US Passports Made Overseas

High-tech U.S. passports are not being made in the U.S., raising security concerns. CNN's Zain Verjee reports.

www.cnn.com

They're saying the passports are being fitted with chips from Thailand. And that the facility is secure, built according to US standards, and each passport chip is tracked. Materials are transported via secure transportation, including armored vehicles.

And the spokesman with the state department says that having one of these new passports is just like having bought a blank CD ROM. And they're perfectly safe.

So they say.

Why in the corn bread hell can't they make passport here in the USA.
Thailand of all places. Why can't they make the in Texas, if we call it a foreign country.

They keep saying we don't have the right up-to-date tech to manufacture the microchips that go with them. I don't know what to say.

Flagged! This is insane. Excellent find! Everyone should know about this AND we should all be sending emails to congress.

Relax. The method of manufacture is not exactly defined. A country like Thailand doesn't exactly have the best infrastructure for a semiconductor factory known as a "front end", at least not a good or large one. Now what they probably have is a "back end" facility which is fairly easy for them to operate. The back end facility takes finished wafers from the front end, on which all the silicon chips have been grown onto, and then cuts them into individual chips and then packages them for use in all sorts of electronics. Its what those little black things with legs on them are.

They could be receiving the parts from a number of manufacturers worldwide including the US. The US doesn't exactly waste its time on this sort of thing because its low end commodity work.

Work like this is farmed out to countries to help them develop their high tech sector and also make "nice nice".

And trust me, these passport chips have nothing on high speed processing chips in terms of complexity, and the US dominates that field.

For shame for you guys to get worked up taking the news at their word like they really know whats up. Wolf Blitzer was making me sick yesterday with his whining.

This is what you get when you send all your manufacturing overseas. Hay, at least it is made in Thailand and not China! If it was in China, it would be on the market pronto. They always make more than the order just so they can sell the extras and keep the profit. Better check the back cover just to make sure it doesn't say "made in China".

Actually I'm wondering when the US treasury will be announcing that they are outsourcing the printing of US currency to Brazil due to cost savings.

I also wonder who will be the first major Wall Steet investment bank to close it's offices in New York, due to cost overruns, and re-open in Dubai.

[edit on 28-3-2008 by In nothing we trust]