Posted on 10/17/2008 12:44:43 PM PDT by lizol
Bush keeps Poland off visa list
Nicholas Kralev Friday, October 17, 2008
President Bush angered staunch ally Poland Friday by excluding it from a group of newcomers to a program that allows citizens of certain countries to visit the United States without entry visas.
At a Rose Garden ceremony, Mr. Bush announced rescinding visa requirements for six other former communist countries -- Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, Hungary, the Czech Republic and Slovakia -- as well as South Korea, effective in about a month.
"For years, the leaders of these nations have explained to me how frustrating it is for their citizens to wait in lines, pay visa fees to take a vacation or make a business trip or visit their families here in the United States," Mr. Bush said.
"These close friends of America told me that it was unfair that their people had to jump through bureaucratic hoops that other allies can walk around," he added. "I told them I agree with them."
But Poland, the Bush administration's strongest ally in Central and Eastern Europe, which was the most vocal supporter of the Iraq war and sent troops early on, was absent from the ceremony.
"There is a sense of disappointment on our part," said Pawel Kotowski, counselor at the Polish Embassy in Washington. "We hope the next administration will take up this issue as a top priority. We have signals from both [the Obama and McCain] campaigns that they will look at Poland's membership in the program favorably."
(Excerpt) Read more at washingtontimes.com ...
What the hell?
These lists have a lot more to the ‘friendly’ country meeting specific security requirements versus our being ‘friends’. It isn’t really an insult to Poland, they just must not have met all the travel security requirements.
I have to read more about it to make a final judgement, but my first reaction is WTF!!!
I recall reading a few years ago that Poland has been an ally of the United States longer than any other nation.
What? Why in the world would Poland be left off the list???
What is the reason?
because Bush is being incompetent...again. no big surprise
What? Poland is one of our strongest allies!
How many Poles does it take to make one Hispanic illegal immigrant?
“The new members must issue biometric passports, which are tamper-proof and difficult to forge, to their citizens. They also must agree to cooperate with U.S. authorities on security threats and other safety issues.”
That’s kind of vague. I’d like to know more about Poland’s immigration and naturalization laws. If they are too lax, undesirables will flock to Poland as a path of least resistance to the US; a stepping stone. That’s bad news for both Poland and US.
The least the administration can do is explain WHY they did it, or the writer decided to leave that little tidbit out to make people p*ssed at the clowns in charge.
It's not Bush's fault - read the article folks, it's a Congrssional requirement that less than 10% of visa applicants from a given country are rejected before they can be considered for visa waiver status.
Meanwhile, Saudi Arabia IS on the via waiver list
It will mean more undocumented workers. On the brights side, they won’t all be Mexicans, so we’ll at least get back to having a melting pot.
President Boosh does it again...he will give amnesty to an illegal alien drug dealer from Latin America...but not grant Poland off the visa list....though Islamic Terrorist State Saudi Arabia is on it.
And you wonder why real conservatives arent wasting votes on McCain this election....
Poland is conservative and staunchly Catholic and fights the EU Euroweenies who want to complete the socialization, Islamization and sodomization of Europe. Watch “president” Obama declare Poland a terrorist state.
I suspect there are other reasons. Perhaps Poland is already off the list and the news here was garbled.
Thank you. That explains it. But it’s still a crazy law.
It is not up to Bush. Congress makes the decision on who gets into the visa wavier program.
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