Air America breaking news: "USA to fingerprint ALL visitors !!!"

Chad Irby wrote:

The folks from countries with government-sponsored health care,with
the government knowing the results of their last rectal exams,


Is that the case for US seniors on Medicare?

[In full retirement swing by the baby boomers, a third of the US
will be under Medicare ... 2:1 worker to retiree ratio, etc.]

gld

On Sun, 04 Apr 2004 02:13:03 GMT, Chad Irby wrote:

In article ,
Peter Kemp wrote:

Still takes too bloody long though - of the 30+ countries I've been
to, entering over half I've never had to spend more than 20 seconds at
immigration (and quite often just walk past showing the *outside* of
my UK passport), and I'll be buggered if they're getting my
fingerprints without a fight.

Really funny.

The folks from countries with government-sponsored health care, with the
government knowing the results of their last rectal exams, are worried
about fingerprints...

The US identifies terrorists by the results of their latest rectal
exams? Damn, you folks really have got a lot of data these days!

And in case you hadn't noticed, there's a difference in MY doctor
knowing my medical records and not being able to hand them to the
authorities without a court order (just like the US in fact), and a
government not my own wanting my prints in case I someday do something
naughty.

Too subtle for you?

---
Peter Kemp

Life is short - drink faster

On Sat, 03 Apr 2004 19:18:12 -0500, Peter Kemp
wrote:

On Sat, 03 Apr 2004 15:32:04 -0400, nobody wrote:

Peter Kemp wrote:
I'm just glad I get an exemption from the process thanks to a nice
shiny government visa, because otherwise I would *ot* come to the US

I thought it was currently the opposite: all those entering on a visa are fingerprinted.
In october, it will be all travellers whether on a real visa, or a 90 day visa waiver.

For standard tourist visas you are correct, anyone holding one goes
through the process. I've got a different type of visa as I'm in the
US on UK government business. Which is exempt from the procedures (and
also means that I tend to spend less time at immigration even than US
citizens).
Still takes too bloody long though - of the 30+ countries I've been
to, entering over half I've never had to spend more than 20 seconds at
immigration (and quite often just walk past showing the *outside* of
my UK passport), and I'll be buggered if they're getting my
fingerprints without a fight.

---

That surprises me. You must have a very special visa. Even the visas
that airline crews hold have required them to be fingerprinted and
photographed each time they enter the US since January this year. Air
New Zealand crew members were telling me it routinely takes them an
hour to get through the formalities at LAX.
--==++AJC++==--

In message , AJC
writes
On Sat, 03 Apr 2004 19:18:12 -0500, Peter Kemp
wrote:
For standard tourist visas you are correct, anyone holding one goes
through the process. I've got a different type of visa as I'm in the
US on UK government business. Which is exempt from the procedures (and
also means that I tend to spend less time at immigration even than US
citizens).

That surprises me. You must have a very special visa.

Not that special - mine's the same.

--
When you have to kill a man, it costs nothing to be polite.
W S Churchill

Paul J. Adam MainBoxatjrwlynch[dot]demon{dot}co(.)uk

Brian wrote:
So how can we identify a person other than fingerprints? Passports, DLs, and
every other form of ID have been no problem to duplicate for terrorists.

And just how will the usa verify your fingerprints ? If you're a foreigner who
has never been to the USA, your fingerprints will be "virgin". So terrorists
will now know that they can only travel once to the USA since on a second
attempt, they might be spotted.

Where this would make a difference is if someone with same fingerprints enters
with different identity. They might be able to spot them.

What remains to be seen is whether computers really have the ability to match
fingerprints in real-time over such a high volume database since it won't be
just criminals anymore, it will be all visitors.

Where will it stop ? Will the USA then ask for a blood sample so that they can
register your complete DNA ?

In article , nobody
wrote:

Brian wrote:
So how can we identify a person other than fingerprints? Passports,
DLs, and every other form of ID have been no problem to duplicate
for terrorists.

And just how will the usa verify your fingerprints ?

By comparing them to known terrorists. Pretty simple, really. They can
fake IDs (or get them issued "officially" from many countries), but it's
a bit harder to fake fingerprints.

If you're a foreigner who has never been to the USA, your
fingerprints will be "virgin".

Not so. We have a lot of records of known bad guys from other sources.

--
cirby at cfl.rr.com

Remember: Objects in rearview mirror may be hallucinations.
Slam on brakes accordingly.

"Chad Irby" wrote in message
om...
In article , nobody
wrote:

Brian wrote:
So how can we identify a person other than fingerprints? Passports,
DLs, and every other form of ID have been no problem to duplicate
for terrorists.

And just how will the usa verify your fingerprints ?

By comparing them to known terrorists. Pretty simple, really. They can
fake IDs (or get them issued "officially" from many countries), but it's
a bit harder to fake fingerprints.

If you're a foreigner who has never been to the USA, your
fingerprints will be "virgin".

Not so. We have a lot of records of known bad guys from other sources.

"Bad guys"? I now realise you are a teenager.

nobody wrote:

And just how will the usa verify your fingerprints ? If you're a foreigner who
has never been to the USA, your fingerprints will be "virgin". So terrorists
will now know that they can only travel once to the USA since on a second
attempt, they might be spotted.



A good point, unless one of the dozen or so uncoordinated US watch lists
happen to be updated with information from MI5, all of the eight British
citizens arrested on terror charges last week, with clean records, would
have gotten into the US with return tickets and reservations for Disney-
world.

gld

In rec.travel.usa-canada AJC wrote:

Having finger-prints taken for a driving licence? Maybe in Cuba, the
former DDR, or some other 'big brother' regime, but certainly not in
any free country. Finger-printing is for criminals.

So you must be familiar with the process.

Seriously, driver's licenses are used as ID in the US.

Try to think. Figure it out. Oh wait. Nex

On Sat, 3 Apr 2004 17:30:05 +0000 (UTC), Alan Pollock
wrote:

In rec.travel.usa-canada AJC wrote:

Having finger-prints taken for a driving licence? Maybe in Cuba, the
former DDR, or some other 'big brother' regime, but certainly not in
any free country. Finger-printing is for criminals.

So you must be familiar with the process.

Seriously, driver's licenses are used as ID in the US.


And your point is what? Driving licences are used as a form of
identification in many countries whose governments don't keep a
database of innocent citizens' fingerprints.

--==++AJC++==--