EU and US deadlocked over passenger data
By Paul Meller, IDG News Service
September 11, 2006
European and U.S. security officials were locked in talks in Brussels Monday to replace a passenger data sharing agreement that was outlawed by a European court in May.
The screening of airline passengers entering the U.S. became standard security procedure after the terrorist attacks on the U.S. five years ago. An agreement was struck with the European Union in 2003 permitting airlines carrying passengers to the U.S. to pass over 34 pieces of European citizens' private data to U.S. immigration officials without breaching strict European data protection laws.
The rest can be read here.
Now let me say first, I really don't consider myself a Democrat nor a Republican. Overall, I tend to lean more liberal, especially on economic and foreign issues, but I can go either way as far as social issues. I do think that the United States is not doing enough to secure good foreign relations with other countries. When the US decided they wanted to go after Iraq for "Weapons of Mass Destruction", they appealed to the United Nations to get support to invade and take them out. The UN did what one would expect and sent troops over to Iraq to see if these accusations proved true. When there was nothing found, the US president made a rash decision to invade Iraq anyways without UN support, and in doing so helped to further cast away relations between the US and the rest of the world.
What does this have to do with the above article? It's an example of the United States' foreign policy that carries on to other issues such as this. If the US had appealed to the UN in the first place when these terror attacks started, we'd have full international support in identifying and taking down these regimes, and our foreign relations would be much better as a result. It would also make issues with the European Union such as this much easier with a way of thinking agreed upon and adopted by all the nations of the world.
Back to my thoughts on the issue. If the EU gave in and agreed to what the US demanded, it would allow the current administration to label any EU citizens that arrive in the US as "possible terrorists". After they've identified these people as such, for whatever reason they deem, they aim to wiretap and intrude on privacy further, until they get just cause to (secretly) apprehend them as prisoners of war, where all their rights are stripped and they're at the discretion of the US Army. The EU has perfect cause to want to uphold their laws in foreign countries as much as is reasonable, and in this case I hope they can come to an agreement which will protect their citizens.
With a new president in 2008, the US will have a chance to clean up their relations with other countries and hopefully decisions like this will be a little more trivial.
September 11, 2006
European and U.S. security officials were locked in talks in Brussels Monday to replace a passenger data sharing agreement that was outlawed by a European court in May.
The screening of airline passengers entering the U.S. became standard security procedure after the terrorist attacks on the U.S. five years ago. An agreement was struck with the European Union in 2003 permitting airlines carrying passengers to the U.S. to pass over 34 pieces of European citizens' private data to U.S. immigration officials without breaching strict European data protection laws.
The rest can be read here.
Now let me say first, I really don't consider myself a Democrat nor a Republican. Overall, I tend to lean more liberal, especially on economic and foreign issues, but I can go either way as far as social issues. I do think that the United States is not doing enough to secure good foreign relations with other countries. When the US decided they wanted to go after Iraq for "Weapons of Mass Destruction", they appealed to the United Nations to get support to invade and take them out. The UN did what one would expect and sent troops over to Iraq to see if these accusations proved true. When there was nothing found, the US president made a rash decision to invade Iraq anyways without UN support, and in doing so helped to further cast away relations between the US and the rest of the world.
What does this have to do with the above article? It's an example of the United States' foreign policy that carries on to other issues such as this. If the US had appealed to the UN in the first place when these terror attacks started, we'd have full international support in identifying and taking down these regimes, and our foreign relations would be much better as a result. It would also make issues with the European Union such as this much easier with a way of thinking agreed upon and adopted by all the nations of the world.
Back to my thoughts on the issue. If the EU gave in and agreed to what the US demanded, it would allow the current administration to label any EU citizens that arrive in the US as "possible terrorists". After they've identified these people as such, for whatever reason they deem, they aim to wiretap and intrude on privacy further, until they get just cause to (secretly) apprehend them as prisoners of war, where all their rights are stripped and they're at the discretion of the US Army. The EU has perfect cause to want to uphold their laws in foreign countries as much as is reasonable, and in this case I hope they can come to an agreement which will protect their citizens.
With a new president in 2008, the US will have a chance to clean up their relations with other countries and hopefully decisions like this will be a little more trivial.
posted by Sean Eaton at 2:20 PM
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