WASHINGTON, Jan. 11, 2007
Post-9/11 ID Rules Spark Security Showdown
Dispute Over New Rules For Driver's Licenses Could Prevent Millions From Boarding Planes
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Play CBS Video Video Do Americans Need An ID Card? The government is proposing a national ID card in the interest of security. But some say the data collection will infringe on civil rights and lead to more identity theft. Michelle Miller reports.
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Video Eye To Eye: Chertoff & REAL ID "Only On The Web": Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff speaks to CBS News' Bob Orr about the REAL ID Act and the importance of improving security for drivers' licenses.
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Posters used at a news conference on REAL ID at the National Press Club on Friday, Jan. 11, 2008 in Washington. At the left is an image of the Florida license used by 9/11 hijacker Mohammed Atta. (AP Photo/Kevin Wolf)
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Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff speaks at a news conference on REAL ID at the National Press Club on Friday, Jan. 11, 2008 in Washington. At the left is an image of the Florida license used by 9/11 hijacker Mohammed Atta. (AP Photo/Kevin Wolf)
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Timeline In Terror's Wake A look at the major developments following the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, 2001.
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Interactive Immigration And Naturalization Who's coming to America? Find out what's being done to screen for terrorists and take a citizenship quiz.
Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff, who was unveiling final details of the REAL ID Act's rules on Friday, said that if states want their licenses to remain valid for air travel after May 2008, those states must seek a waiver indicating they want more time to comply with the legislation.
But federal officials are in no mood for further compromises or any more delays in implementing a plan the 9/11 Commission called a priority three and a half years ago, reports CBS News correspondent Bob Orr.
So far, 17 states have passed legislation or resolutions objecting to the REAL ID Act's provisions, many due to concerns it will cost them too much to comply. The 17, according to the ACLU, are: Arizona, Colorado, Georgia, Hawaii, Idaho, Illinois, Maine, Missouri, Montana, Nebraska, Nevada, New Hampshire, North Dakota, Oklahoma, South Carolina, Tennessee and Washington state.
But Chertoff, as he revealed final details of the REAL ID Act, said that where a particular state doesn't seek a waiver, its residents will have to use a passport or a newly created federal passport card if they want to avoid a vigorous secondary screening at airport security.
"The last thing I want to do is punish citizens of a state who would love to have a REAL ID license but can't get one," Chertoff said. "But in the end, the rule is the rule as passed by Congress."
Chertoff spoke as he discussed the details of the administration's plan to improve security for driver's licenses in all 50 states - an effort delayed due to opposition from states worried about the cost and civil libertarians upset about what they believe are invasions of privacy.
Under the rules announced Friday, Americans born after Dec. 1, 1964, will have to get more secure driver's licenses in the next six years.
The Homeland Security Department has spent years crafting the final regulations for the REAL ID Act, a law designed to make it harder for terrorists, illegal immigrants and con artists to get government-issued identification. The effort once envisioned to take effect in 2008 has been pushed back in the hopes of winning over skeptical state officials.
To address some of those concerns, the government now plans to phase in a secure ID initiative that Congress approved in 2005. Now, DHS plans a key deadline in 2011 - when federal authorities hope all states will be in compliance - and then further measures to be enacted three years later.
To make the plan more appealing to cost-conscious states, federal authorities drastically reduced the expected cost from $14.6 billion to $3.9 billion, a 73 percent decline, said Homeland Security officials familiar with the plan.
Still, privacy advocates say that REAL ID smacks of Big Brother, reports Orr. "They say they need to do that to promote homeland security but to us it looks like a big program to conduct surveillance on the American public," said Marc Rotenberg of the Electronic Privacy Information Center.
The American Civil Liberties Union has fiercely objected to the effort, particularly the sharing of personal data among government agencies. The DHS and other officials say the only way to ensure an ID is safe is to check it against secure government data; critics such as the ACLU say that creates a system that is more likely to be infiltrated and have its personal data pilfered.
In its written objection to the law, the ACLU claims REAL ID amounts to the "first-ever national identity card system," which "would irreparably damage the fabric of American life."
The Sept. 11 attacks were the main motivation for the changes.
The hijacker-pilot who flew into the Pentagon, Hani Hanjour, had four driver's licenses and ID cards from three states and ringleader Mohammed Atta flashed a Florida license to walk past airport security, reports Orr. The DHS, created in response to the attacks, has created a slogan for REAL ID: "One driver, one license."
