Smart ID Cards Planned for Sailors to Spot Terrorists

[R. A. Hettinga]

http://quote.bloomberg.com/fgcgi.cgi?ptitle=Top%20World%20News&s1=blk&tp=ad_topright_topworld&T=markets_box.ht&s2=ad_right1_windex&bt=ad_position1_windex&box=ad_box_all&tag=worldnews&middle=ad_frame2_windex&s=APSMyZRY2U21hcnQg

Bloomberg News

Top World News

07/03 13:20
Smart ID Cards Planned for Sailors to Spot Terrorists (Update1)
By Amy Strahan Butler

Washington, July 3 (Bloomberg) -- The identities of more than 500,000
commercial sailors worldwide would be verified through thumb or iris scans
under tough, new anti-terrorism standards backed by the U.S. and other
industrialized nations.

``The whole idea is to come up with a worldwide system for positive,
verifiable identification of seafarers,'' said Mary Covington, associate
director of the Washington office of the International Labor Organization,
a United Nations-affiliated group that's developing the standards.

The labor organization got a big boost when representatives of the Group of
Eight nations -- the U.S., Japan, Germany, the U.K., France, Canada, Italy
and Russia -- endorsed the standards during a meeting in Canada last week.

The plans have drawn criticism from seafarer's groups concerned that port
authorities may insert information in so- called ``smart'' identification
documents without the cardholder's knowledge.

Those concerns are being swept aside as the drive to close loopholes in
shipping security has gained momentum since Sept. 11 in the U.S., where
less than 2 percent of cargo entering ports is inspected by the U.S.
Customs Service.

After the terrorist attacks, the Coast Guard began requiring ships to
notify ports 96 hours prior to arrival and to submit a list of crew members.

Card-Carrying Sailors

Commercial sailors in countries that ratify the ILO standards would be
required to carry identification cards similar to driver's licenses that
also contain biometric information, such as a thumbprint or iris scan.
Under the proposal, port authorities would be able to verify the identity
of the card bearer by scanning his thumb or eye.

The credentials could be issued to more than a half-million shipping
employees as governments attempt to tighten port security to prevent
terrorist activities.

``This would help produce uniform treatment of seafarers,'' said Chris
Koch, president of the World Shipping Council, a trade association
representing more than 40 shipping companies, including Atlantic Container
Line AB and Crowley Maritime Corp. ``That's in the interest of not only
seafarers but of commerce.''

The current ILO convention for identifying shipping employees entering
foreign ports asks that countries to provide seafarers with documents, such
as passports, that include their name, date of birth, nationality and photo.

Technology Lag

Once the identification standards are drafted, individual governments would
be responsible for ratifying and enforcing them. Only 61 countries have
ratified the ILO's existing documentation standards for commercial sailors.

Critics of the proposal say that technology sophisticated enough to
differentiate between the characteristics of thousands of irises, for
example, is still years away.

``There is no perfect biometrics technology,'' the Automatic Identification
Manufacturers Association of Japan wrote to the ILO. An accurate system
would lengthen inspection times while a cheaper, faster one would be more
inaccurate and possibly a target for terrorists, the agency said.

Still, it's important to set the standards and then let the technology
catch up, said Joseph Cox, president of the Chamber of Shipping of America.
Biometric characteristics within the identification cards are essential for
security, Cox said.

``There's no question we're going to have something like that,'' Cox said.
``We will get there because we have to get there.''

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R. A. Hettinga <mailto: rah at ibuc.com>
The Internet Bearer Underwriting Corporation <http://www.ibuc.com/>
44 Farquhar Street, Boston, MA 02131 USA
"... however it may deserve respect for its usefulness and antiquity,
[predicting the end of the world] has not been found agreeable to
experience." -- Edward Gibbon, 'Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire'

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