Damn ‘Turrists’ Stay Home!
By nonny mouse Monday Oct 20, 2008 10:00am
From January 12, 2009, citizens from such infamous terrorist hotbeds as New Zealand, Australia, Japan, Western Europe and several other nations around the world ordinarily covered under the Visa Waiver Program will be required to submit an application for authorization via the Internet before they will be allowed to enter the United States.
Bad enough the Brits and European nationals have been compelled to disclose sensitive data when flying into the United States, i.e., personal information about their racial or ethnic origin, political opinions, religious or philosophical beliefs, trade union membership, and data concerning the health and even sex life, to the Department of Homeland Security which ‘may be used by the DHS in exceptional cases.’ And we’ve recently seen examples of what the NSA has considered to be ‘exceptional cases’, swapping recordings of intimate phone calls between innocent Americans around the office canteen like you and I might share an Internet joke.
Bad enough that even travelers in transit who are not even stopping in the US are treated like potential criminals and terrorists by airport security. Even worse that passenger’s laptops, mobile phones or any other data storage device can be confiscated indefinitely by federal agents without any suspicion of wrongdoing, the information copied and shared with other agencies or even ‘private entities’ for language translation, data decryption or any other reason. Business travelers in particular, rather than dark skinned young men from unfriendly Middle Eastern countries, seem to be the main targets of confiscation.
Those passengers who have to make trips to the States are increasingly turning to blogs advising on how to encrypt their hard drives, and shipping them back and forth via FedEx but not declaring the contents as a hard drive because that ‘may arouse suspicions’. If asked, lie and say it’s some cheap-sounding trinket. Or even, if you must travel with your computer, consider carrying a pink laptop with Hannah Montana stickers on it to make it less interesting to airport officials.
This, then, is what we are reducing ordinary, innocent travellers to – smuggling their personal belongings in and out of the States like forged papers to cross Gestapo guarded borders.
Not unsurprisingly, tourism in America has been on a steep decline, the nation's international tourism balance of trade dropping more than 70 percent from 1995 to 2005, and showing no sign of recovery; quite the reverse.
Now, when Kiwis and Ozzies and all the rest of the world click on the handy website to apply for permission to visit the US, it pops up a little notice explaining just what rights you are giving away for the privilege:
This Department of Homeland Security (DHS) computer system and any related equipment is subject to monitoring for administrative oversight, law enforcement, criminal investigative purposes, inquiries into alleged wrongdoing or misuse, and to ensure proper performance of applicable security features and procedures. As part of the monitoring, DHS may acquire, access, retain, intercept, capture, retrieve, record, read, inspect, analyze, audit, copy and disclose any information processed, transmitted, received communicated, and stored within the computer system. If monitoring reveals possible misuse or criminal activity, notice of such may be provided to appropriate supervisory personnel and law enforcement officials. DHS may conduct these activities in any manner without further notice. By clicking OK below or by using this system, you consent to the terms set forth in this notice.
Translation: We can do whatever the hell we want, and snoop into anything you’ve got on your computer. You don’t like it, don’t even apply to come to the United States.
Which is exactly what more and more people around the world are choosing to do. My worry, as an ex-pat? That at some point those countries we’ve long considered to be our ‘friends’ will get sick and tired of their citizens being treated like criminals and terrorists instead, and kick out anyone holding an American passport. On the other hand, they may just take pity on me and offer me refugee status…
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first?
John Amato and Co.
You really need to clarify this sentence: "rather than dark skinned young men from unfriendly Middle Eastern countries".
Are you saying that dark skinned young men from unfriendly Middle Eastern countries SHOULD be subject to ethnic profiling?
Boy, talk about a loaded sentence. Even men from friendly M.E. countries get treated like terrorists, especially those from Egypt and Jordan; two of America's closest allies.
Is this C&L's "No ma'am he's a decent family man" moment?
We'll go back to the US again when it's not run by literal corporate fascists and thieves.
The moral integrity of the country is so low, I would not feel safe for my PETS to be there. We plan trips avoid American Airspace and fly out to Iceland or Paris before heading elsewhere.
Anything to avoid entering the giant criminal murder machine called the US of A.
I on the other hand will not go back and haven't bothered for a very long time, this is just another prime example of the american mind set and how americans view and treat the world.
The irony of telling people who likely don't want to go to such a disgusting country, that they are going to make it harder ........ oh how I laughed.