By 2014, anyone seeking to board an airplane or enter a federal building would have to present a REAL ID-compliant driver's license, with the notable exception of those more than 50 years old, Homeland Security officials said.
The over-50 exemption was created to give states more time to get everyone new licenses, and officials say the risk of someone in that age group being a terrorist, illegal immigrant or con artist is much less. By 2017, even those over 50 must have a REAL ID-compliant card to board a plane.
Among other details of the REAL ID plan:
Most states already check Social Security numbers and about half check immigration status. Some, like New York, Virginia, North Carolina and California, have already implemented many of the security measures envisioned in REAL ID. In California, for example, officials expect the only major change to adopt the first phase would be to take the photograph at the beginning of the application process instead of the end.
After the Social Security and immigration status checks become nationwide practice, officials plan to move on to more expansive security checks, including state DMV offices checking with the State Department to verify those applicants who use passports to get a driver's license, verifying birth certificates and checking with other states to ensure an applicant doesn't have more than one license.
A few states have already signed written agreements indicating they plan to comply with REAL ID. Seventeen others, though, have passed legislation or resolutions objecting to it, often because of concerns about the cost of the extra security.
© MMVIII, CBS Interactive Inc. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. The Associated Press contributed to this report.
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- I am 53. I like the old America and miss her. I was 9 when JFK was killed. I am apalled at the state of this nation. The constution is what they ought go by not one person.
- Reply to this comment
- With a national ID card will come police checkpoints all over America to check for your "papers".
If you do not have your "papers", you will be shipped off to one of the new concentration camps Halliburton(Cheney''s old company) built all around America.
The nightmare of Nazi America is on the march. - Reply to this comment
- You know, this seems an awful lot like the movie "V for Vendetta"......more and more our rights are being stripped away in the name of "homeland security". This isn''t homeland security. This is a scare tactic to keep everyone afraid. I don''t think it''s terrorists we should be afraid of, it''s our government here at home. I live in one of the states protesting this bill and $ should be another big concern. Millions of us already pay out our a**es in taxes to "the man" each year and this is what the $ goes for? Finding new ways to limit the public one by one.....yeah, that seems right and justful to me.
- Reply to this comment
- "Today we need a nation of minute men; citizens who are not only prepared to take up arms, but citizens who regard the preservation of freedom as a basic purpose of their daily life and who are willing to consciously work and sacrifice for that freedom.
The cause of liberty, the cause of American, cannot succeed with any lesser effort."
- President John F. Kennedy, January 29, 1961
Posted by gunownerdan at 07:44 AM : Jan 14, 2008
And the government in 1961 sure isn''t like it is today was it??? - Reply to this comment
- "Today we need a nation of minute men; citizens who are not only prepared to take up arms, but citizens who regard the preservation of freedom as a basic purpose of their daily life and who are willing to consciously work and sacrifice for that freedom.
The cause of liberty, the cause of American, cannot succeed with any lesser effort."
- President John F. Kennedy, January 29, 1961 - Reply to this comment
- "Under the rules announced Friday, Americans born after Dec. 1, 1964, will have to get more secure driver''s licenses in the next six years."
Hmmmm, Bin Laden is over 50, & so are most of his terroistic tight right hand men, so lets just let all the terrorist leaders come & go, while we pin down and track every American. Must be there are no Border jumping illegals of that age either, since I see ppl out running on the side of the road & in parks every day. Bush runs atleast 5 miles a day. Takes one step to cross the border. Wow, this load of *** that is going to cost us bllions makes me feel a H3LL of alot safer, heh, but I see more of my $ & freedom slipping away, every time Congress passes another law while ignoring my Costitutional Rights. But they are in no big hurry to make sure your really an American with a legal ID to be able to vote there buttts into office tho. The ''Home Again'' pet ID system is just a trial run to see how well it works, next we all will be micro chipped, by law. I can hardly wait. - Reply to this comment
- The war on terror safegaurds they are pulling, nothing more than a bunch of scare tactics to gain more control, and push us closer and closer to the Communistic Country they want us to be. I was born here, as were my parents, and there parents, but when I moved to another state for less than 1 year I was denied bank accounts,do to the Patriot Act. When asked why? I was told this by multiple banks I went to "We arent told why, but you have been flagged as a risk,so we are not allowed give you an acct." I asked who do I contact to find out why? "We dont know, write your state senators office, they an probably tell you what to do." I have never been in trouble, have never left the country, except going into Canada, but I live in MI, so its like going into another state. I also get stopped and pulled out of my car when I go into Canada, but NOT when I come back home. NO ONE has an answer for this, no do they know who to contact. The just abide by what the computer system run by BIG BROTHER tells them.
