“There are good people with bad papers; and bad people with good papers.” — Attributed to Bertolt Brecht

Security officers at the Department of Homeland Security’s headquarters building in Washington, D.C., let pass a man who used a fake Mexican consular identification card to gain entry to the building.

But federal rules state that the Matricula Consular card is not to be accepted as valid identification for entry to government buildings.

Bruce DeCell, a retired New York City police officer, used his phony card — which lists his place of birth as “Tijuana, B.C.” and his address as “123 Fraud Blvd.” on an incorrectly spelled “Staton Island, N.Y.” — to enter the building Wednesday for a meeting with DHS officials.

Mr. DeCell said he has had the card for four years and has used it again and again to board airliners and enter government buildings, without being turned down once. But he said he was surprised that DHS, the agency in charge of determining secure IDs, accepted it.

“Obviously, it’s not working,” Mr. DeCell said. . . .

In addition to being a forgery obtained for him from a street vendor in California, Mr. DeCell’s card was modeled on an older version, which the Mexican government publicly acknowledges is not a secure document. The Mexican government says the old-style cards “are no longer valid.” — Washington Times

DeCell was actually there for a meeting with Homeland Security officials, was expected, and was on the day’s list of cleared visitors.

“At no time was there a threat to any person or property,” said DHS spokesman Jarrod Agen. DeCell had gone through security screening and was escorted at all times while in the building, he said.

Ah, look at them try to explain away their bungling!

And we haven’t even yet gotten into the fallacy of confusing identification with security, though this example illustrates it pretty well. Consider that this perfectly legitimate visitor had a fake ID, while all of the 9/11 hijackers had valid government-issued identification.

The take-home lesson here is this: If you have a valid government-issued ID, you are likely a terrorist or terrorist sympathizer. Innocent people carry fake ID, or no ID at all.

Okay, the real take-home lesson is this: The threat, if any, is reflected in the intentions of the person, whoever he is, and an ID card, real or fake, cannot indicate a person’s intentions. Relying on identification as an indicator of potential threats is stupid. It will lead not only to more incidents like the above, but more incidents like 9/11.