New security logo on the reverse of North Carolina’s
driver’s licenses
By Jerome R. Corsi
The first “North
American Union” driver’s license, complete with a hologram of the North American
continent on the reverse, has been created in the state of North Carolina.
“The North Carolina driver’s license is ‘North American
Union’ ready,” charges
William Gheen, who
serves as president of Americans for Legal Immigration.
Gheen provided WND with a photo of an actual North Carolina license which
clearly shows the hologram of the North American continent embedded on the
reverse.
“The hologram looks
exactly [like] the map of North America that is used as the background for the
Security and Prosperity Partnership of North America logo on the SPP website,”
Gheen told WND. “I object to the loss of sovereignty that is proceeding under
the agreements being made by these unelected government bureaucrats who think we
should be North American instead of the United States of America.”
“To protest, I don’t plan on applying for a North Carolina
driver’s license,” Gheen told WND, “even though I am a resident of the state. I
don’t see how a Division of Motor Vehicles authorized in a Department of
Transportation of a state of the United States can force me to have a license
place that is designed with a North American Union insignia printed on the
backside.”
“My decision not to get a North Carolina driver’s license could have very
difficult consequences for me,” Gheen told WND. “Without a valid driver’s
license, I may not be able to drive a car, fly on an airplane, or enter a
government building.”
In 2005, WND reported
North Carolina was the state where illegal
immigrants go to get a driver’s license, with busloads of
aliens traveling south on I-95 to get an easy ID.
The Tar Heel State’s
requirements to obtain a license are weaker than those of many surrounding
states.
Marge Howell, spokeswoman for the North Carolina DMV, affirmed to WND the state
was embedding a hologram of North America on the back of its new driver’s
licenses.
“It’s a security element that eventually will be on the back of every driver’s
license in North America,” Howell told WND.
Howell explained the hologram of the North American
continent was the creation of the
American Association of Motor Vehicle
Administrators, a tax-exempt, nonprofit organization that,
according to the group’s website, “develops model programs in motor vehicle
administration, law enforcement and highway safety.”
Founded in 1933, AAMVA represents state and provincial
officials in the United States and Canada who administer and enforce motor
vehicle laws. The government of Mexico is also a member, though the individual
Mexican states have yet to join.
According to the group’s website, AAMVA’s programs are designed “to encourage
uniformity and reciprocity among the states and provinces.”
“The goal of the North American hologram,” Howell
explained, “is to get one common element that law enforcement throughout the
continent can look at on all driver’s licenses and tell that the driver’s
license is an official document.”
Jason King, spokesman for AAMVA, affirmed the North
American hologram was created by AAMVA’s Uniform Identification Subcommittee, a
working group of AAMVA members.
He explained the goal is to create a
continental security device that could be used by state and provincial motor
vehicles agencies throughout North America, including the United States, Canada
and Mexico.
King referenced a
document on the AAMVA website
that describes guidelines for using the North America continent
hologram as an Optical Variable Device (OVD) that AAMVA has now licensed with
private manufacturers to produce.
AAMVA supplies member motor vehicle agencies with a
quantity of North American continent hologram OVD foils to use on their driver’s
licenses and ID cards as needed.
As the guidelines
document on the AAMVA explains, each North American continental hologram OVD
foil is embedded with a unique set of control numbers that permit law
enforcement electronic scanners to identify the exact jurisdiction and precise
individual authorized to hold a driver’s license or ID card with that particular
OVD foil embedded.
“AAMVA understands its unique positioning and the
continuing role identification security will play in helping the general public
realize a safer North America,” King explained to WND in an e-mail. “The
association believes ID security will help increase national security, increase
highway safety, reduce fraud and system abuse, increase efficiency and
effectiveness, and achieve uniformity of processes and practices.”
Jim Palmer, press director for ALIPAC, told WND that ALIPAC
first became aware of the hologram when
Missouri State Rep. Jim Guest
held a seminar in North Carolina to protest the Real ID law.
“The surprise came at a meeting on the Real ID that Palmer held in Raleigh,
North Carolina, on Saturday, July 28,” Palmer told WND.
“When Rep. Guest asked participants to take out their
driver’s license and see what was on it,” Palmer explained, “one gentleman was a
state employee and on his license there was this hologram with the North
American continent on the back. We were all surprised to see that on a North
Carolina driver’s license. Right there, that stopped the show.”
Guest has formed a
coalition called
Legislators Against
Real ID Act, or LARI.
“I was astonished when I saw that North American hologram on the North Carolina
driver’s license,” Guest told WND. “I thought to myself that the state DMV has
already included this North American symbol on the back of the driver’s license
without telling the people of North Carolina they were going to do this.”
“I thought right then that this was going to be the
prototype for the driver’s license of the North American Union,” Guest told WND.
“When we called the North Carolina DMV, they hedged at first,” Guest said, “but
finally they admitted that, yes, there was a North American continent hologram
on the back of the license.”
“This is part of a
plan by bureaucrats and trade groups that act like bureaucrats to little by
little transform us into a North American Union without any vote being taken and
without explaining to the U.S. public what they are doing,” Guest argued.
King explained AAMVA’s Uniform Identification Subcommittee
created a number of task forces, including the Card Design Specification that
developed the North America continent hologram OVD.
“The Task Group surveyed and met with many stakeholders during the development
effort,” King wrote to WND. “The Task Force gathered information from government
and non-government users of the driver’s License/ID card to determine their uses
for the DL/ID card and how they believe the card should function. In addition,
the Task Group surveyed and met with industry experts in the area of card
production and security to gather their advice, especially about the physical
security of the card.”
King told WND the Task Group work was repeatedly reviewed by the UID
Subcommittee as a whole, with final approval coming from the AAMVA Board.