Totalitarian Bush Surveillance State Wants Airlines to Fingerprint Foreigners
Michael Chertoff, head of the Department of Homeland Security and Condoleesza Rice, Secretary of State, are excellent examples of Bushite loyalists who have politicized their departments to serve only Bush and the Republicans; the hell with the American people in government of, by, and for the people.
Chertoff has been described as a small time hack with mediocre to dangerously failed judgment in personnel and policy and the DHS, a garbage dump of partisan patronage and lobbyist influence taking precedence over efficiency and effectiveness. Actually, that is being way too kind.
Condoleeza Rice, meanwhile, is one of the worst secretaries of state in history. Her name has been turned into a verb by Israeli television ""meaning to go endlessly around in circles, accomplishing nothing."
They are now a part of an outrageous plan to violate the rights of foreign nationals traveling to the United States.
From the Washington Post article: "The airline industry and embassies of 34 countries, including the members of the European Union, are urging the U.S. government to withdraw a plan that would require airlines and cruise lines to collect digital fingerprints of all foreigners before they depart the United States, starting in August 2009.
"Their opposition could trigger a battle with Congress and the Bush administration, which want the new plan established quickly."
Logical and cautionary reasons have been given by the IATA, the EU, and other countries against this unintelligent, unwise plan.
"This proposal to outsource the core government function of border control at a time that airlines around the world are fighting for their economic survival is both unwarranted and counterproductive," said Giovanni Bisignani, director general and chief executive of the International Air Transport Association."
"The alliance, whose 230 members include 78 that fly to and from the United States, said airlines and passengers have spent $30 billion for often duplicative and bureaucratic security measures since 9/11."
Of course, it's no surprise that a Republican controlled Congress came up with this stupid idea.
"The plan to track exiting foreign visitors is part of a program known as US-VISIT, an initiative that Congress first promoted in 1996 and launched after the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks to use fingerprints and digital photographs to automate the processing of visitors entering and exiting the country...
The IATA tells the thickheaded DHS what it already should have known and what it should be doing to ensure effective security with information currently available.
The German Embassy diplomatically informed the DHS and Chertoff about how dumb he and and the plan are.
"In a message Wednesday to the State Department, the German Embassy said that the collection of fingerprints by private companies should 'only be the last resort' and that DHS should maintain full custody over sensitive personal data."
The British Embassy reminded the US about the legal consequences of their ill considered plan.
"Clive Wright, a senior British Embassy official in Washington, wrote on behalf of 34 governments, saying they "are seriously concerned" about the new fingerprint mandate for private companies. He argued that the requirements pose privacy, liability and business risks to airlines far more costly and difficult than any issues they now face in handling immigration issues."
And talk about Congress making a bad situation even worse...some members of Congress are not sharpest pencils in the box.
"Congress last year set a July 2009 deadline, which DHS says it can meet by the next month, for DHS to begin collecting fingerprints from departing air passengers; the mandate is part of a law to implement recommendations of the commission that investigated the Sept. 11 attacks. Lawmakers were frustrated by DHS's slow pace in expanding US-VISIT.
Why would anyone believe anything coming from the mouths of this lying administration and its flunky departments and agencies?
"The program has recorded images and fingerprints of nearly 100 million people entering the country since 2004. It has helped find criminals and deter potential terrorists, Homeland Security officials say..."
Just as the Bush administration is in a hurry to finalize the agreement with Maliki to keep US troops in Iraq forever with permanent bases to attempt to tie the next Democratic president's hands, so to are the Bushites and Congress trying to make this flawed, unnecessary invasion of privacy rights of foreign nationals a fait accompli before January, 2009.
The criminal, authoritarian, anti-Constitution, anti-rule of law Bush administration's record for actually successfully capturing and prosecuting terrorists has been a failure. However, they have a great track record for capturing and torturing innocent people.
And impeachment is still off the table.
