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 Technology News | October 2007 
Sinister Plot? No, Its Just for Security, DMV Says
 Mark Binker - News-Record.com
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 |  | Any time you see those holograms, the reason they're there is to prevent counterfeiting.
- Marge Howell, N.C. DMV. |  | |
The small hologram patch that began showing up on North Carolina driver's licenses in December hardly looks like the first step down the road to perdition, or a multinational union that sacrifices national sovereignty.
But motor vehicle administrators say although North Carolina may be the first in the nation to use what they call a "common security element," the state isn't on the leading edge of anything other than a new way of telling whether a license is legitimate.
That hasn't stopped conservative Internet sites and talk radio from getting riled.
In 2002, the American Association of Motor Vehicle Administrators, or AAMVA, started looking at ways to make driver's licenses more secure. One idea was to create a security feature that all 50 states could use.
That way, even though a North Carolina license is different from those issued in other parts of the country, there would be at least one element everyone from bartenders to airport security could look for all the time.
The result was a patch that a state could put on its license. It has a hologram with a picture that changes depending on how you look at it, much like ones used on credit cards. Its main picture is that of the western hemisphere. It's customized with a state's postal code, so North Carolina's has "NC" in all four corners.
"Any time you see those holograms, the reason they're there is to prevent counterfeiting," said Marge Howell, a spokeswoman for the N.C. DMV.
But there are those who see something much more sinister than a new security measure.
"For years, I have, along with many concerned citizens, been fighting like hell to do something about illegal immigrants coming to North Carolina, and now their nations are represented on my license," said William Gheen, a Raleigh resident who leads Americans for Legal Immigration.
Gheen said the new hologram sticker is actually the emblem of the North American Union, a label among some activists for what they say is a merging of Canadian, Mexican, U.S. and other national economies and interests.
Gheen also charged that the new sticker contains more than a hologram.
"We know that it contains some information about us," Gheen said, claiming that the sticker is also what's known as an RFID tag, a type of microchip that can be read by computers.
The idea, he said, is for governments to track people without their knowledge rather than curbing the flow of people across borders.
Motor vehicle officials said that there is no RFID technology in the hologram; still, Gheen said he's sending one out to be tested.
"It is the biggest bunch of hocus pocus I've ever heard in my life," said Jason King, a vice president with AAMVA who said the assertion the hologram patch contains an RFID tag or paves the way for some multinational union "couldn't be further from the truth."
The idea is apparently one put forward by Jerome Corsi, a conservative author who has published "The Late Great U.S.A.: The Coming Merger with Mexico and Canada." Corsi builds his case around government efforts to increase security and economic cooperation, although he draws conclusions that the government calls "myths."
Corsi is best known as the author of "Unfit for Command," a book aimed at discrediting 2004 presidential candidate John Kerry.
Gheen said he plans to publicly refuse to accept a new license as a form of protest and way of calling attention to his cause.
Contact Mark Binker at mbinker@news-record.com |
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