FC: Update: National ID cards; biometrics; secret military tribunals

[Declan McCullagh <declan () well com>]

http://www.wired.com/news/politics/0,1283,48482,00.html

   Oracle Keeps Pushing ID Card
   By Declan McCullagh (declan () wired com)
   2:00 p.m. Nov. 17, 2001 PST
   
   WASHINGTON -- Oracle still seems to adore the idea of a national ID
   card.
   
   At a congressional hearing on Friday, a company executive echoed the
   pro-ID arguments that Oracle CEO Larry Ellison drew fire for
   popularizing last month.
   
   "By establishing a standard and secure national identifier, we could
   ensure that any system that chose to use it could effectively share
   information with other systems that use it," Oracle vice president Tim
   Hoechst said.

   [...]
   
   
   [Sen. Dianne] Feinstein has introduced the Visa Entry Reform Act to create
   a "SmartVisa" card for immigrants, which would include fingerprints,
   retinal scans or face recognition data.
   
   "If we had biometrics, we could have potentially forestalled the Sept.
   11 attacks," Feinstein said.

   Michael Kirkpatrick, assistant director in charge of the FBI's
   Criminal Justice Information Service Division, saw things differently.
   "There is no sign that biometrics will be a be-all end-all,"
   Kirkpatrick said. "Fingerprints will play a role in identifying
   someone and enrolling them in the system. To my knowledge, none of the
   Sept. 11 terrorists were in the FBI's database."

   [...]

---

http://www.newsday.com/news/nationworld/nation/wire/sns-ap-national-id-card1116nov16.story?coll=sns%2Dap%2Dnation%2Dheadlines

   By JESSE J. HOLLAND
   Associated Press Writer
   November 16, 2001, 5:43 PM EST
   WASHINGTON -- Newt Gingrich and other former Republican lawmakers
   predicted Friday that a new national identification card system will
   probably never become a reality despite the Sept. 11 terrorist
   attacks.
   "It's a dead end. It won't happen," Gingrich told a House Government
   Reform subcommittee.
   Talking about national IDs smacks of Nazism and "Big Brother" in
   people's minds, and Congress will not have the political support to
   get it through, said former Sen. Alan Simpson, R-Wy. "You use the
   words 'national ID,' it's over," he said.
   Indeed, former Rep. Bill McCollum, R-Fla., called a new
   all-encompassing national identification system "offensive" and said
   it "contradicts some of our most sacrosanct American principles of
   personal liberty and expectations of privacy and is far in excess of
   what is needed to provide us with the security and protections we all
   want."

   [...]

---

http://www.washingtontimes.com/national/20011116-5300332.htm

   Leahy challenges Bush on military tribunals [blackline-small.gif]
   By Jerry Seper
   THE WASHINGTON TIMES

        The chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee yesterday
   challenged President Bush's call for special U.S. military tribunals
   to try foreigners accused of terrorist attacks, saying the trials
   could give the world the impression that the United States is looking
   for "victor's justice."
        "We need to understand the international implications of the
   president's order, which sends a message to the world that it is
   acceptable to hold secret trials and summary executions, without the
   possibility of judicial review," said Sen. Patrick J. Leahy, Vermont
   Democrat, in what many consider the opening volley of a bitter fight
   by Democrats to oppose the trials.
        "Could this put U.S. citizens abroad, including military
   personnel and peacekeepers, at grave risk? We also must take care not
   to give the court of world opinion the impression that what we have in
   mind is victor's justice," he said.

   [...]

---

http://www.house.gov/conyers/pr111601.htm

Press Release

   FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
   November 16, 2001 Contact: Dena Graziano
   (202) 226-6888
   
     CONYERS CHALLENGES ADMINISTRATION ON MILITARY TRIBUNALS AND OTHER
                           ANTI-TERRORISM ACTIONS
   
       Congressman Conyers and other  Members of Congress hold press
                           conference to express
    concerns regarding the Administration's actions on Military Tribunals
                            and Anti-terrorism.
   
