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TechnoratiBush Orders Clampdown on Flights to US
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.
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".
Seven demands tabled by Washington are contained in a 10-page "memorandum of understanding" (MOU) that the US authorities are negotiating or planning to negotiate with all EU governments, according to ministers and diplomats from EU member states and senior officials in Brussels. The Americans have launched their security drive with some of the 12 mainly east European EU countries whose citizens still need visas to enter the US.
"The Americans are trying to get a beefing up of their visa-waiver programmes. It's all contained in the MOU they want to put to all EU member states," said a diplomat from a west European country. "It's a very delicate problem."
As part of a controversial passenger data exchange programme allegedly aimed at combating terrorism, the EU has for the past few months been supplying the American authorities with 19 items of information on every traveller flying from the EU to the US.
The new American demands go well beyond what was agreed under that passenger name record (PNR) system and look certain to cause disputes within Europe and between Europe and the US.
Brussels is pressing European governments not to sign the bilateral deals with the Americans to avoid weakening the EU bargaining position. But Washington appears close to striking accords on the new travel regime with Greece and the Czech Republic. Both countries have sizeable diaspora communities in America, while their citizens need visas to enter the US. Visa-free travel would be popular in both countries.
A senior EU official said the Americans could get "a gung-ho frontrunner" to sign up to the new regime and then use that agreement "as a rod to beat the other member states with". The frontrunner appears to be the Czech Republic. On Wednesday, Richard Barth of the department of homeland security was in Prague to negotiate with the Czech deputy prime minister, Alexandr Vondra,
Prague hoped to sign the US memorandum "in the spring", Vondra said. "The EU has done nothing for us on visas," he said. "There was no help, no solidarity in the past. It's in our interest to move ahead. We can't just wait and do nothing. We have to act in the interest of our citizens."
While the Czechs are in a hurry to sign up, Brussels is urging delay in order to try to reach a common European position.
"There is a process of consultation and coordination under way," said Jonathan Faull, a senior European commission official involved in the negotiations with the Americans.
To European ears, the US demands sound draconian. "This would oblige the European countries to allow US air marshals on US flights. It's controversial and difficult," an EU official said. At the moment the use of air marshals is discretionary for European states and airlines.
While armed American guards would be entitled to sit on the European flights to the US, the Americans also want the PNR data transfers extended from travellers from Europe to the US to include the details of those whose flights are not to America, but which overfly US territory, say to central America or the Caribbean.
Brussels has told Washington that its demands raise legal problems in Europe over data protection, over guarantees on how the information is handled, over which US agencies have access to it or with whom it might be shared, and over issues of redress if the data is misused.
The Association of European Airlines, representing 31 airlines, including all the big west European national carriers, has told the US authorities that there is "no international legal foundation" for supplying them with data about passengers on flights overflying US territory.
The US Transport Security Administration has also asked the European airlines to supply personal data on "certain non-travelling members of the public requesting access to areas beyond the screening checkpoint".
The AEA said this was "absurd" because the airlines neither obtain nor can obtain such information. The request was "fully unjustified".
If the Americans persevere in the proposed security crackdown, Brussels is likely to respond with tit-for-tat action, such as calling for visas for some Americans.
European governments, however, would probably veto such action, one official said, not least for fear of the "massive disruption given the huge volume of transatlantic traffic".
© 2008 The Guardian
82 Comments so far
Show AllNow that I've made my last post, I am noticing that a few Canucks have already responded. The "Great Wall of Cheney" comment is both scary and brought a smile to my face.
Not for all the pea in Cheney
Not if I could poop just like a bird
All Air Marshalls will be assigned them
And tasers take the place of words
Those replies I missed the last couple of days - was feeling under the weather and sticking to easy stuff.
RE: - Brussels has told Washington that its demands raise legal problems in Europe over data protection, over guarantees on how the information is handled, over which US agencies have access to it or with whom it might be shared, and over issues of redress if the data is misused.
Reading between the lines, Brussels seems concerned that not just the FBI and CIA will have access to the information (though that is a concern as well). Republicans believe in "smaller government" which usually involves the contracting out of government services and operations to private corporations.
RE: - Are airmarshalls to be outsourced?
Are Air Marshalls government employees now? I am sure that Blackwater would not mind getting the "Europe" contract - though they may not be the only ones bidding for it.
RE: - Watch tourism to America nosedive…
These rules would be for flying only - not car trips (not that Europeans will be driving to the US). Would tourism be enough to get the US out of a recession? Probably not, but it would ease the pain.
RE: - As a child I always wondered why the Germans didn't just leave?
Some did early on - when they started noticing other German Jews disappearing - but how many of our countries refused to take them in? On the plus side, they are probably going to be voting on Olivia Chow's bill to allow American war resisters to stay in Canada this week - the NDP and Bloc are for it and if the Liberals come on side it will pass.
Strange how closely those in Europe are following the American election.
RE: - For example, they process your payment for the flight–and then cancel your flight and bill you a $50 cancellation fee! What a scam.
No kidding! Fifty bucks doesn't seem like much but there is no way that you should be paying it.
RE: - I'm old enough that I grew up as a young kid in the sixties and early seventies. Back then, when they tried to teach us kiddies as to why the Soviet Union was wicked and evil
That was one of the examples of Russia not being as free - especially when Canada and the US had the world's longest undefended border - as it had been called at the time.
I always figured that this Russia thing was just Reagan paranoia because of the Canada-Russia series of 1972. I could not understand why, if Russia was so dangerous, that our greatest hockey players and hockey fans would be traveling to Russia just to play hockey!
