Topeka ? In the year after the Sept. 11 attacks, the Kansas Bureau of Investigation arrested 40 people, mainly from the Middle East, for visa violations, its director said.

KBI Director Larry Welch said his agency also handled 317 terrorist-related calls and checked into 59 anthrax scares, all which proved unfounded.

“I continue in my belief that the primary lesson learned has been that, perhaps, if we would keep better track of our foreign visitors, we could better protect our own citizens,” Welch said.

“And I assure you that we remain mindful that, sometimes, there’s a delicate balance between individual civil liberties and national security,” he added.

Welch’s comments were included in a letter to legislators detailing what the KBI did in the months after the attacks.

In an interview, Welch said 90 percent of the agency’s counterterrorism work was at the request of federal officials because resources were strained. The KBI is the investigative arm of the state Attorney General’s Office.

Welch also said his letter, sent Wednesday, wasn’t suggesting that Kansans should be fearful of foreigners.

“It’s important we do what other nations in the world do,” he said. “There are not very many places where you can cross their territorial lines and wander as you please without going through some bureaucratic process.”

Welch said the 40 people arrested mostly had student visas but weren’t going to school. Others had violated their business or visitor visas. The cases were turned over to the Immigration and Naturalization Service.

“If somebody is coming to our state under a student visa, they ought to attend a Kansas college, and if they don’t, their status needs to be re-evaluated,” he said.

Welch said the KBI also conducted volunteer interviews with 21 Middle Eastern men living in Kansas on nonimmigrant visas. They were among 5,000 who federal authorities wanted to question throughout the nation shortly after the attacks.

“All were here legally, and none were arrested or detained,” Welch said, adding interview reports were forwarded to federal officials.

Of the 317 terrorist-related calls, information from 168 was forwarded to the FBI. Most calls came within the first two months of the attacks and tapered off after that.

“None of them led to anything of significance that I am aware of,” Welch said.

He said calls to law enforcement agencies throughout the state came mainly from concerned citizens.

“Some would call and say so and so is acting funny; you need to look at so and so,” Welch said. “We would evaluate them and go out and check. If we thought there was some merit we would pass them on to the FBI.”

After the attacks came the nationwide anthrax scare, which generated calls from around the state.

Welch said what was feared to be anthrax powder turned out to be such things as corn meal or talcum powder. He said in some cases, there were empty envelopes with “anthrax” written on them.

In one case, white powder leaking from a mailed package turned out not to be anthrax, but cocaine.

“There were a few that were outright hoaxes,” he said. “There were some where people were just concerned. It was time consuming, but somebody had to do it.”

In his letter, Welch also told lawmakers that the KBI had been working with other state agencies and the Kansas Bioterrorism Coordinating Council to protect agriculture and livestock in the state.

Two weeks ago, Graves trimmed $41 million in planned spending from the $4.46 billion state budget because revenues aren’t living up to expectations.

For the KBI, that meant $285,000 sliced from its $12.9 million budget.

Welch said while the agency is faced with budget cuts, the extra costs in assisting federal officials weren’t an issue.

“Given the circumstances of Sept. 11, shame on me if I were to say ‘no’ if they called on us,” Welch said. “It hasn’t financially killed us. Our budget problems didn’t come from the Sept. 11 aftermath.”