Last week, the U.S. State Department finished accepting complaints and suggestions regarding the introduction of a new-style passport this fall. While retaining the previous dark blue color, the main international document of a U.S. citizen will now have a special microchip, which, in turn, contains all the biometric data of a person. According to the Bush administration, the innovation will help combat counterfeiting and hinder the entry of international terrorists into American territory. Nevertheless, the new passport is drawing sharp criticism from the country's human rights organizations, and also threatens to cause a 'visa war' between Washington and its Western European allies, primarily France and Great Britain.
The reason for the disagreement is a microchip specially developed for the new passport, which will contain comprehensive information about the owner, including his or her full name, date and place of birth, citizenship, distinctive physical features, fingerprints, document number, and digital photograph. Thus, the built-in electronic element will allow border guards to instantly determine the identity of a person crossing the border, the authenticity of his document, and also to check whether that person is on the list of those banned from entering the United States. The microchip becomes a kind of invisible identification card. Even now, all issued American entry visas have such a microchip. New passports will begin to be issued to U.S. citizens this fall. It is expected that the exchange will be completed by 2016, since a passport's validity does not exceed 10 years.
Meanwhile, tourism organizations and human rights advocates believe that the new passport will do more harm than good. Each embedded microchip has a miniature antenna that transmits radio signals to special receiving devices or scanners. According to critics, terrorists will be able to easily obtain such machines and then, abroad, detect the presence of American citizens on streets or in other crowded places. The fact is that even now, depending on the complexity of the model, one can freely purchase a radio scanner for between $500 and $1,000.
"Terrorists or kidnappers will only need to walk down a hotel corridor to determine the presence of Americans. With such a scanner, one can find out how many U.S. citizens are in a cafe, then detonate a bomb there. Thus, the passport could create a real threat to the life of its holder," said Barry Steinhardt, director of the American Civil Liberties Union. The State Department acknowledges the "vulnerability" of the proposed microchip and the "possibility of unauthorized reading of information by a powerful device." However, government officials claim that for this, the scanner must be very close to the new passport.
Added to the passport problem is another transatlantic disagreement. Starting April 14, a provision comes into force in the United States according to which passengers are not allowed to have lighters on board an airplane, including in carry-on luggage. Europeans argue that the new measure is ineffective and will lead to huge queues at departures, since existing screening equipment cannot detect lighters in carry-on luggage. As a result, airlines will be forced to manually and thoroughly inspect not only baggage being brought into the passenger cabin, but also conduct searches of passengers' pockets.
A corresponding letter with the aim of reviewing this law has been sent by the European Union to the U.S. government. For violating the new security rule, American authorities threaten to fine European airlines. Let us recall that the decision to introduce a ban on lighters was made after, in December 2001, passenger Richard Reid attempted to ignite a bomb fuse hidden in the heel of his shoe during a flight on the Paris-Miami route. True, the new directive of the U.S. government allows passengers to have matches at their disposal.