Did the USA Outsource Passports to Terrorists?

It's almost unbelievable, but it's true.  The U.S. government outsources key aspects of the production of its supposedly ultra-secure electronic passports, to numerous foreign countries.  Key aspects of the technology used to protect the security of e-passports have been stolen. Osama bin Laden and his terrorist friends may have access it, along with Chinese intelligence agencies.

Under U.S. law, the Government Printing Office (GPO) is the U.S. government's official printer.  That includes the printing of passports.  Unfortunately, the GPO outsourced passport production, in several cases choosing foreign companies to produce newly developed, supposedly state-of-the-art, electronic U.S. passports.

An internal audit by the GPO last October revealed that the agency uses companies in the Netherlands and Thailand for critical parts of passport production. 

First, it ships blank passports the Dutch company (often using unsecured FedEx shipments for this purpose).  The Dutch company inserts a radio frequency identification (RFID) chip in the passport cover.

Once that's done, the Dutch company ships the blank passports to Thailand.  There, passports are fitted with a wire antenna that transmits data to electronic scanners at U.S. border entry points.  The Thai company ships the assembled blank passports back to the United States.

These procedures--particularly the use of unsecured FedEx shipments--make the blank passports vulnerable to theft or counterfeiting.  And, it turns out, that may have already occurred. 

The Dutch company that produces the RFID chips alleged in a lawsuit last October that China had stolen its patented technology for e-passport chips.   It's possible that Chinese intelligence agencies—and anyone else to whom China provides the technology—will use it to produce state-of-the-art counterfeit passports. 

Involving Thailand in the production process raises its own security concerns.  In recent years, anti-government groups in Thailand, backed by Islamic fundamentalists, have carried out attacks in southern Thailand.  It's hardly implausible that one or more terrorists found employment at the Thai company.  Al Qaeda and its ilk may now now also have access to the America's supposedly secure e-passport technology.

What a mess!  If you headed up a foreign intelligence service or international terrorist group, wouldn't you like to send your operatives around the world masquerading as U.S. citizens?  Thanks to this outsourcing scandal, that's precisely the threat that American may now face.

Copyright © 2008 by Mark Nestmann