That said, more than a few people in Russia got Wellstoned - and people are still getting Wellstoned over there.
They are having a Movie remake of the old Get Smart show from a few years back (ie the 60's) - I wonder what nationality will be associated with CHAOS in the new moive.
RE: - The compromise will be exemptions for elite travelers.
Too bad Suharto can no longer take advantage of this exemption. Then again, when he was in Vancouver he asked if his body guards could shoot protesters. Good riddance!
RE: - I wrote a letter to the Guardian/UK begging the people of the EU to resist, to push back, to say "hell no" and MAYBE get something jumpstarted - something called Freedom.
The Liberal Democrats (a political party in the UK) has a position on Air Marshals (not that all oppositions parties have shadow cabinets where each MP is assigned as a critic to a certain set of issues):
http://www.chrishuhne.org.uk/news/000331/air_marshals_must_be_based_on_evidence_not_hunch.html
I would ask Chris Huhne what would help in fighting this. The British Home Secretary is Jacqui Smith and she is the one considering this deal with the US.
As a sidebar, I had to enter and exit Iraq in 1992 to work on a documentary film. As I was traveling with a U.S. passport, I was a bit nervous while passing through Iraqi Customs and Immigration at the Jordanian border. (After all, the first Bush regime had led an intensive bombing campaign against Iraq in 1991 that had killed tens of thousands of Iraqis, was enforcing a 'no fly' zone over the country, and enacted a severe sanctions program that was strangling the Iraqi economy.)
We were especially nervous on exit because we had inadvertently stayed past our one-month visa (bad advice from the Baghdad Press Center) and expected some serious interrogation and possibly a shakedown and fines at the border. The first official was agitated but his boss came in glanced at us, our expired visas, shrugged and announced that we were free to proceed to Jordan.
Contrast that encounter with officials in a "police state" with the horrific experience of Ms. Lillendahl in the "Land of the Free".
http://eggmann.blog.is/blog/eggmann/entry/389611/
One shouldn't leap to conclusions based on a couple of incidents but it's certainly rather ironic.
"Will Santa need to update his security clearance?"
Nah, there are no good little children or a Sanity Clause in Jesusland.
I cannot believe that collecting all this information will make us ordinary people safer. All it does is bind us into an increasing web of fear and suspicion.
All these security laws classify all travelers as terrorists from the get-go. There is no longer anything about being innocent until proven guilty. We no longer have Habeas Corpus.
Although many visitors to the USA put up with these new guidelines because they have pressing reasons to visit the USA (i.e. I only travel to the USA so I can visit my parents). Many others, however, are deciding to go elsewhere. More power to them!
EU should fight this. Instead, I'm noticing that other countries are copying the USA example. Japan immediately adopted the USA 3-1-1 rule for carrying liquids.
Flying is definitely a headache. It's not just the Carbon production of travel, it's the fact we have to enter a police state just to travel. And I have yet to observe the USA airline companies (service on the ground or in the air) doing anything to help make it easier or more pleasant.
I'm an American, but I'm seriously considering joining that boycott of USA goods. If it's not this security BS and treating our friends and relatives like dirt, it's torture or killing hundred's of thousands of innocents in Iraq, or violations of international treaties or ...
I'm really angry about the direction my country is going. Unfortunately, I see no chance of change if bush is replaced by a democrat. The congressional elections of 2006 blew that hope out of the water.
Why should it surprise us that they are trying to do to Europe what they are trying to do to Canada! And not just if you are traveling to the US but if your flight cuts through American air space even for a second!
Wilkins says flight list handover a safety issue
http://www.ctv.ca/servlet/ArticleNews/story/CTVNews/20071011/passenger_lsits_071011/20071011/
Friday, October 19, 2007
Mr. Mario Silva (Davenport, Lib.): Mr. Speaker, this month Canadians learned about the proposal by the Bush administration that would see their personal details transferred to the United States government when they travel.
The proposal, known as secure flight, would force Canadian air carriers that fly over American air space to provide the personal details of their passengers to American authorities.
That is a serious violation of Canadian travellers' right to privacy. Our government has a duty to protect Canadians from foreign governments making such excessive demands.
In light of the abuse suffered by Maher Arar, Canadians are worried, and rightly so, when information pertaining to them is provided to Washington.
The Minister of Foreign Affairs must act immediately to ensure that Canadians, and in fact all passengers, travelling on Canadian air carriers are protected from this overzealous and unnecessary intrusion.
Ah! good old American parannoia. How about Europe making the same demands?
Truthseeker, reserves is a code word, for getting your ass shipped over to Iraq to get shot off.
The whole Bush Administration is draconian! There is no big surprise there. They like to puff up their chests and act like they are doing something to protect us from further terrorist attacks when in reality they aren't doing anything! The list has grown endless of things they haven't done in the last 6 years to stop a terrorist attack here at home. From having invaded a country that was no threat to us, not having dealt with Al Quida and the growing terrorism problem in a meaningful way, wide open borders, unprotected infrastructure to funds for this countries defenses being slashed to the bare bone. How any Republican can stand up and say they have protected this country is beyond belief! They should be booed off of any podium they are on. Any intelligent person knows they have done literally nothing! So all this is more beating on their chests acting like Rambo! That they are good at!
4thefuture: I stand corrected, I think that it was immigration, and it has happened on both occasions that we have visited the US (the other time was on a trip back from Hawaii). Because my wife's birthplace was Tehran (she moved to England in 1986), we were told that we had to go home via Atlanta. On both occasions, we had no direct flight out of the country. Also, both times, we were kept for about two hours, waiting for another "official" to arrive. When they did arrive, they simply glanced at my wife's passport and let us carry on.
