What's in the News

They're now saying two of the passengers were traveling on stolen passports. The mystery continues...

According to US officials, those two guys are "people of interest" as in they are being suspected of an act of terrorism, sabotage, or something.

Now they've upped it to 4 fake passports. At least one is Chinese. It isn't looking good.

http://weibo.com/2656274875/AAasV7eo6

They need to check whoever it was who checked in the people with stolen passports.  Those should have set off all sorts of alarm bells the moment they were entered into the system.

Two of the safest ways to travel: airplanes and elevators. The reaction to this is usually a bevy of ignorant comments about never flying again.

I always try to avoid flying in elevators.

They need to check whoever it was who checked in the people with stolen passports.  Those should have set off all sorts of alarm bells the moment they were entered into the system.

The authorities have confirmed that a previous report of 4 passengers boarding with stolen passports was incorrect. They are investigating the backgrounds of 2 passengers using stolen passports.


 http://news.yahoo.com/interpol-passports-flights-must-checked-175214048--finance.html

It just beggars belief that this is the situation. It makes a mockery of all the so-called security procedures we are put through when boarding a plane.

I, for one, thought that when a passport was scanned at an airport it was checking for all kinds of information including its status. Seems that this is not the case:

More than 1 billion times last year, travelers boarded planes without their passports being checked against Interpol's database of 40 million stolen or lost travel documents, according to the Lyon-based international organization.

Interpol has made warning about the issue for years, and just last month it bemoaned that "only a handful of countries" regularly use its stolen or lost travel documents database of records from 167 countries. For example, the database was searched more than 800 million times last year — but one in eight searches was conducted by United Arab Emirates alone.

On Sunday, Interpol Secretary General Ronald Noble said in a statement that his organization has long asked why countries would "wait for a tragedy to put prudent security measures in place at borders and boarding gates."

"Now, we have a real case where the world is speculating whether the stolen passport holders were terrorists, while Interpol is asking why only a handful of countries worldwide are taking care to make sure that persons possessing stolen passports are not boarding international flights," he said.

Noble, who has called passport fraud one of the world's greatest threats, said he hopes "that governments and airlines worldwide will learn from the tragedy of missing flight MH 370 and begin to screen all passengers' passports prior to allowing them to board flights."

The declared thefts of the two passports used — one of Austrian national Christian Kozel in 2012, and one of Luigi Maraldi of Italy last year — were entered into Interpol's database after they were stolen in Thailand, the police body said.

Interpol also said it and national investigators were examining other suspicious passports and working to determine the true identities of those who used the stolen passports to board the Malaysia Airlines flight.

In November, in yet another talk on the subject, Noble said that four of every 10 international passengers are still not screened against the Interpol database, which produced more than 60,000 hits in 2012.

Some countries have taken the threat more seriously than others. In 2006, U.S. authorities scanned the Interpol database about 2,000 times — but did so 78 million times just three years later.

Interpol, which has 190 member countries, says rising international travel is creating a new market for identity theft, and bogus passports have found a market among many people: Illegal immigrants, terrorists, drug runners — pretty much anyone looking to travel unnoticed.

Sometimes, authorities are outmatched: Ticket-buying regulations and border control techniques vary from country to country, and an Interpol official says there's no one-size-fits-all explanation why some countries don't use its database systematically. The U.S, U.K. and the United Arab Emirates are the biggest users, Interpol says.

In Thailand, where immigration police last year caught a Thai man with 5,000 fake passports, officials say international cooperation helps battle the plague — but passport forgers are now using advanced technology.

"It must take great skills and expertise by our officers to detect the fake passports and visa stamps because the system cannot detect them the whole time," said Maj. Gen. Warawuth Thaweechaikarn, commander of the Immigration Police's investigative division. Thai authorities also say some new techniques include finding a lookalike to match the passport, or altering the image on the passport to look like the holder.

Interpol is now reaching out to the private sector. It's preparing an initiative called "I-Checkit" that will let businesspeople in the travel, banking, and hospitality industries screen documents against the lost-documents database when customers book a flight, check into a hotel room or open a financial account. The project is still being worked out, an official said.

With untold millions of state-issued passports in use worldwide, citizens can help with vigilance.

