Afghan men given blankets/food/clothes by troops have to be fingerprinted/photographed

[rainbow4321]

before they are given these supplies. WTF??


http://fromthescene2blog.dallasnews.com/archives/2009/02/army-trades-blankets-for-biome.html

Handing out food, blankets and clothing has been part of the American military mission in Afghanistan and Iraq since the beginning of those two wars.

Soldiers of the 1-61 Cavalry Squadron here gave out blankets and coats to Afghan men Friday, but only to those who first had their fingerprints scanned, their photographs taken, and their names, ages and other details entered into a database.

The system is also equipped to record retinal scans, but those were not collected Friday. The soldiers doing the work said many Afghan farmers are so used to squinting in the sun that retinal scans are difficult. Many of the farmers also have little in the way of fingerprints after a lifetime working in the fields.

(snip)


Soldiers here say there are only about 8,000 names in the database so far. The system is reportedly also in use in Iraq and Saudi Arabia.

[Maat]

1. I'm sure glad we're paying for this nonsense rather than providing U.S. residents with healthcare ..

:sarcasm:

Just makes me seriously ill when I think about where my tax dollars go.

[rainbow4321]

3. "little in the way of fingerprints after a lifetime working in the fields"

Jeez...there is something to think about when one starts to think that they hate their job. There are people in this world who are losing the skin/fingerprints off their hands from the daily labor they have to do.

And I dread to think what was done to try and open those farmers' eyelids before it was decided that the retinal scan just wasn't going to work.

[arcadian]

4. Reminds me of Viet Nam

Everybody was a suspect insurgent, didn't matter if you were a villager who had never left your isolated valley before in your life.

[Maat]

5. Exactly (n/t)!

[arcadian]

2. Somebody on DU stationed in Afghanistan was trying to get people to give coats and blankets.

To ship to Afghanistan. Looks like DU was an unwitting participant in this database program. Lure them in, scan them, database them.

[tuckessee]

6. No reason that can't be done during US domestic disaster relief as well. n/t

[Fire_Medic_Dave]

7. Why does it matter?

Is the government going to steal their identities and open a bunch of credit cards? Maybe that's the republican part of the stimulus package.

David