No National ID…PERIOD!

Not now—Not ever!

by Irvin Baxter

Repeal Real ID– Don’t replace it!

  • Can a nation adopt a national ID and remain a free nation?
  • Does a national ID assume citizens are guilty until proven innocent?
  • Did Hitler’s national ID system bring security?
  • Why have Americans steadfastly resisted a national ID system for 230 years?
  • Is a national ID the road to socialism?
  • Would a national ID have prevented the hijackings of 9/11?
  • Is the national ID a precursor to the biblical “mark of the beast”?
  • Congress forbade Homeland Security to develop a national ID

Can a nation adopt a national ID and remain free?

The entire purpose of a national ID is control. Control and freedom are opposite terms. A national ID is specifically designed for surveillance, tracking and control.

 

Once a person is assigned a number and placed in a database, any aspect of that person’s life can be placed under governmental control. Travel, banking, accessing governmental services, and employment have already been proposed as activities that should be controlled by America’s proposed national ID system.

Does a national ID assume we are guilty until proven innocent?

One of the most cherished freedoms in America is the right to be presumed innocent until proven guilty. If a citizen can be required to produce papers or an ID card in order to prove that he or she is innocent, then the individual is considered guilty until proven innocent.

 

How wonderful it has been for Americans to breathe the rarified air of freedom! We have been the envy of the world. I love living in a country where police cannot stop me without cause…where they cannot enter my home without a warrant, which can only be obtained after providing a judge with probable cause. Are we willing to sacrifice freedom on the altar of the promise of security?

 

But what about the risks? Freedom always involves risks. About the only place on earth where total security can be obtained is in a padded cell, but who would want to live there? We should not demand total security from our government unless we are willing to surrender total control to our government. And that’s called totalitarianism!

 

There is a reason our national anthem concludes with the inspiring stanza: “O’er the land of the free and the home of the brave.” A people cannot be free if they are not brave. Who among us has not been inspired by the speech of the great patriot Patrick Henry who boldly declared, “Give me liberty or give me death!”

Did Hitler’s national ID system bring security?

Hitler controlled the German citizenry by mandating national ID cards without which no one could obtain work, food or travel. By means of the information on these cards, those who were socially unfit for the new German state were easily identified and eliminated.

 

Within two weeks of the World Trade Center and Pentagon attacks, ORACLE Chairman and CEO Larry Ellison called for the United States to create a national identification system to thwart terrorists and offered to donate the software for this massive enterprise. Under Ellison’s proposal, Americans would be photographed and fingerprinted, and the information would be placed in a database used by airport security officials to verify identities of travelers at airplane gates.

 

“We need a national ID card with our photograph and thumbprint digitized and embedded in the ID card,” Ellison said in an interview. “We need a database behind that, so when you’re walking into an airport and you say that you are Larry Ellison, you take that card and put it in a reader and you put your thumb down and that system confirms that this is Larry Ellison,” he said.

 

Hitler’s national ID didn’t bring security and an American national ID won’t either. Hitler’s control scheme only brought tyranny. Likewise, a national ID here in America will only bring totalitarianism with all of its attendant evils!

Why have Americans steadfastly resisted a national ID card for 230 years?

Our forefathers understood freedom so well because they had tasted the bitter fruit of servitude under the kings of Britain. Therefore, they built into our Constitution certain rights that have safeguarded America’s freedom for over 230 years.

 

They understood that you couldn’t always depend on the state to protect you; therefore they gave us the Second Amendment—the right to keep and bear arms.

 

They understood the tendency of government to, over time, become bigger and more intrusive. So they gave us the Fourth Amendment to protect us against unlawful searches and seizures.

 

The framers of our Constitution knew that a federal government would attempt to expand its powers and to intrude upon cherished liberties. Consequently, they gave us the Tenth Amendment to reserve all powers to the states except those that were specifically granted to the federal government by the states.

 

Finally, our predecessors understood how dangerous a system of numbering the population could be. When Social Security was implemented in 1936, it frightened the people so much that the government was forced to print on the social security card, “Not to be used for identification.” That precaution has now “conveniently” gone by the wayside.

