Fingerprint-sharing plan raises privacy concerns

"Calling asylum seekers a 'vulnerable group,' Canada's privacy commissioner expressed concern Friday about a new government plan to share fingerprint information with Britain and Australia to combat immigration fraud.

The three-country agreement was announced Friday with little fanfare, with Canada and the two countries providing assurances that no one's privacy would be violated and that no database for the prints would be created.

A lawyers' group in Australia also raised privacy concerns about the plan, which the United States and New Zealand were expected to join later on.

The offices of Immigration Minister Jason Kenney and Public Safety Minister Peter Van Loan made the announcement Friday along with their counterparts in London and Canberra, calling it a 'landmark initiative' that would 'improve our ability to identify foreign nationals who are seeking to enter Canada and who are trying to hide their past from authorities.'

The new agreement allows countries to check each other's fingerprint databases, but doesn't give them unfettered access.

The measure was touted as a way to better detect bogus immigration and refugee claimants. To allay privacy concerns, the countries said that no central database of fingerprints would be created and all inquiries would be done anonymously.

If a set of fingerprints did not produce a match, they would be destroyed.

This information sharing is part of a broader government initiative to introduce biometrics into Canada's immigration and refugee screening system." ...more
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Democracy Going Dark: The Electronic Police State

"The Federal Bureau of Investigation's budget request for fiscal year 2010 reveals that America's political police intend to greatly expand their high-tech surveillance capabilities.

According to ABC News, the FBI is seeking additional funds for the development of 'a new 'Advanced Electronic Surveillance' program which is being funded at $233.9 million for 2010. The program has 133 employees, 15 of whom are agents.'

Known as 'Going Dark,' the program is designed to beef up the Bureau's already formidable electronic surveillance, intelligence collection and evidence gathering capabilities 'as well as those of the greater Intelligence Community,' ABC reports. An FBI spokesperson told the network:

'The term 'Going Dark' does not refer to a specific capability, but is a program name for the part of the FBI, Operational Technology Division's (OTD) lawful interception program which is shared with other law enforcement agencies.'

'The term applies to the research and development of new tools, technical support and training initiatives.' (Jason Ryan, 'DOJ Budget Details High-Tech Crime Fighting Tools,' ABC News, May 9, 2009)

Led by Assistant Director Marcus C. Thomas, OTD describes the office as supporting 'the FBI’s investigative and intelligence-gathering efforts – and those of our federal, state, and local law enforcement/intelligence partners – with a wide range of sophisticated technological equipment, examination tools and capabilities, training, and specialized experience. You won’t hear about our work on the evening news because of its highly sensitive nature, but you will continue to hear about the fruits of our labor...'

According to OTD's website, the Division possesses 'seven core capabilities': Digital Forensics; Electronic Surveillance; Physical Surveillance; Special Technology and Applications; Tactical Communications; Tactical Operations and finally, Technical Support/Coordination.

Under the heading 'Electronic Surveillance,' OTD deploys 'tools and techniques for performing lawfully-authorized intercepts of wired and wireless telecommunications and data network communications technologies; enhancing unintelligible audio; and working with the communications industry as well as regulatory and legislative bodies to ensure that our continuing ability to conduct electronic surveillance will not be impaired as technology evolves.'

But as we have seen throughout the entire course of the so-called 'war on terror,' systemic constitutional breeches by the FBI – from their abuse of National Security Letters, the proliferation of corporate-dominated Fusion Centers to the infiltration of provocateurs into antiwar and other dissident groups – the only thing 'impaired' by an out-of-control domestic spy agency have been the civil liberties of Americans." ...more
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Next step in H1N1 scare: Microchip implants

"A Florida-based company that boasts selling the world's first and only federally approved radio microchip for implanting in humans is now turning its development branch toward 'emergency preparedness,' hoping to produce an implant that can automatically detect in its host's bloodstream
the presence of swine flu or other viruses deemed a 'bio-threat.'

VeriChip Corporation currently sells a small, under-the-skin Radio Frequency Identification capsule, or RFID, that patients can opt to have implanted, containing a number computer-linked to their medical records, enabling doctors with a special reader to access the information even if the patient is unconscious or unidentified. The company boasts its microchip, roughly the size of a grain of rice, is the only such implant approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration.

But VeriChip has also turned its attention to other uses for the technology, including microchips that be used to tag and log human remains after a disaster and implants the company hopes will be able to warn if their host is infected with the H1N1 swine flu virus, the H5N1 bird flu virus or other pandemic agents deemed to be a 'bio-threat.'

VeriChip is working with a Minnesota company, Receptors LLC, to develop the virus-detection technology.

'As we continue to build on our partnership with Receptors, which started with the development of a glucose-sensing RFID implantable microchip, we are moving beyond patient identification to sensors that can detect and identify illnesses and viruses such as influenza,' said Scott R. Silverman, chairman of VeriChip, in a statement. 'This is an exciting next step for the future of our healthcare division.'"...more
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Biometric technology opens new security frontiers

"WASHINGTON - Iris scanners and facial-recognition cameras aren't just for spies anymore.

The futuristic technology once found mainly in James Bond movies and science-fiction novels is becoming increasingly pervasive throughout the nation, showing up everywhere from hospitals and high schools to docks and airports, including Phoenix Sky Harbor International Airport.

And it could become the dominant way for Americans to identify themselves if Congress moves ahead with efforts to create a biometric employee-verification system to ensure that only U.S. citizens and legal immigrants get jobs.

Sen. Charles Schumer, D-N.Y., who chairs the Senate's immigration subcommittee, has said that a verification system based on fingerprints, iris scans or some other form of biometrics must be part of any comprehensive immigration-reform bill.

