Report - Guardian

The LSE Identity Project Report: June 2005 436National Security, Organised Crime andTerrorismThis objective has been subject to claim and counter-claim. On July 3 rd 2002, inresponse 63 to a question by Chris Mullin MP, David Blunkett said “I accept that it isimportant that we do not pretend that an entitlement card would be an overwhelmingfactor in combating international terrorism”. Later, in answer to a question from SirTeddy Taylor MP, he said he would not rule out the possibility of “their substantialcontribution to countering terrorism”.The Government’s considered position is that an ID card will help in the fight againstterrorism. However the essential facts are disputed. David Blunkett has told parliamentthat the security services have advised him that 35 per cent of terrorists use falseidentification, However Interpol general secretary Ron Noble told 64 the House of LordsHome Affairs Committee that all terrorist incidents involve a false passport. He wasunable to present evidence to support this claim.The published evidence tends to refute the more extreme claims. In 2004 PrivacyInternational published the findings 65 of the only research ever conducted on therelationship between identity cards and terrorism. It found that there was no evidence tosupport the claim that identity cards can combat terrorist threats.The report stated:“The presence of an identity card is not recognised by analysts as ameaningful or significant component in anti-terrorism strategies.The detailed analysis of information in the public domain in this studyhas produced no evidence to establish a connection between identitycards and successful anti-terrorism measures. Terrorists havetraditionally moved across borders using tourist visas (such as thosewho were involved in the US terrorist attacks), or they are domicile63 House of Commons, Hansard debates, July 3, 2002, Column 231, http://www.publications.parliament.uk/cgibin/ukparl_hl?DB=ukparl&URL=/pa/cm200102/cmhansrd/vo020703/debtext/20703-05.htm.64 ‘All terror attacks use false passports, claims Interpol chief’, John Lettice, The Register, December 2, 2004,http://www.theregister.co.uk/2004/12/02/noble_wows_lords/.65 Privacy International, Mistaken Identity: exploring the relationship between national identity cards and theprevention of terrorism, April 2004, http://www.privacyinternational.org/issues/idcard/uk/id-terrorism.pdf.