The US is doing all it can to cut itself off from the world and be as arrogant, xenophobic and myopic as well .......... only an american can.
The US has been trying to opt out of the visa wavier system for ages, and likely soon will so it will be full visa applications for everyone.
I'm just glad to see that US people around the world are getting treated with the levels of contempt that they deserve, i.e. the karma and pay back.
are like that. Maybe most of us are not like that. Hell, we hate going through U.S. airports too. If we can get these fascists out of power, maybe the United States can return to the welcoming country it used to be.
I have no hand in the policy-making behind this, and I despise what my country's doing to. Hell, I don't know anyone here in the states who likes the way our government's fucked up our airport security.
And are you suggesting that aid workers or students abroad deserve to get abuse heaped upon them for something their government back home did?
How is that different from those of us who don't even live in your country being subjected to this ridiculousness. I'm really sorry, I have nothing at all against Americans, and don't want to see them become the subject of scorn for something that they have no control over, but this is the only action we have available to us.
Me too. I've stopped going anywhere near the USA. I can get cheaper flights to Canada (from Korea) through O'Hare airport, but I'd rather pay hundreds of dollars more and NOT do so.
I figure they'll see my C&L registration, or nab me for some YouTube comment, and ship me to Syria for "re-education".
Between the economy and issues like this, our little tourist trap is gonna be hit pretty hard. It'll be interesting to see who the local wingnuts blame it on.
Those that want to open their own business can't because business is down. Take that trolls.
This has been going on for a long time, and accelerated hugely after 9/11. I teach at a major American university and we lose millions every year because foreign students (who pay big fat inflated tuition fees) decide that the draconian screening measures they have to endure to get a student visa just aren't worth it. There are plenty of first class universities in other countries who are happy to scoop up their money and their intellectual capital. It's all part of the Dumbing Down of American.
We're Number One? I don't think so. If this trend is allowed to continue, the only prizes we'll be winning in future will be for fattest and stupidest.
Yes, indeed. I'm doing my doctorate at a university in New Zealand. I could have gone back to the States, where as an American citizen there would have been less hoops to jump through Immigration wise. But the Immigration process in NZ is (with the occasional glitch every bureaucracy experiences) straightforward, fair and even - in my case - helpful personally. They WANT educated talented people here. They ENCOURAGE educated talented people to come here.
So I'm paying my tuition, and my taxes, to New Zealand. And when I've finished my degree, there's every chance I will use it to teach here as well. The States has lost both my tuition as a student, and my future as a teacher.
I don't know if I could be tempted to ever go back, life in a country run by (relatively!) sane people is ever so nice. I'm holding my breath that Obama might possibly be that historical moment of anticipation, just before the pendulum begins its swing back in the other direction. And that the draconian bureaucracy of the Patriot Act and the horribly named 'Homeland Security' with all its echoes of paranoid jingoistic fascism can be dismantled. Our laws were quite sufficient before 9/11 to have dealt with that crisis - all that has happened since is a power grab by the government.
Whether or not Obama is a savior, I dunno. It would be nice to think so, however I'm a cynic. But I don't believe the country can afford any further swing to the right without irrevokably tearing the fabric of our integrity or our future.
This is something my husband, an American citizen, and I have talked about for a while. We haven't had to travel back to his home since some of the more draconian "security" measures came into practice but the fact is I have no intention of traveling back there again.
He's on his own.
I'm not a criminal and I have no intention of being treated like one or having my personal goods "confiscated" to satisfy the paranoid delusions of a foreign government.
We've both agreed that if Obama doesn't win this election neither of us will be going back again.
Actually, the seizure of computer stuff for "further study" is not limited to foreigners entering the US. When you come back through customs lots of the rights that citizens hold in the interior of the country are not applicable. That's probably true upon entry to any country, it's just that normally it's not a problem when entering a "civilized" country. Too bad that the government seems bent on being having a facade of security rather than being somewhat civilized.
This US vs THEM mentality is self-defeating. All it accomplishes is fewer US’s and more THEMs, until eventually there are no more USs left.
This xenophobic uber nationalism has often been apparent during the decline and fall of many past civilizations.
Add to that Paulson, our Dear Leaders leader(?) in economics,thinks that economic protectionism is a no no. Yet we have lost, and will continue to lose Billions of tourist dollars due to draconian Customs requirements.
Fortress America as it's not been before. How long before the name gets changed to Myanmar?
