"ID Rules Exist, But Can't Be Seen"

Tyler Durden camera_lumina at hotmail.com
Thu Sep 30 14:06:45 PDT 2004


http://www.wired.com/news/privacy/0,1848,65154,00.html?tw=wn_tophead_4

I post this not as a refernce per se, but to ask the question:

Exactly Why Does the Government Not Want to Reveal Their ID Rules?


This would seem obvious at first, but upon thinking about it I have to admit 
to being a little confused.

For instance, is it indeed possible that revealing this rule would pose an 
additional security risk? If such a rule exists (and it does) then hijackers 
obviously already know about it. Could this rule also reveal some deeper 
secrets about how hijackers can be detected? I seriously doubt it.

Then of course, the argument may be that the government wanted to hide the 
rule for the very reason of making it more unassailable. In other words, if 
the rule were known, then it might be more easily contested in court. Hiding 
the rule protects the law which in turn protects national security.


This last idea is the only one I can think of that might be behind why the 
government would make such a rule secret.

If this is the case, then this reveals what I would argue to be a dangerous 
mindset: The government needs to protect the people from themselves...ie, 
from the normal operation of democracy.

On Cyperhpunks I would suppose this does not seem suprising. But it perhaps 
reveals that there is explicit, conscious thought occurring along these 
lines in the government. THAT, perhaps, is new.

-TD

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