Robert Parry: Mobile Labs to Target Iraqis for Death

[babylonsister]

Mobile Labs to Target Iraqis for Death
Submitted by davidswanson on Fri, 2007-12-14 00:54. Evidence

By Robert Parry, www.consortiumnews.com


U.S. forces in Iraq soon will be equipped with high-tech equipment that will let them process an Iraqi’s biometric data in minutes and help American soldiers decide whether they should execute the person or not, according to its inventor.

"A war fighter needs to know one of three things: Do I let him go? Keep him? Or shoot him on the spot?” Pentagon weapons designer Anh Duong told the Washington Post for a feature on how this 47-year-old former Vietnamese refugee and mother of four rose to become a top U.S. bomb-maker.

Though Duong is best known for designing high-explosives used to destroy hardened targets, she also supervised the Joint Expeditionary Forensics Facilities project, known as a “lab in a box” for analyzing biometric data, such as iris scans and fingerprints, that have been collected on more than one million Iraqis.

The labs – collapsible, 20-by-20-foot units each with a generator and a satellite link to a biometric data base in West Virginia – will let U.S. forces cross-check data in the field against information collected previously that can be used to identify insurgents. These labs are expected to be deployed across Iraq in early 2008.

Duong said the next step will be to shrink the lab to the size of a “backpack” so soldiers who encounter a suspect “could find out within minutes” if he’s on a terrorist watch list and should be killed.

Duong justified this biometric-data program as a humanitarian way of singling out “bad guys” for elimination while sparing innocent civilians.

more...

http://www.afterdowningstreet.org/?q=node/29359

[mike_c]

1. exactly where does any semblence of due process or criminal justice fit...

...into this remarkable new capability? A mobile backpack will order you killed if your name is on a list? This is really chilling. It has taken Americans less than a generation-- really no more than a couple decades-- to utterly discard the principles of law and fairness.

[MADem]

2. Ah, yes, "Consortium News" famous for taking a fact and adding bullshit, then stirring. NT

[The_Casual_Observer]

3. Would Anh Duong trust this thing to make the correct ID on her four kids?

[PSPS]

4. The SS and Gestapo also had their "lists" and performed summary extralegal executions.

I'm sure this will go a long way in improving our "image" in Iraq and throughout the civilized world. As I recall, most everyone admired and thought well of the Nazis.

Oh, wait...

[Vinnie From Indy]

5. I hope they do better than my local grocery store!

The store routinely has items scan higher than the marked shelf price.

Killed on the spot? Would they line folks up and do a Dr. Mengele style "you to the left and you to the right" style sorting?

[RC]

6. Oh, goody. Another government data base terrorist list.

We all know how well they work. Why Don't we ever find bu$h and cheney's name on them?

[Warren Stupidity]

7. "if he’s on a terrorist watch list and should be killed"

There are 3,000,000 people on our DHS terrorist watch list.

[flashl]

8. Wow! An upgrade from the deck of cards.

:sarcasm: