|
ATLANTA, Georgia (CNN) -- Up to
28 million visitors to the United States now have to stop for photographs and
fingerprinting under a new government program launched Monday and intended to
make it harder for terrorists to enter the country. By October, all visitors will be required to have a
machine-readable passport or some other method of biometric identification,
such as fingerprints or retina scans. "As the world community combats terrorism ... you're
going to see more and more countries going to a form of biometric
identification to confirm identities," Ridge said. Citizens from more than two dozen countries, mostly in Visitors from exempt countries who are working in the "We want visitors from abroad to continue to come to
the Ridge acknowledged that US-VISIT -- United States Visitor
and Immigrant Status Indicator Technology -- will only cover a small fraction
of the estimated 500 million annual visitors to the United States, but he said
the program was but the "first significant step in a series of steps"
the government plans to take in the coming months and years. Outside of Europe, the exempt countries include The U.S. Department of Homeland Security says the goal of
the US-VISIT program is to track the millions of people who come to the Critics say the broad-reaching program will cause
unnecessary travel delays and may never prove to be effective. "There's so much information in such volumes that
there's a limit to what any analyst can absorb," said Larry Johnson, an
aviation security consultant. Faiz Rehman, president of the National Council of
Pakistani-Americans, points to the disruption in travel. "Without proper training, there will be long lines,
there will be missed flights, there will be people who would be wrongly
stopped," Rehman said. Outside the In reaction to the Ridge said that "if the Brazilian government thinks
it's in their interests (to fingerprint and photograph Americans), so be
it." "It's not two standards, one for the The Homeland Security spokesman Bill Strassberger said once
screeners become proficient, the extra security will take only 10 to 15 seconds
per person, The Associated Press reported. Inkless fingerprints will be taken and checked instantly
against a digital database for criminal backgrounds and any terrorist lists.
The process will be repeated when visitors leave the Pentagon
official: Fighter jets shadow airliners Heightened security concerns and the raised terror alert
level prompted American fighter jets to "cover" commercial passenger
aircraft over the "Covering" means that military aircraft on combat
air patrols escort or shadow a commercial aircraft because of possible terror
concerns. The official indicated that Code Orange is expected to last
for several more days, possibly through the end of January. "We are still in the threat zone," he said. The
threat condition is based on a stream of information indicating a credible
threat involving the possibility of simultaneous attacks in the Monday, Ridge that the delays and cancellations of British
Airways flights since Wednesday were justified by the intelligence that led to
them. Without elaboration, Ridge told ABC's "Good Morning
America," "We think you err on the side of public safety when you
have a threat targeting a specific flight." On NBC's "Today," the secretary said that
"there was specific information regarding those flights." (Full
story)
Jen -- |
_______________________________________________ Sndbox mailing list [EMAIL PROTECTED] http://a8.mewebdns-a8.com/mailman/listinfo/sndbox_sandboxmail.net
