NEWS: US fingerprints more travellers

Visitors to the US who are not required to have a visa will be fingerprinted and photographed from Thursday. It applies to 27 nations which have so far escaped the new security controls. These nations include several European nations, Australia, New Zealand and Japan.



Less than a minutes seems like a small price to pay for the saftey and well being or others and yourself. The screenings are in place at 115 major airports and 14 seaports. By the end of next year, all US border crossings will be carrying out the new checks.

From October next year, all new passports issued in the 27 countries on the visa waiver programme must have a biometric passport, which will contain a bar code and a digital photo. These countries include: Andorra, Austria, Australia, Belgium, Brunei, Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, Iceland, Ireland, Italy, Japan, Liechtenstein, Luxembourg, Monaco, Netherlands, New Zealand, Norway, Portugal, San Marino, Singapore, Slovenia, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, and the UK

Human rights group Privacy International says that this is a negative thing, and that the technology being used is unsafe. They go on to comment that this is a "slap in the face" for countries who thought they were friends of the US. Travellers would have no rights under US law "when falsely accused and deported", they added.

There's nothing wrong with fingerprinting people and taking there picture when they come into the country.

I wouldn't mind doing that, but then again I have nothing to hide.
Just don't think it is right to end up in a data base, with photo and prints when I am not a criminal or terrorist. Welcome to a new collection point for the NWO. Hey lets just fingerprint and photograph everyone in the world. Gonna happen sooner or later.

[edit on 30-9-2004 by valkeryie]

Way to go america... your economy is struggling already so lets severely reduce income from tourism and finally alienate the rest of the world???

I can't see how this is going to help reduce terrorism in any way it's just going to hurt your tourist industry severely, it's just a knee jerk reaction it's a damn big country to hide in if you want.

My personal feeling is that every country this impacts should fingerprint and photo every single american (Just them alone) that visit their country hey let's introduce strip searches as well!!

Even better lets make them all wear a big badge as well while they are here, something like a Star of David perhaps??(Apologies for any offence that may cause any members of Jewish community that read this, but hopefully you understand the point i'm trying to make. I'm not a big fan of the holocaust either. )

The big issue here isthat it is an invasion of civil liberties, instead of wasting money on this pointless exercise try looking for the real terrorists that massacre people in the name of god and freedom (And more importantly OIL....ahem) You may find them closer to home than you think, try a in big White House??

Sorry for the rant
Real questions
will this data be deleted when you finish your visit? I doubt it.
Is the Biometric data on existing passports logged and stored? Probably .(See above question about deletion)
How would Americans (The land of the free?) feel about being subjected to this treatment every time they travelled?
Following on from the above if you want it to be effective why not track every movement of every person in the country or also i said it jokingly above; tattoo their forehead 'potential terrorist' for every visitor, it all amounts to the same.

Ahhh utopia at last, Mr G Orwell was only off by 20 years..............................

I hate to say it but America is an awful mess at the moment i don't claim the UK to be much better but we aren't on the same deathslide you appear to be. I feel very sorry for you and hope you can recover for the sake of the decent majority of your citizens instead of the corrupt few lining their pockets in people's misery and pain.

[edit on 30-9-2004 by tobermory]