The 'power elite', in this particular case, APEC, are VERY worried about travel security and it's effect on the ability to 'do' transnational business at the lightspeed pace that requires some execs to spend more time in airports, their 'executive lounges', and on airplanes, than they do at the home office.
Somewhere in the aftermath of nineoneone I suggested that the world would move to a two tier system of international (and perhaps national) travel. You and I would get to experience strip searches and soundproof 'green rooms', whereas business executives and other elites would just 'get on the plane', pre-approved, like a 'smile and nod' reception from the doorman at a Park Avenue hotel while meeting the whore... I mean mistress. I also suggested that it wouldn't work because, as a study published a while back showed, middle eastern suicide bombers tend to be rather more intelligent than the average muslim-on-the-street, and could easily reach a position of corporate power, at least enough power to fly executive class, iris scanned, and absolutely no hint of any previous terrorist involvement whatsoever. They are children now, or just born. It's going to be a rough century. lcm U.S. Will Join APEC's Visa-Free System for Executives (Update1) By Hans van Leeuwen Nov. 18 (Bloomberg) -- The United States will join a visa system that will give business executives from members of the Asia- Pacific Economic Cooperation group easier access to the world's largest economy. Holders of the APEC business travel card get multiple visa-free entry to other APEC economies and express passage through airport formalities. Of APEC's 21 members, only Canada, Mexico, the U.S. and Russia do not recognize the card. APEC members include Indonesia, the world's most populous Muslim nation, where several deadly terrorist bombings have occurred in the past four years. The U.S. has toughened its airport procedures and visa rules since the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001. ``The U.S. has decided this year to recognize the APEC business travel card,'' Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice told a conference of business executives in Hanoi today. ``This will enable entrepreneurs like you to gain visas, to move through our immigration lines and to visit America in a faster, safer and easier manner.'' More: http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601103&sid=abmPcOL34GS4&refer=us
