Terrorism and the UK national identity card

It is suggested that operations against terrorists require biometric identitification in two forms:

Biometric Identity cards – to combat internal terrorism
Biometric passports – to combat international terrorism

Identity papers are supposed to expose terrorists and their supporters living in the U.K. and allow the security services to track them. Biometric passports are supposed to prevent terrorists travelling between countries. Foreign terrorists will not be carrying the U.K. biometric passport or identity card. Therefore, it can only be an aid in fighting terrorists that are nationals of Britain and Northern Ireland.

The government plans to phase in compulsory identity cards in 2007/2008 and compulsory registration from 2006 via the biometric passport. From the introduction of facial biometric passports in 2005, it would take until 2015 before current format, biometric-free 10 year passports expire.

This means the biometric identity scheme would not be effective until some 14 years after the attacks on the World Trade Centre and 10 years after the London Bombings.

how will the biometric passport stop terrorism?

The government has always proposed that biometric passports and identity cards will stop terrorists operating in the U.K.
However, after the July 7th 2005 attacks on the London Underground system, the former Home Secretary, Charles Clarke was forced to admit that identity cards would not have prevented the attacks.

The concepts behind the biometric passport may work if the terrorist is a citizen of Britain or Northern Ireland and intends on travelling internationally. Terrorists from non-E.U. countries will enter using foreign (non-biometric) passports which we have no control over.

International terrorists normally enter countries using tourist visas since these are easy to obtain and undergo low levels of inspection. With some 89 million people travelling to Britain per year* it is simply not practical to use high level inspection on every tourist entering. So, if desired, terrorists could still enter and then stay in the UK for 3 months on their own documents. Since they do not carry a biometric British Passport or National Identity Card and are not on the Identity Register, they are free to disappear after entering the country.

It is possible that an E.U. wide biometric identification, connected by an E.U. wide database, and inspected by E.U. police/intelligence services could prevent the movement of terrorists within the E.U. However, this requires border controls in every E.U. country which is contrary to the ‘open borders policy’ and Schengen agreement. In practice, the biometric passport in conjunction with the Shengen Agreement could make it easier for terrorists to travel around Europe.

The argument for biometric passports as an aid in the ‘war against terrorism’ overlooks the fact that by far the largest number of operations and number of civilians killed relate to internal conflicts – not international terrorism. The most extreme attacks are usually carried out by groups fighting for a cause that is an internal issue to that region, e.g. I.R.A, Hamas, E.T.A.

Biometric passports may hinder ‘technology transfer’ between groups by stopping British terrorists travelling between countries, but they will do nothing to combat the threat of internal terrorist operations on the U.K mainland, as demonstrated by the 7th July attacks.

how will the identity card (NIC) stop terrorism? The government believes biometric identification will make it harder for terrorists to create false identities if they attempt to register for the identity card using false documents. This ignores some basic facts:

66% of known terrorists** use their own, true identities
many operations are carried out by terrorists carrying genuine identity cards (e.g. 9/11, Madrid bombings, Israel suicide bombings)
terrorists retain their true identity as this adds to their fame and they want their cause to reach public attention (e.g. Osama Bin Laden)

A National Identity Card (NIC) may be effective in tracking the movements of terrorists through use of the audit log and routine biometric surveillance of the public. This assumes the terrorists are already known to the police, but as the 7th July bombings clearly indicated the police were completely unaware of the perpertrators. Since the NIC will only be issued in the United Kingdom it can only be effective against U.K. terrorist groups made up of citizens from Britain and Northern Ireland – and provided the individuals are known terrorists.

what evidence exists that biometric identification stops terrorism? Research from the U.S. State Department and Israels’ International Policy Institute for Counter-terrorism** show:

80% of countries most affected by terrorism have identity cards
30% of these countries use biometric identification
biometric identificaiton and surveillance does not prevent terrorist attacks

In the diagrams below, note that although Israeli citizens carry biometric identity cards, the number of attacks largely relates to those performed by Palestinian operatives travelling into (or living in) Israel on valid identity papers. In the case of Spain (and Pakistan), attacks are carried out by citizens of the country with valid biometric identity cards.

There is no conclusive evidence that biometric identification can prevent terrorism.

what is the terrorist threat to the UK? For the last 30 years the greatest terrorist threat to the U.K has come from Irish republican terrorism funded by the American public.

Irish republican terrorism has resulted in thousands of deaths
the IRA being responsible for 1800 of these
the IRA is one of the most technically advanced paramilitary groups in the world, with proven operations experience, and a cache of weapons including: 650 AK47 sub-machine guns, rocket launchers, mortars, and an estimated 2 tonnes of Semtex explosive.***

The IRA were responsible for ‘spectaculars’ such as the Canary Wharf and Brighton bombings, yet biometric passports and identity cards were never considered as useful weapons against them.

Although they represent the closest terrorist threat to the U.K and continue to be involved in criminal activity, the government agreed in October 2004 that the IRA could keep 15% of its arms stockpile.The National Identity Card (NIC) may affect IRA members that are living on the mainland and Northern Ireland, although the latter are protected to some degree by the Northern Irish Assembly.

Terrorists living in Ireland will be untouched by the identity card and can still make use of the Common Travel Area between the U.K. and Ireland. To have any affect on terrorists living in Ireland it would be necessary for Ireland to adopt the British identity card.

Since the Canary Wharf incident in 1999, there have been no major operations by the IRA in the U.K.

The London bombings that took place on the 7th July 2005 demonstrated the destruction that could be caused by a small group of determined terrorists with a limited cache of explosives. Underground (metro) systems are vulnerable to attack since it is a requirement of any capitals transport system that passengers can carry luggage with them. Without security checking, any one of these bags could be an explosive device. These attacks may be limited by:

preventing explosives entering the country
preventing explosive devices reaching their target

The first case relying on scanning/sensor technology to detect explosives (similar technology is being applied to the London transport systems); and the second case largely relying on intelligence, where suspects are put under observation.

In neither case does biometric identitification help. Even if the terrorist is known, conventional observation is more effective than tracking a suspect through their ID card. As former Home Secretary, Charles Clarke, stated in the days after the London Bombings, he could not see how ID cards could have stopped the terrorist attacks. ****