text: Residents drive across a street with a fluttering Islamic State flag, in Tel Abyad town on the Syrian-Turkish border, Raqqa countryside September 24, 2014. REUTERS/Stringer 
   
   WASHINGTON A U.S. government agency report has warned that Islamic State has the ability to create fake Syrian passports, a federal official confirmed on Friday. 
   
   A spokeswoman for U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement confirmed the contents of a story by CNN on Friday about the report, but declined to provide a copy of the report. 
   
   The report says Islamic State has access to Syrian government passport printing machines and blank passports, raising the possibility the travel documents could be faked, CNN reported, citing a law enforcement source. (cnn.it/1Rf6lE1) 
   
   The CNN source added that there was also concern that because the militant group had access to biographical and fingerprint data on Syrian citizens, there was also a possibility of identity theft. 
   
   ABC News, which first reported the story on Thursday, said the report was released to law enforcement by the Homeland Security Investigations agency last week and raised the possibility that militants could use the documents to travel to the United States. (abcn.ws/1IKPl5I) 
   
   "Since more than 17 months [have] passed since Raqqa and Deir ez-Zour fell to ISIS, it is possible that individuals from Syria with passports 'issued' in these ISIS-controlled cities or who had passport blanks, may have traveled to the U.S.," ABC News quoted the report as saying. 
   
   State Department spokesman John Kirby, asked at a briefing on Friday about the ABC report, replied: "We have been aware of reports, not just in the press, that they may have obtained this capability." 
   
   FBI Director James Comey told a Senate committee hearing on Wednesday: "The intelligence community is concerned that they [Islamic State] have the ability, the capability to manufacture fraudulent passports, which is a concern in any setting." 
   
   (Reporting by Eric Walsh; Editing by Sandra Maler) ||||| Story highlights The report warned that ISIS has access to passport printing machines and blank passport books 
   
   ICE issued the warning in recent weeks to U.S. law enforcement 
   
   Washington (CNN) A new intelligence report shared with law enforcement warns of ISIS' ability to create passports utilizing seized Syrian government assets, according to a law enforcement official with direct knowledge of the intelligence report's contents. 
   
   The report warned that, based on U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement's intelligence sources, ISIS has access to passport printing machines and blank passport books, raising the possibility the documents could be faked, according to the source. 
   
   The source noted that, beyond the report, there's concern that this capability coupled with ISIS access to government buildings in Syria that contain valid biographical data and fingerprint info on Syrian citizens give rise to the threat of identity theft. 
   
   State Department spokesman John Kirby said government officials are "mindful" that terrorists could be making false passports. 
   
   "We have been aware of reports, not just in the press, that they may have obtained this capability," he said. "Obviously, it's something that we take seriously. It's obviously something, clearly that we're mindful of." 
   
   Read More ||||| With the U.S. and other countries on high alert for ISIS attacks, American authorities are warning the terror group’s followers may have infiltrated American borders with authentic-looking passports ISIS has printed itself with its own machines, according to an intelligence report obtained by ABC News. 
   
   The 17-page Homeland Security Investigations (HSI) Intelligence Report, issued to law enforcement last week, says ISIS likely has been able to print legitimate-looking Syrian passports since taking over the city of Deir ez-Zour last summer, home to a passport office with “boxes of blank passports” and a passport printing machine. Another passport office was located in Raqqa, Syria, which has long been ISIS’s de facto capital. 
   
   “Since more than 17 months [have] passed since Raqqa and Deir ez-Zour fell to ISIS, it is possible that individuals from Syria with passports ‘issued’ in these ISIS controlled cities or who had passport blanks, may have traveled to the U.S.,” the report says. 
   
   Homeland Security Investigations Intelligence Report 
   
   The report notes that the primary source for the information was rated at “moderate confidence,” the second-highest rating given for source assessments. Testifying before lawmakers Wednesday, FBI Director James Comey first publicly revealed the nation’s top security officials’ very real anxiety over the problem. 
   
   “The intelligence community is concerned that they [ISIS] have the ability, the capability to manufacture fraudulent passports, which is a concern in any setting,” Comey said. 
   
   Former Department of Homeland Security intelligence official and ABC News consultant John Cohen said, “If ISIS has been able to acquire legitimate passports or machines that create legitimate passports, this would represent a major security risk in the United States.” 
   
   Fake Syrian passports have already been discovered in Europe, most notably two used by suicide bombers in the horrific terrorist attack on Paris last month. The two men are believed to have slipped into Europe with a flood of Syrian refugees fleeing the violence in their homeland. 
   
   According to the source that provided the passport information to homeland security officials, Syria is awash in fake documents. 
   
   “The source further stated that fake Syrian passports are so prevalent in Syria that Syrians do not even view possessing them as illegal,” the report says. “The source stated fake Syrian passports can be obtained in Syria for $200 to $400 and that backdated passport stamps to be placed in the passport cost the same.” 
   
   The report included one example in which law enforcement officials said that a Syrian passport discovered in Turkey was printed with a designator number indicating it had been printed in an ISIS-controlled area earlier this year. 
   
   Recently international news outlets have reported that their journalists have been able to purchase fake Syrian passports for a few thousand dollars. 
   
   The DHS report says it is unclear what state the “blank” passports stolen from Deir ez-Zour were in or if they were completely blank. It also notes that the “whereabouts of the passport machine(s) remain fluid,” since the source said they are portable. As of April, the U.S. Department of Defense marked Deir ez-Zour as a “contested” city on its public map of Syria (PDF), versus ISIS-dominated for Raqqa. 
   
   The HSI report’s last page contains a warning: “If ISIS ability to produce passports is not controlled, their operations will continue to increase and expand outside of their operational controlled areas.” 
   
   Michele McPhee is a Boston-based freelance journalist and a frequent contributor to ABC News.
target: – US intelligence has determined that ISIS likely has the ability to produce fake Syrian passports, reports ABC News. The network cites a 17-page Homeland Security Investigations Intelligence Report that states ISIS probably has at its disposal both a passport-printing machine and blank passport books; there's some additional fear that ISIS isn't being blocked from government buildings that house Syrian identification records that could be put to nefarious use, reports CNN. Reuters spoke with a rep for US Immigration and Customs Enforcement who confirmed the report's existence. This alleged ability is apparently not a new one, per the report, as ISIS seized Deir ez-Zour, which is home to a passport office, last summer. "Since more than 17 months [have] passed since Raqqa and Deir ez-Zour fell to ISIS, it is possible that individuals from Syria with passports ‘issued’ in these ISIS controlled cities or who had passport blanks, may have traveled to the US," per the report. The information was labeled as coming from a source who was assigned a "moderate confidence" rating, the second-highest level available. That source added that "fake Syrian passports are so prevalent in Syria that Syrians do not even view possessing them as illegal"; they reportedly cost as little as $200. (Stolen passports are turning up, too.)