The Making of An American Horror Story

"Show me your papers. Where have you been? Where are you going? What authorization do you have to be here? Please come with me."

Lines from an old World War II movie concerning Nazi Germany? Dialog from the old Soviet Union? An American nightmare? All three, actually.

A nation must first issue identification papers before it can demand to see them. That first part of the coming nightmare is now proceeding at full speed.

Two Northern Virginia Congressmen, Democrat Jim Moran and Republican Tom Davis have teamed up to introduce the "Driver’s License Modernization Act of 2002" (H.R.4633). The bill calls for state driver’s licenses to include a computer chip with the owner’s fingerprint or eye scan. Say Moran and Davis, they just want to help prevent "identity theft," and, oh, by the way, "we think what happened on September 11th makes a compelling case to do it now."

Under the Clinton Administration, Americans were continuously told that intrusive government regulations were just for the "good of the children." Since September 11th, massive moves by the government against civil liberties are all neatly tucked in the "fight against terrorism."

The truth is, the Moran-Davis bill has absolutely nothing to do with fighting terrorism. A national "smart driver’s license" would be worthless in that effort. This bill has its roots deeply imbedded in an effort to establish a national ID card back in 1996. That year, national identification card provisions were quietly placed in three key bills, including the Illegal Immigration Reform and Immigration Responsibility Act, the Welfare Reform Act and the Kennedy-Kassenbaum Health Care Reform Act. In each bill, identical language called for the federal Department of Transportation (DOT) to coordinate with the American Association of Motor Vehicle Administrators (AAMVA) to standardize each state’s driver’s licenses to contain a unique numeric identifier for the purposes of becoming a national identification card. The law was suppose to go into effect on October 1, 2000.

The legislation called for the new ID cards to be used for obtaining services including buying a plane ticket, opening a bank account, obtaining employment, obtaining medical care, Medicare, Medicaid, Social Security, and buying firearms. The reasons given for the creation of the card varied from protecting medical privacy to stopping illegal immigration to catching deadbeat dads. The law was quietly stopped just months before it was to go into effect by an amendment from Alabama Senator Richard Shelby.

However, the bureaucrats had already completed the basic plan for a national ID, and the apparatus was in place. Since it was stopped in 1999, various efforts have been undertaken to put the national ID back on track. Those efforts were failing regularly, until September 11th.

So H.R. 4633 is nothing new. It just carries a couple of new excuses for shackling the American people with 24 hour surveillance of their every move. Now, the excuse, according to Moran and Davis, is to protect Americans from the growing threat of "identity theft," and, of course, there’s that fight against terrorism.

Under the bill, states would have five years to begin issuing licenses with computer chips that would store "biometric" data, including either a fingerprint or retinal scan. A business or government agency that wanted to check the card-holder’s identity could take a reading from the person and compare it with the image on the chip. The bill would also mandate the establishment of standards for documents accepted by states to "better establish the identity of the person applying for a driver’s license or non-driver ID card." Nothing in this bill is different from the 1996 game plan that was thwarted.

Why is the idea so frightening to all who love liberty? Why should all Americans rise up and oppose the implementation of a national identification card? How can we afford to be so cavalier about security when "terrorists lurk in every metro tunnel and nuclear power plant?"

It won’t serve to convince most Americans why national ID’s are America’s coming nightmare simply by saying government tracking of its citizens is contrary to a free society, and that absolute power by the government means absolute control of the citizens. That argument should be enough, but since most Americans have now been conditioned to look to government for every solution, instead of themselves, we now have to be shown why the mechanics of a national ID won’t save us from terrorism.

So, here goes. One: the government can’t handle the workload it already has. Thirty percent of all the information in current federal data banks is incorrect. Getting it corrected forces one to interface with bureaucrats who order you to stand in line (or wait on hold), take a number and prove your case. The free American citizen can only stand back and wait and hope that the problem was solved. If not, the process begins again.

Now, consider that same process when your entire life is wrapped up in a "smart" card that contains the ability to access your bank accounts, credit card, ATM card, personal information (including taxes), business records, employment records, education records, even traffic tickets. What happens if your records are mixed up with a felon’s? You are stopped for a routine traffic violation. The policeman’s onboard computer flashes a warrant for your arrest, only it’s a mistake? Who do you call? How do you prove who you are? The official computer is law.

Far fetched? Isolated incident? There’ll be safeguards? Consider these recent events – before we are even shackled with the national ID.

Item: In Epsom, New Hampshire, Jessie Cohen was stopped for a broken tail light on her car. The computer check by the officer discovered an outstanding arrest warrant for Cohen, dating back to 1997, for allegedly not returning a rented copy of a movie from a video rental store. She was handcuffed, arrested, fingerprinted, jailed and her car impounded. She claims she never rented the movie. A mistake? Oh well.

Worse, just recently, Larry E. McArtor, of Key West, Florida was charged with rape, a first-degree felony for allegedly having sex with a 12-year-old girl. He was wanted in Licking County, Ohio.

Larry A. McCarter of Dalton, Georgia, was arrested after a pawn shop owner and local Georgia police found Licking County’s warrant during a routine data bank check when McCarter attempted to buy a hunting rifle. McCarter was later stopped by police and handcuffed in front of his two young boys. McCarter spent 11 days in jail before he was extradited to Licking County, where he spent another three days behind bars under a $100,000 bond. His wife and sister traveled to Ohio, investigated the charge, found the real rapist listed in the local phone book and pointed it out to prosecutors, who then released McCarter and then arrested McArtor.

