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“Schöne Grüße an Herrn Beckstein”
“Greetings to Mr. Beckstein”
Mr. Beckstein is the secretary of the interior for Bavaria. In my opinion one of the most dysfunctional politicians ever elected, he’s constantly trying to erode every constitutional right in Germany to further his own agenda and his far-right conservative viewpoint. He’s not really a topic for this post, just someone I really disagree with and who constantly spouts ill-informed ideas on how Germany has to protect itself from terrorists to computer-gamers.
Now, Bruce Schneier mentions an article by The Guardian that the British “Home office” released a statement saying that 10,000 passports have been issued in fake names in the last year.
10,000!
…and that’s what they admit to. The real number is probably higher. Just to make this clear: these aren’t fake passports, these passports are real passports, with RFID-chip, biometric security, holograms and every other gimmick these expensive booklets have, they are just issued in a fake name. So much for increasing our security against terrorism with technology.
I’ve said it before: “biometric security” in passports is nothing but a idiotic, boneheaded and incredibly expensive subsidy for the “Bundesdruckerei”. Simply because counterfeit passports are at most a small threat to our security. The british government itself gives out enough fake passports each year for an army of terrorists. How many have been issued in Germany?
This kind of crap happens when you confuse identity with intention, like every one of these self-anointed “terrorism-fighter-politicians” does (here’s where Mr. Beckstein comes into the picture). They should have invested all this money in the fire departments and other emergency services. That would have helped not only against terrorism, but against all kinds of threats, it’s just not something these people care about anymore.