Nearly speechless
Mar. 20th, 2003 07:26 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
jayAfter a long day at JPL, I arrived back here at my hotel and checked email... and was shocked. A broadcast message to employees:
Effective immediately, all Agencies at the U.S. Embassy in Paris must submit a complete and current list of all travelers in France on a weekly basis. In addition, all Paris agencies must have the ability to quickly contact travelers in the event that the Embassy's emergency cascade system is activated.
France? France??? Yes, things have been tense, but do they seriously think US Government employees or their dependents might have to be evacuated en masse? Or rescued? This is the sort of precaution that we used to have to take when visiting East Bloc countries during the Cold War, or when going into a third-world trouble spot.
(shakes head in disbelief)
Effective immediately, all Agencies at the U.S. Embassy in Paris must submit a complete and current list of all travelers in France on a weekly basis. In addition, all Paris agencies must have the ability to quickly contact travelers in the event that the Embassy's emergency cascade system is activated.
France? France??? Yes, things have been tense, but do they seriously think US Government employees or their dependents might have to be evacuated en masse? Or rescued? This is the sort of precaution that we used to have to take when visiting East Bloc countries during the Cold War, or when going into a third-world trouble spot.
(shakes head in disbelief)
no subject
Date: 2003-03-20 07:44 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2003-03-20 07:53 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2003-03-20 08:06 pm (UTC)Well, I imagine there had to be some reason someone left such a thing in the locker other than "I was out of closet space at home".
no subject
Date: 2003-03-20 08:08 pm (UTC)-- Shadopanther
Or perhaps violent anti-war protesters...
Date: 2003-03-20 08:21 pm (UTC)CAIRO, Egypt (AP) - Hundreds of thousands of people marched on American embassies in world capitals Thursday to protest the war against Iraq, including a violent clash in Cairo, where demonstrators hurled stones and metal barricades and pounded on cars. [...more at the link.]
(I found the Guardian article c/o
-- Shadopanther
Re: Or perhaps violent anti-war protesters...
Date: 2003-03-21 07:30 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2003-03-20 09:23 pm (UTC)France has it's own group of pissed off Islamic militants who hate the French. It could be something totaly seperate.