K
Kickin' Ass and Takin' Names
Guest
If you have a passport, now is the time to renew it -- even if it's
not set to expire anytime soon. If you don't have a passport and think
you might need one, now is the time to get it. In many countries,
including the United States, passports will soon be equipped with RFID
chips. And you don't want one of these chips in your passport...
RFID chips don't have to be plugged in to a reader to operate...
The risk to you is the possibility of surreptitious access: ...
Your passport information might be read without your knowledge or
consent by a government trying to track your movements, a criminal
trying to steal your identity or someone just curious about your
citizenship.
At first the State Department belittled those risks, but in response
to criticism from experts it has implemented some security features.
Passports will come with a shielded cover, making it much harder to
read the chip when the passport is closed. And there are now access-
control and encryption mechanisms, making it much harder for an
unauthorized reader to collect, understand and alter the data.
Well it appears the Bush administration decided to outsource the
manufacture of your RFID passport to a company in Thailand that has,
in the past, been vulnerable to Chinese espionage. So the bad idea of
having RFID chips in our American passports just got worse.
According to a response to a question by the U.S. State Department:
Q: Describe the State Department's role, if any, in the decision by
the Government Printing Office to use a factory in Thailand for
assembling the components of U.S. passport. Can the Department reject
a manufacturer selected by the GPO?
A: GPO and Department of State employees jointly evaluated proposals
from several companies to supply the unprinted passport cover (which
contains the chip and antenna and the only part of the passport not
produced or assembled by GPO). The GPO/State evaluation committee
recommended the two companies selected as there were no American
manufacturers who could provide the needed product. GPO signed the
contracts with these companies on behalf of the U.S. Government.
Q: When the Department began its e-passport program, were there any
American companies that produced the electronic chips needed for those
passports?
A: We are not aware of any U.S. companies that made the chips that
could satisfy the requirements of the e-Passport Request for Proposal
at the time we launched our e-Passport program and we received no
acceptable proposals from them.
The Bush administration proceeding with the RFID chipped passport plan
fully knowing that no U.S.-based company could manufacture the chips
they required. The Bush administration deliberately compromised the
security of American citizens abroad by out-sourcing the production of
the already dubious "secure" RFID chipped passports.
But, it gets worse. According to Bill Gertz of the Moonie Times, er
Washington Times, which seems to have broken the story, the outsourced
passports are netting government profits by risking national security.
And just like the Bush administration belittled concerns about the
RFID chipped passports when they were announced, once again the
administration is again is belittling criticism that the passports are
being manufactured overseas.
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.
In the past years we've seen how little oversight the Bush
administration actually provides over their contractors from pallets
of cash going missing en route to Iraq, to slave labor being used to
build the Baghdad embassy, to Blackwater mercenaries shoot-to-kill
tactics in Iraq. So, when officials in the Bush administration says
"trust us", that's the last thing I would do. Especially when they
offer no supporting evidence there are even any protections in place
or practices being audited. The GPO's own inspector general does not
even believe the Bush administration's assurances either.
But GPO Inspector General J. Anthony Ogden, the agency's internal
watchdog, doesn't share that confidence. He warned in an internal Oct.
12 report that there are "significant deficiencies with the
manufacturing of blank passports, security of components, and the
internal controls for the process."
The inspector general's report said GPO claimed it could not improve
its security because of "monetary constraints."
But then the cash-strapped GPO is actually profiting from the overseas
outsourcing of the passport manufacture. Security is being compromised
for the sake of profits.
Of course, Democratic members of the House, such as Rep. John D.
Dingell (D-MI) and Rep. Bart Stupak (D-MI), are concerned about both
the outsourcing and the profits being accrued by the GPO, but the
Congressional hearings and investigation may not come soon enough.
Rep. Bennie Thompson, Mississippi Democrat and chairman of the House
Homeland Security Committee, criticized the GPO for using foreign
components in new electronic passports.
"It is just plain irresponsible to jeopardize the gold standard in
document security by outsourcing production when U.S. companies ought
to be able to do the same work here," said Mr. Thompson, who announced
that his panel is investigating the outsourcing...
"Questions alone about the production and chain of custody of blank
U.S. passports can send shock waves through our homeland security
infrastructure," he said.
For the GPO, the profits from ignoring security were large and the
incentives from compromise were grand. According to the Washington
Times story:
The Government Printing Office's decision to export the work has
proved lucrative, allowing the agency to book more than $100 million
in recent profits by charging the State Department more money for
blank passports than it actually costs to make them...
The profits have raised questions both inside the agency and in
Congress because the law that created GPO as the federal government's
official printer explicitly requires the agency to break even by
charging only enough to recover its costs.
So, under the Bush administration the GPO is possibly breaking federal
law by making $100 million in profits on the outsourcing of passport
manufacture all the while not having adequate security for the already
security-vulnerable RFID chipped passports. According to another
Washington Times story, the GPO profits go to bonuses and trips. Big
bonuses worth a total of $181,593 were given to twenty-five GPO
officials in amounts ranging between $2,000 and $12,920, "Public
Printer Robert C. Tapella paid close to $10,000 for photographs of
himself for his office", and expensive trips to Paris, London, Tokyo,
and Las Vegas were taken.
