"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