[url]www.newsday.com/news/local/newyork/ny-cards14.story[/url]

Panel To Call For National ID Cards

                  By Graham Rayman
                  STAFF WRITER

                  November 15, 2001, 5:27 PM EST

                  [b]Requiring national identification cards[/b] and upgrading security at what they
                  described as the "totally unsupervised" area of private aviation, [b]were two
                  recommendations offered Thursday by a panel of current and former law
                  enforcement officials.[/b]

                  The all-volunteer commission advocates a security survey of all of the nation's
                  smaller private airports, pilot background checks, and the screening of cargo
                  and baggage.

                  "Private airplanes can take off totally unsupervised, leaving a loophole the size
                  of the Lincoln Tunnel," said state Sen. Roy Goodman, the chair of the senate
                  Investigations Committee, who formed the panel after the Sept. 11 terror
                  attacks. "There is an enormous urgency to this."

                  The recommendation was one of 50 ideas put forward by the panel Thursday.
                  Panel members acknowledged that the cost of implementing the long list of
                  suggestions would be "enormous," and some of the ideas would be
                  controversial.

                  One of those may be a suggestion to exempt corporations, which follow
                  anti-terror guidelines, from lawsuits. [b]Another is a requirement for national
                  identification cards, which would contain a computer chip with digital
                  fingerprints, photographs and retinal scans.[/b]

                  Panel member James Kallstrom, a former supervising FBI special agent in New
                  York, said the state is in the process of creating a "state counter-terrorism
                  network," a computer system that would tie together police agencies here and
                  transmit information on threats.

                  Former New York Police Commissioner Howard Safir said a federal law
                  enforcement agency, like the Department of Justice, should control airport
                  security, not the Federal Aviation Administration. Safir said armed "sky
                  marshals" should ride on every flight, and there should be cameras in every
                  cockpit. "It's been two months and Congress still hasn't decided on these issues," Safir said. "I hope they
                  move quickly."

(continued)

                  Among the other suggestions, many of which have already been broached over the past two months:

                  -- Increase the number of bomb-sniffing dogs for use at airports, bridges and tunnels. The New York
                  Police Department and the Port Authority police departments have fewer than 29 bombing sniffing dogs
                  between them.

                  -- Improve disaster readiness and security in hospitals, public transportation, malls, airports, and power
                  plants.

                  -- Create a permanent terrorism committee.

                  -- Provide emergency plans to coordinate ambulances entering and leaving staging areas to treat the
                  injured in a terrorist attack. Goodman said on Sept. 11 there was a "traffic jam" of ambulances leaving the
                  area.

                  -- Require foreign airlines to provide their passenger manifests in advance to U.S. authorities.

                  -- Private citizens and corporations should develop their own disaster plans.

                  "We're now at war and that requires a special kind of vigilance," Goodman said.

Sounds great, can't wait to get mine!

Sounds good to me too.  If we get the national ID card, can we do away with the law saying that you can only buy a firearm in the state where you have residence?

To borrow algore's line:
"We ain't seen nothin' yet."

-----------------------------------
"They've given you a number, and taken away your name."
Johnny Rivers

I feel safe just thinking about it. Don't worry, the government will solve all our problems.