Thread: Bush Orders Clampdown On Flights to US

Bush is NUTS!!! He won't secure the borders; but he wants to control and arm the skies!


Bush orders clampdown on flights to US. EU officials furious as Washington says it wants extra data on all air passengersIan Traynor in Brussels The Guardian, Monday February 11 2008 Article .

[]Bush administration is calling for armed air marshals on transatlantic flights. [/color]
The US administration is pressing the 27 governments of the European Union to sign up for a range of new security measures for transatlantic travel, including allowing armed guards on all flights from Europe to America by US airlines.

The demand to put armed air marshals on to the flights is part of a travel clampdown by the Bush administration that officials in Brussels described as "blackmail" and "troublesome", and could see west Europeans and Britons required to have US visas if their governments balk at Washington's requirements.

According to a US document being circulated for signature in European capitals, EU states would also need to supply personal data on all air passengers overflying but not landing in the US in order to gain or retain visa-free travel to America, senior EU officials said.
And within months the US department of homeland security is to impose a new permit system for Europeans flying to the US, compelling all travellers to apply online for permission to enter the country before booking or buying a ticket, a procedure that will take several days.

The data from the US's new electronic transport authorisation system is to be combined with extensive personal passenger details already being provided by EU countries to the US for the "profiling" of potential terrorists and assessment of other security risks.

Washington is also asking European airlines to provide personal data on non-travellers - for example family members - who are allowed beyond departure barriers to help elderly, young or ill passengers to board aircraft flying to America, a demand the airlines reject as "absurd".
Seven demands tabled by Washington are contained in a 10-page "memorandum of understanding" (MOU) that the US authorities are negotiating or planning to negotiate with all EU governments, according to ministers and diplomats from EU member states and senior officials in Brussels. The Americans have launched their security drive with some of the 12 mainly east European EU countries whose citizens still need visas to enter the US.

"The Americans are trying to get a beefing up of their visa-waiver programmes. It's all contained in the MOU they want to put to all EU member states," said a diplomat from a west European country. "It's a very delicate problem."

As part of a controversial passenger data exchange programme allegedly aimed at combating terrorism, the EU has for the past few months been supplying the American authorities with 19 items of information on every traveller flying from the EU to the US.

The new American demands go well beyond what was agreed under that passenger name record (PNR) system and look certain to cause disputes within Europe and between Europe and the US.

Brussels is pressing European governments not to sign the bilateral deals with the Americans to avoid weakening the EU bargaining position. But Washington appears close to striking accords on the new travel regime with Greece and the Czech Republic. Both countries have sizeable diaspora communities in America, while their citizens need visas to enter the US. Visa-free travel would be popular in both countries.

A senior EU official said the Americans could get "a gung-ho frontrunner" to sign up to the new regime and then use that agreement "as a rod to beat the other member states with". The frontrunner appears to be the Czech Republic. On Wednesday, Richard Barth of the department of homeland security was in Prague to negotiate with the Czech deputy prime minister, Alexandr Vondra,

Prague hoped to sign the US memorandum "in the spring", Vondra said. "The EU has done nothing for us on visas," he said. "There was no help, no solidarity in the past. It's in our interest to move ahead. We can't just wait and do nothing. We have to act in the interest of our citizens."

While the Czechs are in a hurry to sign up, Brussels is urging delay in order to try to reach a common European position.

"There is a process of consultation and coordination under way," said Jonathan Faull, a senior European commission official involved in the negotiations with the Americans.

To European ears, the US demands sound draconian. "This would oblige the European countries to allow US air marshals on US flights. It's controversial and difficult," an EU official said. At the moment the use of air marshals is discretionary for European states and airlines.

While armed American guards would be entitled to sit on the European flights to the US, the Americans also want the PNR data transfers extended from travellers from Europe to the US to include the details of those whose flights are not to America, but which overfly US territory, say to central America or the Caribbean.
Brussels has told Washington that its demands raise legal problems in Europe over data protection, over guarantees on how the information is handled, over which US agencies have access to it or with whom it might be shared, and over issues of redress if the data is misused.

The Association of European Airlines, representing 31 airlines, including all the big west European national carriers, has told the US authorities that there is "no international legal foundation" for supplying them with data about passengers on flights overflying US territory.

The US Transport Security Administration has also asked the European airlines to supply personal data on "certain non-travelling members of the public requesting access to areas beyond the screening checkpoint".

The AEA said this was "absurd" because the airlines neither obtain nor can obtain such information. The request was "fully unjustified".
If the Americans persevere in the proposed security crackdown, Brussels is likely to respond with tit-for-tat action, such as calling for visas for some Americans.

European governments, however, would probably veto such action, one official said, not least for fear of the "massive disruption given the huge volume of transatlantic traffic


http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2008/fe ... neindustry

What the hell???? Does he think he rules the bloody world? For the first time in my life, I am truely ashamed to be an American.

