US presses Pakistan for more info on air passengers

Society Pakistan & World Affairs
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The govt should never agree to give any passenger info to the US for people who are not directly traveling to the US.

http://dailytimes.com.pk/default.asp?page=2010\06\01\story_1-6-2010_pg7_6

US presses Pakistan for more info on air passengers
** US wants information on Pakistanis who fly to other countries to feed into databases that can detect terrorists’ patterns, their financiers, logisticians and others who support them*

WASHINGTON/LAHORE: The United States is increasing pressure on the government to provide it with much broader airline passenger information as part of its efforts to combat terrorism, The New York Times reported on Monday.

Citing unnamed US officials, the newspaper said the administration of President Barack Obama considers this information a crucial tool needed to track suspects’ travel patterns.

Names: The government currently provides the names of airline passengers travelling to the United States, the Times report said.

Databases: But the US wants information on Pakistanis who fly to other countries, to feed into databases that can detect patterns used by terrorists, their financiers, logisticians and others who support them, the paper noted.

Pakistan has for several years resisted this request, the paper noted. But the issue is now on a “short list” of issues between the two countries, which includes classified counter terrorism programmed and enhanced intelligence sharing, The Times said.

The report comes in the wake of the failed May 1 attack on New York’s crowded Times Square, in the city’s busy theatre district. A 30-year-old Pakistani-born naturalised US citizen, Faisal Shahzad, has been charged in connection with the incident.

The renewed urgency in the negotiations comes against the backdrop of evidence that both Shahzad and Najibullah Zazi, a former airport shuttle bus driver arrested last fall as the main suspect in a failed plot to bomb three New York City subway lines, received training in the Tribal Areas, the report says.

US President Barack Obama approved a new security protocol for people flying to the United States last month. The intelligence-based security system was created to raise flags about travellers whose names do not appear on no-fly watch lists, but whose travel patterns or personal traits create suspicions. daily times monitor/afp

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Re: US presses Pakistan for more info on air passengers

when every terrorist plot in the whole world trace back to Pakistan, then the world has the right to ask for such information.

as far sharing data concern, question do you have choice? ... as the saying goes: beggars are not choosers !

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Re: US presses Pakistan for more info on air passengers

I completely agree with this notion. The idea is to ensure that the funding for terrorist elements can be eliminated. Specifically the TTP and others.

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Re: US presses Pakistan for more info on air passengers

****ing hell. no way should Pakistan agree to this. i dont have any confidence in these algorithms.. anyone who is even a little bit of an outlier will get flagged.

it is quite simple to hand over trained algorithms to us or provide us access to them. why should we give them our citizen's data? machine learning algorithms dont even need a database once theyve been trained. give us the classifier and we can run it.

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Pakistan should do this on their own, agree with what ravage said above. Next they will be asking to access bank accounts of all Pakistanis.

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Re: US presses Pakistan for more info on air passengers

Well duh we do it on our own. We do what Zia did. Agree to cooperate. Ask for this fancy technology that we need and use. Build up our expertise and then feed them bogus data that doesn't help in any case.

That or we do all of that and feed them data only we want them to do. But I doubt Zardari has the courage or the balls to do that.

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I am skeptical.

The way american-indians have access to & control over all the US information, banking, technology, political & other system........ & also israel, it would be extremely idiotic to provide any kind of information about Pakistani citizens. We have saif ur rehman's case right here. And the way india is obsessed with the idea of somehow, anyhow connecting every evil to Pakistanis through bollysh!tish stories & then create a huge hype through media about their fabrications, we can be sure how such information can be passed on to india-israel by the american traitors working in the CIA. And then how that kind of information can be misused by india & israel against Pakistan. It would do more harm than good because RAW-Mossad are now looking for more & more newer ways for more slavery of Pakistanis.

It cannot be denied that the US army / intelligence agencies have their share of traitors. That's why 9/11 took place. There is no way this kind of information would remain confidential & used only for the intended purpose. Such as using the information of any Pakistani traveller abroad to associate with him fake cases of terror, corruption & other evil. Not like that has not happened before. So, we must learn from the past & keep our citizens' information private & confidential.

Not recommended at all.

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Re: US presses Pakistan for more info on air passengers

Wow, just Wow! Look at the way they are treating Pakistan!

If the Government agrees to this demand, it will just add more weight to my claim that Pakistan is truly sold out! I think the Beghairat Government of Pakistan should offically declare us 'Bheekaris'.

Yesterday i was reading about Pak Army (or rather US puppets) agreed to start an operation in NW soon, and now this news. What's next? Are drone attacks coming to Quetta & Punjab?

Pathetic!