http://www.washtech.com/news/regulation/14215-1.html
By Robert O'Harrow and Jonathan Krim,
Washington Post Staff Writers
Monday, December 17, 2001; 8:06 AM
Second in a series of occasional articles
[...]
Almost from the day the planes hit the World Trade Center and the
Pentagon, members of Congress, security experts and high-tech
executives have endorsed the idea of some new form of identification
system as a critical weapon in the fight against terrorism. They
believe the cards, linked to giant databases, would be invaluable in
preventing terrorists from operating under assumed names and
identities.
Any such proposals in the past foundered on a distrust of centralized
government as old as the American republic. Opponents raised the
specter of prying bureaucrats with access to databases full of
personal information, of Gestapo-like stops on the street and demands
to produce papers, and the kind of unchecked police authority that
would erode constitutional protections.
The nation's new consciousness of terrorism, a product of both the
fear and anger engendered by Sept. 11, has markedly changed the way
Americans think about security, surveillance and their civil
liberties. For many people, the trade-off of less privacy for more
security now seems reasonable.
As Alan M. Dershowitz, a Harvard University law professor, wrote in
October in endorsing a national ID card, the "fear of an intrusive
government can be addressed by setting criteria for any official who
demands to see the card."
"Even without a national card, people are always being asked to show
identification," he said. "The existence of a national card need not
change the rules about when ID can properly be demanded."
The new enthusiasm for ID cards is not the only example of a changed
attitude toward privacy issues. Face recognition systems that link
computers and cameras to watch passing crowds spurred so much
controversy last summer that many public officials refused to consider
using the technology. Now airports across the country are clamoring to
test and install such systems. Congress in October approved a sweeping
anti-terrorism bill that gives authorities much broader powers to
monitor e-mail, listen to telephone calls and secretly gather records.
And the Bush administration, led by Attorney General John D. Ashcroft,
has proposed a series of other measures with wide public support.
[...]
-------------------------------------------------------------------------
POLITECH -- Declan McCullagh's politics and technology mailing list
You may redistribute this message freely if you include this notice.
Declan McCullagh's photographs are at http://www.mccullagh.org/
To subscribe to Politech: http://www.politechbot.com/info/subscribe.html
This message is archived at http://www.politechbot.com/
-------------------------------------------------------------------------
Received on Dec 17 2001
Intro
