Bush Orders Clampdown on Flights to US

[babylonsister]

Bush Orders Clampdown on Flights to US
by Ian Traynor


The US administration is pressing the 27 governments of the European Union to sign up for a range of new security measures for transatlantic travel, including allowing armed guards on all flights from Europe to America by US airlines.0211 05

The demand to put armed air marshals on to the flights is part of a travel clampdown by the Bush administration that officials in Brussels described as “blackmail” and “troublesome”, and could see west Europeans and Britons required to have US visas if their governments balk at Washington’s requirements.

According to a US document being circulated for signature in European capitals, EU states would also need to supply personal data on all air passengers overflying but not landing in the US in order to gain or retain visa-free travel to America, senior EU officials said.

And within months the US department of homeland security is to impose a new permit system for Europeans flying to the US, compelling all travellers to apply online for permission to enter the country before booking or buying a ticket, a procedure that will take several days.

The data from the US’s new electronic transport authorisation system is to be combined with extensive personal passenger details already being provided by EU countries to the US for the “profiling” of potential terrorists and assessment of other security risks.

Washington is also asking European airlines to provide personal data on non-travellers - for example family members - who are allowed beyond departure barriers to help elderly, young or ill passengers to board aircraft flying to America, a demand the airlines reject as “absurd”.

more...

http://www.commondreams.org/archive/2008/02/11/6989/

[IsItJustMe]

1. I would say that international travel is going to get quite cumbersome for American in the future.

You are going to need a passport, I think by June, to even travel to mexico, Caribbeans, bahamas, and all of the other numerous countries that surround us.

Not feeling so free now a days.

[blondeatlast]

20. Passports are already required for Mexico... nt

[icnorth]

2. Dense as a black hole, that boy...

[Elspeth]

3. Between this, the passports to Canada and the electronic fence around Mexico...

Do you get the idea we're being "locked in"?

[babylonsister]

4. I just hope this disaster of a prez is long gone before any more of his

brilliant 'ideas' get implemented. :scared:

[InkAddict]

5. Thank goodness time flies the older one gets -- or so they say? eom

[Hekate]

10. Yes. And the directives were all so much more evocative in the original German.

x(

Hekate

[Hekate]

11. self delete-- very buggy DU today

[peacetalksforall]

6. Peaceful tourism -the fastest way of allowing all the little people to make a

little money - and it's not possible in this baron/corporation/politicsl/reverend/media world delivered to us by Republicans and some Democrats and their partners in other countries.

Blessed be the children for they shall interit ....what?

[lpbk2713]

7. I'm glad there's only eleven more months of this idiot's regime.

I hope I can make it. It's been a long seven years.

[Old_Growth]

8. Going from a police state

to a police world.

[Der Blaue Engel]

9. I remember when Europeans were rolling their eyes at us for objecting

to the new security measures a few years back, saying things like, "The REST of the world has been dealing with terrorism for years, we all expect this kind of tight security. Welcome to reality, you sheltered shits." (Okay, maybe they didn't use those exact words, but that's how I heard it. :D)

Guess they didn't truly appreciate what those initial steps were paving the way for. That's okay. Neither did/do many Americans. :(

[defendandprotect]

12. The White House is MAD . . . INSANE . . .

Expect much more insanity and more fires as we near the 2008 elections ---

and don't expect anything but a steal when we get there ---

and perhaps even more than that !!!

Remember Nixon's HUSTON PLAN to cancel the 1972 election ---

[HCE SuiGeneris]

13. WTF? Aren't we isolated enough here?

The King is Mad, and the nation barrels headlong into the abyss...

[Warren DeMontague]

14. Those Frenchies might be trying to smuggle some Universal Health Care in here...

Can't have that!

[tsuki]

15. What is this going to do to the economy? International conferences

fill a lot of restaurants and hotels, not to mention the huge convention center, shops, etc. It is a huge business.

[ananda]

16. Is this sposed to make us more safer f rom terrah?

It definitely hurts those areas that need
foreign travel, business, and tourism.

[Hart2008]

17. The greater threat is from uninspected cargo entering our ports.

But it is bad for business to clamp down on this. So instead we violate everyone's civil rights.

:eyes:

[lpbk2713]

19. And BushCo wanted to turn over control of our ports to Dubai.

But of course that was different.

There was lots of money to be made there.

:sarcasm:

[GliderGuider]

18. this surprises me

I'd have thought that Disney(R) Corp(TM) wouldn't allow such a thing. This will affect attendance at Disney(R) World(TM) and Disney(R) Land(TM).

I wonder what they're getting in exchange.
:hide: