Free Republic

Prague enlists Czechs in US in campaign to win visa-free status The Czech Republic has begun a campaign calling on Czechs in the United States to lobby the US government to grant the country visa-free status. Hundreds of thousands of Czechs and people who have connections with the Czech Republic received letters from the country's embassy in Washington calling on them to lobby their congressmen and women on the issue.

THE SUPRANATIONAL MOVEMENT AND THE DANGEROUS POLICIES IT CREATES I do call it Conspiracy (Part 1 of a Three-Part Series) by Don Laigle Last Tuesday, during the EU-US summit with President Bush, EU President José Barroso innocently asked for visa-free travel to the US for all European citizens. Barroso, of all people, ought to know the risk this would pose for the American people. Because the president of his home country, socialist José Luis Rodríguez Zapatero, is behind an open border policy (see Part 2 of this report at Laigles Forum) that has even ranking EU officials feeling uneasy, and...

Thursday, Aug. 14, 2003 12:30 p.m. EDT Malkin: Tom Ridge, Where Were You? Seething over Homeland Security tsar Tom Ridge's months-long failure to end travel programs that allowed foreigners to fly to the U.S. without visas, before finally suspending them, sharp-tongued columnist Michelle Malkin has a question for Tom Ridge in her latest column: "Why did it take so bloody long?" She also wonders why Ridge has not put a permanent end to the programs, instead of merely putting them on hold. Says Malkin: "The visa is supposed to be our government's best method for keeping out foreign menaces. Law-enforcement...

Danger of terrorists exploiting loophole known post 9-11, but no action taken Posted: August 6, 2003 1:00 a.m. Eastern By Paul Sperry © 2003 WorldNetDaily.com WASHINGTON – The Homeland Security Department says it has suspended the little-known federal Transit Without Visa program after learning al-Qaida plans to exploit the screening loophole to hijack planes by the end of summer. But the administration ignored several warnings after the Sept. 11, 2001, hijackings to close the loophole. The Transit Without Visa system, or TWOV, permits foreign travelers to stop briefly in the U.S. without visas before departing the U.S. for other countries....

<p>A federal loophole is blocking the deportation of terrorism suspects once the State Department has revoked their visas.</p> <p>Under current rules, a visa revocation does not require the person to leave the United States, nor does it constitute a reason for deportation.</p>

<p>WASHINGTON (AP) The government suspended two programs Saturday that allow foreigners to transit U.S. airports without visas to catch connecting flights between international points.</p> <p>The State Department said al-Qaida and other terrorism organizations had planned to use the programs as a way of getting access to flights to and from the United States.</p>

WASHINGTON - The government suspended two programs Saturday that allow foreigners to transit U.S. airports without visas to catch connecting flights between international points. The State Department said al-Qaida and other terrorism organizations had planned to use the programs as a way of getting access to flights to and from the United States. Before the change, potential terrorists could have arrived in the United States without visas, thus eluding required checks against federal lists of terrorism suspects. The action by the departments of State and Homeland Security was effective at 11 a.m. EDT Saturday. The departments "have received specific, credible...

U.S. suspends no-visa air transits The United States has suspended two visa-free international transit programs amid fears that terrorists might use the loophole to stage further terror attacks, reports said Sunday. The lack of screening for visas could have allowed potential terrorists to enter the country without being checked against federal lists of suspects. The two programs allowed international air travellers to transit in U.S. airports en route to other destinations without a visa. They also allowed such passengers to take a domestic flight to connect between two U.S. airports, without further tracking. Hardest hit will be passengers from...