The EU and the US have agreed a deal on sharing data on all airline passengers crossing the Atlantic as part of the fight against terrorism.

It means that most personal details given at check-in will be sent to the US as soon as passengers leave Europe.

The deal ends months of talks and comes despite protests over loss of privacy from the European parliament.

In a compromise move, the US is allowed to keep the data for 3.5 years but restrictions govern who can see it.

The details will include a wide range of information, such as addresses, date of birth, credit card numbers, how many people are travelling together and how many bags they are carrying.

In fact, most of the data passengers give when they buy a ticket or check in at an airport will be sent ahead of them so US customs can assess whether they may be a terrorist or a criminal, says the BBC's Jon Leyne in Washington.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/americas/3326279.stm

I hope the EU is asking the US for data about passengers from the US (not just Americans) who are entering the EU. The EU has and continues to experience terrorism within its member countries...



NC Penguin

One thing i can't fathom out is why US immigration and customs guys wear uniforms so they look like soldiers and carry big guns. As if anybody is going to step off a plane with a loaded shooter???? Any ideas, maybe more of the gun culture????

Whenever I travel through London airports now I see cops walking around cradling submachine guns in their arms. I suppose someone has to provide security with all the nuts there are around today - but I still don't really feel comfortable about it, although at home I do in fact discreetly carry my own weapon
( not a submachine gun of course) for protection.
Although I have never seen an incident at Customs or Immigration which necessitated the use of force maybe the mere fact that the officers are armed prevents the commisssion of any violent act by criminals.

The menacing, in your face look of those people is threefold:

boosts the employees morale and gives them confidence
scares the "sh*t" out of any foolhardy would-be terrorist (well, maybe some of them)
gives some members of the public some reassurance that the government has taken action to "protect" them.

My comments are partly in tongue in cheek so don't take them too seriously.




NC Penguin

I just want to feel safe on an airplane guys. I can't help sparing thoughts as to what was going on in those aircraft, the sheer terror of it all as some raghead fanatics are about to slam it into a building.
F*****g bastards.

I agree. But I can't figure out how a bunch of IQ-free idiots in uniform with a giant badge pinned to their chest, carrying a gun and calling themselves "immigration officers" would have prevent this. All they do is pissing off harmless and decent tourists or travellers. Or how about answering questions on immigration forms "Do you attempt to carry out terrorist attacks while you are staying in the US" Yes/No? This will surely stop any terrorist?! "Oh wait, Ahmed - we have to fill out those forms before we enter the US. Maybe we should call it off?"

LOL.....true enough.

I have to agree with Bob Kerrey on this one heres what he said in the New Yorker.

'At a time when traumatized Manhattan denizens have stocked up on bottled water, packed escape kits, and plotted kayak routes to Jersey, Kerrey has taken the ultimate conversation-stopping tack. He rails repeatedly that we’ve become a city and a nation of wimps, unduly terrified by terrorism. It’s an unlikely stance given his Senate Intelligence Committee background, but Kerrey genuinely believes that the horrors of September 11 were an aberration, made possible by airline rules encouraging pilots and passengers to turn over control of planes to hijackers rather than to fight back. “All we had to do was change that one rule,� Kerrey told the educators at the Hyatt. “I think this administration has overreacted to the threat to our soil. If we took all the money we’re spending on security and threw it out the window, I’d feel just as safe. I’m in a small minority, but I’m not afraid of terrorism in America.�


regards,

Duncan

It's a point of view, maybe or maybe not true. It's generally accepted, however, that these bastards began systematically killing cabin crew to force the flight crew from the flight deck. What a decision, on their part, that must have been to make, rules or no rules.

Just out of interest... has anyone else had to show their green card in the UK? on my last trip I did when returning to the US (on a BMI flight) I was asked to show my green card (in manchester airport) which they fed through a machine... anyone else have to do this?

Ash

The Israelis manage it they have strict no open rules and the pilots are trained to throw the plane into radical dives to throw the hijackers to the roof and so injure them instead. Bottom line whats worse a few dead stewardesses or everyone on the plane driven into a building?

regards,

Duncan

Depends if one of them was your wife, or sister I guess.

Not really. It's a grim alternative to have to face but if the choice was my wife or sister dead when everyone on board died, or just my wife or sister dead then I would have to be an extraordinarily selfish person to say that it would be better for all on board to be dead than only my nearest-and-dearest.

True....now nuff of this, it's morbid