• Military

• WMD Menu                           

• Introduction
• Systems
• Facilities
• Agencies
• Operations
• Countries
• Hot Documents
• News
• Reports
• Policy
• Budget
• Congress
• Links

• Intelligence
• Homeland Security
• Space

Backgrounder: A National ID Program for Iraq?

Council on Foreign Relations

Author: Lionel Beehner, Staff Writer
May 29, 2007

Introduction

As U.S. lawmakers attempt to set out a series of benchmarks for their Iraqi counterparts to fulfill, some analysts point to a number of policing measures Washington could take to assist the government in Baghdad. One such step is the creation of a national identification program and database to help U.S. and Iraqi forces identify potential insurgents. Experts say the current system is haphazard, lacks biometrics, and is in desperate need of an overhaul. But U.S. military officials caution that carrying out a more systematic national ID program might be too painstaking and difficult, given the lack of security, the large numbers of Iraqis abroad, and the multitude of more pressing problems.

What would a national ID program entail?

The program, as spelled out by some analysts, would provide Iraqis with identification cards, similar to U.S. drivers’ licenses, with biometric data like fingerprints to be presented at security checkpoints. A central database would be created to allow Iraqi or U.S. police or army officers, equipped with portable computer terminals, to run spot background checks. Max Boot, a CFR senior fellow, envisions that a nationwide census would be necessary, requiring government workers to go “house to house and find out who lives there.” He adds, “It’s a time-consuming process but it has to be done.”

Why is a national ID program necessary?

It allows U.S. and Iraqi forces to identify insurgents who blend in with the civilian population. Currently Iraqis carry no identification, only food-rationing cards issued by the United Nations under its oil-for-food program during the 1990s. The cards lack biometric data and are outdated. Boot calls the national ID process “an essential prerequisite to a successful counterinsurgency.”

Read the rest of this article on the cfr.org website.

Copyright 2007 by the Council on Foreign Relations. This material is republished on GlobalSecurity.org with specific permission from the cfr.org. Reprint and republication queries for this article should be directed to cfr.org.