NYTimes.com Article: Technology's Role to Grow in a New World of Security

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Technology's Role to Grow in a New World of Security

By WILLIAM GLABERSON



Security experts are describing a new kind of country, where
electronic identification might become the norm, immigrants might
be tracked far more closely and the airspace over cities like New
York and Washington might be off limits to all civilian aircraft.

 Yesterday, Attorney General John Ashcroft outlined several
proposals, saying, "We should strengthen our laws to increase the
ability of the Department of Justice and its component agencies to
identify, prevent and punish terrorism."

 The proposals Mr. Ashcroft described included measures that would
give law enforcement officials expanded electronic surveillance
powers, added search authority and new powers to seize assets of
suspected terrorists.

 Congress has already begun to act on proposals to make wiretapping
of computers easier, and a flood of measures is expected that would
loosen restrictions on what will effectively be domestic spying.

 Legal experts say the courts are unlikely to impose many
restrictions on Congress's security decisions. As a result, they
say, the country could adopt security measures as stringent as its
people will tolerate politically or support financially.

 Security experts say technology has presented almost limitless
possibilities, including national electronic identification cards.

 "Each American could be given a `smart card,' so, as they go into
an airport or anywhere, we know exactly who they are," said Michael
G. Cherkasky, president of Kroll Inc., a security consultant.

 "The technology is here," Mr. Cherkasky said. "These cards in
industry are going to spread, and then it's going to spread very
rapidly elsewhere."

 Such cards, with computer chips, would have detailed information
about those they were issued to and would identify them when read
by a computer. The cards could be coordinated with fingerprints or,
in a few years, facial characteristics, and be programmed to permit
or limit access through turnstiles to buildings or areas. They
could track someone's location, financial transactions, criminal
history and even driving speed on a particular highway on a given
night.

 Critics say electronic identification cards combined with other
measures could usher in an era of surveillance and suspicion.

 Civil libertarians see a major battle ahead because an anxious
public may now seem too willing to trade some freedoms for greater
safety.

 It is not clear, said Bruce Ackerman, a law professor at Yale
University, whether that acceptance would continue if people
perceived themselves as being searched and watched frequently.
Professor Ackerman said some of the proposals being discussed would
threaten anonymity.

 "It is a profound affront to be metered and measured," he said.
"And that is, I think, the debate of the future."

 Legal experts say the civil libertarians will find little sympathy
in the courts. In World War II, they noted, the United States
Supreme Court approved the internment of Japanese-Americans.

 When the country is facing war or warlike threats, judges tend to
slide in the direction of security, even if it limits freedoms,
said David A. Strauss, a law professor at the University of
Chicago.

 "If history suggests anything," Professor Strauss said, "it
suggests the courts will allow the government to get away with a
lot. Not quite everything, but a lot more than you would expect."

 In interviews, experts on security and terrorism outlined some
choices.

 Immigration could be more sharply controlled, some suggested, with
some people who are admitted being required to report periodically
on their activities.

 Video surveillance, already growing, could be sharply increased in
stores, offices and public places and and at public events.

 Law enforcement officials could expand the use of personality
profiles, possibly including racial descriptions, to identify
potential terrorists. They might use such profiles as the basis to
search people anywhere they felt terrorism was a possibility.

 Intelligence agencies could be directed to infiltrate groups
suspected of aiding terrorists. The agencies could also, after a
showing of probable cause to judges, vastly increase monitoring of
telephone and Internet communications, wire transfers of money and
tax records.

 Terry F. Lenzner, chairman of Investigative Group International, a
corporate security concern, said increased surveillance of the flow
of money might have prevented the attacks by identifying people who
had received money from Osama bin Laden or other terrorists.

 Airport security is likely to be just one area for debate. Armed
sky marshals, stronger cockpit doors and new technology for luggage
searches are likely to be widely accepted.

 But some experts suggested that the country could also adopt a
system like Israel's, where security people often interrogate
passengers about their travel histories or plans and riffle through
their baggage.

 John T. Horn, vice president of IPSA International, a security
consulting concern, said he favored declaring the airspace over
some cities off limits to commercial flights "to give advance
warning to cities when there are problems in the air" like
commandeered jets.

 Some security officials said Americans had yet to focus on the
more difficult questions most likely to follow tighter airport
security. Once airports and airplanes are more secure, they said,
the country will have to consider extending many restrictions to
other public places like stadiums, train and bus stations,
universities, elementary schools, parks and reservoirs.

 Partly because of limits of normal security systems, some experts
said, computer technology will be harnessed to make the country
safer.

 Even if opposition makes a national identity card unrealistic,
experts say the attacks will sharply increase adoption of security
technology. Some companies already use cards that can identify
users by fingerprints and limit access to areas of a building.

 Computers record when and where the card is used, and, experts
said, the security industry is increasing its reliance on such
technology.

 Norman Dorsen, former president of the American Civil Liberties
Union, who is a law professor at New York University, said that
while there was a danger of overreacting, restrictions on liberties
had a long history.

 "In a wartime, national-emergency situation," Professor Dorsen
said, "there are always restrictions on individual liberties: not
only internment during the Second World War but restrictions on
travel, searches of people's effects, access to certain buildings.
The question now is: Is this a war?"

http://www.nytimes.com/2001/09/18/national/18RULE.html?ex=1001817440&ei=1&en=21ebecdbe00fc057

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