Oh, they say that’s not what they’re doing, but let’s take a look at the facts.

In its never-ending quest to one-up the Americans on who can violate their citizens’ rights quickest, the EU is going to be collecting all sorts of arcane, and troubling, information on American air travelers, just like the US is collecting on Europeans (with the EU’s consent).

The info they’re going to collect may include:

The data, including names, telephone numbers, credit card information and travel itinerary, would be sent to E.U. member states so they could assess passenger risk for counterterrorism purposes, according to a draft copy obtained by The Washington Post. The European Commission proposal would allow the data to be kept for 13 years or longer if used in criminal investigations and intelligence operations. It would cover all passengers flying into and out of Europe, not just Americans…. Under the proposal by Franco Frattini, European commissioner for freedom, security and justice, airlines or computerized reservation systems would send at least 19 pieces of data on each passenger to data-analysis units set up by each state. The data fields also would include e-mail addresses, names of accompanying passengers and open ones for such special requests as meals or medical service. Under the proposal, no personal data that could reveal race, ethnicity, political opinions, religion, trade union membership or health or sex-life information could be transmitted. Any such data that was shared would have to be deleted immediately by the data-analyzing units, the proposal says.

Yeah, no data about your ethnicity, religion, health or sex-life will be transmitted. But they will collect and retain data about any “medical service” you need, and somehow that won’t tell them anything about your “health.” Are they high? That kind of bald-faced lie is usually the kind of thing you expect from the Bush administration, rather than Europeans.

But let’s examine this further.

They’ll collect no information on your religion, they say, but they will collect info on your special meal requests like, oh, I don’t know, the fact that you want a kosher meal. No, doesn’t suggest that you’re Jewish at all. And in any case, European governments keeping databases of who’s a Jew – I mean, what kind of damage can that do anyway, right?

As for your sex-life information, the fact that you always travel with your same-sex friend who has a different last name but the same home phone, and you charge the tickets on one card when you fly to Ibiza, doesn’t suggest anything either.