Tag: national id

DHS Officials Skirt Open Meeting Laws to Promote REAL ID

By
Jim Harper

There’s not much chance that U.S. Department of Homeland Security officials went to Annapolis to argue against having Maryland implement the national ID law. Maryland’s Gazette reports:

Federal homeland security officials skirted open meetings laws at a briefing last week on the state’s efforts to comply with the federal Real ID Act, unsettling several lawmakers in an era of heightened government transparency.

A meeting with the Maryland House Judiciary Committee members and other lawmakers was carefully regulated to avoid reaching a quorum so open meeting rules could be avoided.

Something is funny in the state of Maryland, and something is funny at the DHS, to insist on holding closed meetings about REAL ID during what President Obama promised would be the most open and transparent administration in history.

Napolitano revealed early this month that she has been collaborating with the National Governors Association on REAL ID. Just what they plan also remains a secret.

As governor of Arizona, she signed legislation to resist REAL ID, but politicians that come to Washington have a tremendous capacity to go native and start working to build federal power. There’s even precedent for them working with the NGA to do it.

Topics: 
Foreign Policy and National Security, Law and Civil Liberties, Telecom, Internet & Information Policy

National-ID-Backing Intel Chief Steps Down

By
Jim Harper

No sooner had I posted here about Chas Freeman’s support for a national ID than he withdrew his candidacy to be Chairman of the National Intelligence Council.

With a number of controversies roiling, the national ID issue may have been the straw that broke the camel’s back of Freeman’s aspirations to the intelligence post. Indeed, it may have been the mighty power of this blog, the acid keyboard of yours truly, that served as the catalyst … maybe.

Topics: 
Foreign Policy and National Security, Telecom, Internet & Information Policy

Obama Intel Chief Sought National ID?

By
Jim Harper

While Republican members of the Senate Intelligence Committee have written a letter objecting to the experience level of National Intelligence Council Chairman Chas Freeman, Ashley Rindsberg at the Huffington Post reveals that Freeman advocated creating a national identity system in the US as a part of the “war on terror.”

During a 9/11 Commission interview, Freeman remarked that of three major changes the US government should make to effectively combat terror, one was that “the United States should implement a national identity system, so we better know who is who.”

Seems Freeman lost track of why we have intelligence and security - to preserve our freedoms. We don’t abandon our freedoms to preserve our intelligence. Not that a national ID would help with that … .

Topics: 
Foreign Policy and National Security, Telecom, Internet & Information Policy

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