The Bush crime syndicate: making America safer since ... well, never

I know this is a shocker, but a major Bush maladministration initiative is, um, flawed.

Apparently US-VISIT, the federal government's enormous computerized database of information, photos, and fingerprints of foreign visitors to the United States, has fallen and can't get up:

Congress asked Homeland Security's chief information officer, Scott Charbo, who has a Masters in plant science, to account for more than 800 self-reported vulnerabilities over the last two years and for recently uncovered systemic security problems in US-VISIT, the massive computer network intended to screen and collect the fingerprints and photos of visitors to the United States.

Charbo's main tactic before the House Homeland Security subcommittee Wednesday was to downplay the seriousness of the threats and to characterize the security investigation of US-VISIT as simultaneously old news and news so new he hasn't had time to meet with the investigators.

"Key systems operated by Customs and Border Patrol were riddled by control weaknesses," the Government Accountability Office's director of Information Security issues Gregory Wilshusen told the committee. Poor security practices and a lack of an authoritative internal map of how various systems interconnect increases the risk that contractors, employees or would-be hackers can or have penetrated and disrupted key DHS computer systems, Wilshusen and Keith Rhodes, the GAO's director of the Center for Technology and Engineering told the committee.

Rep. Bob Etheridge (D-N.C.) pondered the worst case scenario for US-VISIT.

"Terrorists or nation states could get in there and change or alter their names rendering our watchlists and visa program useless," Etheridge said.

Charbo cited the absence of evidence as the evidence of absence: "There are other controls placed around that system and there is no evidence that the system has been hacked by outsiders." (ed. note This is false since US-VISIT was infected by a worm.)

Feeling secure now, America? When you hear testimony that ...

Whoa, whoa, hold on there a second. The CIO for the Department of Homeland Security has a master's degree in what?

Charbo holds a Bachelor of Science degree in biology from the University of Tampa and a Master of Science degree in plant science from the University of Nevada-Reno.

Not only that, but he has connections to my beloved home county:

As an extension agent for the University of Florida's Institute of Food and Agricultural Sciences from 1989 to 1993, Charbo had regulatory responsibilities for the Agriculture Department in Palm Beach County.

He's an agriculture expert, overseeing the information technology for the entire Department of Homeland Security.

How is that possible?

Charbo is focused on integrating new and existing sources of essential homeland security information in full compliance with our broader values of privacy, civil liberties, and openness.

Oh, well, that explains it. Anytime the Bush crime syndicate mentions "privacy, civil liberties, and openness," you can be sure it's in the context of drowning them in the bathtub.