March 27, 2008

You’ve heard about the invasion of privacy over passports, haven’t you? The three presidential candidates had their passport records examined by people who were not authorized to do so.

Now the Washington Times reports that in order to save money, the State Department outsourced to overseas companies the manufacture of U.S. passports, including one in Thailand that was victimized by Chinese espionage.

The decision by the government printing office to export the work has proved lucrative. According to the times’ Bill Gertz, the agency has been able to make $100 million in recent profits by charging the State Department more money for blank passports than it actually costs to make them.

Naturally those responsible say there is nothing to worry about and that regular audits protect security. But I think this is a case that congress should investigate to make sure. We are outsourcing enough already and our security is not all it should be. To allow foreign countries to print U.S. passports is asking for trouble.

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Cal Thomas is a nationally syndicated columnist based in Washington, D.C.