USA doesn’t like Tourists?
By Oli
At 12:43 PM · Friday, 31 October · 2003
To Life
It sounds like the after-effects of September 11th are finally becoming visible in North America’s airports. A Wired.com article titled US to Install Biometric Systems
details the installation of systems to analyze people’s pictures and fingerprints by computer, supposedly to make it harder for ‘dem naughty terrorists. It contains this nugget:
A person whose fingerprints or photos raise questions would not be turned away automatically. The visa holder would be sent to secondary inspection for further questions and checks. False hits on the system have been less than 0.1 percent, officials said
The US Government’s Office of Travel and Tourism Industries website predicts 42,158,000 people will visit USA in 2004. 0.1% of this is a rather hefty 42,000 false hits. Given that US Customs agents aren’t famous for their nice treatment of suspected naughty people this doesn’t bode well.
The best quote in the article is from Dexter Koehl, the Trave Industry Association of America’s spokesperson
It has to be effective and in fact improve security, and it has to do it without adding a really onerous burden to travelers to the United States
Given all of the September 11th terrorists entered the USA legally, I wonder how effective this will be? TheMy general impression is of a tremendously expensive system, yet to be proven or even fully implemented, that makes every passenger feel like they have something to be guilty for. I think the OTTI’s predicted tourism growth figures are going to be optimistic onceif negative experience stories start to spread.
Addendum: Maybe US Customs should team up with the RIAA — they seem to have the same view of people; guilty despite proof of innocence ;-)
Discussion...
- 1. Comment by iMorpheus · 7 Jan, 2004 · 11:07 AM
- Good news:
- Citizens from 27 countries plus Canada can travel to the United States without a visa and are exempt from being fingerprinted and photographed at U.S. airports and seaports under a new anti-terrorism program…
- EXEMPT COUNTRIES:
Andorra, Austria, Australia, Belgium, Brunei, Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, Iceland, Ireland, Italy, Japan, Liechtenstein, Luxembourg, Monaco, Netherlands, New Zealand, Norway, Portugal, San Marino, Singapore, Slovenia, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland and the United Kingdom (for citizens with the unrestricted right of permanent abode in England, Scotland, Wales, Northern Ireland, Channel Islands and Isle of Man)
