Hassle to enter US

TO PROTECT itself from another terrorist attack, the United States proposes to introduce next January an elaborate tracking system that would make travel to that country an even more complicated and bothersome affair. On arrival in the US, TT nationals, together with all visa-carrying visitors from other parts of the world, will have their fingerprints and photographs taken, their travel documents scanned and their identification checked against a terrorist watch list. The introduction of these new measures was announced on Monday by an official of the newly established US Homeland Security Department who said such a system of identifying and tracking visitors could have caught two hijackers who had entered the United States. "Border security," he said, "can no longer be just a coastline, or a line on the ground between two nations. It's also a line of information in a computer, telling us who is in this country, for how long and for what reason."

It pains us to think of the hassle that this new system will inflict on visitors to the US and the length of time they will now have to wait at airports and other points of entry in order to comply with these additional requirements. We can only imagine what will happen at major US airports where thousands of passengers often arrive at the same time from different parts of the world. But if, in their so-called war against terrorism, the US authorities feel such measures are now necessary for their own protection, then we can hardly argue against it. There is a feeling across the world, however, that the US will not succeed in containing terrorism, that the country will always remain a target for terrorists, until it changes its big-bully attitude and imposes some serious sanctions on Israel in order to force the Jews to make peace with the Palestinians. Israel, wielding superior military might, clearly sees no need for a peace accord with the stateless Palestinians and this, by now, should have become obvious to the US administration. Israeli troops occupy large areas of Palestinian territory and their tanks can invade and destroy at will Palestininan homes and villages anywhere in the West Bank. They have even shot up PLO leader Arafat's headquarters at Ramalla, virtually making him a prisoner there. As another big bully, why should they want to make peace, even though the Palestinians fight back with their only weapon, suicide bombings?

The arrogance and intransigence of Israel can now be seen in Ariel Sharon's rejection of US warnings that the continued expansion of Jewish settlements in the occupied territories is a major obstacle to forging a Middle East peace deal. Sharon, in fact, has virtually torpedoed hopes for the latest US peace attempt outlined in the "road map" by declaring there would be no curtailing of expansion of the settlements, let alone their closure. The plight of the Palestinians, the anguish and injustice of Jewish occupation of their West Bank homeland, the inability of the United States to pressure Israel into a genuine peace mode, the continuing contempt expressed in the US for the Islamic religion and, now, the agony of the Iraqi people in the wake of the destructive US-UK invasion of the country will continue to fuel the rage of fundamentalist mullahs and terrorist groups in the Arab world. The US, of course, may take whatever measures it sees fit to protect itself and its citizens, but until it changes its superpower attitude and policy, and forces Israel to do likewise in the Middle East, the retaliatory terrorism will continue.