Dept. of Homeland Security wants *all* of us on a no-travel list?

[Herbert Anchovy]

No, no plot, this is your government.

 

[Oz]

No, no plot, this is your government.

I swear, I feel like I'm dreaming sometimes. I always believed things like that would never happen in my America or John Mellencamp's America. Maybe Saddam would suspect innocent citizens leaving the country of being up to no good, but certainly not our president. Damn.

 

[dog428]

Maybe I'm missing the part about having to ask for permission to leave the country -- completely possible, given the length and language in that link No One provided -- but from what I gathered, this is a proposal that would require airlines to forward passenger lists a little earlier so Homeland Security (or whoever) would have more time to keep suspected terrorists off planes.

Certainly, if they plan to use the no-fly list, this is gonna be a huge problem for a few people. You might've heard this, but those lists aren't so accurate.

But I just didn't see the part in there where we would all have to apply for permission to enter or leave the country. Did I just overlook it?

 

[spnited]

My sister is in the travel industry, goes back and forth to Europe like I go to the supermarket. Just spent the swekend in Stockholm on a SAS sponsored junket.
The big concern about this is the governement will start to question people like her, or businessmen who travel overseas a lot -- much of her clientele -- because they go in and out of the country so often.

The government wants passenger lists in advance so they can approve everyone on the flight before it takes off to leave the country and before it takes off from a foreign country bound for US, at least that's how people in travel industry are reading this.

Good way to kill of another couple of airlines as well as hold us all hostage to the Bush Nazis.

 

[JayFarrar]

Just a matter of time before we are all required to get a visa, or some other document, to travel from state-to-state.

 

[JR]

It's a 28 page document. Everyone should read it.

This is an extension of the regulations already in place for commercial shipments. So, in addition to applying advance manifest regulations to widgets, they're now going to apply it to travellers.

The document refers to preventing "high-risk travellers" from boarding the plane but as we all know, a combination of stupidity and racial profiling can lead to all sorts of ****-ups.

 

[Pastor]

If you loved America you would never leave.

 

[kingcreole]

If you loved America you would never leave.

That's a great point! I need to tell my brother that one. ;)

 

[spnited]

Actaully, leaving would not be nearly as big a problem as returning ... your US passport alone would not guarantee that you would be allowed back in the country.

 

[Pastor]

If you loved America you would never leave.

That's a great point! I need to tell my brother that one. ;)

KC, I'm in the same boat as your brother, just remove the kids and change Japan to China.

However, because of the GOP initiative, I am re-evaluating things. Maybe I don't need to visit my in-laws. Hell, if they were rightious enough people they would have chosen to be born in America and would never leave!

 

[Football_Bat]

That tears it. I'm driving to London next time.

 

[Oz]

That tears it. I'm driving to London next time.

I don't know if I could drive all that way. Besides, I've always wanted to take that double-decker bus.

 

[Point of Order]

Welcome to the United Soviet States of America, apparently.

If true, then there's no question: We have to fire them. All of them. No exceptions.

October 26, 2006

Forget no-fly lists. If Uncle Sam gets its way, beginning on Jan. 14, 2007, we'll all be on no-fly lists, unless the government gives us permission to leave-or re-enter-the United States.

The U.S. Department of Homeland Security (HSA) has proposed that all airlines, cruise lines-even fishing boats-be required to obtain clearance for each passenger they propose taking into or out of the United States.

It doesn't matter if you have a U.S. Passport - a "travel document" that now, absent a court order to the contrary, gives you a virtually unqualified right to enter or leave the United States, any time you want. When the DHS system comes into effect next January, if the agency says "no" to a clearance request, or doesn't answer the request at all, you won't be permitted to enter-or leave-the United States.

Consider what might happen if you're a U.S. passport holder on assignment in a country like Saudi Arabia. Your visa is about to expire, so you board your flight back to the United States. But wait! You can't get on, because you don't have permission from the HSA. Saudi immigration officials are on hand to escort you to a squalid detention center, where you and others who are now effectively "stateless persons" are detained, potentially indefinitely, until their immigration status is sorted out.

Why might the HSA deny you permission to leave-or enter-the United States? No one knows, because the entire clearance procedure would be an administrative determination made secretly, with no right of appeal.

http://sianews.com/modules.php?name=News&file=article&sid=3023
(currently slashdotted because of Slashdot linking to it)

That's what unilateral one-part rule will get you every time.