   Today Congressman John Conyers, Jr., Ranking Member of the House
   Judiciary Committee joined Congressman Bob Barr (R-GA), Congressman
   Jerrold Nadler (D-NY), Congressman Bobby Scott (D-VA), Congressman Mel
   Watt (D-NC), Congresswoman Zoe Lofgren (D-CA), Congresswoman Sheila
   Jackson Lee (D-TX), Congresswoman Maxine Waters (D-CA) and Congressman
   Dennis Kucinich (D-OH) to address the recent actions taken by the
   Administration regarding Military Tribunals and other anti-terrorism
   acts.
   Congressman Conyers issued the following statement regarding these
   recent actions:
   "Today we stand on the verge of a civil liberties calamity in this
   country. The Administration and the Attorney General have taken a
   series of constitutionally dubious actions that place the Executive
   branch in the untenable role of legislator, prosecutor, judge, and
   jury.
   Certainly, we stand together as a nation in our collective outrage
   over the September 11th terrorist attacks. However, we do nothing to
   win the battle against terrorism by sacrificing our precious freedoms
   and liberties.
   We have been down this road of overreaction before. During the Civil
   War, Abraham Lincoln suspended habeas corpus. After World War I, our
   government wrongfully beat and deported thousands of immigrants.
   During World War II, we placed Japanese-Americans in internment camps.
   After the Oklahoma City bombing we gutted habeas corpus and decimated
   our immigration laws.
   When Congress passed the Anti-Terrorism bill last month, I was
   concerned that the Attorney General would unilaterally and
   unjustifiably seek to expand the government's powers. But I never
   dreamed he would make me a prophet so quickly. Since then Mr. Aschroft
   has dealt one hammer blow after another to the very constitutional
   values he repeatedly promised to uphold at his confirmation hearings.
   First, the Attorney General totally ignored my letter of October 31st
   asking for information concerning the 1,000 plus immigrants who have
   been detained for undisclosed reasons since the September attacks.
   On October 31st, the Attorney General issued regulations permitting
   the Department of Justice to unilaterally intercept attorney-client
   phone calls.
   On November 9th, the Administration announced a policy of ethnic
   profiling by which it would discriminate in granting visas to men from
   middle eastern countries and target 5,000 Arab male visitors for
   intensive questioning. Surely in 21st Century America we can do better
   than saying than if you are Arab you are a suspect.
   Finally, on November 13th, the Administration announced the creation
   of secret military courts to try immigrants and other foreigners for
   terrorism offenses.
   Collectively, the Administration has swept away the independent
   judiciary, the right to a public trial, the right to an appeal, the
   right to counsel, due process, equal protection and habeas corpus. Not
   bad for two week's work.
   We are here to remind our Attorney General that the Constitution
   applies just as forcefully after September 11th as it did before
   September 11th. I urge the Administration to not only reconsider these
   hasty actions, but to commit to consult and work with Congress before
   they issue any further edicts which erode our civil liberties and
   alienate our enemies."

###

---

http://leahy.senate.gov/press/200111/111401.html

                     Comment Of Senator Patrick Leahy,
                   Chairman, Senate Judiciary Committee,
                  On The Administration's Executive Order
                           On Military Tribunals
                               Nov. 14, 2001
   
   "Because there has been no consultation with Congress, we are left
   with more questions than answers about what the Administration has in
   mind in taking this step. We need to understand the international
   implications of the President's order, which sends a message to the
   world that it is acceptable to hold secret trials and summary
   executions, without the possibility of judicial review, at least when
   the defendant is a foreign national. Could this put U.S. citizens
   abroad, including military personnel and peacekeepers, at grave risk?
   We also must take care not to give the court of world opinion the
   impression that what we have in mind is victor's justice. We want the
   coalition the President has forged to remain at our side for the long
   term, not just for the moment. We do not want to make it less likely
   that other countries will cooperate with us -- perhaps even
   jeopardizing their willingness to turn over suspected terrorists.
   
   "Other questions have to do with how this fits under our Constitution
   and legal system. The President's order covers suspected terrorists
   arrested here as well as abroad. In the past and as recently as in the
   anti-terrorism bill, the Administration has sought and Congress has
   created new criminal offenses specifically aimed at terrorists,
   anticipating that they will be charged and prosecuted as regular
   criminals, not war criminals. There has been no formal declaration of
   war, and in the meantime, our civilian courts remain open and
   available to try suspected terrorists. All this raises questions about
   whether the President can lawfully authorize the use of military
   commissions to try persons arrested here.
   
   "The way this was handled also contributes to the rising concern in
   Congress about this administration's preference for unilateralism as
   it promotes policy changes ranging from restructuring the INS to
   eavesdropping on detainees' conversations with their attorneys to this
   order on military tribunals. This approach needlessly threatens the
   unity that Congress and the Administration have forged since Sept. 11.
   We are all in this together, and the spirit of bipartisanship that has
   largely prevailed in Congress since Sept. 11 must be reciprocated by
   the Administration if it is to endure."
   
                                 # # # # #
   
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