That's right. They want biometric information: perhaps DNA records, perhaps fingerprints, perhaps retinal scans - on all passports, whether or not these Europeans *intend* to go to the US.

So since I have a passport for my regular trips to France, Britain, etc, the US government wishes to hold my DNA, fingerprints, retinal scan, or whatever.

But an American citizen who gets a passport? Does my government have the right to have his DNA, fingerprints, retinal scan, etc? Nope.

Here's a piece in The Sunday Business Post about the plan.

Here's an interesting debate on Slashdot about it.

This early article on the agreement in the earnest newspaper The Irish Times refers to "visitors to the US", but in fact it's not just visitors, it's every Irish citizen with a passport. Which is a much larger proportion than in America, since you need a passport to travel around Europe.

But if you think this is fine, and my freedom is less important to you than your own, well, ok, that's up to you.