[lbo-talk] Judge: Americans need background checks to date internationally

[Chuck]

andie nachgeborenen wrote:
> Oh, come on. For real? This is Onion material.
> 
> --- Doug Henwood <dhenwood at panix.com> wrote:
> 
> 
>>[it's three days past April Fool's, so that can't be
>>it...]
>>
>>US Judge Affirms IMBRA: Americans Must Have Criminal
>>Checks Before
>>Contacting Foreigners on Internet
>>
>>http://www.prweb.com/releases/2007/4/prweb515227.htm
>>
>>A new federal law that makes it a crime for Americans to communicate  
>>with foreigners on dating websites without criminal background checks  
>>is upheld by a federal judge.

There isn't much news on this, so it's easy to think that it is an April 
Fool's prank, but there appears to be some real legislation involved:

http://usaimmigrationattorney.com/images/IMBRA2005.pdf

It appears that the legislation is designed to impose new restrictions 
on websites that broker international marriages. The legislation is 
going to require these sites to search online predator databases. These 
websites will have to provide more information to users in multiple 
languages.

I also found a fake Indymedia site related to this:

http://news.bigg.net/

Chuck