United States Times Weekly: Electronic ID

The Defense Department plans to issue electronic identification cards at several bases this month, among the first of an estimated four million due by spring of next year.

Dubbed "smart cards," the devices are designed to make military buildings and computer systems more secure, the Pentagon says. The military program is similar to controversial civilian ID card programs proposed by airlines and government security experts following Sept. 11. However, the program actually was announced three years ago and debated as early as 1993.

Private contractors will spend the month traveling across the globe to install the equipment U.S. bases need to issue the cards, the Army announced Friday. Several U.S. military communities in Europe are on tap to receive the equipment.

Military officials have named the IDs "Common Access Cards," or CAC.

The palm-size cards are considered "smart" because they electronically store data about a particular holder. According to the Army, troops will be able to use the chip-embedded cards to digitally sign e-mail messages, encrypt information and prove their identity when signing into secure Internet sessions.

In addition, the cards can use troops' fingerprints to verify their identities, the Pentagon said.

The cards also feature a magnetic strip to allow troops to access secured areas - an armory for the Marines, say, or a communications facility for computer specialists. The military has even said it can use the cards to move troops through chow lines faster, having diners swipe in rather than sign in.

For the time being, the military will not issue cards to military family members and retirees. However, in a prepared statement, Col. Monique Hale, chief of the personnel support division of the Total Army Personnel Command, said the military eventually plans to issue the cards to dependents and retirees as well. Besides the security functions, the cards can store medical and benefit information.

Previously, the Pentagon said it did not believe issuing the cards to family members and civilians would be a justifiable expense. The cards cost about $6 each, but the price is expected to drop once the devices become standard issue.

The entire conversion program will cost about $145 million, according to the military. Since Sept. 11, civilian versions of this idea have generated much interest in Washington and beyond.

President Bush signed a measure on Nov. 19 authorizing the Transportation Security Administration to set up rules for "trusted traveler" programs to speed up the screening process for airline passengers.

In November, Northwest Airlines CEO Richard Anderson said his company would invest in developing the technology.

Israel, more accustomed to the threat of terrorism, has used a trusted traveler program for the past five years. The Weekly of Business Aviation recently reported the National Air Transportation Association, along with Lockheed Martin and Microsoft, is developing smart cards for passengers and aviation employees. Like the military cards, they can contain "biometric" data-such as retinal scans or fingerprints.

Civil libertarians fear non-military uses of the technology would violate privacy, and claim it would be ineffective once in place.

"Once everyone had a card, including the terrorists, we would be back to square one, except our most sensitive information - from our credit records to our travel records to our political beliefs - would be drawn together into a new database," wrote the ACLU's associate director, Barry Steinhardt, in a recent commentary for USA Today.

"...Databases that are created for one purpose inevitably are used for others. Trains, buses, office buildings and retail stores would start to piggyback on the airline IDs. It wouldn't be too long before it is the government - not the airlines - that is issuing this new, de facto National ID. And wherever we go, officials would begin demanding 'your papers please.'"