 

These understandings have caused Americans through the years to resist attempt after attempt to implement a national ID card. The latest effort to impose a national ID is not being done because of 9/11. That is only the crisis that is being used as the excuse to once again attempt the imposition of the most insidious form of government control—the national ID.

Is a national ID the road to socialism?

Socialism is defined as: Any of various theories or systems of social organization in which the means of producing and distributing goods is owned collectively or by a centralized government that often plans and controls the economy.

 

The key word here is control. Socialism must have control of the means of production including control of the workers who are often referred to as human resources (HR).

 

Once a national ID is fully implemented and every person in America is entered into the proposed national database, the government will be empowered to control where you work, if you are permitted to work, and how much you can make. If you think this is overstated, you are not paying attention. We are watching already the government mandating wages in the industries over which they have recently taken control.

 

Much more could be said about socialism’s need for a national ID, but I think the point has been made.

Would a national ID have prevented the hijackings of 9/11?

Any trained terrorist intending to hijack an airplane would know he has to have identification documents in order to board an airplane. The 9/11 Commission reported, “The hijackers opened accounts in their own names, using passports and other identification documents.” In addition a Commission staffer told UPI: “They did not need fake passports. The plotters all used their own passports to get into the country and once here, used US-issued ID documents whenever possible.”

 

The truth is that IDs are mostly useless in preventing plane hijackings. Furthermore, a person getting ready to commit suicide can use his own ID, as most of the hijackers did.

 

Checking luggage and requiring passengers to pass through security machines is just as effective with identification or without. If the 9/11 hijackers had been screened with x-rays, the box cutter knives would have been detected and the attacks would have been prevented.

 

A national ID system would not have prevented 9/11.

Is the national ID the precursor to the biblical Mark of the Beast?

Nearly 2,000 years ago, a prophecy was recorded in the Holy Scriptures. It simply said a time would come on earth when people would be required to have a number in order to buy or sell.

 

Number every human being on earth in order to track and control everyone? The idea seemed absolutely preposterous! How could anyone assign billions of people with a personal ID number…let alone track them on an ongoing basis? Humanly impossible!

 

However, in recent times we have witnessed the invention of the computer and then the birth of the Internet. Now all of us realize all too well that the system described in the 2,000-year-old prophecy is not only possible, but is actually being set up right now!

 

The International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO) is the arm of the UN that has been assigned to oversee global travel. The ICAO set a goal to have all travel ID documents on earth standardized by April of 2010. At least 186 nations have committed to comply with this goal under the standards set by the UN organization. The US has complied by implementing the global standards in all new passports issued since August of 2007.

 

But could standardized ID be used to control buying and selling the way the Bible says it will be? (Revelation 13:15-18). The amazing answer is that the United States Congress has already attempted to pass such a law.

 

The Immigration Bill that came very close to passage in 2007 contained a requirement that every person applying for employment in America would be required to have a national ID card. The employer would be required to scan this card, which would electronically check the national database maintained by Homeland Security. If the applicant was not listed in the national database as a certified citizen, it was to be illegal to hire the individual. (See Immigration Bill, Sec. 707. Report on social security card-based employment eligibility verification).

 

So possession of the national ID card would be absolutely required to hold a job in America. Of course, without a job a person would have no means of buying and selling—just like the prophecy says!

 

Once the power to control a person’s ability to make a living rests in the hands of the government, then any condition deemed necessary for “homeland security” could be required in order for the individual’s ID number to be listed as valid.

 

Fortunately, after opponents bombarded the Congress with phone calls, literature and testimonies, the bill went down to defeat. But never doubt it—the advocates of total governmental control will try again.

Congress forbade Homeland Security to develop a national ID

When Congress created the Department of Homeland Security by the Homeland Security Act 2002, it specifically warned against a national ID.

 

In Sec. 1514. NATIONAL IDENTIFICATION SYSTEM NOT AUTHORIZED the following was stated: “Nothing in this Act shall be construed to authorize the development of a national identification system or card.” 6 USC 554.

 

In September 2004, then-DHS Secretary Tom Ridge reiterated, “The legislation that created the Department of Homeland Security was very specific on the question of a national ID card. They said there would be no national ID card.”

 

So Congress, please keep your word. No Real ID–No PASS ID–No national ID…PERIOD!