Officials at the GPO and your new RFID chipped passport may be more
well traveled than you are. According to the Washington Times story:
After the computer chips are inserted into the back cover of the
passports in Europe, the blank covers are shipped to a factory in
Ayutthaya, Thailand, north of Bangkok, to be fitted with a wire Radio
Frequency Identification, or RFID, antenna. The blank passports
eventually are transported to Washington for final binding, according
to the documents and interviews.
Your passport has traveled from the Netherlands to Thailand to the
United States before you even leave the country. This is what the U.S.
State Department advises about Thailand to Americans traveling to that
country.
The State Department is concerned that there is an increased risk of
terrorism in Southeast Asia, including in Thailand... They should
remain vigilant with regard to their personal security and avoid
crowds and demonstrations...
In September 2006 a military group calling itself the Council for
National Security (CNS) seized control of the Thai government and
declared martial law... The Department of State advises all American
citizens residing in or traveling to Bangkok to continue to monitor
events closely...
The far south of Thailand has been experiencing almost daily incidents
of criminally and politically motivated violence, including incidents
attributed to armed local separatist/extremist groups...
That's just a brief excerpt from the thirteen paragraphs cautioning
Americans about their security in Thailand. Just earlier this month,
the international arms dealer, Viktor Bout, the Russian "Merchant of
Death" was captured in Thailand. Plus as recently as 2002, Thailand
has been questioned as a safe haven for al Qaeda and today the Thai
government is battling a "deadly insurgency in its predominantly-
Muslim southern provinces." Thailand is hardly a stable and secure
place to manufacture U.S. passports and the manufacturing company
agrees:
The Netherlands-based company that assembles the U.S. e-passport
covers in Thailand, Smartrac Technology Ltd., warned in its latest
annual report that, in a worst-case scenario, social unrest in
Thailand could lead to a halt in production.
Smartrac divulged in an October 2007 court filing in The Hague that
China had stolen its patented technology for e-passport chips, raising
additional questions about the security of America's e-passports.
Taken altogether, this is an incredible debacle once again perpetrated
by short-sighted, unimaginative officials in the Bush administration.
I wonder if it is simply just greed and corruption or worse, complete
stupidity? I think RFID chipped passports need to be abandoned and the
potentially compromised passports that have already been issued to
American citizens need to be replaced with traditional, chip-free
passports.
Democrats in Congress are planning to investigate the passport
debacle, but such investigations and hearings take time, especially
when butting up against an uncooperative and secretive administration.
Action needs to be taken now, not in ten months when a new
administration is in power.
not set to expire anytime soon. If you don't have a passport and think
you might need one, now is the time to get it. In many countries,
including the United States, passports will soon be equipped with RFID
chips. And you don't want one of these chips in your passport...
RFID chips don't have to be plugged in to a reader to operate...
The risk to you is the possibility of surreptitious access: ...
Your passport information might be read without your knowledge or
consent by a government trying to track your movements, a criminal
trying to steal your identity or someone just curious about your
citizenship.
At first the State Department belittled those risks, but in response
to criticism from experts it has implemented some security features.
Passports will come with a shielded cover, making it much harder to
read the chip when the passport is closed. And there are now access-
control and encryption mechanisms, making it much harder for an
unauthorized reader to collect, understand and alter the data.
Well it appears the Bush administration decided to outsource the
manufacture of your RFID passport to a company in Thailand that has,
in the past, been vulnerable to Chinese espionage. So the bad idea of
having RFID chips in our American passports just got worse.
According to a response to a question by the U.S. State Department:
Q: Describe the State Department's role, if any, in the decision by
the Government Printing Office to use a factory in Thailand for
assembling the components of U.S. passport. Can the Department reject
a manufacturer selected by the GPO?
A: GPO and Department of State employees jointly evaluated proposals
from several companies to supply the unprinted passport cover (which
contains the chip and antenna and the only part of the passport not
produced or assembled by GPO). The GPO/State evaluation committee
recommended the two companies selected as there were no American
manufacturers who could provide the needed product. GPO signed the
contracts with these companies on behalf of the U.S. Government.
Q: When the Department began its e-passport program, were there any
American companies that produced the electronic chips needed for those
passports?
A: We are not aware of any U.S. companies that made the chips that
could satisfy the requirements of the e-Passport Request for Proposal
at the time we launched our e-Passport program and we received no
acceptable proposals from them.
The Bush administration proceeding with the RFID chipped passport plan
fully knowing that no U.S.-based company could manufacture the chips
they required. The Bush administration deliberately compromised the
security of American citizens abroad by out-sourcing the production of
the already dubious "secure" RFID chipped passports.
But, it gets worse. According to Bill Gertz of the Moonie Times, er
Washington Times, which seems to have broken the story, the outsourced
passports are netting government profits by risking national security.
And just like the Bush administration belittled concerns about the
RFID chipped passports when they were announced, once again the
administration is again is belittling criticism that the passports are
being manufactured overseas.
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.
