A note on _contact analysis_. One thing the FBI probably wants badly are databases of who has travelled where, and when, for correlation analysis. Note that the crackdown on "valid IDs" for travel, for airlines, helps in this regard. I would not be surprised to learn that the airline databases are routinely fed to the Feds, so to speak. (Possibly via the FAA, acting as a kind of cutout.) Were I the head of the FBI, this is what I would want.
The airlines don't yet carefully check IDs (no SSN or DL # retained). They merely check that the name on your ID matches the reservation.
The next step will be collecting hotel reservation databases. (Unlike the case with the FAA and the airlines, I don't know what kind of authority would grant them access to private hotel databases, but I expect they are working to find such authority somewhere. Maybe the infinitely malleable "regulation of commerce" clause, even if hotel stays are canonically _not_ interstate trade!)
(They already got access to the credit card databases, decades ago, of course.)
Are SSN and other ID required when opening a 'pre-paid' credit card account? That is, the ones for persons with poor credit who are required to maintain a balance sufficient to pay off the charges? Perhaps we could put our heads together and determine a way to become franchised by MC/VISA and offer 'affinity' type accounts with no address requirements (all statments are sent via remailer/nym email). -- Steve