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EU Planning to Tag RP as Terror Haven
Sunday, November 3, 2002
(10:50 PM (Manila Time)
By Amando Doronila
Inquirer News Service

This is the negative aspect of the policy of aligning with the US anti-terror campaign, now expanded to include groups with no connection to al-Qaeda.

Backlash
The frenetic efforts of President Macapagal-Arroyo's administration to establish the Philippines as a bulwark in the Asian "front" of the US-led global war on terror -- in which the country has been tagged as harboring al-Qaeda networks -- has sparked a backlash in the European Union.

I am informed by reliable diplomatic sources that the European Union is considering the blacklisting of the Philippines as a terrorist haven, alongside Indonesia, Pakistan and Afghanistan. As a consequence, the European Union has alerted European embassies in Manila on the possibility of imposing tight restrictions on the issuance of Schengen visas to Filipinos, as well as to Indonesians, Pakistanis and Afghans.

The sources say the EU decision will be handed down "within two weeks." Filipinos with Islamic names are likely to be the target of this tight vetting.

A Schengen visa, which is currently relatively easy to obtain, allows its holder to enter any of the 15 EU members, except the United Kingdom. If adopted, the EU decision will subject nationals of the blacklisted countries to rigorous and lengthy screening before they are issued visas to enter Austria, Belgium, Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Ireland, Italy, Luxembourg, the Netherlands, Portugal and Spain.
(More: Inq7.net News Source)
2002 © www.inq7.net.

Here we have Doronila’s misconception:
“This is the negative aspect of the policy of aligning with the US anti-terror campaign, now expanded to include groups with no connection to al-Qaeda ...”

“Global Terrorism,” the initial target for the U.S.-led coalition against terror, was never confined to any single group.

You’d think “journalists” would at least try to keep up with the news,
Dan