From: tcmay@got.net (Tim May)
Date: Thu, 28 Mar 1996 21:42:17 +0800
To: cypherpunks@toad.com
Subject: The Law Loft: Surviving the Biometric I.D. Card
Message-ID: <199603280946.BAA08787@you.got.net>
MIME-Version: 1.0
Content-Type: text/plain



Though some will petulantly claim that this has "nothing to do with
crypto," I think the report on legislation which may lead to new levels of
national identification is very apropos to the themes of this list. A
national ID card could be tied in to the CDA and other such legislation:
the "Internet Driver's License" we are worried about. This would also
facilitate the criminalization of anonymous remailers.

(I noticed at a local night spot large posters announcing the city's "Zero
Tolerance" policy for passing a drink to a minor. Imagine the same folks
passing laws about the criminalization of giving access to a minor....)

Here's the forwarded article: 



> Path:
we.got.net!news.oz.net!newshub.internex.net!news.Stanford.EDU!agate!overload.lbl.gov!news.kreonet.re.kr!news.dacom.co.kr!nntp.coast.net!news.kei.com!news.texas.net!usenet
> From: klynch@intrepid.net
> Newsgroups: misc.survivalism
> Subject: The Law Loft: Surviving the Biometric I.D. Card
> Date: Thu, 21 Mar 1996 09:34:25 GMT
> Organization: Texas Networking, Inc.
> Lines: 148
> Message-ID: <4ir7hj$391@nntp.texas.net>
> NNTP-Posting-Host: klynch.intrepid.net
> X-Newsreader: Forte Free Agent 1.0.82
> 
> --------------------------------
> Here is the latest Alert from The Law Loft.  Sorry its
> late.
> 
> If you are benifitting by this information, please don't just
> keep it to yourself - share it with someone immediately.  And
> perhaps you can Fax Suzanne and Pete a thank you and ask
> them what you can do to help.
> 
> This work is pretty lonely and grinding.  And oh so few ever thank 
> you for it. Of course that's not why their doing it.
> 
> Many of you could do the same thing I'm doing.  You can listen to
> 7.435 MHz at 8:00 pm EST and take notes from The Law Loft.  You
> can FAX them a request to send you information.  You can then pass 
> it on to others.
> 
> When you don't see anything from me out here, you can pitch in and do
> it.  This is late, because I had no other choice but to catch an early
> train.
> 
> Throw away the "boob" tube and stop wasting your precious little time
> that we have left to learn and work together.  Invest in a good
> Short-Wave radio with a built in tape machine.  I use the Radio Shack
> DX-392 portable receiver.  NO LICENSE REQUIRED TO LISTEN.
> 
> Check out other fine alternative news programs on 5.065 between 6:00
> pm EST and 12:00 midnight week nights.
> 
> Please help us - do your little part.
> 
> For Freedom,
> Kerry
> http://www.intrepid.net/~klynch/uslaws.html
> ---------------------------------------------
> H.R. 2202 Immigration Bill
> 
> Special Alert II
> 
> March 19, 1996  [Please note this date when reading - Kerry] * * * * *
> * * *
> 
> H. RES. 384 bringing H.R. 2202 and 17 proposed amendments to the floor
> passed today in the House.  Debate on the bill and amendments
> continues tomorrow. Vote on amendment number 4 is expected tomorrow:
> 
>         The picture in the House of Representatives grows darker.  H.R. 384
> bringing H.R. 2202, the Immigration bill, to the floor for a vote
> along with 17 proposed amendments passed easily by wide majority in
> today's session.
> 
>         Work on amendments including Congressman McCullum's amendment no. 4
> will start up again tomorrow.  We estimate that the vote on amendment
> number 4 will occur about 3:00 pm EST.
> 
> Both the House and Senate bills are intended to bring us some form of
> universal biometric identifier i.d. card either in the form of a new
> social security card or a passport linked to biometric identifier
> birth certificates and drivers' licenses:
> 
>         The House bill, H.R. 2202, if passed will bring in the biometric
> identifier slowly with greater subtlty than the Senate version.  The
> biometric identifier is clearly in the picture here.  Here's why:
> 
>         1) The report of the U.S. Commission on Immigration entitled U.S.