In the UK, we call that sort of treatment "taking the piss".
ctrl-z I really appreciate your sense of humor.
Also, I don't disagree with the gist of most of the messages but there are some statements and claims that just aren't universally true. I make no comment on the individual experience, just on suggesting that you have to take some with a grain of salt. For example: Zamboni_fahrer talked about the difficulties he and associates have experienced as people living and working in Europe. He also commented on the difficulty of purchasing round trip tickets to the USA from outside the country.
I work outside the USA, Asia, and during my return trips have never experienced any of those difficulties. As a long time anti-war protester, each time I have been apprehensive and then pleasantly surprised. I have also had no trouble purchasing round trip or as they call it here, return, tickets back to the states online. So there may be issues for some people, I don't have any way to know about that, but there are also those of us who don't have such problems. (Up to now!)
It could be that the particular airline has some policy that causes the online ticketing problems. I always check the "International" or "World Sites" section and buy my ticket from that side, or at least I do when it's cheaper there, and for some reason it almost always is.
And I don't know what to say about AndyUK's involvement with Customs on exiting the country. Unless he got into the wrong side of the terminal, the Customs deals with what people are trying to bring in and not with what they are taking out. It may be that he meant to say US Immigration, which in some places gets you coming and going, but I have never encountered Immigration on that end either in all of my travels departing from the USA. But perhaps that is the case for non-citizens, although I have never seen that happen, including to my fellow travelers who were non-citizens, as we walked together to the gate....so perhaps something imporatant's missing from this story.
Although I do understand the pull of paranoia, and have some of the same feelings myself when reading this article, I do think that it is possible that this is some sort of psycholocigal compensation for Bush's lack of standing in the rest of the world. Something along the lines of "Maybe we can't get them to like or respect us, but by golly we can get them to bend over when it comes to petty BS such as this."
THEPROF
my friend didn't mention the eye scan, but i'll ask her. i have a multiple entry, indefinite non immigrant visa dated 1982. wonder how valid that is now...............
CTRL Z
yes, you can report to security cameras. they have lip readers..........
Why do small fishing villages in Alaska have Homeland Security guarding their docks? I didn't know terrorists went all the way to Alaska to try to blow up small villages there.
LOL
I studied in California, I have worked for GM and Ford.
Now, I am cancelling my scheduled trip to see my brother in California and my friends in Florida and Massachuets
We had to go to the States a couple of years ago, and because of my wife's place of birth (she has been a British citizen for eighteen years), we had to change all of our plans. We were OK getting into the country, but leaving the US, meant we had to go via Atlanta, to clear customs, and prove that we were really going back to the UK. I should mention that my wife was there because of work, so, we had to cancel our flight from San Diego to London, and do the following - San Diego to LAX to Atlanta, wait for 2 hours for her to be OK'd by customs, and then fly on to Heathrow.
Needless to say, I won't be visiting the US again, because much as I like the people, particularly in California, and the scenery, I cannot put up with being treated like a criminal, and I do have my boiling point, so it's not worth it.
Stop running this country like Shitzrael!!! The two headed izraeli snake going for the kill on arab soil is poisoning our planet and it's gotta stop! boycott Israel, it's not a country it's is an occupation.
Will Santa need to update his security clearance?
Can we still talk to foreigners? Do we need to report the conversations? If so, to who? Can we just stand beneath any security camera and report or is there some approved protocol? If the foreigners tell us things that make us question official policy, is there anywhere we can go to get help?
I smell an election coming and McCain is speaking in fear tounges already.
I'm sure BushCo would scratch one innocent incoming plane from the sky if they thought it was the only way to win enough votes to swing the election. Maybe Vegas should start betting on which flight it will be?
Course all them Millions of illegal Hispanics won't get checked out at all, just a presidential welcome home handshake.
I live 1/2 hr drive from Canada, after next Summer I will need a passport or another such official peice of plastic with a RETINA SCAN or data of on it, and it will cost me dearly $$.
interesting that they are putting up Federally funded galvinized steel "dear fencing" around our Town owned airport. Maybe they are trying to keep us in.
Okay, how about this: We put the whole Bush Administration on an international flight to the South Pole. When they beg to be flown back to DC, we tell them that we can't authorize it because they're suspected terrorists.
Read up on the National Animal Identification System. Will this be extended to people from sea to shining sea? Will we each have a small transponder surgically planted in a right butt-cheek and be tracked by satellite?
COMarc and Jaguara,
I'm right with you two both. Those propaganda horror stories about "communist" Russia seem to becoming manifest here. Do countries, like people, have shadows to their personalities that, if not dealt with, come alive?
Walking through airport "security" I often wonder when we'll have to become completely naked to give the government the sense that it's in control. BTW, the new year after Sep. 11, I accidentaly brought onboard an old razor blade in my carry-on...but at least I FELT safer since I had to walk barefoot through a plastic rectangle!
Naomi Wolfe discusses how she is on a fly "list" which means that she is searched and questioned everytime she travels. Check out her "The End of America," about the possbility and reality of American Fascism - or just watch the news.
I'll say it again - go create a community of resistence around yourself - and don't look to anyone else to save you.
