That question was asked by a guard at Department of Homeland Security’s headquarters. Bruce DeCell, a retired New York City police officer, presented identification. What he actually presented and was accepted as valid ID is quite amazing. You have to read this Washington Times article to believe it.
Clearly, Mr. DeCell’s name was matched against the list of vetted guests for the day. Other than his name, clearly no other component of his ID was even remotely examined. This isn’t much different than the “check the name game” that the TSA has us go through at airports.
It seems pretty simple to me, if you are going to ask for identification, at the very least you ought to examine the entire piece of identification: not just the name, not just the picture.
Further, if people are checking credentials, they need trustworthy systems to validate those credentials.
At least DHS did one thing well, after (poorly) being authenticated, Mr. DeCell was escorted constantly. You can come in, but I am going to watch every move you make.
I wonder if Mr. DeCell got the matricular card from the same contact that got him his daughters phony proof.
This reminds me of “The Credit Card Prank” where someone tried successively more ridiculous signatures on his credit card receipts, and was never rejected. http://www.zug.com/pranks/credit/