Outsourced passports netting govt. profits, risking national security

The United States has outsourced the manufacturing of its electronic passports to overseas companies — including one in Thailand that was victimized by Chinese espionage — raising concerns that cost savings are being put ahead of national security, an investigation by The Washington Times has found.

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, according to interviews with federal officials and documents obtained by The Times.

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.

Re-read that again.  It's ok, I'll wait.  Someone in the government thought it was a GREAT FUCKING IDEA to have our passports be manufacturer outside of this country?  This isn't one of those stupid "oops" mistakes, this is one of those "someone should be fired and sent to jail" types of things. 

It's that fucking important.  What the hell are these idiots thinking?

Plus, the GPO is charging more money then they are legally allowed to charge?

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.

"Aside from the fact that we have fully vetted and qualified vendors, we also note that the materials are moved via a secure transportation means, including armored vehicles," GPO spokesman Gary Somerset said.

Yes, Gary, NOW they are sent via armored vehicles, but before:

A 2005 document obtained by The Times states that GPO was using unsecure FedEx courier services to send blank passports to State Department offices until security concerns were raised and forced GPO to use an armored car company. Even then, the agency proposed using a foreign armored car vendor before State Department diplomatic security officials objected.

Gary should be the first to go to jail.  The $100 million dollar profit should be used to get the passport manufacturing plants back to the US.  How do you think that the fucking Chinese got their hands on these?  They walked right in.

This should be grounds for termination:  gross incompetence.

 

Travis

travis@rightwinglunatic.com