EU agrees to give passenger data to the US

Updated below:

I've read this entire article about five times and still can't figure out what the deal is

The United States and Europe have reached a deal on rules governing the transfer of personal data on air passengers to American law enforcement agencies.

but it sure sounds like the EU has pulled a U.S. Congress and caved to pressure from the Bush thugs. I'm going to check the net a bit more thoroughly to see if I can find anything else about this deal. I'll report back if I do.

Update:

Well, here's the dope, and it sure looks like a bunch of smoke and mirrors to me:

Whereas the 2004 agreement was based on a “pull system” where all legitimate US authorities were allowed to directly extract data from airlines’ databases, the system will now be based on a “push system”, in which US authorities can only request information and airlines have to pass it on. This means that the US Customs and Border Protection no longer has direct access to passenger data – one of the main requests of the European Parliament, according to the commissioner.

Even the title of that last article is EU-US passenger-data deal 'dodges real issue'. A member of the Commission had this to say:

Green MEP and member of the EP Civil Liberties committee Cem Özdemir accused the EU of caving to US pressure at the expense of EU citizens' civil liberties: "The interim agreement allows the continued plundering of EU passengers' personal information by the US, despite the inferior data protection rights afforded by the US system," he said.

The President always wins, doesn't he?