Telling It All To Big Brother

The following article appeared in the March 15 issue of the Mid-Hudson
Activist Newsletter.
-----------------------------------------------------------
TELLING IT ALL TO BIG BROTHER

Ever since Sept. 11, public opinion organizations in the United States
have been reporting that the citizenry is prepared to trade certain
civil liberties and rights for increased security, a prospect the Bush
administration encourages.

The sense of personal insecurity afflicting the American people since
the terror attack, combined with continual scare stories emanating from
the White House, has reached the point where 50% of all adults in the
U.S.  now seem  to back the idea of mandatory identification cards for
everyone in the country.  Progressives and libertarians have long
opposed the concept of a national ID system on the grounds that it would
allow adverse state intrusion into private lives, greatly extend the
authority of government surveillance powers,  and facilitate crackdowns
on dissidents.

In late February, CBS News conducted a nationwide poll asking, "In order
to reduce the threat of terrorism, would you be willing or not willing
for the government to require everyone in the United States to carry a
national electronic identification card, or smart card, that would have
detailed information about each person."  The result was that 50% were
willing, 44% not willing and 6% had no opinion.  Interestingly, 55% of
Democrats favored the national ID, compared to 48% of political
independents and 47% of Republicans.

The American Civil Liberties Union, among others, is waging a campaign
to dissuade the government from imposing a national ID system as an
"anti-terrorist" measure.  In a recent statement, the ACLU declared:

"A national ID would not prevent terrorism. An identity card is only as
good as the information that establishes identity in the first place. 
Terrorists and criminals will continue to be able to obtain, by legal
and illegal means, the documents needed to get a government ID, such as
birth certificates and Social Security numbers....

"A national ID would depend on a massive bureaucracy that would limit
our basic freedoms.  A national ID system would depend on both the
issuance of an ID card and the integration of huge amounts of personal
information included in state and federal government databases. One
employee mistake, an underlying database error or common fraud could
take away an individual's ability to move freely from place to place or
even make them unemployable until the government fixed their file.

"A national ID could require all Americans to carry an internal passport
at all times, compromising our privacy, limiting our freedom, and
exposing us to unfair discrimination based on national origin or
religion.  A national ID would foster new forms of discrimination and
harassment. The ID could be used to stop, question, or challenge anyone
perceived as looking or sounding foreign or individuals of certain
religious affiliations."

In addition, agencies such as the FBI would use a comprehensive identity
system to more efficiently compile dossiers on people suspected of
having unorthodox political opinions.   Federal, state and local police
agencies have already gathered enormous amounts of information that
could easily be transferred to a national ID card, along with data about
political preferences, reading habits, associates, health, finances,
credit, buying habits, criminal record, and so on.  Police anywhere
could demand access to the small, plastic card to decode an individual's
entire history.

New York Times columnist William Safire, a conservative libertarian,
wrote recently that "the fear of terror attack is being exploited by law
enforcement sweeping for suspects as well as by commercial marketers
seeking prospects.  It has emboldened the zealots of intrusion to press
for the holy grail of snoopery -- a mandatory national ID."  After
listing the various types of personal data that could be collected,
Safire concluded: "Beware: It is not just an efficient little card to
speed you through lines faster or to buy you sure-fire protection from
suicide bombers.  A national ID card would be a ticket to the loss of
much of your personal freedom."

Many critics of an internal passport suggest it might be brought about
indirectly.  The ACLU warned in February that "Direct passage of a
national ID is only one possible path to such a system.  A national ID
is much more likely to evolve bureaucratically through existing forms of
ID, such as state drivers' licenses."

A few days later, the AP reported that "The government is taking first
steps with states to develop drivers' licenses that can electronically
store information -- such as fingerprints -- for the 184 million
Americans who carry cards.... Privacy experts fear the effort may lead
to de facto national identification cards that would allow authorities
to track citizens electronically, circumventing the intense debate over
federal ID cards.... Already, 37 states store information on licenses
electronically."

According to Marc Rotenberg, director of the Electronic Privacy
Information Center, "What you're seeing here is sort of a hardening of
the driver's license that could lead to development of a national ID
system without creating a national ID card."

One way or another, the U.S. government seems determined to develop the
ability to keep close, highly intrusive tabs on all its citizens in the
name of national security.   Unless we are simply indifferent to the
prospect of being stopped on the street by a representative of the state
asking to see our "papers," it's time to begin focusing more attention
on fighting the prospect of a national ID system that tells it all to
Big Brother.

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