Homeland Security

DATE=4/26/2004

TYPE=CORRESPONDENT REPORT

TITLE=BRITAIN/IDENTIFY CARDS (L-ONLY)

NUMBER=2-315370

BYLINE=MICHAEL DRUDGE

DATELINE=LONDON

INTRO: Britain has begun testing a national identification card that authorities say should reduce the threat of terrorism and other criminal activities. V-O-A's Michael Drudge has details from London.

TEXT: The last time the British government ordered its citizens to carry identity cards was during World War Two, and the Home Office says it is time to revive the practice because of the war on terrorism.

Home Secretary David Blunkett published draft legislation that could lead to compulsory identity cards by 2013.

Under a pilot program also launched Monday, 10-thousand volunteers will test the technology and receive cards measuring their facial dimensions, iris images, and fingerprints.

Mr. Blunkett says identity cards are needed to help authorities fight several 21st-century criminal and social problems.

/// BLUNKETT ACT ///

There has been a dramatic shift, not simply because we have the 11th of September, 2001, and the new international network terrorist threat under al-Qaida, but actually because we have also seen a massive growth in organized fraud. We have seen a very large move in people across boundaries and the flood of people coming into Europe and to the United Kingdom, some claiming asylum, some clandestine workers.

/// END ACT ///

Critics of the plan say criminals will find a way to defeat the technology, while law-abiding citizens face the threat of increased government intrusion in their personal lives.

Shami Chakravorty is a spokeswoman for Liberty, a British civil-liberties group.

/// CHAKRAVORTY ACT ///

The government's really going to have to make a much more detailed case as to how this card is going to be a panacea for all ills from terrorism to benefit fraud and illegal immigration. This costs a lot of money, and also has personal and social costs.

/// END ACT ///

A poll published last week said four out of five Britons support the concept of identity cards, though fewer than one in five believe they will help combat terrorism. (SIGNED)

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