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- The last thing bush wants is national security. Look at the cretin he put in charge. I can''t think of a worse time in this nations history.
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- Our current government makes Nixon look like Mother Theresa!
At least back then, we had representation in Washington that took offense to what he did--not today!
There was never any intention of going after the people responsible for 911.
There is a terror watch list with 800,000 names on it (probably most Americans) that has just been sitting there.
There has been illegal wiretapping on Americans--what did they accomplish before that was shut down for non payment of the bill?
Now they want Americans to "register"? NO WAY--
This government ALLOWED people to come here both legally and illegally and now they want to group Americans with terrorists!!
WE WILL BE DAMMMNED!!!! And we certainly are now with this government--this is a nation of FREEDOM and the government that has done the damage needs to fix it and not at the expense of innocent Americans!!!!! - Reply to this comment
- Ya know, everyone on this list discussing this topic in on the CIA ***** List and - We Are Being Watched!
Make it Worth Wild!
Posted by watcher269 at 04:42 PM :
I have lived here all my life, without fear of our government--I''ll be dammmmned if I''m going to start now!!!
There are 800,000 names on that list and it hasn''t enabled them to break up a single cell.
The Bush legacy will take down the whole corrupt government as we see it now! - Reply to this comment
- I am wondering what John Adams, James Madison, Ben Franklin and Thomas Jefferson would think of a "national identity card"? Dicatatorial governments like Nazi Germany and the Soviet Union, had all the props in place: identity cards, check points on all roads, secret police, "re-settlement camps", gulags, "thought police", state run news. And all in the name of "SECURITY".
The Great Emperor Bush II and his Fascist neocon Republican allies have learned their lessons in Fascism VERY WELL.
SIG HEIL, BUSH - Reply to this comment
- Ya know, everyone on this list discussing this topic in on the CIA ***** List and - We Are Being Watched!
Make it Worth Wild! - Reply to this comment
- "Along with the "REALID" national ID card will come police checkpoints all across America to check for your "papers", just like when Hitler had his national ID card in Germany.
Why don''''''''t we just tattoo our social security numbers on our arms, or better get get the "REALID" microchip implanted under our skin so we won''''''''t lose the stupid cards.
Welcome to Nazi America! "
Posted by sioux4life1
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I agree with you.
But will you FEEL safer?
Will you FEEL like the Government is Protecting you?
Will you Believe that NO Terrorist will ever Enter America?
Safety is a Fallacy - All these changes to our FREEDOM will NOT make us SAFER!
It is time for ALL Americans to VOTE!
Register to VOTE! And VOTE often! - Reply to this comment
- The terrorist take a long view on any attack in the USA just because there has not been one does not mean that the tsa has done anything. It was nine years between attacks on the world trade center.
They plan they probe and they will penertate any security given enough time. DHS is giving us a false sense on security while striping us of freedom after freedom. People have died in every war to preserve our freedoms and because 3000 died in one attack we are running scared and letting our freedoms be striped one by one. What a slap in the face to all the soilder that have died to preserve our way of life. - Reply to this comment
- "Along with the "REALID" national ID card will come police checkpoints all across America to check for your "papers", just like when Hitler had his national ID card in Germany.
Why don''''t we just tattoo our social security numbers on our arms, or better get get the "REALID" microchip implanted under our skin so we won''''t lose the stupid cards.
Welcome to Nazi America! "
Well I hate to be the bringer of more bad news. The chips are next. - Reply to this comment
- If you think the tsa would be able to stop another 9/11 you are dreaming. They are only good for feeling up little old ladies.
- Reply to this comment
- This country is being run by the CIA - Daddy Bushit ran the CIA for years - and once in the Firm - always in the Firm.
And, Daddy is telling little "w" what to do. Daddy has always bailed the little boy out of problems.
No different now. - Reply to this comment
- "Could they be performed at the time ?"
- Posted by abbe91 at 11:12 AM : Jan 13, 2008
They were performed at the time. - Reply to this comment
- IE slapdown.
Go to Firefox, dummy. - Reply to this comment
- "The actions of the 9/11 hijackers could not be successfully performed today, in any American airport.
Posted by Iceman_1960 at 10:48 AM : Jan 13, 2008"
Could they be performed at the time ? - Reply to this comment
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