Right now I am way more concerned with the way US citizens are being
treated just trying to get on an airplane in a US airport. I had to go
to Chicago last Tuesday. In front of me in the line was a 70+ couple
and a family with 3 kids under 10 headed for Orlando. Security made the
kids take off their shoes and ripped their back packs apart
checking for bombs and the old lady spent 10 minutes getting all
but strip searched. Meanwhile an obvious middle eastern guy complete
with long black beard and head scarf in the next line was waved on through.
These Home Land "Security" people have got to start getting real. They
need to stop wasting their time and ours and go back to profiling.
Oops! That would be politically incorrect. But it would sure save one
hell of a lot of time and money and actually make things more secure and
that won't happen until Tom Ridge gets his head out of Ashcroft's butt
and looks around.
I have very little good to say about Israeli policy but at the Tel Aviv
airport, probably the most threatened airport in the world, I was less
hassled and felt more secure than I have in any American airport.
John wrote:
"WASHINGTON -- In a surprise move, the United States
will begin fingerprinting and photographing millions
of visitors from allied European and Pacific nations
who now are exempt from such procedures, Homeland
Security Department officials said Friday........
Since January, travelers from most foreign countries
have had their digital photographs and fingerprints
checked against U.S. security data bases. But 27
so-called “visa waiver” countries -- whose citizens do
not have to obtain advance permission for most short
visits to the United States -- have been exempted.
That will no longer be the case after Sept. 30,
Homeland Security Under Secretary Asa Hutchinson
said. Hutchinson, who oversees border and transportation
protection, said the decision to end the exemption would
close what many people in the government consider to be
a loophole in screening, with minimum inconvenience for
arriving visitors........"
http://www.detnews.com/2004/nation/0...ion-111392.htm
Interesting how this will be implemented after the summer
tourist season, the Homeland Security Department must have
"solid" intelligence to be sure that terrorists don't like
traveling in busy times..
John
--
Glenn Ashmore
I'm building a 45' cutter in strip/composite. Watch my progress (or lack
there of) at:
http://www.rutuonline.com
Shameless Commercial Division:
http://www.spade-anchor-us.com