Security Beat

March 2006

‘Real ID’ Controversy Heats Up

Lines are being drawn in the battle over what new standards will be put in place when the Real ID Act of 2005 goes into effect two years from now.

The law, a rider to a defense appropriations bill last year, calls for states to comply with national standards for drivers’ licenses by May 2007. Key will be the requirement for a uniform “machine-readable technology” that will store the bearer’s data.

Since the law does not specify which machine-readable system will be employed, the task of sorting out the different technologies available falls to the Department of Homeland Security, which is undertaking the rulemaking process this year. Many states currently use magnetic strips to store information on drivers’ licenses, but these strips can rarely be read outside their jurisdictions. Real ID will require inter-state operability.

Civil libertarians, both conservative and liberal, are gathering forces to influence the debate. The American Civil Liberties Union has opposed the measure as well as the libertarian Cato Institute. Some religious fringe groups have gone as far as suggesting national identification cards could be “the mark of the beast” as prophesized in the Book of Revelations.

On the other side of the fence, the Coalition for Secure Drivers’ Licenses is a stanch supporter of more stringent ID standards. The 9/11 commission also called for federal regulations in the issuance of birth certificates and driver’s licenses.

Of major concern to the groups opposing the measure is the possible use of radio frequency identification (RFID) chips, which contain small antennae that can be read by low frequency transceivers. DHS has already put in place requirements to install the chips in passports, and critics of the technology fear driver’s licenses will be next.

A taxpayer watchdog group, Citizens Against Government Waste, has taken an aggressive stance in opposing the technology, estimating in a report that the cost of a license could rise from $10 to $25 now, to $90 if chips are chosen over magnetic strips.

“Installing radio frequency identification chips or similar technology into every driver’s license will be an expensive, invasive and less secure way to update identification documents,” said CAGW president Tom Schatz. In December, the group delivered a petition with 5,200 signatures to Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff opposing the RFID solution.

However, Chertoff is clearly a fan of the technology, calling RFID cards “very useful.”

The chips are not 100 percent secure, opponents have said. Low-frequency transceivers used by unauthorized identity thieves can pick up data from several feet away.

One company on the Internet is already advertising an electromagnetic shield that can be placed in wallets or purses to protect driver’s licenses against ID theft, even though RFID remains two years away from implementation if it were to be approved.

Those who believe current state driver’s licenses protect identities are “delusional,” Chertoff told reporters at a briefing.

“I frankly think a secure card that is not forgeable, that is biometrically based, actually protects people against identity theft,” he added. There might be some high-tech thieves out there who could read a card through someone’s wallet or purse. “I don’t know if taking extreme hypotheticals is a way to make public policy.”

Coast Guard Buildings Prompt Concern

Resources devoted to the Coast Guard’s Deepwater equipment modernization program may be squeezing the service’s ability to upgrade its shore-based infrastructure, according to the Department of Homeland Security’s inspector general.

“There is a growing concern that the resources being devoted by the Coast Guard to its Deepwater program is reducing its ability to maintain and re-capitalize shore side infrastructure critical to its legacy and homeland security missions,” said the inspector general’s DHS fiscal year 2005 performance and accountability report.

The service occupies more than 21,000 buildings totaling more than 33 million square feet, the report said. Replacement value for the structures would total $7.5 billion. Based on that value — and projected shore infrastructure acquisition, construction and improvement funding levels — recapitalization would take 200 years. The Defense Department, by comparison, has a recapitalization rate for its buildings of about 67 years, according to the report.

In a written response, Homeland Security officials did not address the recapitalization issue. Jeff Murphy, Coast Guard spokesman, said the Deepwater program is upgrading shore-based buildings as it rolls out new systems.

“We’re not two separate services,” he told National Defense. The debut of the National security cutters, for example, will include all the necessary upgrades to buildings and communications systems needed on land, he said.

Overall, the IG report gave a downbeat assessment of the Coast Guard’s ability to implement its homeland security missions, particularly the Maritime Transportation Security Act of 2002.

Management responded that the Coast Guard has been “diligent in its mission to provide the nation with maritime security,” pointing out that 500 personnel have been hired to help implement the act.

New Oxygen System Debuts

The Food and Drug Administration has approved a new oxygen generation system being touted as a safer way for first responders or the military to deliver the life-saving gas to the injured.

Boise, Idaho-based OX-GEN Flexible Life Systems Inc. recently began production of its non-explosive system, which can produce 15 to 30 minutes of oxygen within 27 seconds.

The system comes in a thermal bag that holds a plastic cylinder containing manganese, platinum, hydrogen peroxide and sodium bicarbonate. The user opens a rotary valve allowing the pre-measured chemicals to begin generating oxygen.

