Originally Posted by
FateSucks
Even then, they are nowhere as dangerous compared to other countries with unstable or strong theocratic governments!
Japan makes two or three passport checks when boarding an international plane and even fingerprints foreigners arriving in its country since 2007!
Transit passengers are a concern, more so when it comes to NRT.
Which countries have theocratic governments? Iran won't be getting CBP PreClearance, and Iranian passport users can't travel to the US without a U.S. G pre-clearance in the form of getting a US visa or other US travel doc. Even if the prospective host government would want such a facility, good luck finding CBP employees wanting to live there without diplomatic (not consular-like) cover. And even then, expect CBP to cost more to staff outside of the U.S. than inside of the U.S.
Countries with unstable or theocratic (if/when different) governments have passports that are good for travel to the US only in conjunction with a US visa or other US travel doc -- a sort of U.S. pre-clearance. It's VWP countries' citizens which are the main ones -- after Canadians and US immigrants -- to travel to the U.S. without a pre-travel manual doc check by USG employees. This, as with ESTA, is, in some twisted way, narrowing the "security" gap between VWP countries' US-bound visitors and non-VWP countries' US-bound visitors.