Brazilians reciprocate on US travel policy

Michael Kalus mkalus at thedarkerside.to
Fri Jan 2 07:03:31 PST 2004


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/
-





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