I've been trying to get my cousin and her husband to come from Italy here to visit for a couple of weeks. We've talked about it for several years. They came close last fall, but backed out during the summer. I had a tour through New England set up. He is the former head of the highway police ("Stradale") for the eastern area of the district of Brescia in Lombardia. He used to do coordinating work with US personnel, I believe FBI, in Milano and spoke proudly of it. With the madness emanating from the US, I think they have just lost interest, but don't want to state their concerns to me so as not to hurt my feelings.
I have a cousin in Germany who is the head of the wine cooperative in his town. He and his brother came when they were younger to stay with me and my family for a few months. I traveled with them extensive here on the East Coast and they loved it. Then the one brother I'm writing of bought a train ticket and went out west. He considered it a grand adventure. I had some friends of mine recently stop by to visit him about a year ago. In the conversation they had while together, I was told by one of the friends that my cousin said he had no longer any desire to visit the US again.
I believe our problem with most Europeans is not that they detest us but that they are disgusted with the stupidity and arrogance of the people of this country. Those are no longer feelings directed toward just a few rogue leaders - Bush, Cheney and their crowd of fellow travelers. Those people over there are beginning to see us all as participants in this madness.
It's going to take a long time to banish the antipathy that an ever expanding part of the world population feels toward the US, an antipathy brought on by this arrogant, bellicose, boorish, ill educated, and bullying clique that dominate us an have become the image by which the rest of the world judges the nation of the US. It's also going to take a completely new national leadership to do it.
Don't hold your breath.
It seems to me the last time I heard about armed guards on air planes the idea was thrown out because a bullet fired onboard an airplane could kinda make a hole in the plane and that wouldn't be so good, eh? like for the cabin air pressure and stuff like that? idiots.
"a friend of mine here in europe recently went on a caribbean cruise via miami. she had to be fingerprinted before she got on the boat." - coco
coco, the US-VISIT program has been in effect since January 5, 2004.
http://www.dhs.gov/xtrvlsec/programs/content_multi_image_0006.shtm
I saw it in action in 2005 at DFW where the right fingerprint and the right retina were scanned on all Europeans arriving on the flight from LGW.
"...personal data on all air passengers overflying..."
Are the American's afraid someone might flush?
Hey, "Whatfools," how about if we let Cheney build his Great Wall - - - and then we throw him and all of his neo-con and corporatizer buddies on the outside without any possibility of return?
What concerns me is what publicity stunt is in the offing to foster enactment of this legislation. They have to keeping feeding the fear, and they do not proceed without making the way in front of them.
COMarc
"...when they tried to teach us kiddies as to why the Soviet Union was wicked and evil and why the US was so free and wonderful, the one example they used to give was that if people in the SU wanted to travel, they had to have permission from the government in advance and that they would always be stopped at checkpoints along the way where they had to show their papers to police."
I have been saying this same sort of thing over and over again for months. I think of all of the Cold War propoganda that we were fed about how evil the USSR was because of the very things that are being imposed in the US as we speak. A wall on the Mexican border, tight controls along the Canadian one - once proudly proclaimed as the longest undefended border in the world - a sign of the openness of our societies. Civil liberties are vanishing faster than our polar icecaps. Too bad that more people like us do not remember, too bad they choose not to see.
I came up with this little rhyme while on a walk last night:
The Iron Curtain Came Down
The Berlin Wall Too
But Guess What America?
Now the wall is around YOU!
They ask you for papers
On plane and on train
And you can't even smoke pot
To rot your own brain
Oh, what has happened
To that great land of the free?
Because now America has become
just like the CCCP!
I thought I would share...but I keep the copyrights!
Great, just great.
My girlfriend already will not enter the US because she does not want to give them more info for their database...but now we may have to cancel our plans to fly to Cuba next year.
Why? Because any flight from Canada will go over the US. And unless there is a radical shift in the Canadian government, then we can expect a quick approval of any additional US requirements.
She had already been insisting on a direct flight with no stops in the US, but now that may not be enough. Well, perhaps we can find a vacation deal in Portugal...
So this not only pens in Americans, but Canadians too.
Well, well! It's not just the US citizens Bush wants to spy on, he wants to spy on all the citizens of Europe too.
Suppose you were a bad guy, why wouldn't you just come across the Mexican border like thousands do every day?
If you wanted to blow up anything other than a few highly guarded places, why not have an illegal alien deliver the bomb in a backpack for a few bucks? Landscapers, maids, cooks and nannies are looking for a buck and would unknowingly deliver a gift or flowers with a hidden bomb.
Maybe you pinko-Canadians want to go to Cuba and our beloved U.S.A. will be able to pressure you present God-fearing Conservative Government to tazer your commie ass when you bring back your pinko Cuban cigars and rum. Don't say I didn't warn you.
* Something big and ugly is about to happen. The five undersea cables cut last week, the Blackberry outage, and the bank failures.
An interesting source is Worldreports.org which. predicted this just announced airline fight between the US & Europe. It seems that the Bush crime family has created a situation that could be they're undoing.
Yes, I believe this is to isolate us. One of the things that must happen when you want to control someone or someones is to isolate them.
Police state? Yeah. I was driving in Los Angeles last month and saw a big POSTER on the sidewalk. It was inviting men and women to join the LAPD RESERVES for 'times of emergency'!! RESERVES for what??? For a police state, that's what. As soon as I saw that sign, I knew we were doomed. They are planning something, I'll bet. And they'll aim for a city like Los Angeles. I've been here 22 years, and the LAPD has never had a "reserve" of ordinary citizens!
These people are as evil as evil can be. But I don't believe they will succeed ultimately. They will get so far, and then it will all come apart because they are just a bunch of egotistical criminals, and the world is sick of this cr*p.
