What’s Behind the REAL ID Act?

Homeland Security Director Michael Chertoff rated a nationally syndicated article January 16th to plug the REAL ID Act which Bush signed into law on 11 May 2005. The Act mandates standardized state driver’s licenses as the official piece of identification effective 31 December 2009. After that date, non-compliant licenses, or identification cards for non-drivers — will not be valid ID for boarding commercial aircraft, admission to nuclear power plants, or for entry into any other federal or federally-regulated facility. To obtain one of these licenses a person must present proof of identity, verification of Social Security status, proof of residency, and proof of citizenship or legal-alien status. The license or ID card must contain at least four pieces of biometric identification that are machine-readable by all states and the federal government.

Chertoff uses a form of propaganda called “implied truths” in his article. He asks three rhetorical questions: “Should banks cash checks from people who cannot prove who they are? Should parents hire babysitters they know nothing about? Should airlines let passengers on board without validating their identity?”

Of course we all know the answer to those questions but Chertoff doesn’t say the present documents aren’t adequate. Instead he implies inadequacy with another rhetorical question – “But are [the present] documents necessarily reliable?” – and then asks us to consider several facts:

1. Fact: All except one of the 9/11 hijackers carried government ID that helped them board planes and remain in the country illegally. Anyone who has seriously studied the events leading up to 9/11 knows it was the officials who are supposed to examine the IDs that goofed – all the way from a traffic cop issuing a citation to the lack of communication between the CIA and FBI. →