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October 24 2001
© LA (Leftist) Times
National ID Card System Failing to Attract Supporters
By Joseph Menn
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not smart...
As much as I personally dislike ID cards of any kind,
the failure of the US to establish a secure,
biometric-based National ID card will eventually prove to be
suicidal. Occasional abuses of federal databases like
the NCIC, or the widespread forgeries of inferior
identity cards, are not excuses for doing the job
correctly. The current abuses and forgeries are not
going to abate; it may be possible to create biometric
ID, but it will not be registered: bingo!
Opponents of National ID have their heads in the sand:
any police office can demand positive ID, which if not
provided, then presents an option of detainment under the
'John Doe' statutes -- in the event of criminal charges
this constitutes a justification for denial of bail.
That same police officer, presented with a driver's
license, can pull up everything on the
individual. With the increasing computerization of the
police forces, the information can be accessed directly
from a patrol car without hassling a dispatch officer
with the usual delays.
There are two principal opponents of National ID cards
(or, for that matter, any ID cards):
- libertarians, often fringing on the anarchist,
who resent any authority and who fail to accept/realize that
the rest of mankind are not as 'perfect' as they are;
and
- the ACLU and the multi-culturalist advocates and
their ilk who are against mandatory ID as they believe
it is unfair to immigrants, the poor, the downtrodden,
and the rest of the liberal agenda.
It may be unfair to claim they support illegal
immigration and crime, but the results prove otherwise
and the procedural delays on deportation are
absurd.
America must deal with its alien problems, from both the
workforce and the terrorist aspects. A verifiable
biometric national ID, required for the issue of visas,
would place a hold on many terrorists who today are
not even fingerprinted at US consulates abroad.
Lastly, biometric ID can eliminate identity theft if
the process of issuing the ID is secure --eg: sufficient
proof of identity, not just the wholesale issue of
National ID to current driver's license holders.
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Calls for a national system of identification cards
sparked by the Sept. 11 attacks on the World Trade
Center and the Pentagon have gained little traction,
failing to win endorsements from the Bush administration
or congressional leaders.
Oracle Corp. Chief Executive Larry Ellison attracted
national attention by calling for such a system in the
wake of last month's terrorist attacks and offering to
donate the database software that would be needed.
After a series of interviews touting the plan, Ellison
continued to push his idea in meetings with
U.S. Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D-Calif.),
U.S. Atty. Gen. John Ashcroft and others, including the
database giant's first customer, the CIA. Ellison said
last week that future White House meetings were planned.
But Bush spokesman Jimmy Orr said the administration
wasn't considering a mandatory ID program, and Feinstein
is backing away from reports of her support.
The Justice Department said Tuesday it has no position
on even a voluntary card and isn't planning anything of
the sort.
"That high-level administration officials are somehow
directing this, I think is a far cry," a department
official said on condition of anonymity.
Feinstein said Tuesday that she is preparing legislation
that would call for mandatory IDs with fingerprints and
other biometric data only for noncitizens entering the
U.S., along with a new database that would allow
immigration authorities to check information from the
CIA as well as state criminal files and other records.
"It's just for people coming into the country,"
Feinstein said. "I think this is where we should start."
Some other improvements in the nation's patchwork
identity system are probable, such as the expanded use
of "smart cards" for military and law enforcement
personnel. Federal Aviation Administration spokesman
Paul Takemoto said the agency is considering adopting
smart cards with extra digital information for special
airline passengers, such as police officers.
This week, the U.S. organization for driver's license
officials is meeting in hopes of hammering out
recommendations to standardize the 50 state systems and
toughen requirements.
"Your driver's license has become your de facto ID card,
like it or not," said Jason King, spokesman for the
nonprofit American Assn. of Motor Vehicle
Administrators.
King said that group's top priority is a system that
will allow states to connect. Building such a system
will take new federal and state laws and tens of
millions of dollars, he said.
"If you have a nationwide unified framework, you will be
able to, for the first time, uniquely identify that the
person is who they say they are," King said. "We're
trying to come up with a strong uniform voice to go to
Congress."
Several in the Capitol, including Senate terrorism
subcommittee chair Feinstein, have made comments
favoring a stricter national ID policy since the
attacks. They have been buoyed by polls showing a
majority of the U.S. would support such a plan.
Ellison was one of the earliest advocates of a new
identification system. "We've been so busy protecting
ourselves against our government that we have made it
impossible for our government to protect us," Ellison
told Oracle employees in a speech posted to the
company's Web site.
Other technology firms, from small credit card hologram
makers to Silicon Valley stalwart Sun Microsystems Inc.,
have been promoting potential security services to
federal authorities and the press.
But the idea of a national ID has run into many of the
same criticisms as in previous decades, when it was seen
as an answer to illegal immigration and other
problems. Both civil liberties groups and many
conservatives oppose it.
"A national ID card is one of those third-rail issues of
national politics," said David Banisar, a Harvard
researcher and deputy director of ID card foe Privacy
International. "It tends to die pretty quick."
Opponents cite fears of racial profiling as police begin
demanding cards of anyone who appears suspicious.
And they say the history of large government databases
and identity cards is filled with cases of mistaken
identity and improper use.
A case in point is the FBI-run National Crime
Information Center, which compiles information on
suspects and arrest records from all 50 states.
Some 500,000 officials have access to the database, and
a 1993 General Accounting Office study found that the
FBI didn't keep track of misuse. The GAO, an
investigative arm of Congress, nonetheless turned up
systemic problems, including the lack of personal
passwords for people using the computer terminals.
Among the hundreds of cases of misuse, the agency found
that operators were selling information to private
detectives, helping criminals, and in one case,
assisting a former law enforcement officer who used the
data to track down and kill his girlfriend. Just this
year, an FBI manager in Las Vegas and nine others were
charged in a scheme to sell FBI files to criminal
suspects.
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