It's easier to go to Myanmar. Also Vietnem, Laos and Cambodia. I know, I've been.
eom.
Well this guy was prevented from entering the US way back in the 80's.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yPLrXFw76Qg
And BOY do we all feel safer!
This is the price you have to pay for visiting the land of the free? We’ve put up a big sign that, instead of saying ‘stay off my lawn’, says’ stay out of my country’.
NeoCon = Facist
They're redesigning the Statue of Liberty so she's mooning New Jersey
(and the tourists too.)
Can we have our copper back,
please?
You'll never take me alive, copper!!!
Starting in November, the Italian Government is going to require only Americans to be fingerprinted when they enter passport control. This is in response to the draconian measures that the US has taken.
... Right?
LOL, if so, I love it!
Ken.
I can almost imagine their welcome poster for Americans at all their airports:
"Fascism - yur doin it right!"
.....Starting in November, the Italian Government is going to require only Americans to be fingerprinted when they enter passport control. This is in response to the draconian measures that the US has taken.....
I would imagine the American fascists might have anticipated something like this was coming from Italy because when the Neocon lawyers at the Order Sons of Italy in New York instructed Italian authorities not to recognize Robert DiNero as an Italian citizen because he makes movies about the Mafia, they were laughed at and ignored.
DiNero received his Italian passport because the Italian government has a habit of abiding by it's own Constitution, which recognizes DiNero as Italian by juris sanguines (right of the blood) no matter what kind of movies he makes. The Bush fascists now only need worry that DiNero might start making his movies in Cuba. Horrors!
By the way, I had my own Italian citizenship recognized in May 2001 -- before 9-11 and before the Bush Administration used those events to put American citizens in lockdown and I've been living in Italy ever since. Life is sweet.
I would not be surprised if much of the data being stolen from laptops is being used by private enterprises.
Remember that the GOP are above all; criminals. They're stealing that data.
Count on it.
That's certainly the perception abroad. Up until last year my wife worked for a Canadian based company, and employees were instructed not to keep proprietary information on lap-tops for this very reason.
This is now standard operating procedure. The Legal departments of any foreign company have been instructing their travelling employees on this for some time now.
In fact there are special "scrubbed" laptops available in IT for travelling.
I'm awaiting the first prosecutions for software piracy based on the illegally confiscated laptops of foreign citizens.
It has been said that Airbus lost a Saudi contract because Boeing had access to secret comercial strategy emails intercepted by Echelon. As a result in my conpany we got strict guidelines for external comunication via e-mail and we are prohibited to use RIM's Blackberry which is suspected to be a big US trojan horse.
And we do use empty and anonymous laptops to travel, with a VPN-SSL distant access via SecurId to our data.
Here ye go
http://www.truecrypt.org/
Free. Download it, install it, read the documentation. You can create an encrypted partition, put all your personal stuff into it, then unmount the drive. All that's left is a single file that contains all your private affairs.
I think there's even a new option in TrueCrypt to boot into a dummy operating system unless given the proper passphrase, in which case you're booted into the real operating system.
Enjoy.
I think our little community needs to provide more sharing of ideas like this one - and others - to resist, subvert, or change this current and increasingly scary "reality" we live in.
I used to travel with my laptop, but no more. I don't want the hassle and as it is I fear my ipod being confiscated for the songs I have that friends gave me. I mean, when did border guards start working for Virgin or Coke, or for that matter stealing trade secrets since we would rather cheat to win than work hard to succeed.
Also note that losing the password for your encryption will result in the loss of the files. If it's done right the only way to properly unlock and view the encrypted info is with your password.
Lose that and lose everything you've encrypted.
You can also try PGP's Whole Disk Encryption - available for both Windows and Mac OS X.
You forget that your government has deemed it legal to force people to give up passphrases and encryption keys even in cases where there is no suspicion of wrongdoing. If they even suspect you have a hidden encrypted partition and are not revealing it, they can detain you and take your laptop.
True-Crypt also offers the ability to have a "secret-compartment encryption such that you have two passwords, and one of them will unlock the supposed encrypted volume, but there's a hidden encrypted volume underneath that can only be unlocked with a different password.
You gotta love the language on their website:
"Provides two levels of plausible deniability, in case an adversary forces you to reveal the password:
1) Hidden volume (steganography) and hidden operating system.
2) No TrueCrypt volume can be identified (volumes cannot be distinguished from random data)."
Pretty sweet, huh?
