According to the article, "Mr Blunkett discussed his plan for a national ID card with Tom Ridge, the head of the US Department of Homeland Security, at a meeting in Washington earlier this month. Mr Blunkett agreed to develop a joint programme, using the same technology, with the US, which has already agreed a similar protocol with Canada." So, apparently Ridge has already decided that (a) Amerikkkans *will* carry ID cards, (b) these cards will be interoperable with cards from other countries, (c) that these other countries should be able to access information on US citizens at will, provided we can do the same to their citizens. Cute. Totally fascist, but cute. I wonder how long they are going to work on this before announcing the good news formally? -- J.A. Terranson sysadmin@mfn.org