LONDON (AFP) — Europe is increasingly seen as a staging post for potential attacks on the United States, the US Secretary of Homeland Security told the BBC Wednesday, indicating tougher checks on travellers.
Michael Chertoff said in an interview in Washington that there were no plans to scrap the existing visa waiver programme, under which passengers from Europe are not screened before travelling.
But he said travellers could be forced to register online before their trip and undergo tighter security checks.
"One of the things we've become concerned about lately is the possibility of Europe becoming a platform for a threat against the United States," he said in an interview with BBC World News America television, rebroadcast on BBC radio.
"That's for a couple of reasons. We have the visa waiver programme which allows most Europeans, who come to be tourists, to come without visas.
"That means the first time we encounter them is when they arrive in the United States and that creates a very small window of opportunity to check them out.
"Secondly is that we have watched the rise of home-grown terrorism. We are obviously mindful of the Madrid bombings, the attempted bombings in Germany, and that suggests to us that the terrorists are increasingly looking to Europe as both a target and a platform for terrorist attacks.
"So a lot of what we are trying to do is find a way to better vet people coming in from Europe without impeding the flow of travel or trade which has been a very important part of our economy."
Chertoff said there was a degree of complacency in the United States about the threat, but attacks in Britain, Germany, Spain, Bali and Pakistan indicated Islamist extremism was still a danger.
"I see an Al-Qaeda that's evolving. I don't see any diminishment of the threat, and my concern is that we not relax and let the enemy get ahead of us."
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