Posterkid: Had you noticed that the kudos are all from Bush's buddies? You must have to have taken the time to copy the remarks. Propaganda for sure!
As a Canadian, should I wish to fly-over the US, I need a passport. This is about the dumbest thing that I have ever heard. The next dumbest is the info that the US wishes from the passengers coming from the EU. (BTW - looks like Czech gov't is going to sign it - something about visas to visit US).
I have been boycotting the US since 2002, avoiding buying products from, whenever possible and certainly not visiting. It is a one person boycott and probably not affecting much, but then, I know others who are doing the same thing.
The US is not a place I have any desire to visit considering all the horror stories about the officious officials at borders and airports I have heard from associates and acquaintances. Nor do I have any interest in visiting a country that obviously does not want to encourage visitors.
One World Order......are we going to let it happen?
There is only one way to stop it and that is to impeach!
Hey COMARK, could you explain something?
Here you agree we are having big problems with Bush and our Fascist empire. On another thread, you just wrote that you don't believe Bush would enact martial law and cancell the elction if we have a depresion. That does not seem to be consistant rationalization to me.
It's not so much that Bush is back on the bottle, though he may be. It's more that he is driven by his need to effect destruction; that is simply the only way he knows how to operate. This is pretty much the gist of the very insightful book, "Bush On The Couch" by Dr. Justin Frank.
Jess:"Whether it's Obama or Clinton... in the White House, the first order of business in addition to getting out of Iraq, should be to either repeal or modify Homeland Security".
Don't dare dream this beautiful possibility until we win the "Second Cold War" in the next N (N=infinite?) presidencies.
Please see this marvelous piece of propaganda:
After Bush
The Case for Continuity in American Foreign Policy
Timothy J. Lynch
Institute for the Study of the Americas, University of London
Robert S. Singh
Birkbeck College, University of London
The foreign policy of the George W. Bush administration has won few admirers, and many anticipate that his successor will repudiate the actions of the past eight years. In their provocative account Lynch and Singh argue that Bush's policy should be placed within the mainstream of the American foreign policy tradition. Further, they suggest that there will, and should, be continuity in US foreign policy from his presidency to those of his successors. Providing a positive audit of the war on terror (which they contend should be understood as a Second Cold War) they maintain that the Bush doctrine has been consistent with past policy at times of war and that the key elements of Bush's grand strategy will continue to shape America's approach in the future. Above all, they predict that his successors will pursue the war against Islamist terror with similar dedication.
• A fresh and provocative account of the foreign policy of the George W. Bush administration • Engages with the dominant historical interpretations on US foreign policy with a clear assessment of their strengths and weaknesses • Asks vital questions about what the next president's foreign policy will look like, arguing that it is unlikely to change, irrespective of which party wins the White House
Contents
Introduction: winning the second Cold War; 1. Bush and the American foreign policy tradition; 2. The constitution of American national security; 3. The second Cold War on Islamist terror: negative audits; 4. The second Cold War on Islamist terror: a positive audit; 5. Iraq: Vietnam in the sand?; 6. The Middle East: reformation or Armageddon?; 7. Friends and foes after Bush; 8. The emerging consensus at home and abroad; Conclusion. The case for continuity.
Reviews
'Lynch and Singh make a compelling case that the Bush doctrine will outlast the current American president, and they assemble considerable evidence to show that fundamental components of the doctrine are consistent with foreign policy tradition. The authors skilfully depersonalize the debate about American foreign policy in order to move beyond the current obsession with George W. Bush.' Robert J. Lieber, Professor of Government and International Affairs, Georgetown University
'Whatever one might think of the argument that the Bush Doctrine not only will but should survive the Bush presidency - and I, for one, strongly disagree - Lynch and Singh develop it cogently and with great vigor. An important contribution to the literature on American foreign policy.' Ivo Daalder, Co-author, America Unbound: The Bush Revolution in Foreign Policy
'The common sense view - shared by the chattering classes around the world - is that Bush has failed, that the war on terror has been a disaster, and that the United States should return with all speed to the multilateral system it so unnecessarily abandoned some time during 2001. Here is a book that frontally challenges all these cosy assumptions. The world and the United States have changed for ever - it insists - and the sooner the rest of us get used to the fact the better. A provocative, trenchantly argued study, that leaves the reader with few places to hide.' Professor Michael Cox, London School of Economics
'Timothy Lynch and Robert Singh do a fine job of defending the foreign policy approach of the George W. Bush administration. Deeply unfashionable and brilliantly polemical, After Bush will redefine the parameters of debate.' John Dumbrell, Professor of Government, Durham University
'More compellingly than the Bush administration itself, Lynch and Singh argue that a Second Cold War is underway, this time against radical Islam. U.S. policies, they hold, must resemble those of the original Cold War. And American responses since 9/11 are sound and will endure. With panache, After Bush offers a well researched, original, and refreshing tonic to a truck-load of anti-Bush screeds.' Daniel Pipes, Director, Middle East Forum
'Outstanding: a worthy successor volume to Kagan's Dangerous Nation'. Brendan Simms, University of Cambridge
'Learned, judicious, and courageous - this study of the Bush foreign policy will continue to illuminate and explain long after today's philippics and polemics have been consigned to the back shelves. A uniquely valuable work.' David Frum, Resident Fellow, American Enterprise Institute
'After Bush is a serious, carefully researched and documented analysis of American policy in the aftermath of the 9/11 attacks. Lynch and Singh demolish a great many of the dozens of myths and misconceptions that have become the conventional wisdom about the Bush administration's response to terrorism, the decision to go into Iraq and the thinking and influence of neoconservatives. It will take many more such books to balance the mountain of nonsense that has been piled up by ideologically driven academics and a huge flock of journalistic sheep. They should be congratulated for having made a start.' Richard Perle, Fellow, American Enterprise Institute and Former Assistant Secretary of Defense
'This book is required reading for both defenders and critics of the current direction of American foreign policy. The authors make the provocative case that the policies of the Presidents to come will resemble those of the Bush administration, because Bush himself followed the historical traditions of America's approach to the world. On the other hand, the authors argue that a Second Cold War against Islamist terrorism has more in common with the first Cold War than many would like to think. This fascinating combination of foreign policy, strategy, and even constitutional law should cause readers to reconsider their fundamental positions.' John Yoo, Professor of Law, UC Berkeley
The older generation in Europe remembers Hitler's Nazi Power or at least they should. But here in America our fathers who fought in WW11 are dying and losing their voice. And our schools are not teaching American or German history. No, it was not enough for Bush to devastate Iraq, he seems to have bigger plans. And if you have your money in a bank and want to emigrate, forget it, as there will be no escape. The danger to democracy has balooned since this evil President and Cheney have taken over and demolished our civil rights, but now expect to oppress the rest of the world. But Americans are all glued on the tube and watching for another election that may never happen as long as this cowardly draft dodger rules the Congress, NSA,FBI, and Homeland Security which is a joke.
