I only wish they were joking

I know I have said I don’t want to go to the US until they restore habeas corpus, but this is another reason I do not want to go back to the country of my birth. Will the EU cave? Who knows. However, I can see that no matter how cheap the shopping, a great drop in tourist and business trips by Europeans. As for the flyover requirements...do they think a passenger is going to open a door and drop a bomb out, then go back to the in-flight movie?

From the Guardian

“The US administration is pressing the 27 governments of the European Union to sign up for a range of new security measures for transatlantic travel, including allowing armed guards on all flights from Europe to America by US airlines.

“The demand to put armed air marshals on to the flights is part of a travel clampdown by the Bush administration that officials in Brussels described as “blackmail” and “troublesome”, and could see west Europeans and Britons required to have US visas if their governments balk at Washington’s requirements.

“According to a US document being circulated for signature in European capitals, EU states would also need to supply personal data on all air passengers overflying but not landing in the US in order to gain or retain visa-free travel to America, senior EU officials said.

“And within months the US department of homeland security is to impose a new permit system for Europeans flying to the US, compelling all travellers to apply online for permission to enter the country before booking or buying a ticket, a procedure that will take several days. (DL--sure hope no European has to visit a relative that is on the verge of dying and needs to get there quick)

“The data from the US’s new electronic transport authorisation system is to be combined with extensive personal passenger details already being provided by EU countries to the US for the “profiling” of potential terrorists and assessment of other security risks.

“Washington is also asking European airlines to provide personal data on non-travellers - for example family members - who are allowed beyond departure barriers to help elderly, young or ill passengers to board aircraft flying to America, a demand the airlines reject as “absurd”.

Absurd is the word...To make America safe perhaps we should stop starting wars all over the planet, do away with the World Bank and the IMF policies, stop our economic terroism and raping other countries of their resources.