Replies

LEAD MODERATOR, I noticed as I posted this that the original source was AP. I don't know what the status of that is on the forbidden copyright list. If it's forbidden, please delete this post.

FYI . . . these posts strike me as further evidence that there's a full court press rush to the global government of tyranny.

Lawmakers Push Agency to Develop ID Cards
By LESLIE MILLER

WASHINGTON (AP) - The government must move faster to develop high-tech ID cards that could prevent armed terrorists from boarding a plane by posing as airport workers or law officers, lawmakers said.

The Transportation Security Administration still is experimenting with biometric identification systems, which match people's unique physical characteristics to confirm who they are. However, the ID cards already are common in nuclear plants, hospitals and businesses.

House Aviation Subcommittee Chairman John Mica said the agency needs to hasten the pace because terrorists are interested in gaining access to restricted airport areas. "It has been 2 1/2 years since 9/11," Mica said during a Wednesday hearing. "We need to address this issue without delay."

Mica said congressional investigators created fake law enforcement IDs from software they downloaded from the Internet four years ago. Undercover agents were 100 percent successful penetrating federal buildings and two commercial airports using the phony IDs.

A copy of the report on the penetration test was found later in an al-Qaida cave in Afghanistan, Mica said. He said the TSA recently reported several suspicious people who may have been conducting surveillance of airports, including a door allowing access to aircraft.

Stewart Verdery, assistant secretary for homeland security, told the committee that the agency is working on a project to develop a biometric identification card for 2 million transportation workers at airports, seaports and rail yards.

TSA just began the seven-month process of evaluating how to collect biometric data, verify identities and conduct background checks, he said.

Verdery cautioned that implementing a biometric identification program is a "potentially time-consuming, complex and expensive process."

TSA also just announced it will start testing video surveillance and other technology to identify airport employees by fingerprints or eye scan matches on a special biometric ID card at eight airports. Verdery said the
project's first phase will cost $8 million.

But another witness said that $8 million could pay to quickly outfit 45 of the biggest U.S. airports with biometric identification systems.

The witness, Martin Huddart, chairman of the board of the International Biometric Industry Association, said the TSA's long delay is unnecessary. "Restaurant workers at McDonald's are punching in to work using biometrics,"
Huddart said.

Huddart said San Francisco International Airport already employs hand geometry, which uses the shape of a hand to identify the user. More than a dozen others are testing it. Fingerprint controls are used at Little Rock National Airport and Chicago O'Hare International Airport, and John F. Kennedy Airport in New York uses iris-recognition technology in its international arrivals terminal, he said.

Biometrics is the science of identifying, recording and matching unique physical characteristics to individuals. There are five basic kinds:

facial recognition,
fingerprint,
hand geometry,
iris recognition and
voice recognition.

Verdery said hand geometry doesn't do any good in relation to the government's terrorist watch list, which is based on fingerprints.

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On the Net:
Transportation Security Administration:

http://www.tsa.gov

Homeland Security Department: http://www.dhs.gov

Source: AP/MyWay

URL:

http://apnews.myway.com/article/20040519/D82LR3M00.html

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pass, then look up, and lift up your heads; for your
redemption draweth nigh."

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