http://www.sundaytimes.co.za/zones/sundaytimes/newsst/newsst1073024337.asp SAO PAULO - Brazilian police photographed and fingerprinted all arriving Americans on Thursday - tit-for-tat for a similar US program that begins next week. In all, 230 American citizens were thus identified Thursday at Brazil's largest international airport here under what a federal police spokesman called a "judicial decision." That decision was handed down earlier in the week by Judge Julier Sebastiao da Silva of the federal bench in the central Brazilian city of Mato Grosso based on "the principle of reciprocity," although it could still be annulled by the federal government. The identification measures were not immediately put into effect at the airport in Rio de Janeiro, where federal police said they had not yet received official instructions, according to the Brazilian press agency, Agencia Brasil. Beginning January 5, immigration officials at all US international airports will vet visitors' passports and visas and pose the usual questions - before taking their fingerprints and photographs. That is phase one of US-VISIT, a 380-million-dollar effort to track down terrorists. Visitors from 27 countries whose citizens do not need visas to enter the United States - mostly in Europe, are exempted. By 2005, every port-of-entry on land, sea and air will have the fingerprint and photographic technology. All US visas and passports will eventually include photos and fingerprints - called "biometric identifiers." The program takes effect after the United States raised its terror alert to its next-to-highest level in December. Intelligence indicated that al-Qaeda was planning to hijack airliners for a repeat of its September 11 attacks in which 3,000 died. /AFP/ -