In the United States the news media and politicians are not paying the slightest attention to the scandal that led Panama's Electoral Tribunal to fire Unisys as our provider of national identity card forms and three Unisys executives to become fugitives from Panamanian justice. Though various theories about how US-based multinationals need not answer for the misbehavior of their foreign subsidiaries, or due to established close political, social and business ties, the question is not deemed relevant and the Bush administration is not answering press queries about the matter.

One form of racism that's common in the United States is to presume that Latin Americans are corrupt and North Americans are not. It's the kind of thinking behind the notion that the US "War on Drugs" is hampered by the widespread bribery of Latin American law enforcement personnel but that drug dealers have not significantly bought off US public officials. Might a variant of that world view have it that, although Latin American Unisys employees and executives may have conspired with the Colombian underworld against the Panamanian government, Unisys people in the United States would never sell out the US federal government?

In any case, the fact that corruption within a major US Department of Homeland Security contractor can trash another country's basic security system without anything being said about it within the Beltway raises a number of troubling questions about the Bush Administration's efforts to protect the United States and its civil aviation passengers from terrorism. The following is a review of some of the particulars:

The prizes:

1. On August 19, 2002, Unisys announced that it has obtained a multi-year, multi-million-dollar contract with the new US Transportation Security Administration. Along with partners DynCorp, Cisco, Motorola and IBM, Unisys will set up and manage secure communications and information systems for the new agency protecting 429 commercial airports in the United States. The company's databases will likely manage vast archives that identify people by their irises, fingerprints or other characteristics. Unisys will also handle the Bush federal government's blacklist of people who are not allowed to use commercial aviation, which includes both suspected terrorists and a much larger group of Green Party activists and other non-violent critics of the Bush administration. The Transportation Security Administration was created after the events of September 11, 2001, and is part of the new Department of Homeland Security.

2. Along with California-based LaserCard, Unisys has the contract to provide the hardware and software to create and read the new US Immigration and Naturalization Service green cards, which include biometric information and other data about cardholders on chips embedded within the cards.

The problem:

Unisys was recently fired by Panama's Electoral Tribunal after it was discovered that a Colombian man, Omar Alvarez González, had illegally gained possession of at least 500 blanks for the nation's ID cards (cedulas). It was subsequently discovered that Unisys had in its possession at least 30,000 of these forms, unbeknownst to the Electoral Tribunal.

The precise purpose for which Alvarez González had the forms is obscure. The immediate suspicion expressed in diverse political circles was that false cedulas were being created for massive voting fraud in the 2004 presidential elections. The Electoral Tribunal immediately denied that, without shedding any light on the Colombian's motive. In addition to voter fraud, fake cedulas could be useful for illegal migration into or through Panama; for drug traffickers, guerrillas, paramilitaries and other undesirable Colombians who move in and out of Panama while going about their illicit businesses; bad check schemes and other underworld purposes.

Unisys says that the forms were defective and that the Electoral Tribunal had negligently never given instructions to destroy them. The company complains that Electoral Tribunal employees were also involved in the diversion of the forms.

Along with Alvarez González, two Unisys employees have been jailed. Unisys executives Héctor Martínez, Alberto Morales and Jorge Villalobos, who are wanted by Panamanian law enforcement authorities in relation with the scandal, have fled Panama, reportedly to Costa Rica.

The problem is the human weaknesses in a technological system. Panama's cedulas were supposed to be state-of-the-art and virtually impossible to counterfeit, due to the holograms and other features in the forms. However, these features offer scant protection if the forms can be fraudulently obtained from the company that provides them. Thus Panama is having to replace hundreds of thousands of cedulas, because the Electoral Tribunal can't be sure of how many fraudulent IDs, made using forms illegally obtained from Unisys, are now circulating in Panama.

The question:

If Panama's national security was breached by corruption within Unisys, can the national security of the United States be entrusted to the same corporation?

The pitch:

"Unisys created Office of Homeland Solutions to support clients in the fight against terrorism in the US and abroad. Homeland Security Solutions relate more to process than infrastructure and transcend everything we must do to secure and protect lives, functions of government and the operation of business.

"Focus areas of Unisys Homeland Solutions:

• Enable information-sharing
• Provide positive identification
• Provide emergency management capabilities
• Protect IT infrastructure

"Unisys is capitalizing on its security capabilities to address the key areas identified by the US Office of Homeland Security:

• Detection
• Preparedness
• Prevention
• Protection
• Response and recovery
• Incident management
• Continuity

"Unisys is working with the US Department of Defense to assess, test and determine the validity of technology to address security issues. This project involves the full range of biometric solutions, which are drawing increased interest as potential components of many security applications.

"As businesses and government agencies focus on a unified approach to security, Unisys Security Practice is developing and delivering solutions that go beyond pure security infrastructure. Our holistic solutions integrate applications, infrastructure and processes to address clients' security concerns, offering them protection from today's fast-changing threats."

Source: http://www.unisys.com/industry-analyst/IndustryAnalyst-17.asp

The author of above, as described in said website:

"Ed is responsible for leveraging the entire company's capabilities and solutions that are relevant to meeting market requirements to insure security of citizens, business and government. He was previously vice president, Marketing and Strategy, Global Public Sector. He is a retired US Navy officer where his specialty was information technology, serving on the staffs of the Chief of Naval Operations and the Joint Chiefs of Staff."

Government Executive magazine says:

"Unisys feels its standing in the eyes of the administration isn’t hurt by the fact that Homeland Security Director Tom Ridge is an old friend of the Blue Bell, Pa., company from his days as Pennsylvania’s governor. Unisys chairman and CEO Larry Weinbach met with Ridge not long after the September attacks."

Source: http://207.27.3.29/dailyfed/020102ti.htm

Common Cause says:

The US nonpartisan political reform group Common Cause maintains the Soft Money Laundromat, a database of corporate "soft money" contributions to political parties. Corporate and individual contributions to specific candidates are limited, but donations to political parties --- so-called "soft money" --- are not. According to Common Cause, Unisys and its executives gave $329,850 to the Republicans (and $1000 to the Democrats) between January of 1995 and June of 2002, and gave at least $132,500 to Republicans during the recent election cycle.

See: http://www.commoncause.org/laundromat/ , click onto "donor name" and type in "Unisys"

The company says:

"The Enemy Is Within…."

Source: http://www.unisys.com/public_sector/insights/insights__compendium/enemy__within.htm

And who's to argue with THAT?