Two: How about fraud by the very people in charge of keeping your personal records? An Internal Revenue Service (IRS) agent, Suzette Michele Green, was charged with identity theft, credit card fraud and unlawful inspection of taxpayer information. Green used the Social Security number of woman with a similar name as hers to set up at least five credit card accounts and charged tens of thousands of dollars worth of purchases.

Three: Those who support this bill think that by inserting all kinds of high-tech uses of biometrics that they are making the card fool-proof. They are only fooling themselves while shackling honest people. Criminals, especially terrorists backed by rich nations know how to trick biometrics scanners. Recently, the Fraunhofer Research Institute in Darmstadt, Germany set out to see if it could beat such security systems. It did, easily.

Start with face recognition. The testers found that, depending on the particular system, they could fool it by holding up a photo of an authorized person. Further, these systems have to store pictures of authorized people to compare with whoever is standing in front of the camera. If a hacker can break into the computer and steal these pictures, they can be displayed on the screen of a laptop, held up to a camera and the system is breached. Hackers can also replace the pictures of authorized personnel with their own.

How about fingerprints? The researchers discovered that fingerprints are left on the reader once an authorized person touches it. All they had to do was blow on the reader and it would read the previous print. Eye scans? Same result. The investigators discovered that to fool the scanning system they could ink-jet a copy of an iris, cut a tiny hole in the center of the picture and hold it up in front of their own eyes and the system would allow access.

The fact is, Americans are being stampeded into accepting false solutions to the war on terrorism. A national ID card is only a challenge for terrorists to overcome, but it will be a nightmare for honest American citizens.

Politicians continue to deny that they intend to implement such a system. But a reading of plans already drawn up by the AAMVA clearly show the intention to unite the data banks of every DMV in the nation with those of federal agencies. Those plans have been supported by Homeland Security Director, Tom Ridge. The details are spelled out in the Driver’s License Modernization Act of 2002 (H.R. 4633).

Despite denials, it all leads to a national identification system that will become the big-brother nightmare of government watching and authorizing every move Americans make. Freedom to travel and to keep our personal lives to ourselves is the greatest threat to tyranny. The national ID is the greatest threat to freedom. H.R. 4633 is that threat in legislative form .H.R., There is no middle ground. Americans must choose which America they want and send that message to Washington now.

Be very afraid of this.

I was among the activists fighting against the "thumbprint in you driver's license" in Georgia a few years ago.

We lost.

First thing I hear, despite numerous denials by everyone from the Governor on down that "they will never, ever be used for any other purpose" is that the Department of Public Safety ( who licenses gun dealers, oversees the State Patrol, and many other things ) is "creating an anti-terrorist database" based on the thumbprints!

And if that weren't enough, the first time I was subject to this system, they took one thumbprint.

Last time? Both index fingers. Guess they are getting a full set 2 at a time...

Won't work! Never has! This sort of thing only appeals to the "more law" types in our society and there are too many of those. The problem is ALWAYS one of enforcement, and enforcement, effective enforcement, always costs money, real money. Laws only need the money to print them, then the sky will quit falling. Yeah right!

The 19 towel heads that did the dirty deed of 11 Sept. had a pasle of laws against doing what they had been doing. Had these existing laws been enforced the scum would have been caught before any damage done. But enforcement cost money, money that can buy votes, and enforcement makes enemies, some of these enemies might vote for you or contribute to your campaign.

Ha, Ha they took my drivers license away form me. Now what are they going to do. Demand that I get one again.

But Osifer I'm in no condition to walk.

An American nightmare?

Since it looks like some want to sacrifice some liberty for a little security, how about if we sacrifice some liberty for some small number of people, instead of for everyone?

At a minimum, let's begin by deporting every Muslim non-citizen, and let's profile like crazy (like intelligent really).

ML/NJ

Do you know how Vicente Fox got elected in Mexico? How the 70 year monopoly the PRI party had on Mexican elections was broken?

Voter registration cards with the voter's photograph. Ended the fraud. In the US, it would drop the Democrat vote in a presidential elections by about 5 million votes which is why the Demos so vehemently oppose it.

Since September 11th, massive moves by the government against civil liberties are all neatly tucked in the "fight against terrorism

Right. Everytime you see something like this, think: What would it have done to stop 9/11?

A National ID FAQ (and more, still incomplete)

If you're so in favor of deporting illegals, I guess that means you're in favor of these national ID cards? I mean, how you going to tell whose here legally and who is not without a national ID card?

If you're so in favor of deporting illegals, I guess that means you're in favor of these national ID cards? I mean, how you going to tell whose here legally and who is not without a national ID card?

Your question is a reasonable one.

Towel on head (or for females, covered head to toe), you speak halting or broken English, and do not know who the third President of the United States was: hasta la vista.

ML/NJ

At a minimum, let's begin by deporting every Muslim non-citizen, and let's profile like crazy (like intelligent really).

We could also get physically fit and adept at guns and other weapons so if we catch some Mahmoud-or-other perpetrating a terrorist act, we would have a better chance of stopping him. You don't need an ID card to drop a terrorist.

Naaaaw the next step is to declare the cards are too easily counterfeited or easily lost or stolen...so why don't we just reduce the whole thing to a subdermal chip inserted beneath the skin of the left wrist or on the forehead. There will only be a 3 digit serial number and they'll all be the same.

I'll die before I take "the mark."

At a minimum, let's begin by deporting every Muslim non-citizen...

Wouldn't an actual verifiable biometric I.D. be needed or at least helpful if we decided to deport illegals? Most Freepers want to deny illegals jobs and voting, and have them deported. I don't see how that is done when I.D. is so easy to fake.

Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.