The plan is controversial with civil libertarians, who say it poses a threat to Americans' privacy. But supporters say it is the only reliable, tamperproof way to stop the identity theft and fraud that plagues the current E-Verify system.

For such a proposal to work, Americans would need to provide their fingerprints or other biometric information to the government to help create a federal database that employers could use to identify would-be workers as legal U.S. residents.

It would be the most widespread use of biometrics in the nation, but it would not be the first.

Biometrics is the measurement of a person's unique physical characteristics, using digital fingerprints, handprints, iris scans or facial-recognition cameras.

'Biometrics have become fairly ubiquitous now,' said James Ziglar, a senior fellow at the Migration Policy Institute and the recently retired president and chief executive of Cross Match Technologies, a Florida-based biometrics firm" ...more
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Canadian airport to test behaviour detection-"precrime"- program

"OTTAWA -- From the furrowed brow to the nervously tapping foot, security personnel will soon start studying air travellers' facial expressions and body movements to see if they could be criminals and terrorists.

Beginning next year, some air travellers will be scrutinized by airport 'behaviour detection officers' for physiological signs of hostile intent -- in other words: screening for dangerous people rather than just for dangerous objects.

Planning for the training and deployment of the plainclothes security officers is to begin this fall, with a pilot project expected to roll out at a major airport in 2010, the Canadian Air Transport Security Authority said yesterday. The project's budget is about $400,000.

If successful, 'behaviour pattern recognition' could land at major airports across the country." ...more
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States to Microchip Criminals to track them? (Video)

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Muslim radicals behead Christian orphan workers

"Four Christians working in Somalia to provide services to orphans have been executed by beheading by al-Qaida-linked interests who told their families that is the penalty for apostasy.

The report on the outrage comes from International Christian Concern, which said the executions took place sometime after the kidnapping of the Christians July 27, but it only discovered the tragedy recently.

The organization identified the Christian orphanage workers as Fatima Sultan, Ali Ma'ow, Sheik Mohammed Abdi and Maaddey Diil. They had been kidnapped in the coastal Somalian town of Merca, about 50 miles from Mogadishu.

According to ICC, al-Shabaab, an Islamic extremist organization, claimed responsibility and said the Christians were killed when they refused to renounce their faith in Jesus"...more
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"It's a Brave New World" FLorida hospital uses RFID to monitor employee hand washing

"The University of Miami UM-JMH Center for Patient Safety at Jackson Memorial Hospital is testing a new system of monitoring employee hand washing using RFID and infrared technologies.

The program uses tiny IR-RF sensors installed in soap dispensers that read staff ID badges and record the location and duration of hand washing. The hospital then uses this data to identify which employees are not washing their hands for an adequate amount of time.

The system, developed using the technology of Versus Tech. and Dynamic Computer Corp., can also function as a kind of alarm, alerting employees in real time when they forget to wash their hands." RFIDNews
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SecureIDNews | Smart card, biometrics on the way for Social Security card?

"The U.S. Senate Judiciary Committee is exploring the use of biometrics and smart cards for a new Social Security card, SecureIDNews has learned. This could lead to the issuance of as many as 300 million electronic credentials in the next six to eight years.

There are two different ideas being floated when it comes to the Social Security number, sources say. One involves enrolling individuals, capturing the fingerprint biometric and then linking it to the Social Security number. The biometric data would be stored and checked against a database for official functions.

The other idea involves the issuance of a smart card with match-on-card biometric functionality. Cardholders could use this card for official functions and potentially as an authentication token for other transactions both in physical and virtual environments.

The primary purpose for using the new technologies would be to show employment eligibility for residents and non-resident aliens. Before being hired an individual would have to have the biometric checked to make sure he is eligible to work in the U.S."...more
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KATHERINE ALBRECHT - On The Brink Of The Mark Of The Beast - 79 min video

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Army National Guard Job Opening

NEWS UPDATE
Army National Guard job opening
“Corrections Officer – Internment-Resettlement Specialist Job in Multiple locations__”

I pulled this off Monster.com . Question? Why does the National Guard need internment/Resettlement Specialist? Are there internment camps in the United States? If so, why? Isn’t the primary job of the National Guard to protect and serve the citizens, at the discretion of the governors of their respective states? I always believed the internment/Resettlement camp conspiracy theories a bit of a stretch. Maybe they’re not! Read the job placement add below as taken from Monster.com

“Job Description”

As an Internment/Resettlement Specialist for the Army National Guard, you will ensure the smooth running of military confinement/correctional facility or detention/internment facility, similar to those duties conducted by civilian Corrections Officers. This will require you to know proper procedures and military law; and have the ability to think quickly in high-stress situations. Specific duties may include assisting with supervision and management operations; providing facility security; providing custody, control, supervision, and escort; and counseling individual prisoners in rehabilitative programs.

By joining this specialty, you will develop the skills that will prepare you for a rewarding career with law enforcement agencies or in the private security field.

Earn while you learn

Get paid to learn! In the Army National Guard, you will learn valuable job skills while earning a regular paycheck and qualifying for tuition assistance.



Job training for an Internment/Resettlement Specialist requires approximately 19 weeks of One Station Unit Training, which includes Basic Training and Advanced Individual Training. Part of the training is spent in the classroom and part in the field. Some of the skills you'll learn include military laws and jurisdictions; level of force procedures; unarmed self-defense techniques; police ethics procedures; interpersonal communications skills; close confinement operations; search and restraint procedures; use of firearms; custody and control procedures.” Source: Monster.com
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