VWP enhancements
 

https://www.whitehouse.gov/the-press...m-enhancements

I reckon that makes tens of millions of European tourists into terrorist threats because of their past travels

Largely depends on the countries on the list. If Turkey makes the list then loads of people are in trouble.

For political/geostrategic reasons, that blacklisting of Turkey just won't happen.

Long in the works:

http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/check...gree-fams.html

"Enhancements" of this sort are meant to mean that people who traveled to Iraq and Syria will face a far more likely denial for ESTA approval. Straight from the White House Press Office.

No word on how the USG is going to resolve that approach with the fact that many of the ESTA applicants with Iraqi or Syrian travel history have been there in the employ of the US or US-"allied" governments.

Things may get interesting for many of the thousands of current or former British military personnel who visit the US annually using the VWP. It could ruin some nice vacation times for plenty of British families. Will the Daily Mail love this or not? ;)

Oh dear. I knew that holiday in Pakistan would come back and bite me...

Al Jazeera seems to say that it will be Syria, Iraq, Iran and Sudan. As someone who has personally visited Iran and Sudan in the past 5 years, I must say that I find this to be rather over the top. (And I know loads of people who go to Iran on holiday.) Will be interested to see how reciprocity will be impacted.

Saudi Arabia seems to be on step to get a free pass -- even as Saudi Arabia is the godfather of Daesh/ISIS/ISIL and the anti-Iraq 2003 "coalition of the willing" are the careless, disinheriting parents of Daesh/ISIS/ISIL.

While Saudi Arabia and Pakistan get a free pass from Congress on this, US VWP country citizens who have not even ever been to some of these Congressionally-blacklisted countries will be denied US VWP use merely because they have a claim to say Iranian citizenship despite not even ever having been to Iran or any other of these blacklisted countries.

http://ctmirror.org/2015/12/11/civil...-visa-program/

"Corruption of blood"? The Founding Fathers of the US Constitution didn't fancy bills of attainder and corruption of blood practices engaged in by government, and so the US Constitution was written to restrict them. And yet Congress today has a vast majority that support undermining cross-border travel allowances even for otherwise free people. "Your British father was Iranian? Here's your punishment."

Even if Congress gets it way, it may be a while before the White House enacts such provision against all US VWP countries.

https://www.congress.gov/bill/114th-...&resultIndex=3

That is just plain stupid.

Pakistan and Saudi Arabia have ...... Islamic governments yet they get a pass?

Iran may chant death to Israel/USA but it never started war or committed Terrorism in the Western World compared to idiots who became radicalized while in Saudi Arabia or Pakistan, at least for the last few decades.

While the passed House bill explicitly includes Syria and Iraq, it also includes other countries that are blacklisted in some particular ways.

What's Sudan doing on that list? I mean, I understand they are not friendly but many more countries aren't really friendly.

Beside oil deals gone bad for US companies, Sudan also doesn't have many allies in the US. And Sudan used to host Osama bin Laden, and then there is the whole Darfur and South Sudan conflict thing. It's an easier target to blacklist -- at least relative to Saudi Arabia and Pakistan. And once blacklisted, easier to be added to more blacklists than to be kept off future ones.

True, most of their activity centers in the mid-east and Africa, but Iran is quite active in the West, particularly in Latin America, and is far from one of the planet's leading model citizens:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Iran_a...ored_terrorism

They might not be SMERSH or CHAOS, but they are darn close. and you are mixing apples and oranges when you talk about state sponsored activity and the activities of radical individuals.

Iran is barely active in Latin America when it comes to using its own assets to engage in violent acts. Even with the Paraguay/Argentina thing in mind.

In Iran's case, it should be quite clear by now that sometimes the head doesn't know what the finger is doing and that the finger sometimes pokes the eyes of their own heads. Sometimes I find my own government to not be so different, although I do recall US police and punishment actions being internationally more widespread than Iranian actions -- with death counts attributable to both not being anywhere in the same league once you go beyond a 2000 mile radius from national capital of the state-backed actors.

The USG just can't come to grips with the notion that Hezbollah has become its own monster and sort of always was.