In the past years we've seen how little oversight the Bush
administration actually provides over their contractors from pallets
of cash going missing en route to Iraq, to slave labor being used to
build the Baghdad embassy, to Blackwater mercenaries shoot-to-kill
tactics in Iraq. So, when officials in the Bush administration says
"trust us", that's the last thing I would do. Especially when they
offer no supporting evidence there are even any protections in place
or practices being audited. The GPO's own inspector general does not
even believe the Bush administration's assurances either.
But GPO Inspector General J. Anthony Ogden, the agency's internal
watchdog, doesn't share that confidence. He warned in an internal Oct.
12 report that there are "significant deficiencies with the
manufacturing of blank passports, security of components, and the
internal controls for the process."
The inspector general's report said GPO claimed it could not improve
its security because of "monetary constraints."
But then the cash-strapped GPO is actually profiting from the overseas
outsourcing of the passport manufacture. Security is being compromised
for the sake of profits.
Of course, Democratic members of the House, such as Rep. John D.
Dingell (D-MI) and Rep. Bart Stupak (D-MI), are concerned about both
the outsourcing and the profits being accrued by the GPO, but the
Congressional hearings and investigation may not come soon enough.
Rep. Bennie Thompson, Mississippi Democrat and chairman of the House
Homeland Security Committee, criticized the GPO for using foreign
components in new electronic passports.
"It is just plain irresponsible to jeopardize the gold standard in
document security by outsourcing production when U.S. companies ought
to be able to do the same work here," said Mr. Thompson, who announced
that his panel is investigating the outsourcing...
"Questions alone about the production and chain of custody of blank
U.S. passports can send shock waves through our homeland security
infrastructure," he said.
For the GPO, the profits from ignoring security were large and the
incentives from compromise were grand. According to the Washington
Times story:
The Government Printing Office's decision to export the work has
proved lucrative, allowing the agency to book more than $100 million
in recent profits by charging the State Department more money for
blank passports than it actually costs to make them...
The profits have raised questions both inside the agency and in
Congress because the law that created GPO as the federal government's
official printer explicitly requires the agency to break even by
charging only enough to recover its costs.
So, under the Bush administration the GPO is possibly breaking federal
law by making $100 million in profits on the outsourcing of passport
manufacture all the while not having adequate security for the already
security-vulnerable RFID chipped passports. According to another
Washington Times story, the GPO profits go to bonuses and trips. Big
bonuses worth a total of $181,593 were given to twenty-five GPO
officials in amounts ranging between $2,000 and $12,920, "Public
Printer Robert C. Tapella paid close to $10,000 for photographs of
himself for his office", and expensive trips to Paris, London, Tokyo,
and Las Vegas were taken.
Officials at the GPO and your new RFID chipped passport may be more
well traveled than you are. According to the Washington Times story:
After the computer chips are inserted into the back cover of the
passports in Europe, the blank covers are shipped to a factory in
Ayutthaya, Thailand, north of Bangkok, to be fitted with a wire Radio
Frequency Identification, or RFID, antenna. The blank passports
eventually are transported to Washington for final binding, according
to the documents and interviews.
Your passport has traveled from the Netherlands to Thailand to the
United States before you even leave the country. This is what the U.S.
State Department advises about Thailand to Americans traveling to that
country.
The State Department is concerned that there is an increased risk of
terrorism in Southeast Asia, including in Thailand... They should
remain vigilant with regard to their personal security and avoid
crowds and demonstrations...
In September 2006 a military group calling itself the Council for
National Security (CNS) seized control of the Thai government and
declared martial law... The Department of State advises all American
citizens residing in or traveling to Bangkok to continue to monitor
events closely...
The far south of Thailand has been experiencing almost daily incidents
of criminally and politically motivated violence, including incidents
attributed to armed local separatist/extremist groups...
That's just a brief excerpt from the thirteen paragraphs cautioning
Americans about their security in Thailand. Just earlier this month,
the international arms dealer, Viktor Bout, the Russian "Merchant of
Death" was captured in Thailand. Plus as recently as 2002, Thailand
has been questioned as a safe haven for al Qaeda and today the Thai
government is battling a "deadly insurgency in its predominantly-
Muslim southern provinces." Thailand is hardly a stable and secure
place to manufacture U.S. passports and the manufacturing company
agrees:
The Netherlands-based company that assembles the U.S. e-passport
covers in Thailand, Smartrac Technology Ltd., warned in its latest
annual report that, in a worst-case scenario, social unrest in
Thailand could lead to a halt in production.
Smartrac divulged in an October 2007 court filing in The Hague that
China had stolen its patented technology for e-passport chips, raising
additional questions about the security of America's e-passports.
Taken altogether, this is an incredible debacle once again perpetrated
by short-sighted, unimaginative officials in the Bush administration.
I wonder if it is simply just greed and corruption or worse, complete
stupidity? I think RFID chipped passports need to be abandoned and the
potentially compromised passports that have already been issued to
American citizens need to be replaced with traditional, chip-free
passports.
Democrats in Congress are planning to investigate the passport
debacle, but such investigations and hearings take time, especially
when butting up against an uncooperative and secretive administration.
Action needs to be taken now, not in ten months when a new
administration is in power.
