Quote:
Originally posted by hobbes@4 January 2004 - 06:59
Only American citizens have the rights of freedom our people have.
The rest are here as visitors and we would like to know who you are. To make things simple, we could just close our doors period. You are not needed here for any reason. 9/11 would never have happened at all.
By letting the foreigners in, all we do is expose ourselves to risk without any possible benefit.
Perhaps had we known more about those we were training to fly, maybe they would never have been given access to their lessons.
Didn't one fellow tell his teacher that he did not care how to land, only take off?
Photos and fingerprints are used for routine granting of professional licenses here in the US. Not as an invasion of privacy, but to preserve the integrity of that field.
i still don't see how having the fingerprints of the 9/11 hijackers would have stopped it happening. perhaps it had more to do with the security for internal flights at the time ..we would just have known how many callouses they had.
the one saying he had no interest in take off or landing should have raised alarms but again his fingerprints would have helped none unless they had intelligence on him in the first place...as i said they will use unknown new recruits.
as for non Americans not bringing any benefits..well it was estimated in congress that America would lose (i read this in some newspaper) $28 billion generated by tourism from countries on the visa waiver program should they decide to end it (people put off if they need visas).......technology.........blah blah..etc.etc.
as pointed out there is a difference between a family of british tourists going to see mickey mouse and a vocational license...however i must point out that british tourists won't be fingerprinted as they are in the visa waiver program.
regardless of all the debate it's going to happen. i just hope it serves its purpose and doesn't alienate the USA from the rest of the world at a time when it needs friends.