A "proscribed" reading list of books considered suspect...
1. 1984
2. Brave New World
3. We
4. Farenheit 451
5. The Koran
If you pack these books(and others to be considered) and you find a slip of paper from the DHS in your luggage...or are even asked to remove it along with other items(shampoo, toothpaste, and so on ad nauseum)...start complaining...
http://z.about.com/d/politicalhumor/1/0/n/A/m...
)O(
I think it's safe to say anything with his byline on it would be seized as well...
Also "W" came in at No. 4 in the box office whilst "American Carol" is no longer in the top 10, just in case anyone cares about that.
Well, a few years ago I've been quite scrutinized on a transit stop between Paris and Bogotá because I had a book form A. Maalouf whose title is "The Crusades has seen by the Arabs"... and guess what was the movie in the plane ?
Ridley's Scott Kingdom Of Heaven !!!
When i saw what happened during the 2001 elections & the subsequent win by the forces of obscurantism, i promised myself to never go back again to the US, until further notice,and i am sorry to say that the prospect of having Barack "the messiah" Obama (another GOP water carrier & enabler of abject US foreign polices....)as the potential future US president is not going to change my decision. Too bad because a lot of us (Japs) used to spend a lot of money in the US, either on tourism or business. We don't really care if you people (US citizens) allowed your own government to turn your country into a carbon copy of 1930's Germany, but i don't want to face the prospect of yet another possible "internment". Too bad Americans never seem to learn from history...
Mmm, it's worse as an Australian to get nasty 'no foreign bidders!' when I enquire about ebay, but now I'll be treated like a criminal if I dare come near your shores.
And this doesn't even make sense. Why would I use a computer that contains sensitive material (i.e. my ultrasecret terrorist plans for taking over America) to connect to a DHS computer? Why would I have such data on a computer which can be confiscated when I could put it on a thumb drive or an SD-micro chip that can be far more easily concealed?
For that matter, why not memorize critical data?
Security has to work regardless of whether we catch the magic phone call, e-mail, or Abu Zippy bin Pinhead with his laptop.
That's what the last 50 years of US foreign policy has brought. Attack/invade/terrorize/threaten/rob other countries, then when someone goes looking for payback, ignore the root cause by making it worse. And any attempts to "protect the US" are inevitably attempts to protect those causing the problem in the first place, while leaving the average citizen to deal with the consequences.
In the 1930s, the US economy collapsed because of economic protectionism from foreigners. This time, the US economy will collapse because of political protectionism - who would want to deal with the US and all this crap over visas?
Isn't it obvious? They're after our pR0n! The knaves!
Islamic terrorists commits terrorism against the United States so what does the Christian fascists do? Hand their Islamic colleagues everything they could have ever prayed to Allah for.
What's worse? Islamic terrorism or Christian terrorism and Christian fascism?
Ha! Trick question. They're the same.
Isn't religion lovely?
Whether it's religion, politics, video games, music, or movies, there is one universal law: Ranting fanboys will always ruin everything.
Think about it - your typical religious zealot shares all the common qualities of your typical console groupie.
I don't think I'm ready to die for my PS3... yet.
Sad, sad decline for such a "could-be-beautifull-country". When travelling anywhere from Europe, all travel agents nowadays recommend you to avoid transit through the USA. I travel often to Central America and the times that I have to stop in the US are a true nightmare. · hours of waiting in line at least, endless stupid questions and officials treating everyone like cattle.
I have lived in the US for nearly five years and as grateful as I am, I mut say that the bush administration has created such a fractured country that I´m not sure anyone could ever fix it.
The question remains: Will Obama if elected overturn all these new abusive laws?
Encrypting your hard drive doesn't really solve the problem. The DHS can require you to give them the password to the encryption. And an encrypted drive is like waving a red flag in front of Ferdinand. And believe me, if they want to break the encryption, chances are they can.
Another technique is to back up your personal stuff to one of the web-based backup options, wipe the drive and reinstall the OS, then when you get inside the border, restore from your backup.
Nothing's perfect, but at least that way you aren't crossing the border with any personal info.
between the U.S. and the rest of the world. It suits them that other countries despise and avoid us, contributes to the paranoia at home. Scary.
Could you upload the contents of your computer to one of those storage sites and then just leave your operating system and games on your computer? When you arrived, you could download it to your machine and wa-la!
voila.
Brought to you by Francophone pedants sommes nous.
