Fingering Aliens at Dulles Airport (How to Save the Global Environment)

[David Farber <dave () farber net>]

Begin forwarded message:

From: Krishna Kumar <kmkumar () earthling net>
Date: December 17, 2007 12:27:31 PM EST
To: dave () farber net
Subject: Fingering Aliens at Dulles Airport (How to Save the Global  
Environment)

For IP, if you wish:


It is a relief to know that the Bush Administration is already  
starting to
reduce carbon dioxide emissions.  It shows a serious commitment to the
reductions agreed upon at the Bali meetings.  At Dulles International
Airport last week, Homeland Security Secretary Chertoff announced the  
start
of fingerprinting all ten digits of arriving aliens as part of the US- 
VISIT
plan.  Now,  fingerprinting aliens does not easily translate into  
reduced
carbon emissions, so let's walk through the steps.

The nominal reason for implementing the "ten print" as opposed to "two
print" plan is to enhance our ability to spot false identities.  But  
when
you look at what we've accomplished by fingerprinting aliens, it is  
clear
that mistaken identity can't be the real purpose.   Since 2000,   
according
to Secretary Chertoff, we've stopped over 2000 people from entering  
the US
because their fingerprints didn't match.  But we have over 400 million
visitors a year - or 2.8 billion visitors since starting the program.   
That
is a success rate of, well, more than a one in a million.

Now, let's be fair.  We want all ten prints so we can also compare  
latent
prints -- that is fingerprints takes from the field - to the  
fingerprints
we take at the border.   Before, all a clever terrorist had to do is not
use his thumb while handling his bomb.  Now, all he has to do is wear
rubber gloves.   And the one in a million rate?  Well, that is also a  
bit
inflated:  we don't fingerprint Canadians and Mexicans (or for that  
matter
illegal aliens) and also we don't fingerprint US citizens or green card
holders. So the success rate is a bit higher than I gave you.

But the fingerprinting has accomplished two other hidden goals.   
First, it
has gotten the Europeans in a hissy-fit.  While the number of  
international
visitors are starting to recover from the low point in 2001, travelers  
from
Europe are not coming back.  They are being replaced by visitors from  
China
and  India.  Most Europeans complain about the "Soviet-style" border  
guards
we have waiting for them.  Somehow they think getting fingerprinted is
being treated like a criminal.   Second, making everyone get  
fingerprints
jams up the lines at airports.  That makes everyone testy and upset, and
discourages everyone from flying.

Now, lobbyists for the airlines get upset about all the little  
foreigners
(they call them customers) penned up at airports.  The airline, hotel,
hospitality, and shopping industries all rely on an influx of foreign
money.  So in some smoky room this year they got together, and with the
misleading goals of saving American jobs, convinced Congress this year  
to
pass legislation that mandated lower wait times at international  
airports.

So this is the response:  make everyone go through the "ten prints"
process- which hopefully will take much longer.   The lines and waits  
will
be back.  That's why the needed to be launched at Dulles.  For the last
year, Dulles was the test-bed of a program to "welcome" international
visitors and "soothe" them while waiting.  And it was working.  The last
time I was flew into Dulles, the border guards actually helped would be
terrorists (an elderly French couple who didn't speak English) move from
the "Americans Only" line to the "Everyone Else".  And the border  
guard who
interviewed me, who usually suspiciously pages through my passport  
looking
for evidence of the "Al Queda" stamp (his chance of finding it is
considerably less than one in a million) just gave me a bored look as he
handed the passport back to me and let me return home.  He was probably
enthralled by the Disney produced movie playing in an endless loop  
above us
of  smiling, multicultural Americans extolling the benefits of being
American to the huddled masses being waiting to get in and start  
shopping.

And with the recent decline in the dollar, we should be expecting  
masses of
Europeans flying here to take advantage of the sales.  Europeans are so
cheap they have entire countries, like Luxembourg,  that exist only to  
sell
discounted products to their neighbors.  Sure, we see isolated cases of
Brits and others on shopping trips.  But it could be a lot worse -  
imagine
the chaos in malls across the country as non-English speaking  
Europeans try
to navigate parking spaces and checkout lines.  Ask retailers in  
Buffalo,
how being drowned by Canadians coming across the border, how they feel
about this.  I'm sure they don't like it.  So even with these rules,  
we may
see an increase in Europeans visitors, but without the fingerprints in
place it could be a lot worse.

But let's get back to carbon emissions.  As I said before, it is clear  
that
this new measure isn't about security - there is no way the DHS could be
wasting government resources in such a futile search. Remember those  
2000
people we stopped from getting in?  We spend over $300 million a year  
just
to run the US VISIT program, or roughly about a million dollars for each
person stopped.  And that's not including the infrastructure costs -  
which
has been estimated at $15 billion.  The "ten print" rule is about  
annoying
Europeans, getting them to stop flying to the US, and the subsequent
reduction in carbon emissions.

Granted, aviation travel worldwide accounts for only 2% of all carbon
emissions.  But the busiest (and most lucrative) segment is the
trans-Atlantic flights.  If we can reduce demand on those flights by
scaring away Europeans,  we can help drive all the US airlines into  
further
financial distress by eliminating their most profitable routes.  Less
airlines equals less emissions.

What's even better is that the plan is being adopted globally. Japan has
announced it is starting to fingerprint and scare away all visitors who
aren't already scared off by "Lost in Translation".   Even the Europeans
are getting into the act - and if  the EU is looking at fingerprinting
visitors you know it is a good idea.   So if we are scare away those
unpatriotic Americans who travel abroad by having other countries
fingerprint them, a more carbon free future awaits.

So this is how we're going to solve our carbon problem:  Not by
international agreement, but by throttling our airlines.  There will, of
course, be causalities, but think of how much better we would be if we  
got
rid of airplanes.  Then we could save some more money by scrapping the
TSAŠ..



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