Fake Passports easy to get

STORY HIGHLIGHTS
* Congressional investigation reveals gaps in verification process
* Investigator obtained false passports on four of four attempts
* Fake documents used to obtain airline boarding pass
* "Findings expose a major vulnerability," State Department says

From Mike Ahlers
CNN

WASHINGTON (CNN) -- A congressional investigation has exposed gaping holes
in security eight years after the September 11 terrorist attacks, a
government report says.

An investigator used fake documents to obtain a U.S. passport, a
congressional report says.

An investigator used a false identification to obtain a U.S. passport and
then used the passport to get an airline boarding pass and go through an
airport security checkpoint, according to the Government Accountability
Office.

The GAO, the investigative arm of Congress, said its undercover investigator
conducted four tests of the passport issuance system and "easily" obtained
passports every time.

Individuals with "even minimal counterfeiting capabilities" can obtain
genuine U.S. passports, which can be used to travel overseas, open bank
accounts and prove U.S. citizenship, the GAO report says.

In the "most egregious" case, it says, the investigator used the Social
Security number of a man who died in 1965 to obtain a Social Security card.
In another case, he used the Social Security number of a 5-year-old child
and obtained a passport, even though his counterfeit documents and
application indicated he was 53 years old.

"A U.S. passport is a key to virtually anywhere in the world," said Sen.
John Kyl, R-Arizona. "It is very troubling that in the years since the
September 11 attacks someone could use fraudulent documents to obtain a U.S.
passport."

To perform the test, the GAO designed four scenarios. In each, an
investigator simulated the actions of a malicious person involved in
identity theft, then created fake documents using "off-the-shelf,
commercially available hardware, software, and materials."

The investigator used the counterfeit documents to obtain a genuine
Washington, D.C., identification card.

For three of the tests, the undercover investigator submitted passport
applications and supporting materials at U.S. Postal Service locations that
accept passport applications.

For the remaining test, it submitted the application and materials to the
State Department's regional passport office in Washington.

"State and USPS employees did not identify our documents as counterfeit in
any of our four tests," the GAO report says. The State Department "issued a
genuine U.S. passport in each case."

"All four passports were issued to the same GAO investigator, under four
different names," it says. The tests occurred between July and December of
last year.

A State Department spokesman was not immediately available for comment.

But the GAO said in the report that State Department officials "agreed that
our findings expose a major vulnerability" in the passport issuance process.
State Department officials said the department's ability to verify the
information submitted "is hampered by limitations to its information-sharing
and data access with other agencies at the federal and state levels."

Some agencies won't share information because of privacy concerns, or
because the State Department is not a law enforcement agency.

Also, the department, like other government agencies, has difficulty
verifying birth certificates because there are thousands of acceptable
formats for them.

0 Comments

Posted on 02 Apr 2009 by asubpoena