National Identification Schemes (Nids): A Remedy Against Terrorist Attack?

The terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001 on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon have rekindled public debate about National Identification Schemes (NIDS) in the US, Canada, and other countries. While much of the debate has focused on the tradeoffs between security protection and the potential loss of privacy and other civil liberties, this paper examines the prior question of whether a NIDS would actually be effective in preventing terrorist attacks of the kind the world recently witnessed. It examines currently proposed NIDS and finds none that identify how they would contribute to reducing the threat of major terrorist attack. By relying on unfocused measures of questionable effectiveness, NIDS may actually create a false sense of security that leaves us more vulnerable than before. We therefore risk impairing our vital liberties with little gained in return. In this light, the oft-cited trade-off between liberty and security may be irrelevant, or worse, a distraction that prematurely concedes and obscures a dangerous presumption.