Welcome to the land of the free
As you know, foreigners between the ages of 14 and 79 who visit the USA must submit to fingerprint scans before they can enter the Land of the Free. This is part of Homeland Security’s “US-VISIT” program, which requires tourists to put all ten digits on a scanner that matches them against a national watch-list of undesirables.
The only exceptions are visitors from 27 nations (mostly European) whose citizens are allowed to visit the USA for up to 90 days without visas.
Visitors can also avoid the scan if they are from the oil-rich country of Brunei, or if they are Mexican nationals with a government-issued ID card. (Surprise, surprise.)
However visitors from all Muslim nations must submit to this.
Other countries are reciprocating. Brazil, for example, is not happy about the U.S. program. Americans who visit Brazil – and only Americans – must submit to a fingerprint scan. Other nations will soon follow suit.
Dulles airport has required partial fingerprint scans for a year or more, but as of 29 Nov 07, the airport required scans of all ten digits. The next airports to have this system will be (in this order) Atlanta International Airport; Boston Logan International Airport; Chicago O'Hare International Airport; San Francisco International Airport; George Bush Houston Intercontinental Airport; Miami International Airport; Detroit Metropolitan Airport; Orlando International Airport; and New York's John F. Kennedy International Airport.
Eventually the fingerprint program will be at all 115 U.S. airports that handle international flights, plus 14 U.S. seaports, plus 278 ground entry points.
Tourism throughout the rest of the world has increased 20 percent since 9-11, while visitors to the USA have dropped 17 percent. If the dollar had not been devalued, the drop in U.S. visits would be much more than 17 percent.
Welcome to Bush’s war on tourism.
..is it just me, or does chertoff look like some kind of demon?
Since the day the US decided to receive foreigners as though they were convicts, I like hundreds of thousands throughout the world decided NEVER AGAIN TO EVEN THINK OF TRAVELING TO THE US, LET ALONE SPENDING ONE OF MY DOLLARS HELPING THE US TOURIST INDUSTRY OR ECONOMY. Of course tourism (and even business related tourism) has decreased in the US and increased in the rest of the world. Investment has also much increased in the Arab world because rich Saudis and Arabs don't much like investing their money in a country that can't show them the least bit of respect. We in the Arab world are eagerly awaiting more and more Saudi withdrawal of investments from the US.
Consider this: The US and its Zionist masters have declared that their life revolves around the war against 'terror' or better said againt Islam. On the other hand, the Saudis are major investors in the US. The US/Zionist regime also wants to bomb the hell out of Iran thus spoiling all investments in the Emirates and the bordering states to Iran... Are the Saudis going to watch silently? Are the Emirates (also US allies) going to watch silently? Arab tourism and investments have already tremendously increased those past years into countries like Egypt.. and check out Libya lately...
I am not an expert on finance.., but I find this issue very interesting.
..they ain't getting my prints or biometrics; with my consent!!!
..but then again, i vowed never to go to Yankeeland ever again, a dozen years ago, after a couple very bad experiences.