Here's the new meaning of "tag and release."
U.S. interrogators in Iraq are building a digital catalog of prisoners of war and loyalists of Saddam Hussein's Baath Party, scanning and saving their fingerprints and other body characteristics in databases. The data banks, controlled by the FBI, CIA, Department of Homeland Security and other federal agencies, are being used to investigate suspicious foreigners entering the United States, as well as to trace suspects in future terrorist attacks. The move also reflects the U.S. government's desire to keep tabs on Iraqi fighters after releasing them when the Iraq war is declared ended.
"We do this passive collection when we go in, because these guys will scatter over time," said Thomas Barnett, a professor at the Naval War College who advises the Office of the Secretary of Defense. "When you have the opportunity to tag them, you tag them before you release them to the wild."
U.S. military and intelligence officials started building the biometric dossiers in Afghanistan, taking digital scans of the fingerprints, irises and voices of Taliban and al-Qaida prisoners, including those jailed at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba.
Posted by Alan at May 11, 2003 12:35 AM