When I visited the US in the 1980s, the passport guy actually shook my hand and welcomed me to the US. Ahh memories of a lost halcyon time.
Last time I went I was detained for an hour and interrogated for an hour as to why I had stamps to Cuba in my (European) passport ......... tossers ........
I have witnessed that they hire goons for the TSA. I saw an elderly couple abused in the search process, just humiliated by the TSA goons; they're the classic power hungry bullies. So it is logical that they extend their goonishness to confiscating phones, computers, etc.
I guess total economic collapse is the only solution, and the present administration has put us squarely on that path.
I am an exec in a multi-national corporation with its headquarters located in London, England. Since the Fall of 2006, we have adopted a strict policy of not allowing any of our senior people to take any business sensitive data into the US on laptops. This follows incidents of data search & seizure of company laptops at US airport immigration checkpoints since Oct 2006. LAX is particularly notorious in this regard. This matter has been discussed at the highest level within the parent company. The conclusion drawn is that the US govt has implimented a covert policy of industrial espionage. We feel the Bush administration is actively engaged in corporate fascism. We were planning on expanding our business throughout the USA during 2007, but we have since switched our focus to Scandinavia and Singapore. As a consequence of this, the USA has lost all of our capital investment funds totalling $65.5m and 320+ local jobs averaging $52k per annum. Although we still wish to estabish a business network in the US, we are holding all plans to do so in abeyance until after the election. I will let you draw your own conclusion as to what our final decision will be in this regard if the Republican candidate is elected.
Interesting post but I'm not sure that disclaimer at the front of the website says what you think it says. It's not clear to me that the information they reserve all rights to is information on the senders computer. It seems to me they are referring to anything that is transmitted and stored on DHS's system.
-ep
All this that you are describing is already how Israel feels free to treat any foreign visitors -- confiscating and even erasing or breaking laptops, detaining and interrogating people suspected of no wrongdoing, inappropriately questioning journalists about their political leanings -- and let me tell you, it is hell on earth. Let's hope Obama gets elected and brings democracy back before it's too late.
I don't know if the Republicans even know what socialism actually means since even McCain's pathetically challenged sidekick is now throwing the term around.
It might be nice for them to realize the sheer hypocrisy of what they're saying.
Do you think they really want to lose this election? Let's take a ganger -
er...isn't socialism when the federal government takes control of the private sector businesses?
er....isn't that what George Bush's economic "bailout" actually did?
er....isn't that the same bailout package which John McCain also signed?
er....how does that now link Obama to socialism?
ANSWER: It doesn't.
George Bush, The Socialist, has backed this country into socialism or risk the entire collapse of our financial sector. But how did we get to this back-door socialism in the first place?
Mr. Deregulator as he self-dubbed himself and which his buddy, the now disgraced village idiot by the name of Tom Huckabee, outed about McCain on the very day that Lehman Brothers collapsed....yes, he did. He called John McCain "Mr. Deregulator" in that pundit spot and I know there is video evidence of it which will now disquality Huckabee from ever running for offica again.
But let's take a look at this self-proclaimed Mr. Deregulator - it's fact that Senator Phil Gramm of the now-infamous legislation called the Gramm/Leach/Bliley was the first to begin the deregulation process of financial institutions. John McCain was Phil Gramm's cheerleader and supporter (now Phil Gramm functions as John McCain's economic advisor - surprised??).
In fact, if the economy were going along swimmingly right now, Johnny McGambler (gambles with you and my futures) would be boasting about each move he made in the 26 years of congress to "deregulate Wall Street".
Amazing how an economic crisis changes the conversation, isn't it? And the one whose conversation would be diametrically opposite right now would be John McCain.
Graham is just the latest perp in this criminal “deregulation” conspiracy.
Reagan removed regulations against foreign ownership and communications conglomerates. We now have 5 companies controlling 99% of the information in the U.S (and Faux Noise).
Daddy Bush removed oversight into Energy Infrastructure – and we get Enron and a broken down energy grid.
There is lead contamination in 90% of our fresh water because those restrictions for coal were lifted by W. Now our forests and EPA are run by lobbyists.
Whenever oversight is gutted, costs go up, profits go through the roof, and pilfering is assured.
It is not surprising given the fact that we have a Homeland Security dept that seems to have become an entity of and to itself without input from the people or congress. It never ceases to amaze me what fear can do. OBL won. He had 19 Saudis attack the US in 2001. 7 years later we have become so fearful that we no longer behave the way we did for years. alQaeda 1 US 0.
