FC: National ID card proposal gaining support --Washington Post

[Declan McCullagh <declan () well com>]

http://www.washtech.com/news/regulation/14215-1.html
                                      
   By Robert O'Harrow and Jonathan Krim,
   Washington Post Staff Writers
   Monday, December 17, 2001; 8:06 AM
   
   Second in a series of occasional articles

   [...]   

   Almost from the day the planes hit the World Trade Center and the
   Pentagon, members of Congress, security experts and high-tech
   executives have endorsed the idea of some new form of identification
   system as a critical weapon in the fight against terrorism. They
   believe the cards, linked to giant databases, would be invaluable in
   preventing terrorists from operating under assumed names and
   identities.
   
   Any such proposals in the past foundered on a distrust of centralized
   government as old as the American republic. Opponents raised the
   specter of prying bureaucrats with access to databases full of
   personal information, of Gestapo-like stops on the street and demands
   to produce papers, and the kind of unchecked police authority that
   would erode constitutional protections.
   
   The nation's new consciousness of terrorism, a product of both the
   fear and anger engendered by Sept. 11, has markedly changed the way
   Americans think about security, surveillance and their civil
   liberties. For many people, the trade-off of less privacy for more
   security now seems reasonable.
   
   As Alan M. Dershowitz, a Harvard University law professor, wrote in
   October in endorsing a national ID card, the "fear of an intrusive
   government can be addressed by setting criteria for any official who
   demands to see the card."
   
   "Even without a national card, people are always being asked to show
   identification," he said. "The existence of a national card need not
   change the rules about when ID can properly be demanded."
   
   The new enthusiasm for ID cards is not the only example of a changed
   attitude toward privacy issues. Face recognition systems that link
   computers and cameras to watch passing crowds spurred so much
   controversy last summer that many public officials refused to consider
   using the technology. Now airports across the country are clamoring to
   test and install such systems. Congress in October approved a sweeping
   anti-terrorism bill that gives authorities much broader powers to
   monitor e-mail, listen to telephone calls and secretly gather records.
   And the Bush administration, led by Attorney General John D. Ashcroft,
   has proposed a series of other measures with wide public support.

   [...]



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