"Damn! I forgot where I put my visa"
.
"See? I don't need no stinking visa. I have new gringo pesos too."
Posted on 06/02/2008 8:48:22 PM PDT by blam
US to demand 72hrs notice for British tourists
By Andy Bloxham
Last Updated: 12:50AM BST 03/06/2008
British visitors to the United States will have to register their trip with the American government 72 hours before they leave under new plans. All travellers from countries which do not currently require a visa will be forced to tell the Americans that they are coming.
The rule is intended to bolster US security and was expected to be announced today by Homeland Security secretary Michael Chertoff.
The move is likely to renew the worries of big business in Europe that deal-clinching, last-minute flights could become more difficult.
Last year, European firms announced their concerns over a plan to introduce compulsory registration 48 hours before travel.
The plans to be announced today are expected to come into force in January next year.
At present, 27 countries participate in the 'visa waiver program', including the UK, most of western Europe, Australia, Japan, New Zealand, and Singapore.
Once a traveller has registered under the new rules for the first time, it will be valid for multiple entries over a two-year period.
The new system will begin accepting registrations from August.
To register, travellers will have to contact travel agents, airline websites or through a purpose-built US government website.
A spokesman for Homeland Security said the registrations would require the same information as the I-94 form now in use.
The official added that the government was trying to stop people like 'shoe bomber' Richard Reid, who tried to destroy an airliner with explosives hidden in his trainer.
Zacarias Moussaoui, the French man who was convicted of involvement in the September 11 attacks, also entered the US without a visa.
The spokesman said: "History has shown that it is naïve to assume a traveller from a [visa waiver] country automatically constitutes a lesser threat than a visa applicant who has undergone greater scrutiny prior to travel."
In January this year, Mr Chertoff said there was only a "small window" to check on the background of most visitors from Europe and expressed the desire for better vetting.
He added: "Terrorists are increasingly looking to Europe as both a target and a platform for terrorist attacks."
General Michael Hayden, director of the Central Intelligence Agency, has also warned that al-Qa'eda was trying to recruit westerners as potential attackers for their ability to blend into the US.
In February, the EU outlined similar plans for travellers to Europe who do not currently require a visa for short visits.
"Damn! I forgot where I put my visa"
.
"See? I don't need no stinking visa. I have new gringo pesos too."
A lot of people are going to applaud Fortress America.
I can tell everyone that this is a double edged sword.
People in International Business increasingly will say, screw it, I will do business with Canada then, or I will invest my money in India, or China or Abu Dhabi or Dubai or Singapore.
It’s not just international business (well, primarily that, but...): last minute tourist deals are going up in smoke, too. But more than that, as you suggest, it leaves the over-hanging sense that the US is simply not a welcoming place, and that’s going to hurt tourism from those who would have bought their tickets months in advance, as well.
I personally don’t welcome this move. Screen more heavily if need be, but I don’t like seeing this sort of action with nations like the UK and Australia with which we have had such long-standing relations.
What took them so long? The UK is infested with the most radical organized radical Islamists in the West.
Finally!
“I personally don’t welcome this move. Screen more heavily if need be, but I don’t like seeing this sort of action with nations like the UK and Australia with which we have had such long-standing relations.”
This is not about “relations” with allies, it’s about a radical element that is exploiting the weakness of a free and open West.
And to register once for two years of travel into the US is not asking much.
Didn't I read that the most popular name in the UK is Mohammad?
Hmmmm....
Do you have any idea how many rugriders are in Britain these days? You want them to be able to jump on the next flight to NYC, pay the sleeper clubs tab at CAIR and fly home 8 hours later. No thanks. I don’t like Muslims at all. Them having to give 3 days notice that they want to come here is a great idea.
Just when it seemed that the lower dollar might bring in some foreign tourists to replace the Americans who have stopped traveling, the Bureau Of What Can We F* Up Now has come up with another brilliant plan to drive tourists away.
You would be correct. That factoid was cited in another of the wondrous works of Mark Steyn I believe.
Although Al Qaeda has plenty of adherents from Arab countries, it’s home base is really Pakistan where they breed them with the Taliban.
And the UK has a real problem of Pakistanis where a segment has brought their backward view of the world to a major Western nation.
In fact, it’s common for many young girls to be sent back to Pakistan as part of marriage deals. Just like they do at home.
Ironically today, the Danish Embassy in Pakistan was bombed. Reported 8 dead.
Now why do we want to give them easy access here?
The world can go screw itself, for all the use it has been over the last seven years.
And now the UK will act in reciprocity and expect the same 72 hours notice from U.S. citizens.
Just great.
I would assume that those who have little dealing with international business, tourism, generating and strengthening the global competitiveness of our country abroad through participation in fast-paced, dynamnic worldwide business, so we can beat the pants off our economic rivals and create even more jobs in the USA, will particularly "get it". I agree, there are ways to screen out dastardly islamofascist terrorists, but sometimes the US does does stupid, rash, things across the board as an overreaction, like the whole "kids on milk cartons" fad sweeping the US that actually ended up panicking US kids wholesale. Often we cut off our nose despite just popping a zit on it. This, IMHO, will help further the decline of the US and it's slow, economic self-strangulation, while buttressing other places to become financial centers of the world.
While I am of course strongly against illegal aliens, and also legal immigration if it goes overboard, I am not against legal travel for legitimate business interests for citizens of foreign ally countries nor am I for its slow, bureaucratic asphyxiation by know-nothing, clueless government wonks in the Beltway.
See you in the unemployment line.
Please. Ever heard of conference calling and fax machines?
Maybe this will wake the Brits up as to the Muzzies they welcome so much.
Would you like some SOX compliance with your 72hr notice? :}
So does this mean that A Briton who is coming to the US because a family member here is ill, or has died must wait 72 hours?
What's funny is that some Middle Eastern countries have no problem with blatant racial profiling. They profile their own. I can't tell you how many times western colleagues and I have been waved through security areas at airports with a cursory glance or "Amrikee, Amrikee....go on through," while the Arabs get stopped and thoroughly searched. And I've never seen or heard any of the Arabs complain about it.
They get it.
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