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In today's AM Costa Rica:

Electronic U.S. passports to be standard at year's end
Special to A.M. Costa Rica

WASHINGTON, D.C. — The United States is issuing electronic passports as part of a pilot program for diplomatic passports, and plans to issue U.S. e-passports to the American public at all domestic passport agencies by the end of 2006, the State Department announced.

According to the State Department media note on the new passports, the e-passport integrates the latest concepts in electronic document protection and readability and aims to facilitate international travel for U.S. citizens while enhancing border security. The State Department began limited production of the e-passport Dec. 30.

Officials say the e-passport is the same as a traditional passport with the addition of a small integrated circuit or chip embedded in the back cover. The new passport combines face-recognition and chip technology. According to State Department documents, the chip securely will store the same data visually displayed on the photo page of the passport (name, date of birth, gender, place of birth, dates of passport issuance and expiration, passport number), and will also include a digital photograph. The inclusion of the digital photograph will enable biometric comparison, through the use of facial recognition technology at international borders, officials say.

"The information contained on the integrated circuit embedded in the passport will not provide a means to track U.S. citizens. This information will be used only in identity verification at ports of entry during travel," said Laura Tischler, State Department consular affairs spokeswoman.

To prevent data written to the chip from being susceptible to unauthorized reading, Tischler said that shielding material has been incorporated in the passports front cover, which she said prevents the chip from being read when the passport is closed.

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You ALWAYS have an option ....... "NEXT" !!!

Yeah right. If you believe that, well, I've got a large bridge in Manhattan I'd like to sell you. Big Brother is raging on! I trust the government
about as much as I trust the hard-core pros at the DR. With RF technology, you can place a device not much larger than the size of the period at the of this sentence almost anywhere.

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"In a nation ruled by swine, all pigs are upwardly mobile, and the rest of us are phucked until we can put our acts together; not necessarily to win, but mainly to keep from losing completely"...Hunter S. Thompson (RIP)

Wouldnt that just mean ALOT of identity theft going on?

Gringotim wrote:



You are giving the Government way to much trust. I could go on and on about this subject but Admin1 would kill it for being political.

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Pura Vida
Only Irish coffee provides in a single glass all four
essential food groups:
alcohol, caffeine, sugar and fat.
Alex Levine