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http://travel.state.gov/passport/eppt/epptnew_2807.html http://www.nytimes.com/2007/04/29/weekinreview/29macfa.html?ex=1335499200&en=876561d61a49bf27&ei=5088...The New Passport
Stars and Stripes, Wrapped in the Same Old Blue
By NEIL MacFARQUHAR
SAN FRANCISCO
WHEN I went to collect my newly minted American passport, I discovered that it came with a
radically altered design that included sheaves of wheat, the rather large head of a bald eagle plus the flag wrapped around my picture. And that was just one page... When Americans do open their new passports, they’ll see a document strikingly different from the old booklet. By July, all applicants will get the new design, with the State Department expecting to issue a record 17 million passports this year, up from last year’s record of 12 million.
The new passport, in the works for about six years, incorporates the first complete redesign since 1993. Given new international standards for post-9/11 high-tech security features, which transform the document into an
“E-passport,” the State Department decided it was time for something completely different. The new passport comes with its own name: “American Icon.” It’s hard to think of one that was left out.
The inside cover sports an engraving of the battle scene that inspired “The Star Spangled Banner.” A couple of lines of the anthem, starting with, “O say, does that star-spangled banner yet wave,” are scrawled in what the State Department says is Francis Scott Key’s own cursive. The short, 28-page version of the passport comes with
13 inspirational quotes, including six from United States presidents and one from a Mohawk Thanksgiving speech. The pages, done in a pink-grey-blue palate, are
rife with portraits of Americana ranging from a clipper ship to Mount Rushmore to a long-horn cattle drive... “We thought it really, truly reflects the breadth of America as well as the history,” said Ann Barrett, deputy assistant secretary of state for passport services. “We tried to be inclusive of all Americans.”... We think it is a beautiful document as well as the most secure,” Ms. Barrett said. “It’s a work of art.”
Professional designers shown the passport to critique mentioned art as well.
“It is like being given a coloring book that your brother already colored in,” said Michael Bierut, of the design firm Pentagram in New York City.
A passport, not unlike a scrapbook,
gets its allure from gradually accruing exotic stamps, with the blank pages holding the promise of future adventure, he and other designers said. But they find that
the new jumble of pictures detracts from that. “There is also something a little coercive about a functional object serving as a civics lesson, even a fairly low-grade civics lesson,” Mr. Bierut said...
The new passport was developed by a six-member committee from the State Department and the Government Printing Office, with
then-Secretary of State Colin Powell approving the final icon theme.http://www.themonitor.com/news/border_2405___article.ht...Bypassed at Border: Inspectors aren’t using technology, claiming laser visas cause backups at international crossings
By Elliot Spagat
The Associated Press/The Monitor
May 15, 2007 - 11:20PM
SAN DIEGO — The face- and fingerprint-matching technology that has been touted over the past decade as a sophisticated new way to stop terrorists and illegal immigrants from entering the country through Mexico has one major drawback: U.S. border inspectors almost never use it.
In fact, the necessary equipment is not even installed in vehicle lanes along the border. ....
Jeffrey Davidow, U.S. ambassador to Mexico from 1998 to 2001, recalls members of
Congress visiting the border to see the machines, which were never used when the lawmakers were gone. “I’d tell them that it was all show, that it doesn’t work, that the card is not doing what it’s supposed to do,” Davidow said. He said his warnings elicited shrugs.
There were also technological setbacks. Equipment to verify photos and fingerprints often failed to read through sweat, scratches and other wallet “crud,” according to an internal Homeland Security report.
A test at five Texas crossings in the spring of 2004 showed that 731 out of 1,740 cards, or
42 percent, were unreadable, according to the report, which was provided to The Associated Press by someone who insisted on anonymity because the government did not authorize its release. ....
A stack of U.S. visas, above, is sorted recently at the U.S. Consulate in Tijuana, Mexico.
Denis Poroy/The Associated Press
http://www.themonitor.com/news/border_2429___article.ht... Costly visa technologies little used here
Area officials wonder: Is it needed or is it money wasted?
Kyle Arnold and Matt Whittaker
May 16, 2007 - 10:58PM
.... When Congress approved the laser visa system in 1996, proponents touted laser visas, which store so-called biometric information, as the next step in securing American borders from unwanted visitors like potential terrorists, drug smugglers and illegal immigrants. However, an AP article Tuesday said U.S. Customs and Border Protection only checks about 2 percent of all laser visa holders using the digital fingerprint and face matching technology. ....
A
$28.6 million contract for laser visa technology was awarded to Virginia-based
General Dynamics Corp., which has recently received another contract for $28.5 million, according to the AP article. ....
Inspecting laser visas without looking at the biometric information is no better than “looking at somebody’s driver’s license or library card,” she said. “The country invested a lot of money to bring the system up to date. It’s just amazing that they have gone to this expense … and made border crossers pay a lot of money for ... a card that we don’t even know how to use or don’t use,” she said. ....
In
2001, Mexicans who shopped in McAllen, Brownsville, Laredo and El Paso
bought about $3.2 billion worth of goods — roughly
19 percent of all retail sales along the Texas border and 1.9 percent of the state’s retail sales, according to Dallas Fed data. ....
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