Newsgroup: it.politica
Titolo: Anche gli USA prenderanno le impronte digitali agli immigrati

Thursday 6 June 2002     
 
 
telegraph.co.uk
 
 
US to take fingerprints of visiting Muslims 
By David Rennie in Washington
(Filed: 06/06/2002) 
America announced last night that tens of thousands of visitors 
from Islamic countries must register with the government and submit 
to fingerprinting.
New arrivals and more than 100,000 visa-holders from up to 35 
countries already in America will be affected by the regulation, 
which revives long-dormant powers from a 1952 immigration law.
The move, which was condemned by Arab-American rights groups, was 
announced on television by John Ashcroft, the attorney-general. It 
has been the subject of fierce debate in the Bush administration, 
officials told the New York Times yesterday.
One official said White House and Justice Department officials 
backed the move, which would affect "individuals from countries who 
pose the highest risk to our security".
The State Department - repeatedly on the losing side in battles 
with administration conservatives - expressed fears that the 
regulation would offend allies in the war against terror.
Under previous rules, visa-holders from Iran, Iraq, Libya and Sudan 
had to register with the government. This is now expanded to as many 
as 35 countries, including Pakistan and Saudi Arabia.
Anyone arriving in America from nations on the new risk list will 
be fingerprinted at airports or border crossings, and will have 30 
days to register with the authorities.
Visa-holders from target countries who are already visiting, 
working or studying in America will be registered by newly formed 
anti-terrorism teams. Green card holders with permanent residency, 
whose backgrounds have already been checked by immigration officers, 
will be exempt from the new rules.
The measure will further fuel the debate sweeping America over how 
to balance security with civil liberties.
The administration has come under fire over secret hearings and 
detentions for 1,200 mostly Muslim individuals arrested on 
immigration charges after September 11.
Five men and an Arab American rights group began legal action this 
week against four US airlines, alleging discrimination after the men 
were pulled off flights or refused boarding passes following 
complaints from passengers and crew that they looked suspicious.
The debate has intensified in recent days as Americans have 
digested leaks about how much intelligence on terrorism the security 
agencies had before September 11.
The leaks, generated by an inter-agency fight to shift blame 
between the FBI and CIA, has led many to conclude that the war on 
terrorism has been hit by a desire to avoid singling out any ethnic 
or religious group for scrutiny.
As early as last July, an FBI agent in Arizona called for an 
investigation into a rise in the number of Arabs - some of whom 
expressed support for Osama bin Laden - enrolling in US flying 
schools. His report was ignored.
Last month, Robert Mueller, the FBI director, defended that 
decision, telling the Senate judiciary committee that investigating 
all 20,000 students at American flying schools would have been "a 
monumental undertaking without any specificity as to particular 
persons"
What he did not - or could not - say was that there was a way round 
the problem: question only Arab students.
The same sensitivity appears to have prevented a detailed 
investigation of Zacarias Moussaoui, a flying student arrested last 
August amid concerns that he wanted to learn how to fly a Boeing 747 
jumbo jet, despite his incompetence as a pilot.
Moussaoui, now in custody and awaiting trial on terrorism charges, 
was known to French intelligence as an extremist with terrorist 
links, but FBI chiefs blocked efforts by local agents to search his 
computer and home.
© Copyright of Telegraph Group Limited 2002.

 US to take fingerprints of visiting Muslims
A parte l'obiettiva difficolta' di accertare la religione di qualcuno e la
dubbia costituzionalita' della cosa (discriminazione basata sulla
religione), c'e' da aspettarsi da un momento all'altro che il Cavalier
Sylvio dica "Consentitemi, e' un'idea che ho suggerito io al mio
carissimo amico George W.".
Andrea
salo...@mediacomm.it