Police Lt. Gen. Panya Maman, told reporters that Maraldi, the 37-year-old Italian, had deposited his passport as a guarantee at a motorbike rental shop. But when he returned the bike, the shop said they'd already given his passport to some guy who looked like him. Maraldi then filed a missing passport report to local police in Phuket in July.

Speaking Sunday in Bangkok, Maraldi said he had no idea who made off with it.___

http://news.yahoo.com/interpol-passports-flights-must-checked-175214048--finance.html

Keep your passport safe at all times! I flew back to New Zealand a month ago on Malaysia Air. During the 3 hour stopover in Kuala Lumpur I got talking to a young Indian guy who seemed to be at home in the transit office but did not seem to be involved in any work.

He said that he had been living in the office for 6 days because his passport had been stolen after he passed through Immigration. His embassy had arranged for a new passport but it would take another 2-4 days for it to be delivered.

While there is a concern that those using the stolen passports may have engaged in an act of terrorism an analyst has pointed out that it is just as likely that they may have been engaged in smuggling drugs.

Two of the safest ways to travel: airplanes and elevators. The reaction to this is usually a bevy of ignorant comments about never flying again.   

I always try to avoid flying in elevators 

The defence rests

Quote from: Day Dreamer on March 09, 2014, 03:01:14 AM

Two of the safest ways to travel: airplanes and elevators. The reaction to this is usually a bevy of ignorant comments about never flying again.   

Quote from: Escaped Lunatic on March 10, 2014, 04:39:32 PM

I always try to avoid flying in elevators 

The defence rests

Come back after flying in an elevator and let me know if your opinion has changed.

Airplanes and elevators (not at the same time or together) are still the two safest modes of transportation. And I know a commode        mode when I see one.  

Meanwhile ... in the Dem*cratic Pe*ple's Republic of K*rea (DPRK; Chosŏn'gŭl: 조선민주주의인민공화국; Chosŏn Minjujuŭi Inmin Konghwaguk) they have put the 'duh' back in emocracy 

Every North Korean votes for Kim

With no one else on the ballot, state media reports that supreme leader Kim Jong Un was not only elected to the highest legislative body in North Korea, he won with the unanimous approval of his district, which had 100 per cent turnout.

http://www.stuff.co.nz/world/asia/9813471/Every-North-Korean-votes-for-Kim

Thanks for the quote xwarrior. When I heard it on the News here in OZ, I found it very hard to believe the number of lost or stolen passports that were being spoken about.

Canada shuts down "investor visa" program which a lot of wealthy Chinese used:
 
http://www.forbes.com/sites/michaelcole/2014/02/13/canada-slams-door-on-45k-chinese-millionaires-with-end-of-visa-program/

The last paragraph in the article by Forbes talks about passports being bought in St Kitts which is where my son lives and where I am visiting.

I'm familiar with the situation. It's part of what our business is about. Canada has been saying it was going to cease this program a while ago.  One Chinese lady we know who helps the Chinese to move to North America blogged that Canada is now refusing to admit Chinese nationals. We forced her to to delete her lies. She has moved to the US and is now trying to persuade her clients to go there instead. We still work with her. Funny; the Chinese rep is in the US, and the Canadian rep is in China.

 

Quebec still has a similar program. Unfortunately (for the Chinese), speaking French is mandatory.

What I try to tell the groups that my g/f and I present to, is that Canada doesn't need millionaires as much as we need skilled workers. The jobs are there, but everybody wants to be management. (I think we lead the world in white collar services oriented jobs).

Personally, I'm glad for the cancelation. It basically was selling a Canadian Citizenship to the wealthy. I prefer somebody who will mesh with the fabric of our society, buy, sell, live, raise a family, all in our borders. Not someone who bought a passport and can now travel and enjoy the benefits of Canada without contributing.

The last paragraph in the article by Forbes talks about passports being bought in St Kitts which is where my son lives and where I am visiting.

I don't remember if I read it here or somewhere else about Chinese expecting mothers going to an American Pacific island to give birth. This island easily allows Chinese visitors and by their constitution, the baby now becomes an American citizen. Having the mother convert is just a matter of paperwork and process. There are companies on the island that facilitate this quickly for a fee. Of course, these rich Chinese don't have an issue with the cost. The US is looking at how this works and changes are imminent