"My worry, as an ex-pat?"
Funny you should say. As I was reading this, as an ex-pat Australian, now American citizen, I thought, if we're scrutinizing our allies, the next step is scrutinizing American citizens, who weren't born here.
After all, if you weren't born in the United States, can you really be trusted?
"After all, if you weren't born in the United States, can you really be trusted?"
Then, of course, comes the step after that: If you've got non-US relatives, even if you're a citizen since birth, can you be trusted? That of course brings me under scrutiny.
Then would be "If you've ever traveled out of the country, can you really be trusted?"
And eventually you're somewhere between North Korea and 1984. That slope is disturbingly slippery once you start walking down it.
Oh, and incidentally, as someone married to a non-citizen I get plenty of this myself--when I fly to visit my in-laws, there's no way in hell I'm going to carry any personal data with me--if MY government thinks that flying to Japan means they are allowed to pry into every bit of data I have on my person, irrespective of suspicion, reason, or even logic, it would be wrong. Especially when you consider I can send the same information to anywhere in the world in a fraction of a second from my living room.
End result? Gee, I guess I'm NOT going to be using the services of United this year. I'm a little surprised the airlines aren't more pissed about this stuff, since it's got to be affecting their bottom lines on international flights almost as much as fuel prices.
Further, if I ever need to spend some time abroad to help care for my in-laws, what happens when I come home? Have I permanently been marked as a potential terrorist for having the gall to associate with another country?
NO, you can't.
I am Canadian, and atheist and I live abroad. Since I live in South Korea, most (un-educated people aka airport screeners) people lump it together with North Korea. My sister lives in Malaysia and is a Muslim now. I visit "prorgressive" websites, and have vacationed in many Islamic and Communist countries. What do you think would happen if they run my passport through the scanner?
Our Chinese corporate masters will not be amused when we take away their laptops.
They're alread short enough as it is.
Congress and Obama are going to have to jointly abolish the DoHS, if they care about whether or not the nation continues to survive as a free society. It is an infinitely greater threat to this nation than any alleged threats they are supposedly "protecting" us from. If givn the choice, I'd take my chances with the terrorists any day, rather than choose these gestapo thugs. The odds are better.
Indeed. you have the right to dream. More opiates for the mass....
New USA tourism motto > Why Bother ? Stay Home..Avoid the Paranoid Bullshit !!! Gotta love a country that treats its guests as criminals. Unless you are Mexican of course and willing to work for squat.
Oh don't worry about it, the US even detains British ministers and treats them like shit :
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/england/we...
Oh and they did him twice .........
Of course the common person is going to get ridden by a bunch of Stamford Prison Experiment rejects ........
As an American expat in Australia, people aren't rushing to go to the States. This Visa thing has really turned them off.
Even if they disagree with America's policies, which most do, they at least viewed the States as a friendly place to visit. But this has gone too far for a lot of folks.
Agreed. I went to high school (Australian exhange student) in the US in 1983-84 - what innocent times, looking back now. In 2004 I went to my 20-year high school reunion and was looking forward to going again next year for the 25th. Think I'll pass now, which is really disappointing as I have some great friends there and really want to see them again.
Oh well, may get to take that European trip now instead.
I live in Vienna and I have had more than one Hungarian friend tell me that flying into NY now days is worse as a foreigner than traveling under Communist rule.
I read an letter in "Stars and Stripes" the newspaper of the US armed forces. The writer of the article was an serviceman who had married a German national, she had to apply for a visa, during the screening process she was asked if she had ever worked as a prostitute and did she intend to work as a prostitute in the US!
Yep, that's one of the questions I remember being asked when I was still on a student F-1 visa. Another one was whether I intend to have any children by an American national and give birth to them in the U.S.(because, you know, all Germans want to have anchor babies for the free peanut butter and the VW Routan ...). Of course, then, there's also the question about having ever supported the Nazis (I'm too young) or the Communist Party (what if I had been born in the former DDR where that was mandatory???) ... don't get me started.
Once you get used to these asinine questions, though, expect to see them over and over again, like on the Green Card application, the naturalization paperwork, any security clearance paperwork and whatnot.
Whenever travelling to the US me and my collegues order the muslim diet for the flight. Well, it is usually better than the ordinary food. But the main reason is to put a bit strain on the US screening system. European airlines are forced to inform the US officials of the passenger diets, among a host of other personal information. So here come a bunch of blue-eyed, blond scandinavians with weird names eating muslim food. So far we have been able to enter (and exit!) without too much trouble, though...
