The Great No-ID Airport Challenge

Submitted by Bill St. Clair on Fri, 09 Jun 2006 12:24:38 GMT  <== Politics ==> 

Ryan Singel at Wired - Jim Harper accepted a dare from John Gilmore last Thursday. He mailed his driving license home and told the airport people he had no identification. After being searched, the Taking Scissors Away goons let him fly. Bottom line: at this airport, on that day, when dressed nicely and being nice to the nice nazis, one man was able to fly without identification. [wired]

Why did he take the challenge?

"Part of it was my concern with the growing use of identification checks to control access to society, such as buildings, stadiums and air travel," Harper said, referring to issues that are central to his recently published book called Identity Crisis.

And will he do it again?

"Yeah, I'm inclined to do it more and more and hopefully more people will follow my lead and it will become a clear option to not show government ID to fly," Harper said. "My identity has nothing to do with the real risk.

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