FC: U.S. military's database of terror suspects prints, faces, voices

[Declan McCullagh <declan () well com>]

---

From: "Richard M. Smith" <rms () computerbytesman com>
To: "'Declan McCullagh'" <declan () well com>
Subject: U.S. military building database of terror suspects' fingerprints, 
faces, voices
Date: Tue, 29 Oct 2002 17:36:11 -0500

Hi Declan,

The attached article is not good PR for the commercial biometrics
market.  I find that many people are skittish about using finger print
scanners because they associate finger prints with criminals.  Now the
US Army is giving the impression that all forms of biometrics are really
good for tracking terrorists.  Hmm, do I really want to have my iris
scanned like a terrorist just so I can get through that passport line
quicker?

Richard M. Smith
http://www.ComputerBytesMan.com

=================================================

http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story2&cid=524&u=/ap/20021029/ap_wo_en_po/us_terror_biometrics_2&printer=1

U.S. military building database of terror suspects' fingerprints, faces,
voices

1 hour, 33 minutes ago
By JIM KRANE, AP Technology Writer

NEW YORK - The United States is compiling digital dossiers of the
irises, fingerprints, faces and voices of terrorism suspects and using
the information to track their movements and screen foreigners trying to
enter the country.

Since January, military and intelligence operatives have collected the
identifying data on prisoners in Afghanistan (news - web sites) and at
the U.S. naval base in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba. There are also plans to
extend the collection process to Iraq in the event of a U.S. invasion.

With this project, the U.S. government has taken biometrics - the
measuring of human features - well beyond its most common use to date:
verifying people's identities before giving them access to computers or
secure areas.

"We're trying to collect every biometric on every bad guy that we can,"
said Lt. Col. Kathy De Bolt, deputy director of the Army battle lab at
Fort Huachuca, Arizona, where the biometric tools being used were
developed.

"Any place we go into - Iraq or wherever - we're going to start building
a dossier on people of interest to intelligence. Even if they get
released, we have face and voice clips. When they come into one of our
checkpoints, we can say, `You're this bad guy from here.'"

...




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