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American Morning
America's New War: Look at Some Security Measures that Could be Put into Place
Aired October 01, 2001 - 09:24 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
MILES O'BRIEN, CNN ANCHOR: We have seen dramatic changes in airport security, all kinds of things. If you've flown, you know all about it. One of the things that being talked about, placement of National Guard personnel in some airports.
CNN's David George looks at some other security measures that could be moved into place.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
DAVID GEORGE, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Keflavik International Airport in Iceland is the first airport in the world to announce it is screening passengers with what is called "face recognition technology." Aviation industry insiders say face recognition is poised to become a major weapon in the war against terrorism.
Here's how it works: The human face has 80 so-called landmarks -- things like the bridge of the nose, the tip of the nose, the size of the mouth, the cheekbones, the size of the eyes. Scanning 15 faces at a time, comparing them to a database of images at the rate of a million faces a second, face recognition technology needs only 14 to 20 of those 80 landmarks to spot a face authorities are looking for, a suspected terrorist, for instance.
JOSEPH ATICK, VISIONICS CORP.: We don't have the fingerprints of terrorist groups, but we do have the pictures of terrorist groups.
GEORGE: Joseph Atick says face-recognition technology is so precise it can't be fooled by things like wigs or fake beards. Face recognition is just one example of what's called biometrics, the process of identifying people by unique physical characteristics. A fingerprint is a biometric. So is DNA.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Please look into the mirror.
GEORGE: The retina and iris of the eye are biometrics. A test of eye-recognition technology designed to speed the passage of travelers through the Charlotte, North Carolina airport proved 100 percent accurate in more than 6,000 applications among people who had previously submitted eye-prints to their airlines.
Industry spokesmen say moving known passengers through the airport faster gives immigration and security officers more time to concentrate on travelers who might warrant greater scrutiny.
THOMAS WINDMULLER, INTL. AIR TRANSPORT ASSN.: By providing a better service to passengers who are known to immigration inspectors or airlines, you thereby remove them from the pool of those who need to be inspected.
GEORGE: Biometric technology has replaced badges and I.D. cards for employees at many airports. Frequent travelers can bypass immigration procedures at nearly a dozen North American airports by registering their palm-prints with the Immigration and Naturalization Service.
Biometrics backers say this kind of technology is the key to increased airport security.
RICHARD NORTON, INTL. BIOMETRIC INDUSTRY ASSN.: We're not going to solve every problem, no matter how many biometric technologies we deploy, but we will certainly concentrate the problem and use resources more efficiently.
GEORGE: The industry says there needs to be rules to protect the privacy of people whose faces are scanned in public places, but argues that harsh new realities require vigorous, technology-based responses that include biometrics.
ATICK: I say this is a paradigm shift in the world of security, because there is a paradigm shift in the world of war and terror.
GEORGE: The paradigm shifted on the 11th of September.
David George, CNN, Atlanta.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
O'BRIEN: It's long past 1984, but Big Brother might be watching. To navigate through this fine line between security and personal freedom, we turn now to our legal counselor Roger Cossack, who joins us from Washington.
Roger, it's a slippery slope. What are you most concerned about?
ROGER COSSACK, CNN LEGAL ANALYST: You know, Miles, there's a couple of questions that Supreme Court Justice O'Connor asked last week at the groundbreaking of a law school in New York, and she said, when does the legislation that we pass to hinder terrorism become so overwhelming that it takes away our civil liberties. She says this is what we have to be on the look for. And she says, when does a country that prides itself on equal protection under the law for all begin to treat suspected terrorists different than they treat suspected criminals. And those are the questions I think that all people are asking.
That certainly is the hangup in Congress between both liberals and conservatives. That notion of the tension between the government's ability to monitor us, to find all differently types of information from us, what we say on the telephone and what we say on our computers as opposed to our looking to the government and saying, protect us, which is something that we're doing.
O'BRIEN: Roger, let's talk about one issue which comes up quite a bit, and that is the national ID card. A lot of people get real concerned about this, but then again, most people also have a driver's license in their wallet, which is sort of tantamount to the same thing.
COSSACK: Sure.
O'BRIEN: Do you have concerned about that idea?
COSSACK: The national ID card is that kind of instrument that brings back the thoughts of, sort of, of Nazi Germany, the line, "Where are your papers?" But in some ways, what we just heard is true. The paradigm has changed. And the notion that all of us may be required to carry a card that gives identification, talks about what our DNA is, talks about what blood type is, may be something that is perhaps one of the less intrusive ways of establishing our security that is available to us.
Looks, there are things like wiretaps, which are more intrusive, searches, which are more intrusive. The question of whether or not we carry a card that gives information about us is one of the less intrusive ways that we could have.
O'BRIEN: All right, Roger Cossack, giving us some insights into this tricky, slippery slope some might say, navigating the waters between personal security and personal freedom. Thanks for being with us.
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