Senate Ponders Police-State National ID Bill
by James W. Harris
Get ready for a national ID -- as early as next month.
In February the U.S. House of Representatives voted 261-161 to send H.R. 418, the "REAL ID Act of 2005," to the Senate. All but 8 Republicans supported the bill; three-quarters of Democrats opposed it.
House Republicans then attached the REAL ID proposal to an almost-certain-to-pass emergency spending bill for military operations in Iraq and Afghanistan, thus allowing it to bypass the usual legislative hearings and debate.
The Senate is expected to pass the bill. And the REAL ID is strongly backed by the Bush administration.
The REAL ID Act essentially turns state drivers' licenses into national ID cards, with extraordinary powers. Ominously, the bill gives authority to the Secretary of Homeland Security to unilaterally add additional information requirements.
Here are some details:
* The REAL ID Act would establish a vast centrally-coordinated national database of ID holders and their personal information, including, for starters, name, date of birth, place of residence, Social Security number, photograph, physical description and possibly much more. Far more information could be required at the Secretary of Homeland Security's wish.
* The ID would essentially be an internal passport that would have to be shown before buying a gun from a dealer, or accessing planes, trains, national parks, court houses, etc. It will be impossible to function normally in America without it.
* The national database would be shared with Canada and Mexico. "There are no limits on what happens to the database of sensitive information on Americans once it leaves the United States for Canada and Mexico -- or perhaps other countries," said libertarian Congressman Ron Paul (R-TX), who denounced the bill in Congress.
* By calling for the use of "common machine-readable technology," the REAL ID Act paves the way for the federal government to force every state to put radio-frequency identification (RFID) chips into these ID cards. As Congressman Ron Paul notes: "This legislation gives authority to the Secretary of Homeland Security to expand required information on driver's licenses, potentially including such biometric information as retina scans, finger prints, DNA information, and even Radio Frequency Identification (RFID) radio tracking technology. Including such technology as RFID would mean that the federal government, as well as the governments of Canada and Mexico, would know where Americans are at all times of the day and night."
The REAL ID bill is more than a civil liberties nightmare. It exposes every American to terrible accidental or criminal abuse. Even a small percentage of errors would cause major personal and social disruption. And the IDs would be irresistible targets for forgers and identity thieves.
The Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF), a major online civil liberties group, says: "The Senate needs to be reminded that such proposals have always been rejected for good reason: our privacy and civil liberties are at the core of what it means to be an American citizen."
Want to learn more -- and maybe do something about it? EFF has created a site where concerned citizens can get more information and easily send an email to their senators, expressing their concerns about the REAL ID proposal:
secure.eff.org
(Sources: Boston Globe, "Some Fear Law Would Create National ID":
boston.com
Congressman Ron Paul's speech:
gunowners.org
CNET News: "House Backs Major Shift to Electronic IDs":
news.com.com |