What happens if you ask for the vegetarian meal? We know they are all "traitors". Remember the GOP infiltrating vegetarian pot-lucks in Minnesota?
.. that's what it should be called.
The tabloid UK press is just loving to cover the humiliations endured by Brit 'joe six-packs'.
Many of us don't like our government's cow-towing to this stuff, it seems like ritualised humiliation.
To sum up, many non-Americans (and maybe Americans too) feel enetering the USA is entering enemy terrotiry, so we don't. I used to go to Florida to escape the mid-winter blues, but not any more. If I were going elsewhere, my first question would be, "DO we enter US airapsce?" If so, point me to a new sun destination.
Dude, I'm having my first kid in December and wanted to ask my mom and her partner to come over from Germany to meet the new baby sometime in Jan or Feb. When my mother sees that form AND the fact that it's on the *internet*, which is perceived as the most insecure form of private data transmission (at least in Germany), I can forget about asking her to meet her granddaughter.
Who the h*ll put this asinine thing together and where can we complain?
I have always known that the intrusions into people's privacy has never been about national security. The warrantless wiretaps were little more than the GOP spying on its political opposition. The sneak a peek searches, and now the theft of data from private hard drives is little more than the national security enterprise looking for insider information in business. The links between CIA and Wall Street are long and strong.
As someone from Hawaii currently on business in Japan, this FRIGHTENS me. I have been around Japan about half my life...we keep making things harder and harder for the Japanese to come to the US(particularly my state) and spend their money and help our economy. The long lines at immigration are bad. Now its worse because you have to get your fingerprints and face image taken. Now we are going to require them to fill out all kinds of information in addition to that and the customs forms, too? At some point they are going to say, You know what? Hawaii is too expensive. And America is too much of a hassle. And then our economy will start to implode. THIS is why you don't elect a president with an IQ below room temperature, folks. When he said "War on terrorism" his hick accent made it sound like "War on tourism" and that's exactly what they're waging...
The Electronic Frontier Foundation is been fighting this issue.
http://www.eff.org/press/archives/2008/05/01
The recommendation to use crypto is controversial, as I think the thugs can merely refuse entrance until you provide the password.
My recommended solution is to install a server (HP's MediaSmart Windows Home Server if only $500) and then access your data remotely over a VPN.
Gotta good laugh about the DHS answer to the privacy question in the FAQs:
Is this Web site secure and private?
Yes. This Web site is operated by the United States Government and employs technology to prevent unauthorized access to the information you enter and view. Additionally, this Web site operates under the rules and regulations as specified by the United States Privacy Act and this Privacy Statement to insure the privacy of your information.
YES! My ass. Here's that the privacy policy says:
ROUTINE USES: The information solicited on this form may be made available as a “routine use” to other government agencies to assist the Department of Homeland Security in making determinations about the alien’s eligibility to travel without a visa and for law enforcement and administration purposes. The information may be made available to the Department of State in the event the application is not approved, so that a determination can be made for issuance of a visa. Finally, the information may be made available to the carrier for verification of authorization to travel.
So other than sharing all of your private data with the government and the carriers, sure, it's private. Not.
As a Brit I've been to the States twice (1992 and 2000) when it was fairly pleasant to get in.
Transited twice LHR to Mexico City via George Bush airport in Houston - ugh! I thought it was disgusting how i was treated. The dumb passport guy asked `what brings you to the USA` it was all I could do not to say `I'm not entering your dumb land you pillock - I'm just TRANSITING`.
When transiting at Houston you have to queue with everyone else, have irises scanned, fingerprints taken and then pick up your luggage and take it to the Continental Airlines person to put on the plane. You then have to have your hand luggage checked and take your shoes off.
This all took TWO HOURS! In Europe I can do it in 40 minutes - you have your luggage taken from one plane to another and you just walk with your hand luggage to the right gate. After all it's all been screened in the UK - don't they trust the UK with the `special relationship`?
In Mexico City i'm greeted with all smiles and welcomes - what a difference!
So when I go again no I shan't be paying taxes to Houston airport but to Madrid probably.
What disgusts me even more is that American citizens aren't given this treatment when they come to the UK. I don't particularly WANT them to have that experience but what a fukking lily-livered Government in the UK to NOT do that to send a message to the States.
