Iraqi Passport Blunders: Another Example of Security Loopholes

By Michael Cutler

This is the sort of story on passport blunders that is significant on many levels. It points out how bureaucrats can be corrupted or can be incompetent or both. It also shows how passports, which are supposed to provide a secure means of identifying international travelers, are not always sufficient. While Iraq is not a participant in the Visa Waiver Program, I worry that similar situations can and have occurred with countries which participate in the Visa Waiver Program.

Most people are compassionate when they encounter political refugees. We are often reminded of the Holocaust and other human tragedies of similar nature with many victims of political strife and war. However, the bad guys who are intent on accomplishing their nefarious goals are all too happy to conceal their true identities and make all sorts of claims, often playing on the sympathies of those who would seek to help them. I have on occasion made the point that one of the biggest differences between decent people and bad guys such criminals and terrorists is that when a decent person wakes up in the morning, he goes through his belongings to figure out what he wants to wear. A criminal or terrorist, on the other hand, goes through his stuff to figure out who he wants to be.

Here we have a situation where 26,000 people availed themselves of the opportunity to alter their identities. That by itself is a crime, but what is more disturbing is why? Why would these people do this? Did they do this in order to conceal a criminal history? Did they do this to conceal their true nationality? Did they do this to embed themselves in Stockholm or some other country as did the terrorists who attacked our nation? Might the terrorists have done this to be able to create a fictitious identity for themselves in a country such as Sweden or Norway, intent on eventually going to another country that they want to ultimately attack, such as the United States? These are all very disturbing questions with no answers that are immediately available. The Iraqi ambassador attributed this disaster to being unable to verify the true identities of these people because of a lack of resources. It is also entirely possible that this was a matter of corruption or a combination of both. Consider the quote from that article:

"Details surrounding the fraudulent passport applications first emerged in Norwegian press after police cracked a forgery ring in Oslo. The Iraqi ambassador to Sweden informed Norwegian newspaper Aftenposten that the embassy had issued passports based on false documentation simply because it did not have the resources to check the authenticity of the paperwork."

There is a real problem when you are unable to verify the true identity of individuals who prepare applications that seek to provide various benefits to the applicant. Consider the situation with the Guest Worker Amnesty program that the Senate appears to be intent on creating and that the President has been insisting on almost since he was inaugurated. Our nation would be dealing with many millions of illegal and undocumented aliens whose true identities and even nationalities could not be verified. The article I have attached below talks about 26,000 such individuals while our nation would be facing perhaps more than 20 million such individuals. This represents a potential national security crisis of unparalleled proportions. My concerns about this are entirely reasonable considering that last year USCIS lost more than 111,000 immigration files relating to aliens seeking a wide variety of immigration benefits. Among those seeking benefits were approximately 30,000 applicants for United States citizenship who were incredibly naturalized even though the adjudicators had no access to their files! Here is a press release issued by Senator Grassley of Iowa concerning that fiasco!

It is also worth noting that while Senator Grassley was a strong proponent of the Immigration Amnesty of 1986, he is now utterly opposed to the Guest Worker Amnesty program. In fact, he testified at a field hearing conducted in Iowa on September 1, 2006 about his opposition to the Guest Worker Amnesty program. I was also called as a witness at that hearing. You can read the transcript of that hearing here.

The bottom line is that the terrorists have learned how to game various systems to their advantage. If we fail to be appropriately cautious and prudent, our nation will fall victim to future attacks. We cannot make the world totally safe for ourselves or our nation, but certainly, discretion is the better part of valor!

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