National ID Cards No Help In Curbing Terrorism

Who do you think you are?

This is not an insult by indignant people, but a question that increasingly worries Uncle Sam.

We have come to terrorism and electronic theft of personal identities. Governments and businesses worldwide are seeking ways to prove you are what you say you are.

Thus, support for national identity cards seems to be growing exponentially. Britain has proposed them, thereby setting off a donnybrook among pros and cons.

The matter jumped into the spotlight here when the American Association of Motor Vehicle Administrators proposed the federal government fund and standardize drivers’ licenses.

Critics fear a national identification program would degenerate by “backdoor bureaucracy” into a universal ID system of possibly Nazi proportion.

Nevertheless, Americans were awakened to the horrors of international terrorism by the World Trade Center bombing.

That terrible event killed 3,000 innocent people. The perpetrators traveled freely through the United States on fake drivers’ licenses, took flying lessons thereby and easily boarded four passenger airliners.

Sadly, it has become clear that “something must be done.” A foolproof identification card seems by many to be worthwhile for lack of something better.

A driving license provides identification for only a third of the population that drive. It includes a photo of the holder. This is helpful but not much. If you look like your picture, you should be home in bed -- not driving around in traffic.

Counterfeit driving licenses cost only a few dollars. Unverified aliens in the United States often are issued driving licenses with which they can travel and open bank accounts.

Proponents of national ID cards assert that modern technology can embed certain personal characteristics that can’t be faked or misstated. Examples: fingerprints, blood type, iris of the eyes, facial geometry.

These “biometric identifiers” can be instantly recorded in a computer’s database and accessed within seconds by other computers.

How many billions of dollars would it cost to set up such a network of private lines and computers? Oh, what fun that would be for hackers!

Confusion is unbelievable when computers crash. What man makes, man breaks.

A new cadre of well-paid government bureaucrats would revel in taking blood samples, fingerprints, facial maps and photos of eyeballs!

Come to think of it. Maybe that’s what we need to replace the jobs that have flown to less expensive climes.

We already have national IDs of a sort in birth certificates and Social Security cards. These could be recorded on a computer chip the size of a rice grain and then implanted in the necks of babies at the same time their umbilical cords are cut.

Thereafter, other information required of modern citizens – such as driving licenses, police convictions, precinct voting record, library cards, insurance proof and credit status -- can be electronically encoded on the unseen, unfelt computer chip.

Birth info and a Social Security number would be locked in. Other information could be revised as necessary with a painless swipe of a super-market laser wand.

Don’t laugh. We do this routinely, at small cost, for family pets.

Just think how useful lifetime chips would be in identifying lost children. Or in avoiding the hassle of lost or stolen cards. Or in not having to carry around wads of cash. Or not having to remember ATM pin numbers.

There is ample reason in these days of intrusive government to be wary of identification cards. Today, a convenience. Tomorrow, one-stop shopping for counterfeiters. The next day, a spy-bug for Big Brother.

The American Civil Liberties Union leads a coalition of organizations opposing national identification cards.

Congress and the Bush administration have refused to consider it. If it walks like a duck etc.

Nonetheless, automobiles are deadly weapons in the hands of incompetent drivers. It is not unreasonable to screen operators as best we can for some degree of driving competence.

Let’s go halfway – national standards for the population that drive cars; eternal vigilance at the ballot box to crush would-be despots.

PARTING SHOTS

A New York store owner was fined $3,000 for an ashtray on his counter, and another $3,000 for not displaying a No Smoking sign. There is nothing worse than a city inspector wearing a nicotine patch.

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John Dean says he wants the votes of Southerners who drive pickup trucks with a Confederate flag in the back windows – and he isn’t just whistling Dixie.

Lindsey Williams is a Sun columnist

Williams -- ID cards

Sunday – Nov. 16, 2003

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