DHS Will Now Vet UK Air Passengers To Mexico, Canada, Cuba 417
First time accepted submitter illtud writes "From April, UK passengers flying to Mexico, Eastern Canada or Cuba will have to submit their details at least 72 hours before boarding to the U.S. Department of Homeland Security for pre-flight vetting (as all passengers to the U.S. itself have had to do for a while). If they find against you, you're not getting on the plane, even though you're not going to the U.S. The Independent (UK quality newspaper) has the story."
Emigration vs Immigration control (Score:5, Insightful)
This is an interesting step; in general countries are a lot more strict on entering their territory than leaving it. There are some circumstances where you'd want to control exit (if someone is fleeing law enforcement for some reason, avoiding child custody or the like), but I wonder if that's the intent of this policy shift or if it's something else.
Huh? (Score:5, Insightful)
I'm a mature, naturally calm person never prone to profane outbursts, but the U.S. needs to fuck off.
Flying over US airspace. (Score:1, Insightful)
Re:Already happening (Score:2, Insightful)
Our freedom is limited by the government who agreed to surrender our sovereignty to the US
Re:Flying over US airspace. (Score:5, Insightful)
UK -> Canada never comes near US airspace.
Re:Already happening (Score:5, Insightful)
Fantastic idea Mr Moron.
Now, do you realise how many other countries airspace YOUR carriers fly over? How many of their laws are not
forced upon your carriers? Would you like them enforced?
There are international agreements and standards for these things, DHS just doesnt believe they have to comply
with anyones agreements (including it seems their own countries in many cases..)
And even more to the point, assuming the 'perceived risk' is someone taking control of the aircraft to crash it, how
would this safer if they took control outside US airspace, then flew in? aircraft can change course you know..
Its all just the most disgusting form of empire building and powerplays by DHS, as they have proved again and
again, I hope you are enjoying losing your freedoms slice at a time.
There are so many other actually useful things that could be focused on, but instead we just have endless security
theatre, empire building, and red tape to punish those who do follow the rules. IT seems so far more crime has been
created by DHS (all the stolen luggage, privacy violations, personal violations, etc) than stopped.
Re:If not A'Fools, airpace may be the key word (Score:4, Insightful)
I'm reasonably certain that the possibility of airspace was a convenient excuse for the real reason: it is damn easy to get into the US from Canada and Mexico.
Re:Flying over US airspace. (Score:5, Insightful)
How inconvenient is it going to be if every other country in the world insists on vetting all US carrier passengers flying over THEIR airspace? As a US citizen you might have to have your flight plans checked by several different countries for a single flight. And some of those countries not particularly nice countries at that.
Enjoy your flight!
Re:Flying over US airspace. (Score:5, Insightful)
Never mind your emotional response at something you saw. What are the statistics?
Last I saw flying was still the safest form of transport. And the chance of a building being hit by hijacked plane is tiny. You're in way more danger driving, crossing the road, walking under ladders. etc.
These ever increasing security measures are not worth the inconvenience nor the cost.
Re:The US will enforce this (Score:2, Insightful)
(Idiot mouthbreather who doesn't have a calendar in his mom's basement, thinks the US is terrible and Iran is a world leader)
(Idiot in his mom's basement, who can't write clear sentences to save his life (of course dskoll has no calendar in his mom's basement, why would he keep his calendars there rather than in his own home?), who didn't bother Reading The Fine Article to see that it's dated March 26th, not April 1st, and who thinks anybody who criticizes the US about anything not only thinks everything about it is terrible but also thinks Iran is a world leader)
Re:The US will enforce this (Score:5, Insightful)
... and here's how. "Oh, you won't comply? Guess you don't want your airline to have landing rights in the US, then."
That only works for airlines that want/need to land on US airports.
So, why, then, is Canadian Affair [canadianaffair.com] complying (if the claim in the article that they are is true), as I see no evidence on their Web site that they land in the US? Perhaps some of their flights cross US airspace, and the US might deny them the right to do so if they don't impose those restrictions on all travelers even for flights that don't cross US airspace. Or perhaps they're being beaten into complying by their government or the UK government under pressure from the US government.
Re:Huh? (Score:5, Insightful)
If we were prone to fucking off, you'd be speaking German or Russian right now.
If we were prone to fucking off, Iran might have a reasonable secular democracy now [wikipedia.org]. Just because certain US actions might have achieved good goals, that does not mean that all US actions are quite so beneficial. And, in this particular case (just as in the cases of, say, the coups against Arbenz in Guatemala, Mossadegh in Iran, and Allende in Chile), in this particular case, the world (and, for this case, the US) would be better off if we truly did fuck off.
Re:Emigration vs Immigration control (Score:5, Insightful)
If it was ever not justified for other countries to detest the USA, the valid reasons sure keep cropping up.
Re:Already happening (Score:5, Insightful)
Our rules are the rules of fucking cowards and everyone should be pissed that they need to abide by them.
The US shits its pants when it faces sheep herders armed with box cutters. Nothing is more delicious than the irony of a fat cowardly American happily getting his freedom fondles at a TSA check point, while at the same time stuffing another Big Mac into his diabetic maw. The fucking terrorist are not going to kill you. Grow up and stop being such a fucking child. Diabetes, heart disease, or cancer is going to kill your fat ass. Your shitty eating habits will kill you, your spouse, your children, your friends, and pretty the vast majority of everyone you know. The fucking terrorist are not going to kill you. They are not scary, you are just a fucking coward that shits himself at the absurdly small one in a million chance that you might die in a way more exotic that choking on the food your jammed into your diabetic maw.
If you are a coward, do everyone a favor and instead of making them get molested and spied upon to sooth your child like cowards fears, stop flying and stop voting. You are clearly too pathetic and cowardly to just suck it up and accept that there is an absurdly small chance that you might die to a terrorist. The least you can do is be brave enough to fuck off so that all of the non-cowards don't need pay for your cowardice.
Re:Emigration vs Immigration control (Score:5, Insightful)
Which is fine if you don't live or travel anywhere near the US, Canada, Mexico, or Cuba. But seeing as how I live in Canada this rule pretty much means I can't travel anywhere without oodles of stress waiting to see if they accidentally confused me with someone else. The idea I need the express permission of a foreign country I have no intention of travelling to before I travel is, frankly, complete and utter bullshit.
In effect the US Government has made prisoners of the citizenry of four nations, including their own, unless of course we're willing to give up what tiny shred of personal rights and freedoms they've deigned let us keep.
Re:Emigration vs Immigration control (Score:5, Insightful)
I sincerely hope this gets challenged that way. I am getting thoroughly sick of the American Empire and its Imperialist ways.
Of course, Harper is charge still and the Conservatives believe in sucking up to the US, so even if it was determined this was illegal under Canadian law, nothing would ever be done.
Re:Emigration vs Immigration control (Score:4, Insightful)
Let's not forget the airlines. There's no legal way to enforce this (well, they might have an agreement in place with the UK govt), so it's most likely that BA et al are willingly complying so that they don't get shut out of US airports.