The stupid ... it BURNS!

[unixronin]

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.

[ FACEPALM ]

"We have n00 s00p3r s3kur3 biometric RFID passports to FOIL TERRORISTS!  We're going to outsource the manufacturing to a Thai company that's already been compromised, so that we can make a bunch of money in violation of our charter!"

This isn't security theater.  It's security farce.

Comments

[jhetley.livejournal.com]

First thought -- Who the 'ell is the "Washington Times"? "Washington Post" I've heard of. I was tempted to read this as an April Fool post...

But no, they're Fools all year, and an extra day on leap years. Endemic to the species Government, rather than the sub-species Democrat or Republican.