Sorry if I offended anyone - but this is really pulling the image of your country down.
How I want it to return to the Clinton years. Sunny, bright and hopeful - full of warm welcomes! Please Obama bring those times back.
My daughter's father is from Spain,and frequently travels to the U.S. to be with us and to do research (and we travel to Spain). Every single time he comes here he is pulled aside, interrogated, insulted, and delayed.Every single time. We don't have the choice to just not travel. He is married to someone else, so marriage is not a viable way to solve this problem. His colleagues and relatives have had such nightmare experiences traveling to the U.S. for business and tourism that they will not return. I used to love to travel. Now it's a nightmare of petty humiliations, anxiety over "security" related delays and missed connections, and frustration knowing that none of this is making us any safer. As an academic, I know that the issue of seizure of laptops can cripple research, especially when it is done around issues of human rights.
I can show up in most of the former Warsaw Pact countries with only my passport and I'll be good for at least 30 days on a tourist basis, yet in return, we make them jump through hoops to visit here at all. Whatever you may think of the illegal immigration issue, our current policy towards honest travelers from friendly countries is stupid.
In fact, I think they're trying to make them outright hate us.
They want as many wars as possible.
They want this country to be the next fascist regime. Once it is, they'll start going on the attack.
It'll be the perfect opportunity to engage in massive war profiteering on a level never before seen.
They want your land. Your homes... and most of all, they want your obedience.
They want you to be slaves. ALL of you.
Don't kid yourself. It's about more than just simple greed. They want to be powerful, and you to be powerless.
Why does America hate every one else's freedoms!
What would your founding fathers say? How has it come to this?*
*rhetorical questions, I know you are even more frustrated at the turns your country has taken.
"Business travelers in particular, rather than dark skinned young men from unfriendly Middle Eastern countries, seem to be the main targets of confiscation." That sentence made this whole article useless. Shame on C&L for endorsing it.
When it comes to entering into the states with laptops, it's best to use full disk encryption, plus use file based encryption for the files you really want to protect... and before you travel, use VPN to transfer those important files back to your home or office so even if your hard drive is confiscated, you still keep the important data. There is absolutely no reason that the government should see any of that data... ever.
‘may not be used by the DHS in exceptional cases.’
Fixed ur typo.
Agreed - it's a shame that US citizens are forced to fear re-entering their own country and worry about their personal data and belongings being confiscated.
The knee-jerk reaction for a "Furrenner" visiting the US is that this is pretty bad. Not so really, its just a little extra form filling. Being an outsider entering the US is a pain anyway - six queues for emigration for US citizens (all 10 of them) and one queue for the rest (usually a couple of hundred).
We visited the US this summer and apart from the above I found more frustration getting my hire car from Hertz than getting into the country. I carried a laptop and nobody wanted to see what was on it. And even if they did I had all my "stuff" on a seperate encrypted USB pen anyway. The people apart were nice and we had a great time.
This does happen in reverse. We took a US friend on holiday to Spain and when returning to the UK she was made to wait until all the other EU citizens had been "passed" and then she was asked loads of extra questions. No point really, the UK border people would have no idea whether she was telling the truth anyway as their systems are crap.
All of this is meaningless.
I challenge anyone to state a terrorist attack which has been prevented by ID or border checks. The 9/11 perps all had valid ID, as did the 7/7 ones, Madrid, Bali etc. The 21/7 failures were identified not from ID but from photos posted in the media - their friends (muslim) and community (mostly muslim) ID'd them to the police very quickly. Quite scary seeing as they want to kill us all. I would like to know what ID cards would add to help with that ?
This (and the pathetic response action from the UK/EU) is all smoke and mirrors. It will mean lots of wasted time and money for absolutely no effect whatsoever. We (UK) have committed to spending $1tn to rescue/support banks in the UK. This will come from me as a taxpayer. Yet nobody is really asking if the $50bn ($100bn) we will end up spending on ID cards is really worth it.
Somebody is "working" this system.
OK. Full disclosure, bruv. I stay wif eastendas.
When I went through Heathrow, I'd queue and when I'd say blah blah The Avenue Surbiton, they'd look in The Big Book of Naughty Addresses. No mention of Tom and Barbara, Margo and Jerry, either.
At any rate, it was very hard for me to stifle laughter, in 1991, 1992. It was like a clerk's ledger, from a BBC Dickens drama.
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