Yet he allows open borders to the south. This is the true danger to this country. Information on people not even landing here? Information on people who are not even getting on a flight? This proves Bush is INSANE

How do we stop this mad man??? For the first time I understand the German people and Hitler. The helplessness. OMG I can't even think straight. I will greatly miss seeing my in-laws but I hope Europe flips him off on this.

I also hope they withdraw all of our military bases, permission for our military to fly over Europe or land on their airstrips. This may seem extreme, and yes, I am afraid it will endanger our troops, but this man has to be stopped!!!!!!!

He has turned us from being a respected world leader into everything we oppose. He is a power hungry tyrant. He is single handedly destroying what we have spent 232 years to build!!!!!!!!!!!!!

SMOKE CURTAIN......


EXTREME CRISIS AS GROUP OF 9 DEMAND SETTLEMENT
TOKYO G-8/G-10 MEETING WILL IMPOSE SANCTIONS ON MONDAY
Sunday 10 February 2008 02:04
U.S. MILITARY AS WELL AS COMMERCIAL FLIGHTS WILL BE REFUSED LANDING PERMISSION

THE OIL/ENERGY EMBARGO WILL BE APPLIED AGAINST AMERICA IMMEDIATELY

WIRE TRANSFERS TO AND FROM THE NINE COUNTRIES AND U.S. BANKS WILL BE SHUT DOWN

ANNOUNCEMENT TO THE WORLD NEXT WEEK IF WHITE HOUSE BLOCKS SETTLEMENT AGAIN

CORRUPTION CRISIS COULD RUN COMPLETELY OUT OF CONTROL AT ANY TIME NOW

PRESIDENT BUSH TOLD THE MEETING TO ‘GET LOST’, THE CABLES HAVE BEEN CUT:
BUT HE WAS FORCED TO ‘BACK DOWN’, ACCORDING TO INTELLIGENCE SOURCES

AS A LENINIST, WHEN BUSH BACKS DOWN, HE DOES SO WITH THE INTENTION OF REVERSING HIMSELF AT THE FIRST AVAILABLE OPPORTUNITY: 'ONE STEP FORWARD, TWO STEPS BACK'

BUSH BAGMAN’S HURRIED ARRIVAL AT PARIBAS CAUSED CONSTERNATION,
AS ALL PREVIOUS ‘CLOSURES’ HAVE BEEN DECEPTIONS AND PLAY-ACTING

BANQUE PARIBAS HAD NEVER BEEN PRIMED TO SETTLE ANYTHING,
SO COULDN’T UNDERSTAND WHY THE SITUATION HAD ‘CHANGED’

DEMAND FOR PERFORMANCE FROM THE AGENT FOR THE CRIMINALS
SHOOK THE FRENCH BANK RIGID. IT HAD NEVER EXPECTED TO PERFORM.

http://www.worldreports.org./news/119_e ... settlement

Personally, I see this as a good thing. Granted, we need to secure our borders, however, we also need to know exactly who is entering our country through the friendly skies.

To date the large majority of terrorist have entered our nation via aircraft. I despise Bush too, but shouldn't he be given credit when it's due?

I'm ashamed to be an American, too Cayla! It looks like Bush is trying to keep Europeans OUT of the US by making it impossible to travel by air! Who the hell does he think he is...Napoleon???? He has alienated the whole damn world! And the sick thing about it is that he lets Mexico walk all over us! Sick, sick, sick!!!

Wow, the attitudes expressed on this thread have really left me a little speechless. Our national security is more important than what the EU thinks. The only people this plan seeks to stop from coming to America is potential terrorist.

Maybe this fits in with Bush's larger plan. Hes not done with us yet. Its control. Of everything.

MW...please read the highlighted portions of this article. This is above and beyond normal security precautions. I'm all for international flight security, but this is insane! In fact, I would say that London, for instance, is much better equipped to fight terrorism than the US. Scotland Yard does a heck of a better job than the CIA or FBI.

IMO, Bush is paranoid about everyone BUT Mexico!

Originally Posted by MW

Personally, I see this as a good thing. Granted, we need to secure our borders, however, we also need to know exactly who is entering our country through the friendly skies.

To date the large majority of terrorist have entered our nation via aircraft. I despise Bush too, but shouldn't he be given credit when it's due?

come on now, flights not even landing here? Personal info on people not getting on a plane? this is insane, invasive and down right beyond common decency.

Originally Posted by MW

Wow, the attitudes expressed on this thread have really left me a little speechless. Our national security is more important than what the EU thinks. The only people this plan seeks to stop from coming to America is potential terrorist.

I firmly believe this:

"Those who would give up Essential Liberty to purchase a little Temporary Safety, deserve neither Liberty nor Safety."
-Benjamin Franklin

If you want to be completely safe, and freedom is not an issue for you, cuba and china might be a good fit.