These restrictions are unnecessary and potentially dangerous but you can do something about it.
Simply forget about that trip you wanted to take until the security requirements are reasonable. Save yourself some money and reduce your global warming impact at the same time.
US citizens don't want this crap. We never agreed to it. We want Bush and Cheney impeached.
Check out this: Talk by Naomi Wolf author of "The End of America: Letter of Warning To A Young Patriot" given October 11, 2007 at Kane Hall on the University of Washington campus.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RjALf12PAWc
In Plan Fortress America, they are already guarding the roads before the gates are closed. But the gates are only half finished and there are no foundations yet dug for the walls.
GWOT; A smokescreen for any party occasion.
Who wants to visit the United States anyway?
I have not been there since 1982 and do not miss it at all.
Everyone is welcome in Canada (unless Harper gets his way and the "no fly" list becomes a mirror image of the one south of the border).
Meanwhile, enjoy.
He's beginning to sound like an inside-out Ceausescu.
I'm sure Senator Palpatine...er... Clinton will straighten all this out when she is elected to run the Empire.
The Evil Empire of the USA want to have sole control over who travels in the world and who doesn't...just like their Nazi forrunners did...should we really trust a system that had Senator Ted Kennedy on the no-fly list as a terrorist suspect?
Wonder if Israel has been "asked" to adhere to the new flight info "clampdown," or Saudi Arabia, or Jordan, or the UAE, or Uzbekistan. South America? Japan? Is it just the EU?
Here's the best part: "...compelling all travelers to apply online for permission to enter the country before booking or buying a ticket, a procedure that will take several days."
It takes six weeks min for US citizens to get a passport. So what does "several days" mean? 30? 60? What if you need to travel right away? Or are just feeling spontaneous?
It's enough to make one hate our freedoms...
I wrote a letter to the Guardian/UK begging the people of the EU to resist, to push back, to say "hell no" and MAYBE get something jumpstarted - something called Freedom. The world has to start pushing back, bring coalitions together to resist the fascist USA. I also remember the evil commies and how they stopped their people from travelling, we were taught at our mother's knee how evil they were. And now here we are. Unbelievable. I choose not to fly which restricts/conscricts my life. But I know I cannot deal with it all. I'd be one they'd taser for sure because I have a hard time keeping my opinions to myself. Perhaps I'm on a list already. Many of us are. What a world, what a world, the witch of the west exclaimed as she melted into a little puddle.
The compromise will be exemptions for elite travelers. The one people who they will credit with a legitimate excuse for traveling on short notice will be business travelers. And they also fund the political system. So they'll get an exception.
Just like the shortcut lines at the airport that let all the first class travelers bypass the wait lines for security.
One thing always strikes me. I'm old enough that I grew up as a young kid in the sixties and early seventies. Back then, when they tried to teach us kiddies as to why the Soviet Union was wicked and evil and why the US was so free and wonderful, the one example they used to give was that if people in the SU wanted to travel, they had to have permission from the government in advance and that they would always be stopped at checkpoints along the way where they had to show their papers to police.
I think of that everytime I'm trying to travel and I have to show my papers to the police at the checkpoints in the airports.
Whether it's Obama or Clinton ( well, not her because she won't change anything ) in the White House, the first order of business in addition to getting out of Iraq, should be to either repeal or modify Homeland Security. A bunch of bureaucrats being paid and spending billions for any scheme they can dream up. Get rid of them. They won't even have enough ability to stand in the soup line when they are fired. Or maybe we'll want to see their IDs before they get a bowl.
I guess I'm curious as to why anyone thinks any of this will change after Bush leaves office. The Dems have uniformly supported this administration in all its data-grabbing, privacy-busting requests. In cases where they were illegally collecting data, they've helped pass laws giving them retroactive immunity. In the current debate over the FISA bill, the Dem leadership favors giving the telecoms that acted illegally a retroactive immunity for that.
