Good quote about the futility of ID-checking

[David Farber <dave () farber net>]

Begin forwarded message:

From: pgut001 () cs auckland ac nz (Peter Gutmann)
Date: August 21, 2004 2:04:34 AM EDT
To: cryptography () metzdowd com
Subject: Good quote about the futility of ID-checking

Yeterday I watched Gillo Pontecorvo's 1966 film "The Battle of 
Algiers", a
dramatisation of real events that looks at France's own "war on terror" 
in
Algeria in the 1950s.  The police attempt to control things by only 
allowing
people who can show valid ID into the european quarter of Algiers via a 
few
checkpoints.  When this proves completely ineffective, the French army, 
led by
a Colonel Mathieu, is called in.  The first thing he does is show his 
troops
film footage of the checkpoints and the ID checking, pointing out that 
this
footage is useful because it illustrates how not to do things:

  Checking identity papers is a complete waste of time.  If anyone can 
be
  counted on to have valid papers, it will be the terrorists.

That's actually a rather astute observation: Joe Sixpack will be lucky 
to
remember to bring their passport, let alone check whether it's 
currently valid
and every little detail is correct, but any terrorist will triple-check 
every
bit of it to make sure that they don't get picked out.  The best that 
the ID-
checking can hope to do is stop opportunists (as well as any number of
innocent Joe Sixpacks).

Peter.

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