Chertoff visits state to endorse security-enhanced driver's IDs

Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff visited Seattle on Friday to help Gov. Christine Gregoire kick off a pilot program that will allow Washington state residents to use a security-enhanced driver's license, rather than a passport, to travel to and from Canada.

Chertoff predicted the new licenses will help meet the department's dual goals of enhancing security and reducing wait-times at the border.

In a wide-ranging discussion with The Seattle Times editorial board after the event, Chertoff spoke repeatedly of his agency's efforts to balance competing demands.

On issues ranging from port security to air travel to home-grown terrorism, Chertoff described how the Department of Homeland Security is trying to protect the nation from imminent threats, prepare for future dangers, protect privacy and keep commerce and travel running smoothly.

"I view my job fundamentally as setting up an architecture for the way we deal with the issues of terror that is neither hysterical nor complacent, and is sustainable over a long period of time," Chertoff said.

During the news conference on the driver's licenses at Port of Seattle headquarters, Chertoff hailed Gov. Gregoire's state-led initiative that will give Washington residents a secure and less costly alternative to a passport for traveling to British Columbia.

"This new license not only makes it easier to move across the border, but it will make it easier to secure [individuals'] privacy," Chertoff said.

The enhanced licenses, which are expected to be available in January, will cost $40, versus $97 for a passport.

They will contain technology required by the federal government to facilitate rapid identification checks at border crossings, similar to chips already embedded in U.S. passports. They could also enable cross-checks with criminal databases and other information sets.

If successful, the pilot program could be expanded to other border states as an alternative way to meet the requirements of the Western Hemisphere Travel Initiative, which would require anyone crossing the U.S. border to have a passport beginning in June 2009.

"I'm quite sure other states that want to use the same technology and the same approach will be welcome to do so," he said.

After the event, Chertoff said concerns that such enhanced licenses could lead to invasions of privacy are misguided.

"For the life of me, I can't understand it," Chertoff said. "Right now, anyone can fabricate a driver's license in my name on Windows. Why am I better off with that?"

Chertoff said secure IDs will be especially valuable as Washington state and British Columbia prepare for the 2010 Olympics in Vancouver.

"We're going to get a lot of international travelers, and in that large majority of innocent people you can embed and hide a few not-innocent people," he said.

Finding other creative ways to rapidly compile and sort through large volumes of information is a core function of the Department of Homeland Security, Chertoff said.

"The ability to sort through information quickly and identify patterns and linkages is to the 21st century what radar was to the 20th century," Chertoff said. "It's the way you isolate danger from a large pool of benign people."

Chertoff said he no longer refers to such activity as "data mining," because "it conjures up images that you are digging into people's personal information and extracting it."

Asked what keeps him up nights, Chertoff said his primary concern is a "catastrophic attack" on the U.S., particularly from an improvised nuclear device.

Chertoff said such an attack "is not right around the corner," because he does not believe terrorists yet have the capability to launch such a strike.

But, he said, he wants to make sure the government is spending enough on research and radiation-detection devices to be ready.

"If we don't do that now, then in five years we discover that terrorists have gotten their hands on an improvised nuclear device, it's going to be way too late," Chertoff said.

The government already scans roughly 90 percent of containers for nuclear material before they leave U.S. ports, he said.

Commenting on the state of the four-year-old agency he leads, Chertoff said he is pleased with progress to date but is now focusing on maturing and refining its operations.

"Anybody who thought you were going to have a fully mature department in two years was smoking something," Chertoff said. "What we've got to do now is stop. You don't grow a plant by tearing it up at the roots every year. You've got to now let things settle down."

David Bowermaster: 206-464-2724 or dbowermaster@seattletimes.com