In Belgium, our Minister of Defence talks about buying services from Palantir, and wants to let Oracle build a cloud for the Defence department. He even dares to say that this will result in our own Sovereign Data Streams [1]. I can imagine this is a guy that will have not a single issue sharing the requested data with the US Government, even in the face of the recent hostility of the US towards the EU.
A quick glance at his twitter - you would think he is a minister of some middle-eastern country rather than Belgium. I didn't know about this man before but your comment about "A European minister shilling for Palantir and Oracle" was enough. I am sorry to say your defence minister has a foreign paymaster and it isn't Russia or even the United States.
This is for the visa-free travel program (VWP). The US wants to check whether people who show up for vacation without a visa have a criminal record.
If European countries don't want to grant access that's their right, but it's not at all an unreasonable thing for the US to want access to, if the data exists and is easy to check. If someone is a convicted sex trafficker or drug dealer or whatever, I'm fully in favor of not letting them into the country.
If I remember correctly, the visa free travel (esta) asks about arrests as part of the information. Even if you were never charged, never trialled, declared innocent at trial. I would imagine that this would include a uk police caution as well. For all matters, even if under uk law, these are minor and spent (no longer needed to be declared within the uk).
Just mention the UK, but I am sure that other countries have thier own procedures but the US wants all the details for thier own examination.
It would be more efficient and civilized to just have a background check with a visum application. That way you won't have them in the us at all. That was the whole point of a visum? Therefore other motives must be behind the desire for full access. Full access doesn't mean people first have to travel or even a desire to travel. It means full access outside the normal law enforcement formula. Useful for many purposes, public shaming, asset recruitment, radicalization etc
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[ 2.7 ms ] story [ 40.7 ms ] thread[1] https://x.com/FranckenTheo/status/1975429782432055712
https://www.heise.de/news/Bundeswehr-setzt-auf-Google-Cloud-...
Sounds like another drive-by meant to burn another bridge with EU.
If European countries don't want to grant access that's their right, but it's not at all an unreasonable thing for the US to want access to, if the data exists and is easy to check. If someone is a convicted sex trafficker or drug dealer or whatever, I'm fully in favor of not letting them into the country.
Just mention the UK, but I am sure that other countries have thier own procedures but the US wants all the details for thier own examination.