I think that's great, and that's where we ought to put the focus. But we'll only have dossiers on the worst; even Atta had a clean record, as I recall. Architectural Engineering student, bright, religious. What would have kept him from getting in? And if we had a dossier on him, he wouldn't have gotten in, right?
Nothing suspicious about being religious, I would hope, and unless they REALLY dug into his background with agents they wouldn't have found the meeting with the Iraqi and other items. I doubt we'll ever have the resources to do that much background on every would-be student, worker, or tourist.
All they have to do is recruit people with clean records and make sure they stay that way before sending them here.
Either way, I don't see how a national i.d. card would have helped on 9.11 or would help in the future. If they shouldn't get in, they won't get a card, and it they don't have a record, they'll get one. The proposed national i.d. card seems irrelevant and an illusory promise of security - more so than the "stepped up security" at airports that everybody seems to be complaining about. |
