Peter, there are a number of such experiments in progress, at universities, government laboratories, and in industry.
E. coli is a valuable subject for studies of genome and gene transfer because of its simplicity. These properties are already under study as advanced treatments in both disease and crop modification.
Here is one study abstract, of many in the literature and noted on the net:

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/18265391

E. coli genome manipulation by P1 transduction, Thomason, Costantino and Court, National Cancer Institute at Frederick [Maryland, U.S.]. 2007. Pub. in Curr. Protoc. Mol. Biology, 2007, July; Chapter 1:Unit 1.17; John Wiley & Sons Inc., publisher.

"This unit describes the procedure used to move portions of the E. coli genome from one genetic variant to another." ......

This article diagrams the transfer of E. coli gene material to Salmonella:
p1 transduction- http://www.automation-drive.com/p1-transduction.

It is the National Laboratory studies that are subject of the speculation that the new strain in Germany is the result of their experiments gone wrong. Complete nonsense!