The Washington Times newspaper has stirred up a hornets' nest with revelations this week that America's new "high-tech" e-passports were being made in Thailand by a company "that was victimised by Chinese intelligence".

Senior Congressmen have vowed to investigate the US Government Printing Office's (GPO) move to outsource the manufacture of passports abroad. They fear it could lead to fakes similar to counterfeit European Union passports.

The Times revealed on Wednesday that after its new e-passports had computer chips fitted into the back covers in Europe, "the blank covers are shipped to a factory in Ayutthaya ... to be fitted with a wire Radio Frequency Identification, or RFID, antenna", before being sent to Washington for final binding.

Dutch warning

"The Netherlands-based company that assembles the US e-passport covers in Thailand, Smartrac Technology, warned in its latest annual report that, in a worst-case scenario, social unrest in Thailand could lead to a halt in production.

"Smartrac divulged in an October 2007 court filing in The Hague that China had stolen its patented technology for e-passport chips, raising additional questions about the security of America's e-passports." The Times quoted Ron Noble, secretary-general of Interpol, saying stolen blank passports were "the most dangerous" because they were very hard to detect.

Others feared "the very real danger that the new e-passports could be compromised and sold on the black market for use by terrorists or other enemies". The Times said in an editorial on Friday entitled "A passport to danger" outsourcing the production of e-passports to Thailand and the Netherlands was "another Communist Chinese espionage coup".

Critical security gaps

"How many Americans realise that US passports and their components travel a production process that spans the globe - from the Netherlands to Thailand and back to the United States - which is plagued with critical security gaps? ... How many understand the danger in the event that blank passports or high-tech passport components are stolen or transferred to terrorists or spies?

"Some of this has already happened. The new high-tech US passports are fitted with wire RFID antennae at a factory in Ayutthana (sic), Thailand. The assembler and patent-holder, Netherlands-based Smartrac Technology, 'divulged in an October 2007 court filing in The Hague that China had stolen its patented chip technology for e-passport chips'."

US officials sought to play down the security concerns, saying they conduct regular checks of overseas manufacturers. Smartrac could not be contacted late yesterday.

By Jim Pollard

Daily Xpress

XTRA

Security fears

>> Blank US passports are

fitted with computer chips in Europe, and RFID antennas

in Ayutthaya.

>>Two US Congress panels to probe outsourcing operation.

>>Smartrac says China stole its patented technology for e-passport chips.