U.S. Planning to Ease Rules on Passports, Official Says --NYT

[Skidmore]

Now how the heck is this going to square with the newly minted DHS panic about all those new Al Qaeda types from the Caribbean region who are trying to blow up NYC? I want someone to ask them Republic candidates about this just to see how they can square this system out of control with their need for a boogey man.



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http://www.nytimes.com/2007/06/08/us/08passport.html?_r=1&oref=slogin&pagewanted=print

June 8, 2007
U.S. Planning to Ease Rules on Passports, Official Says
By RALPH BLUMENTHAL
HOUSTON, June 7 — Responding to anguished travelers at risk of being grounded by a broken passport system, the government is expected to announce on Friday that it will ease its rules for summer travel in the Western Hemisphere, a Bush administration official said Thursday.

Under the revised procedures, proof that a traveler had applied for a passport not yet received would be enough for travelers returning from Canada, Mexico, Central and South America, the Caribbean and Bermuda to present through September, said the official, who insisted on anonymity because the policy had not been formally announced.

“But they should expect the likelihood of additional security,” the official said in Washington