Chen Chwen-jinq (陳純敬), in response to criticism that the evacuation of the train on Friday was too slow, said the ministry would review evacuation measures for the nation’s railway systems and submit a report on the matter within a month.
Minister of Justice Tseng Yung-fu (曾勇夫) added that his ministry would draft a counterterrorism law within three months.
‘ABUSE OF POWER’: Lee Chun-yi allegedly used a Control Yuan vehicle to transport his dog to a pet grooming salon and take his wife to restaurants, media reports said Control Yuan Secretary-General Lee Chun-yi (李俊俋) resigned on Sunday night, admitting that he had misused a government vehicle, as reported by the media. Control Yuan Vice President Lee Hung-chun (李鴻鈞) yesterday apologized to the public over the issue. The watchdog body would follow up on similar accusations made by the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) and would investigate the alleged misuse of government vehicles by three other Control Yuan members: Su Li-chiung (蘇麗瓊), Lin Yu-jung (林郁容) and Wang Jung-chang (王榮璋), Lee Hung-chun said. Lee Chun-yi in a statement apologized for using a Control Yuan vehicle to transport his dog to a
Taiwan yesterday denied Chinese allegations that its military was behind a cyberattack on a technology company in Guangzhou, after city authorities issued warrants for 20 suspects. The Guangzhou Municipal Public Security Bureau earlier yesterday issued warrants for 20 people it identified as members of the Information, Communications and Electronic Force Command (ICEFCOM). The bureau alleged they were behind a May 20 cyberattack targeting the backend system of a self-service facility at the company. “ICEFCOM, under Taiwan’s ruling Democratic Progressive Party, directed the illegal attack,” the warrant says. The bureau placed a bounty of 10,000 yuan (US$1,392) on each of the 20 people named in
INDO-PACIFIC REGION: Royal Navy ships exercise the right of freedom of navigation, including in the Taiwan Strait and South China Sea, the UK’s Tony Radakin told a summit Freedom of navigation in the Indo-Pacific region is as important as it is in the English Channel, British Chief of the Defence Staff Admiral Tony Radakin said at a summit in Singapore on Saturday. The remark came as the British Royal Navy’s flagship aircraft carrier, the HMS Prince of Wales, is on an eight-month deployment to the Indo-Pacific region as head of an international carrier strike group. “Upholding the UN Convention on the Law of the Sea, and with it, the principles of the freedom of navigation, in this part of the world matters to us just as it matters in the
The High Court yesterday found a New Taipei City woman guilty of charges related to helping Beijing secure surrender agreements from military service members. Lee Huei-hsin (李慧馨) was sentenced to six years and eight months in prison for breaching the National Security Act (國家安全法), making illegal compacts with government employees and bribery, the court said. The verdict is final. Lee, the manager of a temple in the city’s Lujhou District (蘆洲), was accused of arranging for eight service members to make surrender pledges to the Chinese People’s Liberation Army in exchange for money, the court said. The pledges, which required them to provide identification
RSS