Freedom is slipping away.. from CNN

KAGAN: May I see your papers, please? Well, over the years, America has steadfastly refused to embrace the idea of a national identification card. The war on terror may be changing that, though. Congress recently passed a law creating national standards for driver's licenses, the closest thing we have to a national I.D. Former homeland security secretary Tom Ridge wants to go even further, though.

CNN Contributing Correspondent Frank Sesno has the story.

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FRANK SESNO, CNN CONTRIBUTING CORRESPONDENT: In Hollywood's black-and- white world of wartime "Casablanca," not having the right papers...

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: These papers expired three weeks ago.

SESNO: ... could cost you your life. In real-world America, it's nowhere near that bad. But just a few years ago, when Nevada rancher Dudley Hibel repeatedly refused to give his name and I.D. to a local sheriff's deputy, he was handcuffed and arrested.

Hibel argued his right to refuse I.D. all the way to the Supreme Court.

DUDLEY HIBEL, ARGUED RIGHT TO REFUSE I.D.: This isn't just about me. This is about all Americans.

SESNO: He lost. The court ruled that because the cops had reasonable suspicion that Hibel was abusing a passenger in his truck, they had every right to demand I.D. The American Civil Liberty's Union called the ruling, "... a step on the road to a police state."

But in our war on terror, I.D. is now standard fair at airports, federal buildings and increasingly at the office.

(on camera): So, what's the most common form of identification in the United States? What do I already share with 200 million other people? It's this: my driver's license. It's my permit to drive, but it's a lot more.

(voice-over): Name, height, date of birth, my address, which I'm not going to let you see here, all courtesy of the commonwealth of Virginia. But each state does licensing in its own way. So brace yourself for a brave new world.

A brand new law, the Real I.D. Act, creates standards for driver's licenses, making them harder to get, harder to forge, more high-tech, linking databases. Non-citizens will have to prove they're here legally.

A first step toward a national I.D.? Yes, says none other than the former head of Homeland Security, who believes it's about time.

TOM RIDGE, FMR. HEAD OF HOMELAND SECURITY: A standard form that basically says Frank Sesno is Frank Sesno, Tom Ridge is Tom Ridge, gives anyone involved with combating terrorism a base of information about people who are legitimately here.

SESNO: Knowing he's stirring a hornet's nest, Ridge favors a national I.D. system. RIDGE: Look, there's so many people, going down so many paths. Is it not in the national interest that we come up with a standard form?

SESNO: Jim Harper is a privacy advocate who vehemently disagrees. He's with the Libertarian Cato Institute and runs a Web site called Privacilla.org.

JIM HARPER, PRIVACY ADVOCATE: The dominant use of national identification will be surveillance of ordinary law-abiding citizens.

SESNO: But the systems are being built. We visited a company, Visage, that's working with DMVs in more than a dozen states.

KENNETH SCHEFLEN, SENIOR V.P., VISAGE: The biggest problem and the hardest one to solve technically is knowing who the person is in the first place. Are they really who they purport to be.

SESNO: Authenticating documents is the first step. So they've looked at mine as if I were an applicant. My passport takes just a nanosecond to get a green light. My license...

KEVIN MCKENNA, DIRECTOR, VISAGE: We look for certain visible patterns on that driver's license.

SESNO: Security features, some exposed only by infrared light. Yes, the documents are real, but am I really who I say I am? Picture time.

(on camera): I failed.

MCKENNA: You failed on biometrics.

SESNO (voice-over): Now, I've got a problem. Because of the poor quality of my passport and driver's license photos, the machine can't verify I am who I claim to be. A DMV employee will have to look more closely. But can any of this stop the bad guys?

Say I'm a terrorist, I want to change my face, warts and all, because I know the authorities have my original photo on file. What happens now? My scruffy self, scanned against 50,000 others in this sample database. The computer sees right through the new me and zeros in on a likely match.

MCKENNA: Those are under different names, but it sure looks like the same guy.

SESNO (on camera): But what's going on here that makes this computer say, ah, these are the same guys?

MCKENNA: Well, what we're actually doing is we're taking a flexible grid, placing it over the face. And it's comparing over 1,700 different feature points on your face.

SESNO (voice-over): The technology is imperfect, but improving. Already, Illinois is using it every day, scanning new applicants against the pictures of 18 million license holders. Critics say terrorists will still do whatever it takes.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: The terrorists will use fraud to acquire cards. They will corrupt DMV employees. They will use forgery to create cards.

SESNO: "But it's an important layer of security," insists Tom Ridge, that with oversight and limits on access and use can make us safer."

(on camera): You know what people say: There goes Tom Ridge. What's wrong with Tom Ridge? A national I.D., a central database in the United States of America? Are you crazy?