So, if McCain's elected, I don't see any change in this. And if either Obama or Hillary is elected, I don't see any change in this. Both have been voting in support of these grabs of information by the government. I can't think of either coming out and forcefully saying this will end if they are in charge. So why do people think that all we need to do is to wait out the end of this criminal administration.
BTW, the really nasty part of this is that they keep all of this on record. They aren't so much interested in stopping one traveler a day before their flight. What they are interested in is in trying to accumulate as much information on anyone so that when they decide to look into a person they can go back and look at all their travel history. That's what they are doing with the US data, and that's why they have the absurd request for data on travelers who will never even enter the US, just overfly our airspace. Such travelers obviously aren't a threat to Americans. They just want the data.
W just wants some of his guys on the upcoming "911" event that makes him Dictator! If they are there it will go smooth.
Being a US citizen living and working abroad, this article really hits home for me. I personally know American citizens who worked in Europe for over 1 year's time, and when they finally later flew home to visit family and friends they got a serious, nasty interrogation "welcome home" from U.S. Customs/Police upon arrival at the airport. "Why were you gone so long, and what have you been doing?"
Another layer of hassle U.S. citizens working and living abroad in Europe or elsewhere must deal with now is how the internet flight booking websites (Orbitz.com, or Vayama.com, Kayak, etc.), will refuse or make very difficult buying a round trip ticket to USA. For example, they process your payment for the flight--and then cancel your flight and bill you a $50 cancellation fee! What a scam. Vayama did this to me. Orbitz had the decency to at least refuse me the chance to book a flight originating outside of the USA. Strange, isn't it? We read in the corporate media nonstop that "we live in a global world with global corporations doing global business, go global for better job opportunities, blah blah effin' blah..." but when you actually do go overseas to live and work and try to do business with all these "global" corporations (especially the airlines and internet ticketing websites) they WON'T accomodate anybody living outside of the USA! And of course here is GW Bush making international travel--already difficult enough--even MORE painful and police-state ridden. In a subtle way, we can see here how the USA's police state Bush/Cheney style of U.S. Marshall everything is now trying to creep across the Atlantic to Europe...will Europe do what it SHOULD DO and take a stand against this madness or will they roll over like a good doggy? Only time will tell...I sure hope Europe comes to its rightful senses and stops accommodating the sociapathy of Bush/Cheney. There is no reasoning with sociopaths; and I hope and pray they don't annul the 2008 elections with some pre-fabricated "terrorist attack" or something. Like John Lennon said long ago: "Strange days indeed; most peculiar mama."
i hope i am not repeating a previous comment. in a world that is going more and more global with businesses and population becoming more interdependent, the united states, george bush, is becoming more and more isolated.
Does anybody remember the words to the Horst Wessel song? Seems more appropriate daily.
I pray the EU resists this incredibly frightening fascist demand. We need HELP HERE, PEOPLE OF THE WORLD!!!. I think the other countries of the world must at least TRY to resist! Can't they stonewall the US until this criminal government is gone (IF it leaves!)? Information to FLY-OVER? They're isolating us. It might be time to leave, maybe late summer will be too late. As a child I always wondered why the Germans didn't just leave? Now I understand how difficult that decision is when you're nearing your sixties.
I'm watching the news too much, following the campaign news. Has anybody else today noticed that the government has announced the six trials of supposed 9/11 "turists" and also something about spies being charged? I listened to the charges of "spies" and the whole hyprocritical system screamed at me. We're proud of our spies but condemn those who do the same thing here that we do to so many. And, oh yes, we out our own spies and put them and their networks in danger. It feels like Cheney is pushing back.
Yeah, but remember, Nazi Germany didn't have the technical surveillance skills we have now, or there would have been no great escape.
Makes me sick to my stomach to even think of all this crap.
So I can thank that wonderful Michael Chertoff, a duel israeli-US citizen, for making me feel like a Palestinian each and every day. Instead of Casablanca, we should watch Escape from New York or the Great Escape. We may need those skills within the next few years.
Does anybody remember the old movie Casablanca? People were killing for "Letters of Transit" so they could get out of the country. Prostituting themselves or pawning their jewels to get an exit visa.
I suppose Cheney watched that and thought, "What a good idea!"
It is true, by the way. A Canadian who wants to fly from, say Vancouver to Cancun for a vacation will be expected to apply ahead of time and have a complete background check before being permitted to overfly Festung Amerika. No more catching a "red-eye" to make a meeting. Minimum of three days notice and then permission from homeland security before you can fly.
God help you if the security camera at the airport links you to a fuzzy out of focus shot of a suspected miscreant of any type. You may well leave the airport with a bag over your head and never be seen again. You have no rights as either a citizen or an alien in transit and could find yourself screaming your mind away in Syria or Egypt or wherever else the CIA does business.
How did that old song go?
"My country 'tis of thee,
Sweet land of liberty,
Of thee I sing..."
Obsolete, but nostalgic, sigh.
coco,
I don't know about cruise ships, but I can imagine that it's part of der Homeland Security to fingerprint travelers.
We now need a passport to get back into the US from Canada and some states are enacting laws requiring ID cards with RFID chips in them, the better to track folks. Hell, in order to teach in the state of Maine, you need to be fingerprinted.
The United States is ruled by a culture of fear, from traveling to teaching to our elections - it's fear, 24/7. When fear rules, the people lose.
a friend of mine here in europe recently went on a caribbean cruise via miami. she had to be fingerprinted before she got on the boat. i asked her why, but she didn't know and wasn't bothered enough to ask at the time. is this normal practice now? it never used to be...........
if any idea comes outta the bush admin, it should be seen as yet another stupid idea from a stupid, unelected leader.
he's never had a success in his personal life, business or otherwise... and to allow him to keep implementing his stupid ideas makes our country more and more stupid.
i hate to use the word "stupid" so much, but this is GEORGE W. BUSH we're talking about here.
