If this is how America treats its friends...

[almostwitty]

So the UK stands shoulder-to-shoulder with the US against pretty much everyone else in launching a doomed war against Iraq, which sends Tony Blair out of office, potentially Gordon Brown with him and ushering in the Tories at the next general election ... and what does the UK get in return?

All European visitors to be forced to register with the Department of Homeland Security 72 hours before entering the United States on a visa-waiver system.

Erm... surely, the whole POINT of a visa-waiver system is so that you don't have to do bureaucratic things like registration, retinal scans, fingerprint IDs and all that?

It's the equivalent of asking your neighbour to help you burgular-proof your place, then thanking him and demanding that your neighbour registers with you three days before the next time he wants to visit.

I'd like to think Obama would change this when he gets into office. But he won't.

Ever wonder why we get the feeling that Bush/NASA's plans for a Mars colony aren't about exploration, but about setting up Planet America? ;)

Comments

[almostwitty]

All that extra data isn't going to help stop a terrorist one iota.

If the intelligence services are tracking individuals, then they'll already know they're planning to fly to the US as soon as they book the ticket - because the name comes up on the ticket. And sure, they could change the name on the ticket - but then they could easily change the name they use when they sign up at the Homeland Security website.

Also, bear in mind that none of the 9/11 attackers had any prior history of anything, nor were they being tracked by anyone. So if their names had come up on this mythical databases, tehre'd be no red flag.