Homeland Security seeks next-generation tracking chips for REAL ID
Pastor Dale Morgan
*Homeland Security seeks next-generation tracking chips for REAL ID*
Posted: February 28, 2009
12:25 am Eastern
By Bob Unruh
Privacy advocates are issuing warnings about a new radio chip plan that
ultimately could provide electronic identification for every adult in
the U.S. and allow agents to compile attendance lists at anti-government
rallies simply by walking through the assembly.
The proposal, which has earned the support of Janet Napolitano, the
newly chosen chief of the Department of Homeland Security, would embed
radio chips in driver's licenses, or "enhanced driver's licenses."
"Enhanced driver's licenses give confidence that the person holding the
card is the person who is supposed to be holding the card, and it's less
elaborate than REAL ID," Napolitano said in a Washington Times report.
REAL ID is a plan for a federal identification system standardized
across the nation that so alarmed governors many states have adopted
formal plans to oppose it. However, a privacy advocate today said that
the EDLs are many times worse.
Radio talk show host and identity chip expert Katherine Albrecht said
REAL ID earned the opposition of Christians because of its resemblance
to the biblical "mark of the beast," civil libertarians opposed it for
its "big brother" connotations and others worried about identity theft
issues with the proposed databases.
"We got rid of the REAL ID program, but [this one] is way more
insidious," she said.
Enhanced driver's licenses have built-in radio chips providing an
identifying number or information that can be accessed by a remote
reading unit while the license is inside a wallet or purse.
The technology already had been implemented in Washington state, where
it is promoted as an alternative to a passport for traveling to Canada.
So far, the program is optional.
But there are other agreements already approved with Michigan, Vermont,
New York and Arizona, and plans are under way in other states, including
Texas, she said.
Napolitano, as Arizona's governor, was against the REAL ID, Albrecht
said. Now, as chief of Homeland Security, she is suggesting the more
aggressive electronic ID of Americans.
"She's coming out and saying, 'OK, OK, OK, you win. We won't do REAL ID.
But what we probably ought to do is nationwide enhanced driver's
licenses,'" Albrecht said.
"They're actually talking about issuing every person a spychip driver's
license," she said. "That is the potential problem."
Imagine, she said, going to a First Amendment-protected event, a church
or a mosque, or even a gun show or a peace rally.
"What happens to all those people when a government operator carrying a
reading device makes a circuit of the event?" she asked. "They could
download all those unique ID numbers and link them."
Participants could find themselves on "watch" lists or their attendance
at protests or rallies added to their government "dossier."
She said even if such license programs are run by states, there's
virtually no way that the databases would not be linked and accessible
to the federal government.
Albrecht said a hint of what is on the agenda was provided recently by
California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger. The state's legislature approved
a plan banning the government from using any radio chips in any ID
documentation.
Schwarzenegger's veto noted he did not want to interfere with any coming
or future federal programs for identifying people.
Albrecht's recent guest on her radio program was Michigan State Rep.
Paul Opsommer, who said the government appears to be using a national
anti-terrorism plan requiring people to document their identities as
they enter the United States to promote the technology.
"The Western Hemisphere Travel Initiative was … just about proving you
were a citizen, not that you had to do it by any specific kind of
technology," Opsommer said.
But he said, "We are close to the point now that if you don't want RFID
in any of your documents that you can't leave the country or get back
into it."
Opsommer said his own state sought an exception to the growing federal
move toward driver's licenses with an electronic ID chip, and he was
told that was "unlikely."
He was told, "They were trying to harmonize these standards with Canada
and Mexico [so] it had to apply to everybody. I was absolutely dumbfounded."
We previously had reported on such chips when hospitals used them to
identify newborns, a company desired to embed immigrants with the
electronic devices, a government health event showcased them and when
Wal-Mart used microchips to track customers.
Albrecht, who has worked on issues involving radio chip implants,
REAL-ID, "Spychips" and other devices, provided a platform for Opsommer
to talk about drivers licenses that include radio transmitters that
provide identity information about the carrier. She is active with the
AntiChips.com and SpyChips.com websites.
Opsommer said he's been trying for several years to gain permission for
his state to develop its own secure license without a radio chip.
"They have flat out refused, and their reasoning is all about the need
for what they call 'facilitative technology,' which they then determined
was RFID," he said during the recent interview.
According to the U.S. State Department, which regulates international
travel requirements, U.S. citizens now "must show proof of identity and
proof of U.S. citizenship when entering the United States from Canada,
Mexico, Bermuda and the countries of the Caribbean by land or seas."
Documentation could be a U.S. passport or other paperwork such as birth
certificates or drivers' licenses. But as of this summer, one of the
options for returning residents will be an "Enhanced Driver's License."
The rules are being promulgated under the outline of the WHTI, a result
of the Intelligence Reform and Terrorism Prevention Act of 2004, which
requires travelers to present a passport or other identity documents on
entry into the U.S.
While the government has expressed confidence that no personal or
critical information will be revealed through the system, it also says
drivers will need special information on how to use, carry and protect
the radio-embedded licenses as well as "a shielded container that will
prevent anyone from reading your license."
But Albrecht, the author or co-author of six books and videos, including
the award-winning "Spychips: How major corporations and government plan
to track your every move with RFID," warns it goes much further.
"This must be nipped in the bud. Enhanced DL's make REAL ID look like a
walk in the park," Albrecht said.
"Look, I am all in favor of only giving drivers licenses to U.S.
citizens or people that are otherwise here in this country legally,"
Opsommer said, "But we are already doing that in Michigan. We
accomplished that without an EDL, as has virtually every other state via
their own state laws.
"But just because we choose to only issue our license to U.S. citizens
does not mean that our licenses should somehow then fall under federal
control. It's still a state document, we are just controlling who we
issue them to. But under the EDL program, the Department of Homeland
Security is saying that making sure illegals don't get these is not
enough. Now you need the chip to prove your citizenship," he continued.
Opsommer further warned the electronic chips embedded in licenses to
confirm identity are just the first step.
"Canadians are also more connected to what is going on in Britain with
the expansion of the national ID program there, and have seen the
mission creep that occurs with things like gun control first hand …
Whatever the reason, as an example, just last week the Canadian
government repatriated a database from the U.S. that contained the
driver's license data of their citizens," he said.
"Someone finally woke up and realized it would not be a good idea for
that to be on American soil … I think it is only logical that we as
state legislators really understand how the governments of Mexico and
Canada will have access to our own citizen's data. Right now it is very
ambiguous and even difficult for me to get answers on as a state
representative."
But Opsommer said Big Brother concerns certainly have some foundation.
"So if EDLs are the new direction for secure licenses in all states, it
just reinforces what many have been telling me that DHS wants to expand
this program and turn it into a wireless national ID with a different
name," he said. "We'll wake up one day and without a vote in Congress
DHS will just pass a rule and say something like 'starting next month
you will need an EDL to fly on a plane, or to buy a gun, or whatever.'"