...and his daddy's buddies can't bail us, the citizens, out of the shit that guy does as easily as they can bail HIM out of his fuck ups.
Isn't it interesting how so many articles like this one come from media sources outside the US? Isn't it interesting how so many of these items, if they do make it in, are buried and soon forgotten? Isn't it interesting how so few Americans don't realize that they are now living in a fascist state?
Why? Because that's what the big powers that be, the mega-corporatists want. 1984 is no longer in the future, we are living it and it's getting worse every day. This is THE issue of the day. Forget all the political electoral nonsense, it's a ruse! The fact is that information that is vital for citizens to be citizens is being kept from us in a very organized and calculated way.
Want to know more? This video might enlighten. It's over 2 hours long, but it beats watching 2 hours of Drivel News Network. Warning: It won't help you sleep better, but it will open your eyes.
http://freedocumentaries.org/film.php?id=87
Anyone for "Festung Amerika" ?
Well, with all the horror that the Empire has unleashed around the world, I can see why they get so paranoid. Who is going to save us from fascism?
Lets get this straight, you have to provide the United fascist States with all the passenger data from innocent Europeans but you can import all the poisoned food and toys you want. Something sounds amiss.
Watch tourism to America nosedive...
Approx 94 billion dollars lost in tourist revenue in 2007 due to Homeland Insecurity Act, inter alia..
Another fuck-up courtesy of Bu$hCo etal...Whats it feel like to be amongst the most hated country on the planet?
As a Swiss American my question is...are they trying to kill the tourist trade...I don't care whether Brussels rolls over or not, and I don't care how cheap the shopping is in the US people will be less apt to travel to the US. I know many companies with international travel try to avoid the US flying people to Latin America via Canada rather than the US.
Bush is a psychopathic, traitorious, cowardly, sadistic, lying moron. This is just another blatant attempt to maintain the atmosphere of fear that his crime-ridden administration has used all along to prolong their fascist, corporatist policies. And (as noted above) these policies certainly do compromise our freedom. This stinking administration's entire "security" policy - foster fear and repression - has been a dead ringer for internal security policies followed by the Third Reich. It's tragic that our emasculated Congress has been unable to shut him down.
Perhaps the Great Wall of Cheney is to keep us in.
Bets on how long it will take for the Europeans to roll over in a "compromise" that doesn't do anything but compromise more basic civil and human rights?
I don't know what to make of this. I've heard so much.... is it a way to spy on more people? A way to better isolate americans? A way to spend more money on security? Are airmarshalls to be outsourced? Is the whitehouse trying to piss even more people off? Is this a pittiful too-late attempt to provide -probably false- security? Is it aimed at foreign businessmen? Is it to promote airmarshalls to the EU? Is it to chip away at Worldwide information rights? What is the US airline industry's ivolvement in all this?
IAMMYSELF
thanks for the reply, albeit very disturbing. i hadn't realised the severity of it. let's hope europe has a bit more common sense. and i don't think i'll ever visit the u.s. again. with the m.e. stamps i have in my passport, i probably wouldn't make it past customs........
COMARC
'travelers who will never even enter the u.s., just overfly our airspace' what kind of b.s. is this??? perhaps they think they might parachute down.................
Could this all be political? After all it is elections 2008!
I do agree with all the sentiment expressed here that this is a bone head move but what have we come to expect from this administration?
Just a further segment of the "Us vs Them" philosophy that's overtaken the good old USA>
Consider these posters' comments together:
RE: I don't know what to make of this. I've heard so much…. is it a way to spy on more people? A way to better isolate americans? A way to spend more money on security? Are airmarshalls to be outsourced? Is the whitehouse trying to piss even more people off? Is this a pittiful too-late attempt to provide -probably false- security? Is it aimed at foreign businessmen? Is it to promote airmarshalls to the EU? Is it to chip away at Worldwide information rights? What is the US airline industry's ivolvement in all this?
RE:Perhaps the Great Wall of Cheney is to keep us in.
RE:in a world that is going more and more global with businesses and population becoming more interdependent, the united states, george bush, is becoming more and more isolated.
RE:W just wants some of his guys on the upcoming "911″ event that makes him Dictator! If they are there it will go smooth.
RE:Here's the best part: "…compelling all travelers to apply online for permission to enter the country before booking or buying a ticket, a procedure that will take several days."
It takes six weeks min for US citizens to get a passport. So what does "several days" mean? 30? 60? What if you need to travel right away? Or are just feeling spontaneous?
RE:The US is planning another large war for sure
DOES THIS SOUND LIKE POSSIBLE PREPARATION FOR MARTIAL LAW TO ANY OF YOU GUYS, OR AM I JUST PARANOID?
There is an online petition asking the DNC to choose the candidate with the most votes and delegates rather than take the chance on a secret backroom deal.
Please sign the petition and pass it on to your friends.
http://www.petitiononline.com/Superdel/petition.html
Bush is back on the bottle. Classic paranoid syndrome. Everybody's out to get me.
He ain't seen nothin' yet. He will live out the rest of his days in torment. I relish the thought.
If this one scares you, look at this article about businesses combining forces with the FBI - and given authorization to shoot to kill if necessary: http://www.progressive.org/mag_rothschild0308
The US is planning another large war for sure.