Anna

I just was clicking through the channels, when I noticed that MSNBC said that the state issued it's first travel warning for Americans since Oct. 2001 - anyone else can verify this? What was the website for the travel warnings?

Amy

US travel warnings are listed at www.state.gov

Amy

Hi Anna,<BR>I just read what you were talking about. It is a Public Announcement that replaced the Public Announcement that was issued in October. I think the US updated it in light of what is happening to the American journalist in Pakistan. It is not a travel warning though. It's a world-wide caution notice.<BR>~Amy

TravelGal

What the State Department meant is that we all have to be vigilant and on high alert. About what?, you might ask… Hey, they don’t have a clue! Just a generic carefulness; when you cross the street, when you eat your breakfast, when you sleep at night, the danger is everywhere, all the time. And if something happens, it’s your fault, you weren’t vigilant enough, they told you and you didn’t listen! Now go ahead and be very careful and alert!

Joseph

For godsakes, show some backbone. We are turning into a nation of whimps. I agree with the previous writer, you can get hit getting a newspaper! If you are tht concerned about your safety don;t go. If there is one thing even a common pickpockets can see it's a big V on someone's forehead. Don't assume you will be a victim. Use common sense, but don;t let someone else steal your good times.

Julie

What I read was that the government wanted to extend the travel warning, because they suspected that there were Al Quaida operatives still in the United States who might be planning something else. Basically, I don't think the situation has changed. <BR><BR>Travel right now is a bit risky, but hopefully we will all have safe and rewarding trips.

xxx

Those US government travel warnings are a laughing stock in Europe.

Julie

I guess it doesn't seem as funny when you have friends who live near the Twin Towers.

Bob Brown

I am not sure the State Department or Mr. Ashcroft, our esteemed Attorney General, does anything except set off mass panic when they crank out these alerts and warnings. For example, what casual tourist is going to Iran these days?? I need a State Department alert to tell me that Iraq might not be too hospitable to an American??<BR><BR>Like what the heck I am going to do to be alert when I travel to Europe? I cannot carry a weapon with me!! So I guess we hope that the flight has several big guys on it in case some other idiot tries to blow up the plane with a shoe bomb. Or, alternatively, hope that that the flight attendants are big, strong, brave women who pack the kick of a mule. (No more female flight attendants who are not pro wrestlers or basketball players.) <BR><BR>I ask this in all honesty: what the heck can I do when I travel that I am not already doing? Stay home? Go around the airport sniffing shoes? Stay awake the whole trip in case someone strikes a match? Panic if some drunk acts a little goofy and call for assistance? Those are about the only defenses I can think of, and I am not going to do it!!<BR>So alerting me to impending doom without telling me what to do to defend myself is nonsense. I am alert when I travel, except for dozing on the plane. I don't travel in a stupor, buzzed out on drugs and/or alcohol. I don't wander aimless about the streets in Paris. But knowing where you are going is no deterrent if somebody really wants to get you.<BR>I guess today I would scream bloody murder if some guy set fire to his shoes on my flight, but I don't think I would have just sat there and let the fuse burn even in 1990.<BR><BR>So again, what in the name of all that is holy am I expected to do after I hear one of these cockamaimy alerts?<BR><BR>I think those officials are out of touch with reality, and they are engaging in pompous CYA activities. If a plane gets blown up, then Brother Whoever can rightously say, "I told you so. We issued a warning, and the plane blew up because you were not alert enough. Your fault; not ours." Sorry if these remarks are antagonistic to our esteemed leaders, but those gentlemen seem to me to be leading us in the direction of panic without alternatives.<BR><BR>Air port security is still a joke, and if the Feds were going to do something effective, I think it is past time that they did!! I have yet to see anything new, different and effective. Oh sure, we have witnessed troops with assault rifles (who scare me more than they scare a terrorist), and the confiscation of nail clippers, knitting needles, and pipe stems, plus the blocking off of parking places near the terminal with concrete barriers. But do you really think the security forces and procedures are scaring off the terrorists? I hope so, I sure hope so!!<BR>I guess I take it on faith and faith alone, believing where I cannot prove.<BR>(With due apologies to ALT.)<BR>

Jean

If you think the travel warnings are stupid, ignore them. If you think Europeans consider the travel warnings a joke, ask them how important American tourism is to their country's economy and whether the warnings have affected American tourism.<BR><BR>If you think the world is different now (and possibly for our lifetimes) for Americans travelling abroad, take all the information you can get and use it. If it's too scary or the warnings are not specific enough for you, stay home. Whining doesn't help. If you travel, keep your American profile low and (as always) be respectful of local cultures and beliefs.

To Julie

Twin Towers were in USA, they did not fall on top of people who were travelling. If Al Quaida was planning something new, wouldn´t they target some place IN THE USA, where they would get more victims? Sounds more like there should be warnings about staying at home.