The National Review
May 6, 2002,
Your Papers, Please
Will terrorists be stopped by extra paperwork?
By Eric Peters
http://www.nationalreview.com/comment/comment-peters050602.asp
The national I.D. card — complete with computer chips and biometric "tags," such as fingerprints or retinal scans — has come one step closer to becoming a creepy reality. Last week, Reps. James P. Moran and Thomas M. Davis introduced legislation that would require its adoption by all 50 states and the District of Columbia.
Though they hotly deny that their bill (and companion legislation in the Senate) would create a national-I.D. card that could be used to monitor and track the doings and affairs of every adult American, that's nonetheless exactly what Reps. Moran and Davis have set in motion. Their bill would give the federal government and its minions unprecedented access to information about our daily lives.
Every financial transaction, every trip, each time we produce a driver's license to conduct business would be noted and recorded in a government database. The encrypted microchip would also be used for voter-registration purposes — perhaps even keeping overt track of our political preferences. Our lives would become an open book for any government snoop or busybody who wants a look-see.
And with the national-ID "smart card" almost certainly being linked-at first, or after Americans get used to the idea — to our financial lives in every critical respect, there will be very little the government, its myriad agencies (including the IRS), and even "authorized" private-sector contractors won't know about us, or be able to find out.
"Now, if it's decided subsequently to use the computer chip to a greater degree, that would have to be dealt with legislatively as well," said Rep. Moran the other day. How reassuring.
And what of these "biometric" tags — fingerprints or retinal scans-our representatives are so glibly advocating? Until now, only criminals or suspected criminals have had to submit to being fingerprinted. Why? So they can be kept better track of. Now Reps. Moran and Davis want to treat the entire population of the United States as de facto criminals — for what else are we to call people the government believes need to be monitored so closely? (And how much easier it will be — once the government decides to "expand" that which is considered "criminal" conduct — to identify and deal with "enemies of the state.")
The best response its advocates can come up with for these criticisms is an insistence that (in the words of Rep. Moran) "It's not a national I.D. system." Well, then, what exactly is it? The end result of the legislation introduced in Congress would be to create a national-ID card in everything but name. And if it walks like a duck and quacks like a duck . . . well, isn't it a duck?