Porous in vast stretches and often invisible, the United States' 8,900-kilometre border with Canada is drawing closer scrutiny after US President George W. Bush, Mexican President Vicente Fox and Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper vowed last week to work together on border security.
While Washington focuses on illegal immigration on the volatile US southern border, a sophisticated drug-smuggling tunnel discovered last year between Vancouver and Seattle and the 1999 arrest of the "millennium bomber" on Canada's western border highlight concerns about the northern boundary.
"It's highly permeable. Getting into the United States, once you are in Canada, is real easy," said Richard Falkenrath, Bush's former deputy homeland security adviser and a visiting fellow at the Brookings Institution.
"Once a terrorist who represents a threat is in Canada, for all intents and purposes they are in the United States," he said. "The issue is how good is the Canadian Government in screening out people that we don't want in either country. They have made some progress, but they could do a lot better."
Sensors in forests
The number of US agents patrolling the northern border has tripled to about 1,000 since the September 11 attacks. Sensors are hidden in forests and cameras monitor remote border posts.
Passports or specially designed PASS cards will be required for Canadians crossing the border by land at the end of 2007.
Many worry that this could strain the world's biggest trading relationship by slowing the US$1.1 billion in trade flowing each day across the border.
Source:China Daily
http://english.people.com.cn/200604/12/eng20060412_257736.html
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'Darling, Pass The Butter Across The Border'
Posted on Thursday, April 13 at 09:46 by jensonjContributed By
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It will kill the tourism industry. If the USA thinks we are that much of a threat then maybe we need to pull out of NAFTA and trade with other, less idiotic countries. I have no problem with having to show a passport to enter the US, afterall they are another country, but is it really neccessary? It sounds like neither Bush nor Harper understand the consequences of this action. Goods, services and people need to cross borders or troops will.
I wonder if they are going to get the Israelies to come and put a wall through the couples house, make them go through a security checkpoint every time they need to crap or piss. I think Bush should be forced to watch video of the Berlin wall coming down over and over again. Maybe so many people would not hate the Americans if the Americans would learn to stop killing their elected leaders, what a concept. Live and let live.
I wonder how long the USA would survive if a wall was built around the entire country and nobody could get in or out. Maybe we need to encourage this, the whole world could build a wall around the USA to keep the idiots in. We could put in an overpass so Mexicans and Canadians could still visit each other, maybe throw our trash out our windows as we drive over America. Stopping for a bathroom break would be lots of fun, you could play pee on the American. I am sure the French would love that.
It is the same crap over and over agian, more rules and more laws will keep us safe. Instead of thinking about how foreign policy can make a country hated the world over people decide to crack down, get tuff! I dare the Canadian government to demand that I give them my biometrics, I dare them. Ever seen V for Vendetta the Canadian version?
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My freedom is more important than your great idea.
– Anonymous