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Technology Stocks : Identix (IDNX) -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: steve who wrote (21647)	12/1/2001 10:18:44 PM
From: steve	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 26039

NATIONAL ID CARDS: PRO They are a needed weapon in the fight against terrorism By Joseph W. Eaton \| Special to Knight Ridder Posted December 2, 2001 PITTSBURGH -- If Biometric ID cards had been in use, the 19 Saudis and other Arabs responsible for the Sept. 11 terror attacks could not have traveled all over the United States without drawing the attention of law enforcement authorities. Such cards are not intrusive. Neither the race, national origin, sexual orientation, marital status nor medical and credit history of the cardholder would need to be encrypted in these plastic ID documents. For years now, rational consideration of this "discrimination proof" technology has been discouraged by an unusual coalition of opponents, including the National Rifle Association and the American Civil Liberties Union. Long before Sept. 11, the selectively planned use of biometric smart cards could have prevented many of our security failures, such as the frequent invasion of secret data files by precocious adolescent computer hackers. The evidence is overwhelming that biometric ID cards also would enhance our right to privacy. The details were well-documented 15 years ago in one of my books, Card Carrying Americans: Privacy, Security and the National ID Card Debate. Sens. Bob Dole, Strom Thurmond, Dennis Concini and Charles E. Grassley received a preview of its findings in a public hearing in 1983 on proposed legislation to provide for the "positive identification of persons holding identification documents." Father Theodore M. Hesburgh, the former president of the University of Notre Dame and chairman of a distinguished Select Commission on Immigration and Refugee Policy, warned that our nation was defenseless against people who profit from false identity documents. But the country's collective security apparatus, including the Federal Bureau of Investigation, Central Intelligence Agency, Immigration and Naturalization Service and the Treasury Department, lacked the political courage that in retrospect could have saved victims of past terrorists acts as well as the many all-too-successful white-collar criminals. Each year, white-collar crooks are able to invade our privacy and divert billions of dollars of other people's money for their personal use. Visitors and immigrants could be issued a visa in the form of a smart card with picture, a machine-readable fingerprint, signature and/or the digitized equivalent of the capillaries of the eye. Each of these unique biological characteristics are close to being tamper-proof, even by the talented forgers who work for Osama bin Laden or the Iranian-Syrian-Lebanese sponsored Hezbolla. Terror agents who entered our nation posing as "tourists" would call attention to themselves if they failed to leave a digitized record of their departure from an airport, a harbor or a border crossing. They would have to start worrying that the FBI and INS would be looking for them. Such tamper-resistant ID cards could also be used to protect sensitive defense, personal medical and financial records. Clerks entrusted with access to them would have to be issued a biometric ID card. They would have to identify themselves before reviewing anyone's confidential file. ID card access would also be required to work in laboratories, where components of explosives, poison gases or biological weapons are manufactured or sold. The same high-tech cards could be required of people who want to transfer large sums of money between banks -- thus discouraging illegal money laundering. The under-used technology was ignored by Congress and the Bush administration two weeks ago in the reform legislation adopted to enhance America's security and privacy protection. No large number of guards, clerks or secret agents would have to be hired to implement a national ID card using biometric technology. The cards can be produced by small, inexpensive robotic machines. Costing less than $1,000, the robots can work seven days a week. They never get emotionally upset, smoke pot or report sick with the flu. The United States should begin putting a biometric national ID card in place immediately. In the words of President Bush, "Let's roll." Joseph W. Eaton is a professor emeritus at the University of Pittsburgh's Graduate School of Public and International Affairs. orlandosentinel.com steve