U.S., EU Agree To Share Air Passenger Data

Congress Also Set To Approve New Visa-Waiver Law, Excluding Some Allied Countries

(CBS/AP)  The outline of the visa program began to take shape in a security bill agreed upon Wednesday by negotiators from the House of Representatives and the Senate. The Senate approved it late Thursday, and the House was expected to pass the bill as early as Friday, sending it to the president to sign into law.

In many of the new EU countries whose citizens still would require visas, inclusion in the visa-waiver program has become a sensitive political issue and a subject of intense diplomatic discussion with the United States. Many NATO members have complained that their support of U.S. operations in Iraq and Afghanistan has not won them entry into the program.

Polish President Lech Kaczynski raised the issue with Mr. Bush during a visit to the White House. The administration has expressed support for a limited expansion of the program as a way to reward allies.

The bill moving for final legislative action would make it difficult for many other countries to qualify by setting technical requirements based on the number of a country's citizens who have been denied visas or exceeded their legal stays in the United States.

One provision requires that countries demonstrate that fewer than 10 percent of recent applicants for U.S. visas have been denied.

According to State Department statistics for the first six months of this year provided by the office of Sen. Joe Lieberman, I-Conn., who chaired the negotiations on the final bill, countries including Romania, Poland, Lithuania, Latvia, Slovakia and Hungary would not qualify. Most of those countries come in close to the 10 percent requirement, but Poland and Romania had more than 25 percent of their applicants rejected.

The Czech Republic and Estonia currently would meet the requirement, as would South Korea, which also has made clear it wanted to join the program.

On Thursday, Poland expressed disappointment that the legislation would not allow its immediate entry into the program.

"We will continue our campaign to convince members of the U.S. Congress that including Poland into the visa waiver program would strengthen security of the United States, would enhance the security of travelers and would strengthen political and cultural ties between the United States and Central European countries," said the press attaché in the Polish Embassy in Washington, Pawel Maciag.

Earlier drafts of the legislation that would have made it easier for countries to qualify foundered on opposition from some lawmakers worried about insecure borders and illegal immigration.

Congressional aides say that the bill allows for some flexibility. Countries seeking entry must demonstrate their eligibility to the U.S. Department of Homeland Security. Aides said that if the countries demonstrate eligibility over time by implementing stricter policies to monitor their citizens' travel to the United States, they could be added.

Senator George Voinovich, R-Ohio, an advocate of expanding the program, said the legislation would allow many more countries to join eventually.

"I believe it may only be a matter of time until all of our allies are brought into this new program, once everyone sees this is a more secure and efficient system for promoting travel and business," he said.

[abbe91]

"Our front-line personnel did not have this tool on September 11th," Chertoff said. "Investigations after the attacks showed that PNR (passenger name record) data would have, within a matter of moments, helped to identify many of the 19 hijackers by linking their methods of payment, phone numbers and seat assignments."

(The four hijacked planes involved in the September 11 attacks were domestic flights originating from Boston, Newark and Washington, D.C.)"

Why the parentheses around the last sentence ?
It should be in bold, just to show that Chertoff doesn't know what he is talking about !!!

[feelfree1]

Re: "The Skinny: U.S. Signs Deal With Europe To Share Racial, Religious, Political Traveler Data"

HEIL!!!!!!!!!!

[zootallures2]

"The new deal limits covers 19 pieces of data, including passenger names, addresses, seat numbers, credit card information..."

Credit card information? Yea, I hear Discover is paying double bonus points for each terrorist event you charge over twelve thousand dollars.