Passengers travelling between EU countries or taking domestic flights would have to hand over a mass of personal information, including their mobile phone numbers and credit card details, as part of a new package of security measures being demanded by the British government. The data would be stored for 13 years and used to “profile” suspects.

Brussels officials are already considering controversial anti-terror plans that would collect up to 19 pieces of information on every air passenger entering or leaving the EU. Under a controversial agreement reached last summer with the US department of homeland security, the EU already supplies the same information to Washington for all passengers flying between Europe and the US.

But Britain wants the system extended to sea and rail travel, to be applied to domestic flights and those between EU countries. According to a questionnaire circulated to all EU capitals by the European commission, the UK is the only country of 27 EU member states that wants the system used for “more general public policy purposes” besides fighting terrorism and organised crime

The scheme would work through national agencies collecting and processing the passenger data and then sharing it with other EU states. Britain also wants to be able to exchange the information with third parties outside the EU.

Golly gee. Do you think that might mean the United States?




  1. Cargo Bill says:

    It is amazing – this all started with Sept 11
    Most of the terrorists who planned and accomplished this terrible act came from one country
    Yet we leave them untouched and still give them tons of money
    Imagine if all of this effort was directed towards the development of alternative fuels and solar technology

  2. ECA says:

    Ummm, Yah…

    and does this stop terrorists FROM OTHER COUNTRIES???
    Can you GUESS how they got THERE, and then HERE, in the first place??

    Until there is an international, Visa/passport system in ALL countries, it really wont matter.

    Until you can TAG and BAG, every person that travels across Borders, there is NO USE in doing this.
    In most of the middle east, africa and other locations, you can WALK from 1 country to another, with NOTHING to prove WHOM you are, or where you came from.
    AND the Odds SAY, they went to S. America or Canada, then Entered the USA..

  3. Hillary C. says:

    The UK has given in to a radical branch of religion that is destructive and breeds fear and violence. It has grown to an uncontrollable force.

    The implementation of a police state is possibly the course they are taking to try and deal with or have the justification to deal with such radicals. This same action will spread to the US, if we let the spread of harmful radical thinking religions grow in our country. We must educate ourselves about these things or we will be forced to follow the UK.

    We, in America, already have muslin’s killing their children because of their religious beliefs. Putting these facts under the rug in the name of tolerance will eventually render all the deaths of our solders of the life of the US null and void who fought for freedom, in my opinion. Will we become another nation bound by radical Islam.

  4. moss says:

    Bill – don’t count yourself among the unstudied, Left or Right, who think this all begins with 9/11. Take the time to review archived goals and formulations of PNAC – reflect on what they defined as the “New American Century”. Remember that all the neocon ideologues are represented.

    Blair not only was a willing lapdog for Bush’s crusade in Iraq, he was eager to be the lesser partner in a new world order with imperial America in charge. His British corporate claque would get their share of grease and crumbs from America’s groaning board.

    Parliament has been as unwilling and cowardly as Congress to defend democracy and privacy. Do you see any change in sight? Really?

  5. Greg Allen says:

    # 1 Cargo Bill said,
    It is amazing – this all started with Sept 11

    In England, maybe.

    In America this creepy conservative desire for unaccountable spying started BEFORE 9-11.

    9-11 just gave them a pseudo-patriotic excuse for it.

    http://tinyurl.com/293mnm

  6. MikeN says:

    This didn’t start with 9/11 and it didn’t start with conservatives either. This is an ongoing process, that basically picked up with the tech advances making things more useful.

  7. MikeN says:

    Very few of these European countries are conservative by any sense. Britain may be ‘neocon’ but it is a liberal Labour government.

  8. Greg Allen says:

    # 6 MikeN said, This didn’t start with 9/11 and it didn’t start with conservatives either. This is an ongoing process, that basically picked up with the tech advances making things more useful.

    I suppose you need to spread the blame around so as not to feel so horrible about your party.

    But c’mon, get real. This is a conservative thing: secret break-ins, warrant less eavesdropping, suspension of habeas corpus, no-fly lists, secret prisons, etc etc.

    It all fits the conservative philosophy that individuals are irresponsible and must be cracked-down-one while corporations need no regulation at all.

  9. Cinaedh says:

    “more general public policy purposes”

    There’s a phrase only a politician could say with a straight face.

  10. prophet says:

    Damn, New Zealand is looking pretty damn good right now. So, par for the course, I suppose it is only a matter of time before there is a terror alert for Kiwis.

  11. Timbo says:

    Now for some horrible surprises:

    They are collecting data for “The Beast” as it is called in the book of Revelations.

    When we go down, we will find out that the Federal Reserve Bank stock is held by a few families, American and foreign. And it owns our currency.

  12. Uncle Patso says:

    # 11 prophet said, on February 23rd, 2008 at 10:47 am

    Damn, New Zealand is looking pretty damn good right now.
    —–

    MARS is starting to look promising….

  13. TheBeginningsOfNotzyism2008 says:

    So legal, law abiding citizens, who have no home (where as world financial institutions have massive surplus) and want to see mom one last time before she dies at 87 would not be able to get on a plane because they do not have a phone number and cannot afford to even buy ID/passport let alone food, and this form of protection is supposed to counteract terrorism. Seems that argument would not hold up in any court except in Nazi Germany, then again, these daze, maybe it would (pleeze don’t even start with blaming presidents when the problem is much bigger than one person). I wonder if what we are seeing today is the same thing that led up to those problems of regimes past. We think we are so powerful with our technologies, in creating societopias but when we look around and smell the fear and abuses of power and try not to feel caterpillars in the stomach it gets a bit difficult.

  14. god says:

    #10 – pretty good. 2 non sequiturs out of 3. You’re improving.

  15. the answer says:

    Remind me not to bring credit cards, a phone, or a laptop when I travel. I’ll bring an iPod touch, and see how many peopel think its a phone


0

Bad Behavior has blocked 5455 access attempts in the last 7 days.