Is there really a market for forged or counterfeit documents?
The forging of passports and identity documents poses a grave threat to national security. Forged documents enable identity theft and provide a means for terrorists to cross borders. Six of the nineteen suicide bombers involved in the 9/11 attacks were traveling on forged passports and government authorities believe that there is an Al Qaeda unit devoted to creating forged identity documents. In May 2009, British authorities arrested two men charged with forging thousands of European passports. A PBS Frontline story from 2001 illustrates the worst case scenario of this problem. It details how terrorists are specifically trained to use counterfeit documents to move across borders. The story states that using counterfeit documents is part of the security training of Al Qaeda operatives. This story also states that the terrorists affiliate themselves with organized criminal syndicates that smuggle humans and provide counterfeit documents to accomplish this. Counterfeit documents enable th
