Dubai Ports Deal Redux - This time its e-Passports

[MazeRat7]

Well well.. so I guess we know what else was going on in Germany besides unwanted sexual advancements and Pig envy.

It seems the US just awarded the contract for making the e-Passports RFID chips to a German semi-conductor company called Infineon.

Considering it was demonstrated in Las Vegas earlier this month how easy it was to "clone" an electronic passport by using the publically availble specs. I wonder how long it will be before a way is found to actually alter the data to avoid watch-lists and the like via inside help or plain old school cracking ?

It should be interesting to see if this makes the same fear..fear...fear... terra...terra...terra news cycle that the Dubai Ports Deal did. Any bets since we have elections in a few months ?

MZr7

[kaygore]

1. I don't think any of the 9-11 "supposed" hijackers were from Germany

were they?

[Retrograde]

4. no, but they lived there for a while

Hamburg, I think. Atta and a few others spent time there.

[kaygore]

2. A better question would be who in the administration profits from this

Follow the money!

[matt819]

3. How about US coinage?

Didn't I read somewhere that consideration was being given to having the Chinese make some of our coinage, or was this a Jon Stewart-type piece?

[RogueBandit]

5. a new list

Let me see...

IRS tax info goes to collection agencies, perhaps owned in part by foreign investors

US Port security managed (read controlled) by foreign company

US Passport ID chips made by foreign company

37% of the 3.9 trillion national public debt is held internationally (1 megabyte PDF gao.gov report at http://www.gao.gov/new.items/d04485sp.pdf)

Got any more?