Govt permission to travel to US BEFORE booking your ticket??!

Makes me happy that my husband and boys have dual citizenship so that we don't have to worry about that! It is very crazy though!

does anyone know what exactly australia has?  i know that when i travel down under, i need to apply for Electric Ticket Authority (?) ETA.  it's valid for a year a think.  it costs something like $20, and take about 12 hours for it to come through.  is this similiar to what the US is talking about?

Wow meggles I use to do instant Visa's for Australia on Galileo (flight system) and it took about 5 minutes. We never used to charge for them as they were free...and yes they were valid for a year...and they are mandatory for anyone traveling to Oz.....

I heard about this yesterday from my mother of (of course) thinks it's a SPLENDID idea. -_-
I am at a complete loss for words. He can't be serious, can he? Armed guards, ffs! Looks like I'm getting out of here just in time as I get the feeling he's going to try and shake things up as much as possible before he's chucked to the curb.

.. I get the feeling he's going to try and shake things up as much as possible before he's chucked to the curb.

Oh yeah, I was thinking the exact same thing! 

This is going to screw them in terms of business travel as well...there are times when people need to just GET THERE immediately for business reasons.  I hope that the business world, which does have some clout, will lobby against this.  Why would you want to do business in the US with all these insane restrictions?

The bit that really worried me was that they want details on people who are simply flying over the US, not landing!!!

I never even thought about business travelers which make up more than 75% (stats from early 90's) of airline passengers.

I can't see this ridiculous idea of his passing. The old man is bonkers.

This reminds me of that movie "The Terminal" where Tom Hanks character is told "America is closed."

This is going to screw them in terms of business travel as well...there are times when people need to just GET THERE immediately for business reasons.  I hope that the business world, which does have some clout, will lobby against this.  Why would you want to do business in the US with all these insane restrictions?

Like everything else in this world, I have a feeling money will talk and it will - as usual - be the "little guy" who gets burned the most with this one.

How can someone be this stupid?  I really hope someone who has a brain lobby's against this.  Is there anything we can do?

The bit that really worried me was that they want details on people who are simply flying over the US, not landing!!!

This bothers me too as I SERIOUSLY doubt the citizens of the US would be at all happy with their details being supplied to foreign governments just for flying over a country! They would be up in arms! (litterally ) Are you serious?!
I hope the EU stands up for it's citizens here and just says NO.

Update from the Press Association

The UK is considering a request from the US administration to allow armed air marshals on all US airline flights from Europe to America, the Home Secretary confirmed.

But Jacqui Smith, who was speaking at the start of her first trip to America as Home Secretary, denied a refusal would lead to the end of the visa waiver programme and said the US-UK relationship was not based on threats.

Her comments came after The Guardian newspaper reported the demand to put armed air marshals on to the flights was part of a travel clampdown by the Bush administration that officials in Brussels described as "blackmail" and "troublesome".