Outsourced passports netting govt. profits, risking national security

Outsourced passports netting govt. profits, risking national security

www.washingtontimes.com

The United States has outsourced the manufacturing of its electronic passports to overseas companies

"I am not only troubled that there may be serious security concerns with the new passport production system, but also that GPO officials may have been profiting from producing them," said Rep. John D. Dingell, the Michigan Democrat who chairs the House Energy and Commerce Committee.



Officials at GPO, the Homeland Security Department and the State Department played down such concerns, saying they are confident that regular audits and other protections already in place will keep terrorists and foreign spies from stealing or copying the sensitive components to make fake passports.

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This is my first thread so please bare with me. If it is allready being discussed or is posted in the wrong section,I apologize.

I was told of this story from my brother and was trying to find out if this is truth.I searched it on Google. If it's true, this truly is pretty sad that the NSA/America is worried about us when it is clear that THEY are the clear and present danger.

If this is the case,everyone would have the means to have a legit U.S. passport and in turn jeapordize this already unsafe and corrupt country.I think it's time to hold our officials accountable for Treason.

These people truly do get away with anything they want.It's time for us Americans to regain our coutry.I'm personally not looking forward to what's in store for my children.

www.washingtontimes.com
(visit the link for the full news article)

So a country that claims there is a terrorist around every corner is having it's blank passports made in Thailand? I can't believe I'm reading this.

Such documents should never be outsourced, not even to private companies within the US. I find it so odd that GPO officials brush off the issue like it's nothing.

I work for vital statistics in the province of Ontario, we manufacture birth marriage and death certificates for the province. Birth certificates here are needed for everything, and our proccess is as secure as it can get. Everything is handled internally, and not a single staff member can actually manufacture a document from start to finish, thus minimizing the risk of fake documents being produced. I find it so odd that similar methods or more strict ones are not being used in US passport production.

reply to post by InSanE1
I would have to agree especially with all the so called precautions the American govt claims to make for our safety.The method you speak of sounds like a very good idea. Several different stations combined.This is just more proof that it's all about money and that they could care less about their citizens.What's even sadder is people actually believe that they are here to protect us.

Do they actually believe that terrorists and illegals will not use this to their benefit.They basically just gave them a free pass or should I say passport to get into the country.

To be honest they actually don't even need it.Nobody enforces the law anyway unless it's against our own people.Just ask the 20 million plus illegal immigrants.This country is a total joke. The land is beautiful but it's time for new management.

Everyone who is corruptly involved in the destruction of this country truly needs to be hung up like a pinata and beaten until their intestines hang out from every orifice.
I truly am disgraced to call myself an american.

This just seems increcibly stupid to me.

Sorry for the short reply but there isn't much else to be said.

Whoever authorizied this should be immediately fired!!!

there isn't much too say.Just another shred of evidence against The losers running this country.

TextConcerns that GPO has been lax in addressing security threats contrast with the very real danger that the new e-passports could be compromised and sold on the black market for use by terrorists or other foreign enemies, experts said. Concerns that GPO has been lax in addressing security threats contrast with the very real danger that the new e-passports could be compromised and sold on the black market for use by terrorists or other foreign enemies, experts said.

"The most dangerous passports, and the ones we have to be most concerned about, are stolen blank passports," said Ronald K. Noble, secretary general of Interpol, the Lyon, France-based international police organization. "They are the most dangerous because they are the most difficult to detect."

Mr. Noble said no counterfeit e-passports have been found yet, but the potential is "a great weakness and an area that world governments are not paying enough attention to."

Lukas Grunwald, a computer security expert, said U.S. e-passports, like their European counterparts, are vulnerable to copying and that their shipment overseas during production increases the risks. "You need a blank passport and a chip and once you do that, you can do anything, you can make a fake passport, you can change the data," he said.