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Ridge Announces Plan For Frequent-Flier ID Card

Plan Calls For Using Biometric Information

WASHINGTON -- Government, airlines at work on frequent-flier identification card

Homeland Security Director Tom Ridge said the government and the airlines are working on a frequent-flier ID card.

The card would speed up the screening process for frustrated frequent fliers.

The cards won't be free, but Ridge said, "people would pay for the convenience of easier and quicker access."

A voluntary biometric identification system would be used to guarantee security for the so-called "EZ pass" cards.

Such systems use fingerprints or retinal patterns to identify people.

Ridge disclosed the idea when questioned by a 67-year-old grandmother complaining about undergoing a rigorous screening.

Ridge told the woman, who is white, that she did not "fit the profile" of a suspicious passenger.

He was speaking at the National Press Club in Washington.

-- Anonymous, February 09, 2002