Taking A Closer Look - World Governments spying on citizens

[dArKeR]

Governments the world over are watching citizens like never before. But are we any safer for it?

Bruce Osborne / Asia Images for Newsweek
Identification-card holder
By Fred Guterl And William Underhill
Newsweek International

March 8 issue - John Daugman will tell you that his most significant inventions are devices that help unscramble brain signals, which proved so useful for neuroscience research that the Queen of England made him an Officer of the Order of the British Empire for his trouble. But that's not what made Daugman popular among venture capitalists and politicians. A decade ago he came up with four mathematical equations that made it possible to "scan" the human iris like a bar code. The technology is so powerful that it could, in theory, make the whole idea of a personal identification card obsolete—your iris could, in effect, be your ID card. All you'd have to do is submit to a quick and harmless laser scan, and the authorities would fill in the blanks from their vast database.

The work seemed interesting enough when Daugman, Bernoulli Professor of Mathematics at Cambridge University, patented it in 1994. But it took on a whole new importance after the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001. Suddenly iris scanning began to look like a key technology for protecting a frightened Western populace from global terrorism. Since then "biometric" technologies of all flavors—from fingerprint scanners to voice recognition—have taken off, and Daugman's company, Iridian Technologies of New Jersey, is no exception. "Our mission," says the company's Web site, "is to enable a safer world through iris recognition." Its technology is already on show at airports from Japan to Germany to the Netherlands, and Iridian is talking with corporations and government agencies around the world. The prospects are rosy. "This is an industry waiting to happen," says Daugman.

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/4410100/

The George aWol Bush legacy.

[tom_paine]

1. I predicted from almost the moment of the Bloodless Coup of 2000

that this would happen.

Because of the Death of the Old American Republic, evil would rise all over the world. Nations that disbanded their secret polices and freed political prisoners are now asking themselves, "Why did we do that? Did we really once think the Americans were morally superior and guiding us to something better."

They see soulmates' Bush and Putin and their "Managed Democracy" and they laugh and laugh and laugh at how foolish they were to listen to the Imperial Amerikan. Hell, half of them probably now think we were ALWAYS full of shit.

Because of this "domino effect" Putin has already followed Bush's Playbook to a tee to crush Russain Democracy (read about it, it's pretty ironic to hear the Imperial Pravda writing words that could be just as easily applied to our Empire as to Putin's).

In Haiti, Duvalierist Monsters are getting ready to behave like their hero, Pinochet, undoubtedly with the blessing of the men who have blessed many a murderous tyrant killing people yearning for more freedom.

That what the Busheviks do. That's ALL they do (other than steal and defraud).

And it WILL have an effect on the Rise of Evil. It is the cataylst. It is still very possible, even probable that the 21st Century will be The Age of Totalitarianism.