The units will not require a prescription, unlike traditional oxygen delivery systems, so they can be kept on hand for emergencies.

Pressurized oxygen stored inside tanks has been known to worsen fires. Most recently, a bus carrying elderly evacuees attempting to escape Hurricane Rita near Houston, Texas, was engulfed in flames due to an allegedly faulty braking system. Oxygen tanks carried by the victims are suspected of fueling the fire in which 23 died.

Temperatures Rise on Mexican Border

The deaths of 18-year-old Mexican Guillermo Martinez Rodriquez and Ismael Segura, 23, did not make national headlines in the United States.

Not so in Mexico and a few U.S. border towns.

The alleged shootings of the pair in separate incidents by U.S. Border Patrol agents sparked a furor in their native land.

As Congress and the Bush administration continue to display an increased determination to gain control of the border, tensions appear to be rising in southwestern states and in the respective nations’ capitals.

Mexican media and officials accuse the agent of shooting Martinez in the back as he retreated across the border near San Ysidro, Calif. Martinez later died of a gunshot wound in Tijuana. Segura was allegedly shot in the chest less than a month later in Texas as he fled back across the border in a car.

Department of Homeland Security officials have acknowledged little about the San Ysidro incident other than the agent fired at Martinez after he threw rocks.

The incidents sparked a diplomatic row between the United States and Mexico. President Vicente Fox compared the proposed fence to the Berlin Wall. U.S. Ambassador to Mexico Tony Garza fired back that such comparisons were “disingenuous and intellectually dishonest,” according to Reuters.

Fox sent a letter of protest to Washington, and Secretary of State Condoleeza Rice promised a full investigation. Meanwhile, Mexican media have pointed to the cases as signs of an increasingly militarized border. With proposals in Congress to build high-tech fences, concerns are growing on the U.S. side that violent gangs who profit from smuggling drugs and illegal immigrants will push back.

Department of Homeland Defense Secretary Michael Chertoff said there was an “up tick” in violence directed at agents in 2005. “That is frankly one of the metrics we use to show that we are being successful in our interdiction.”

Along the Rio Grande River in Texas, Border Patrol boats came under fire twice within a week earlier this year. Agents reported that highly skilled marksmen, able to hit a moving target under cover of darkness, unloaded dozens of rounds, injuring no one, but striking one of the boats, according to the Brownsville Herald.

Without commenting on the specific shootings, Chertoff said agents do have to adhere to rules of engagement. When agents fire a weapon, investigations are routinely carried out, as is the case for every law enforcement agency.

“We do have to be prepared for the fact that, as we press hard on these criminal organizations, some of them will want to fight back,” Chertoff said. “But we ought to make it very clear that it will not cause us to back off.”

Broadband Eyed For First-Responders

The Federal Communications Commission said commercial providers could provide solutions for an integrated, interoperable nationwide broadband network for first-responders in times of crises.

In a little-heralded report to Congress released shortly before Christmas last year, the FCC said it envisions a national broadband network capable of providing, rapid-warning messages, real-time text-messaging and e-mail personnel status location, high-resolution digital images and “smart radios” that are capable of operating on multiple frequencies and multiple formats.

“While commercial wireless technologies are not appropriate for every type of public safety communication, there may now be a place for commercial providers to assist public safety in securing and protecting the homeland,” the congressionally mandated report said. However, it noted that a new broadband network would require increased spectrum allocations. A possible solution lies in the 700 MHz band, which will become available after the nation’s conversion to digital television, now estimated to take place in 2009. The FCC said it will investigate whether that portion of the spectra could accommodate broadband.

The report received input from 60 stakeholders, many from the communications industry who touted their proprietary technologies as solutions to the problem.

Representatives from the Satellite Industries Association, along with Iridium Satellite LLC and Mobile Satellite Ventures Subsidiary LLC, were among the commentators who pointed out that a space-based system would be immune to the vagaries of earth-bound weather, such as Hurricanes Katrina and Rita that knocked out commercial systems and emergency services radio towers.

ArrayComm Inc., Cisco Systems Inc. and Lucent Technologies Inc. were also among those who submitted suggestions, mostly based on their own technologies.

The FCC concluded that a nationwide broadband system would most likely need a combination of terrestrial and satellite-based solutions.

Along with the technical hurdles, the report reminded Congress that the human element should not be ignored.

“Coordination among federal, state and local emergency response providers would need to be achieved at virtually every level for an interoperable nationwide network to deliver on its promise,” according to the report.

—Reported by Stew Magnuson

Back To Top