The clueless Michael Chertoff speaks
In 2004, the Department of Homeland "Security" passed a regulation which would have required anyone entering the US from Canada to provide proof of identity and citizenship: either a passport or a drivers' license plus a birth certificate. Congress enacted a law which prohibited DHS from implementing this rule until 2009.
In arrogant defiance of Congress, Michael Chertoff, the director of DHS, announced today that the department will begin the requirement starting at the end of this month, no matter what Congress says:
The change is expected to worsen travel delays and backups along the U.S.-Canada border, which recorded 72 million crossings in 2007.
Putting aside Chertoff's belief that he can trump the will of Congress, his remarks on the subject should be noted:
"It's time to grow up and recognize that if we're serious about this threat, we've got to take reasonable, measured, but nevertheless determined steps to getting better security," he told the Associated Press.
"Grow up?" He didn't really just say that, did he?
Forget for the moment the Bushian arrogance of his command to "grow up," and forget for the moment the economic impact of this rule change. Also, put aside the fact that birth certificates are issued by thousands of localities around the world and are pretty easy to forge. I'd just like to focus on the idea that proof of identity can somehow make us safer from terrorists.
Proof of identity does not equal proof of intent. Knowledge of someone's name and nationality provides absolutely no insight into that person's thoughts or intentions. After all, every one of the 19 hijackers on 9/11 were traveling in the US under their real identities.
Ham-handed techniques like the one Chertoff proposes serve no real security purpose. Showing your papers, removing your shoes in airports, and that Real ID nonsense do not foster security; they merely provide what Bruce Schneier calls "security theater:" the illusion of security, intended to foster a feeling of well-being, whether deserved or not. Policies like this, taken purely for public consumption, serve only to try and convince the public that DHS has a handle on security; meanwhile, our utilities, chemical plants, and ports remain unsecured. While passengers obediently walk barefoot through metal detectors manned by minimum-wage TSA drones, airport badges and uniforms remain easy to steal, and airport perimeters remain unsecured.
Either Chertoff doesn't know what real security is, or he's desperate to convince the public that DHS can justify its own existence.
The WaPo article linked above ends with this:
Over the past three years, DHS reported 31,060 cases of individuals trying to enter the country by falsely claiming to be U.S. citizens, including 1,517 in the past three months. The department did not say how many were caught on the northern border.
Apparently, DHS also did not say how many of those 31,060 people were terrorists. My guess is that none of them were; if even one actual terrorist had been caught trying to enter this country under a false identity, that fact would have been headlines for weeks, and the White House would have seized upon the incident as proof that their "War on Terror" was working. Curiously, out of all those 31,060 cases of false identity, not one terrorist was ever identified.
If Chertoff's premise were correct, it would seem that at least some of those 31,060 would have been terrorists. The fact that none of them were simply shows that Chertoff and his agency are engaging in scare tactics.
Perhaps the American public really should "grow up" and realize that Michael Chertoff doesn't know the first thing about security.