Chertoff has been described as a small time hack with mediocre to dangerously failed judgment in personnel and policy and the DHS, a garbage dump of partisan patronage and lobbyist influence taking precedence over efficiency and effectiveness. Actually, that is being way too kind.
Condoleeza Rice, meanwhile, is one of the worst secretaries of state in history. Her name has been turned into a verb by Israeli television ""meaning to go endlessly around in circles, accomplishing nothing."
They are now a part of an outrageous plan to violate the rights of foreign nationals traveling to the United States.
From the Washington Post article: "The airline industry and embassies of 34 countries, including the members of the European Union, are urging the U.S. government to withdraw a plan that would require airlines and cruise lines to collect digital fingerprints of all foreigners before they depart the United States, starting in August 2009.
"Their opposition could trigger a battle with Congress and the Bush administration, which want the new plan established quickly."
Logical and cautionary reasons have been given by the IATA, the EU, and other countries against this unintelligent, unwise plan.
"This proposal to outsource the core government function of border control at a time that airlines around the world are fighting for their economic survival is both unwarranted and counterproductive," said Giovanni Bisignani, director general and chief executive of the International Air Transport Association."
"The alliance, whose 230 members include 78 that fly to and from the United States, said airlines and passengers have spent $30 billion for often duplicative and bureaucratic security measures since 9/11."
Of course, it's no surprise that a Republican controlled Congress came up with this stupid idea.
"The plan to track exiting foreign visitors is part of a program known as US-VISIT, an initiative that Congress first promoted in 1996 and launched after the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks to use fingerprints and digital photographs to automate the processing of visitors entering and exiting the country...
The IATA tells the thickheaded DHS what it already should have known and what it should be doing to ensure effective security with information currently available.
"This uncoordinated and costly mess can no longer be dismissed as simply 'the cost of doing business,' " Bisignani said. He called on DHS to integrate and streamline five passenger-data-collection programs that include reservation system data, passenger manifest information and immigration and customs forms. " (Emphasis added.)
The German Embassy diplomatically informed the DHS and Chertoff about how dumb he and and the plan are.
"In a message Wednesday to the State Department, the German Embassy said that the collection of fingerprints by private companies should 'only be the last resort' and that DHS should maintain full custody over sensitive personal data."
The British Embassy reminded the US about the legal consequences of their ill considered plan.
"Clive Wright, a senior British Embassy official in Washington, wrote on behalf of 34 governments, saying they "are seriously concerned" about the new fingerprint mandate for private companies. He argued that the requirements pose privacy, liability and business risks to airlines far more costly and difficult than any issues they now face in handling immigration issues."
And talk about Congress making a bad situation even worse...some members of Congress are not sharpest pencils in the box.
"Congress last year set a July 2009 deadline, which DHS says it can meet by the next month, for DHS to begin collecting fingerprints from departing air passengers; the mandate is part of a law to implement recommendations of the commission that investigated the Sept. 11 attacks. Lawmakers were frustrated by DHS's slow pace in expanding US-VISIT.
Why would anyone believe anything coming from the mouths of this lying administration and its flunky departments and agencies?
"The program has recorded images and fingerprints of nearly 100 million people entering the country since 2004. It has helped find criminals and deter potential terrorists, Homeland Security officials say..."
Stewart A. Baker, DHS assistant secretary for policy said: "We recognize it will be difficult for a new administration, whoever is president, to finish a controversial regulation, so we are working very hard to finish the implementation of this on our watch."
Just as the Bush administration is in a hurry to finalize the agreement with Maliki to keep US troops in Iraq forever with permanent bases to attempt to tie the next Democratic president's hands, so to are the Bushites and Congress trying to make this flawed, unnecessary invasion of privacy rights of foreign nationals a fait accompli before January, 2009.
The criminal, authoritarian, anti-Constitution, anti-rule of law Bush administration's record for actually successfully capturing and prosecuting terrorists has been a failure. However, they have a great track record for capturing and torturing innocent people.
And impeachment is still off the table.
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