RIDGE: It doesn't have to be a central database, but it does have to be a standard form of identification. I am optimistic enough and confident enough that we could come up with a system that would protect privacy rights, but also significantly enhance security.

SESNO: Would it prevent another 9-11? Those hijackers all managed to get valid driver's licenses or state-issued I.D.s would it have stopped Timothy McVeigh? He had a license long before he bombed Oklahoma City. Would a national I.D. have stopped the London bombers. Apparently, they were all legal residents.

RIDGE: It should not be viewed as the beat-all and end-all and the answer to every security problem that we have. It should be viewed as one of a series of steps, particularly in a post-9-11 world, that has, I think, definite security benefits, but also other benefits to the 21st-century world in which we live in.

SESNO: A dangerous digital world, where we have to decide how to balance security and privacy when there are no guarantees.

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PHILLIPS: Well, since 9/11, the government has passed aggressive new laws to fight terrorism. You may be surprised to learn that the scope of these laws and the sweeping new powers given to law enforcement. All this week, CNN's "PAULA ZAHN NOW" has been examining the status of the war on terror.

Our Americas bureau's Kelli Arena joins us live from Washington now with a preview of her story tonight.

Hi, Kelli.

KELLI ARENA, CNN AMERICA BUREAU CORRESPONDENT: Hi there, Kyra.

Well, as you know, I cover the law enforcement and terrorism beats everyday. So I am drowning in this information. But most Americans are not, until they find themselves face to face with authorities.

We met with some folks and had them share their stories. We don't get into a debate about whether this is right or wrong, but instead, we try to matter of factly give people a sense of what is going on as law enforcement fights the war on terror on a daily basis that ordinary Americans just might not be aware of.

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ARENA (voice-over): Paul Burgess and Randy Olson (ph) are train enthusiasts and amateur photographers. So it's no surprise that one of their favorite pastimes is taking pictures of trains.

PAUL BURGESS, AMATEUR PHOTOGRAPHER: That was Hiawatha service from Milwaukee.

ARENA: Which is exactly what they were doing one day about seven months ago on this very platform in suburban Chicago when they were confronted and detained by police. Their car searched and their names and information checked against terrorist databases.

BURGESS: There was a crowd of people standing here staring at us, we're up against a police car. We're not handcuffed. There's two armed officers standing in front of us telling us that we could be placed in federal detention.

ARENA: While it usually doesn't go this far, police officers do have the right to question you and will if you are taking pictures of transportation systems or bridges or other infrastructure. In fact, as CNN was shooting video for this story, our cameraman was stopped and questioned by authorities.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I was just trying to find out who you were with.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I told you who we're with.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Right, OK.

ARENA: As attacks in both London and Madrid have made obvious, trains and subways attractive targets for terrorists, and terrorists often conduct early surveillance by taking photos.

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ARENA: Now, both those men, the photographers, say that they understand the concern about terrorism, but they don't think that stopping photographers is a way to stop attacks -- Kyra.

PHILLIPS: Well, you know, it's interesting, Kelli, and you and I talked about this. Everyone has been concerned about racial profiling, and there's that legislator in New York that wants to make racial profiling of Middle Easterners legal.

ARENA: Right.

PHILLIPS: But it's not just Middle Easterners that are getting stopped and questioned.

ARENA: Well, that's right. Look at the two guys that we just profiled, middle-aged white guys. And they actually make that point. They said, you know, "We thought that there had to be, you know, maybe some suspicious activity, maybe we would hide our cameras, maybe we'd fit a different profile." So it just goes to show you that any suspicious activity will -- will be questioned.

PHILLIPS: And didn't your FBI sources say to you more than likely what's going to stop a terrorist will be someone right there on the front lines, in the street, a citizen that notices something strange or a police officer working a beat?

ARENA: You're absolutely right, Kyra. The -- we had interviewed the special agent in charge of the Baltimore field office. And he said, you know, he really truly believes that. Because 95 percent of the time, when police officers do go out and question anybody, it's because a citizen has called and said, "I saw somebody doing something and it didn't seem kosher to me, and I think you ought to check it out." Or, "I've noticed my neighbor's been acting weird," or "These new guys just moved in."

And so he says that the number of calls that they get on a daily basis from just concerned citizens is pretty astounding. And he said that, you know, chances are it's not going to be some big national intelligence coup or some overseas intelligence agencies sharing information, but it's probably going to be the normal cop on a beat that stops you for a traffic violation and notices something odd and could very well prevent a major attack.

PHILLIPS: Interesting stuff. Kelli Arena, I look forward to your report tonight. Thank you so much.

ARENA: You're welcome.

PHILLIPS: And this week CNN is presenting a series of "Security Watch" special reports. You can see "Safe At Home: A Day in the Life of a Secure America" on "PAULA ZAHN NOW." That will include Kelli's piece tonight at 8:00 Eastern.