> Immigration Policy: Restoring Credibility talks openly about the use
> of biometric identifiers for driver's licenses on page 65.  Key
> language throughout the report dealing with fraudulent use of
> identifying documents also leads to only one place - introduction of
> the biometric identifier form of identification.
> 
>         2) The NarcOfficer, official publication of international narcotics
> enforcement officer association in its September/October 1995 issues
> states point blank that a universal biometric identifier system is
> intended for use by everyone on the planet.
> 
>         3) The Senate bill formerly S. (unumbered) now split into S. 269 and
> S. 1361 in sections 111-116 talks about birth certificates with
> 'fingerprint or other biometric data'.  The same section talks about
> new driver's licenses with 'fingerprint or other item of biometric
> data'.
> 
>         4) The Hoke Amendment to H.R. 2202 added by the House Judiciary
> Committee talks about a 'demonstration pilot project with a reliable,
> easy to use, confirmation mechanism'.
> 
> 
>         5) The McCullum amendment, no.4 on the calendar of amendments to H.R.
> 2202 talks about creating an official document that 'offers the best
> possible security against counterfeiting, forgery, alteration, and
> misuse'.  And provides for creating a new social security card that
> would be 'as secure against fraudulent use as United States passport'.
> Part of the catch here is which version of the passport?  The Senate
> bill provides for the creation of anew fraud resistant passport.
> 
>         The McCullum amendment would make the new technology binding on all
> social security cards issued after January 1, 1999.  Beginning on
> January 1, 2006, all employers would be required to verify employment
> eligibility with the new social security card.
> 
> Any way you cut it, this is too much authority to invest in any
> government!
> 
>         Our founding fathers knew that only way to be free and remain free is
> to constrain the power of the government.  As John Dickinson said in
> 1768 in Letters from a Farmer in Pennsylvania: "For who are a free
> people?  Not those, over whom government is reasonably and equitably
> exercised, but those, who live under a government so constitutionally
> checked and controlled that proper provision is made against it being
> otherwise exercised".
> 
>         Creation of a mandatory, universal biometric identifier identification
> system lets the genie out of the bottle.  It would gut the 4th
> Amendment's right of provacy and let the government surveil and
> control us instead of vice versa.
> 
> What to do now:
> 
>         We need at least 100,000 phone calls and faxes in Washington by
> tomorrow.  We may not win in the House but we have to try.  Remember
> if we build up steam now in the House our chances will be better later
> in the Senate.
> 
>         Contact your congressman tonight by fax (best) or tomorroww by phone
> (good).  Argue with him, politely.  He might think that just because
> amendment 4 says it won't be used as a universal identifier, that
> amendment 4 and the bill are okay.  Remind him what happened to the
> social security card.  It was supposed to be voluntary too in the
> beginning.  
> 
>         As time permits, contact as many congressmen as you can in California,
> New Mexico, Arizona, Florida, and Illinois.  These congressmen are
> going to be under especially heavy pressure to pass the bill no matter
> what it says.  You can use the toll-free numbers for your call: (800)
> 962-3524, (800) 972-3524, or (800) 872-8513.
> 
> Tell them we want to keep the 4th Amendment to the Constitution and
> the only way to do that is to kill the 4th amendment to the bill.
> Tell them that we are not at all amused by the hidden joke of using an
> amendment 4 to kill the 4th Amendment to our Constitution.  No, no, no
> to any version of the biometric identifier!  Vote no to H.R. 2202!
> 
> Suzanne Harris
> The Law Loft
> Los Angelos, CA
> (818)-305-7613
> 7.435 MHz (Short-Wave) 8:00 pm EST Week nights.