DHS May Turn to Body Scanners That Store Biometrics

DHS May Turn to Body Scanners That Store Biometrics

November 12, 2010

Infowars.com - TSA and Homeland Security authorities may be preparing a body scanner bait and switch, by proposing new devices that advocates claim do not see under clothing and do not emit dangerous radiation, yet do store a biometric record of the person using them which would grease the skids for authorities to track individuals in real time.

A video demonstration of the new body scanner proposes that it be used not just in airports, but also banks and retail establishments, apartment blocks and other transport hubs. How long before we’re forced to submit to a body scan to go shopping, cash a check, catch a bus, or simply to enter our own home? This will be the first step towards a truly frightening Minority Report-style electronic prison.

As we reported earlier today (see story below), following a nationwide revolt against naked body scanners and new invasive TSA groping procedures, DHS chief Janet Napolitano and TSA Administrator John Pistole have been forced to meet today with executives from major travel associations who are spearheading the resistance.

Part of the negotiations could revolve around the TSA adopting a new variant of body scanner that is equipped with optional biometric technologies and identity verification techniques, according to Iscon, the company behind the new 1000D whole body scanner. Its makers claim that the device doesn’t fire harmful radiation at the user and that the machine does not display details of naked bodies. However, since both these claims were also made by the TSA and later proven to be completely fraudulent, they should be taken with a hefty pinch of salt.

The new device uses thermo-conductive infrared technology that completes a 360°scan of the human body in 30 seconds, capturing every facet of biometric data. Although the video demonstration claims that the device “does not create any privacy issues,” the fact that the government will have the blanket power to use technology designed to catch criminals on the general public is an obvious violation of privacy.

Even if the immediate health and privacy risks of current airport body scanners are neutralized, allowing the federal government to keep an indefinite record of the biometric identify of your entire body if anything presents a greater threat to liberty than the current body scanner set up. As the scandal surrounding the U.S. Marshals Service, who were forced to admit that they were saving naked body scanner images earlier this year, goes to show, information is being illegally stored despite the assurances of authorities.

Introducing biometric scanners will only entrench the notion of Americans being guilty until proven innocent. Indeed, Iscon brags that it has already introduced such devices into U.S. prisons. Furthermore, allied with cutting edge satellite and other surveillance technology, once the government has the biometric blueprint for your whole body it greases the skids for the ultimate Orwellian nightmare, real time tracking of an individual person around the clock.

The fact that such scanners are eventually intended to be used to control access to shopping malls, banks, transport hubs and even apartment blocks, as the makers admit, paves the way for a gargantuan Minority Report-style total surveillance grid.

At the very least this will create a whole new treasure trove of detailed personal information which is completely open to abuse. Unlike mere facial recognition, which can be combated through altering one’s appearance or wearing a disguise, a full body biometric blueprint will allow the authorities to identify you in any situation. You might as well have a microchip implanted in your forehead.

The Iscon system represents a one-stop biometric data collection technology that may soon be used in airports, courthouses, and eventually at the local mall and sports arena, depending on the severity of the next terror scare.

The government has a keen interest in collecting and compiling biometric data on citizens. The FBI announced a $1 billion effort to build the world’s largest computer database of peoples’ physical characteristics, a project that would give the government unprecedented abilities to identify individuals in the United States and abroad, the Washington Post reported in December of 2007.

The Department of Homeland Security has collected biometrics for years, including the use of iris scans at certain airports under the guise of identity verification of travelers who have passed background checks and want to move through lines quickly.

“The department is also looking to apply iris- and face-recognition techniques to other programs,” the Post added.

Napolitano and Pistole may be preparing to present biometric body scanners as the “solution” to the nationwide outrage over TSA groping and naked body scanners, but such a system will only arm Big Sis with yet more power and more information with which to catalog, track and trace American citizens.

Chertoff Group's New Body Scanners to Store Biometrics

November 11, 2010

Infowars.com - Drudge, Infowars, and Prison Planet have forced the corporate media to cover the naked body scanner issue, much to the consternation of the government and contractors such as the Chertoff Group.

More and more people now realize naked body scanners are not about protection from terrorists, as the government claims, but is in fact a technology designed for control and data collection. If the government is going to be successful implementing its control grid, it will have to introduce technology that can be touted as physically non-threatening. The largest independent union of airline pilots in the world earlier this week urged its members to boycott body imaging machines, citing dangers of excessive exposure to harmful levels of radiation during the screening process.

A Massachusetts company, Iscon Video Imaging, has stepped into the fray and is offering body scanning technology minus harmful radiation.

“The Iscon 1000D is the only whole body imaging portal that can be integrated with state of the art technologies to detect virtually any object, without radiation or privacy issues and confirm that the person is indeed who they claim to be,” a press release issued on October 29 states.

The “enhanced” version of Iscon’s 1000D whole body scanner is equipped with optional biometric technologies and identity verification techniques, according to the company. The machine “uses thermo-conductive infrared technology that completes a 360°scan in 30 seconds, reveals a multitude of objects, but doesn’t penetrate clothing, so there’s no privacy or radiation issues,” explains Iscon.

“Facilities are facing significant privacy and health issues using scanners that expose a persons body parts that can be stored and shared digitally,” Iscon founder and president Izrail Gorian explains in the press release. “Using existing databases available today, or using a proprietary system of employees or inmates, security will ultimately be enhanced for everyone and at the same time ease verification for those who are not suspect.”

Iscon says the new system utilizes facial recognition, fingerprint, and iris recognition technology. It is capable of comparing a person’s facial attributes to existing databases and cross matching with other systems, can access large law enforcement databases, and is also capable of scanning a person’s iris and cross-matching the collected information with databases.

Earlier this year, Iscon introduced the line of sophisticated thermo-conductive scanners for use in U.S. prisons.

“In addition to being highly effective for prisoner and courtroom scanning, the system doesn’t emit any radiation and doesn’t penetrate clothing so there are no privacy issues. The Iscon system can also be used in commercial security areas, airports and other security sensitive areas,” Gorian explained in a Marketwire press release posted on the CorrectionsOne.com website.

The company also offers a portable device.

Iscon is offering a technology that addresses many of the government’s biometric collection needs and is peddling it as an alternative to the demonstrably dangerous backscatter radiation system now going in airports, an effort successful in large part due to the effort of Michael Chertoff, the former Department of Homeland Security boss. Rapiscan, the company that manufactures the machines, is a Chertoff Group client.

Gorian and Iscon claim the new technology is non-invasive and protects privacy. In 2008, Rapiscan made a similar claim when it said its Rapiscan Secure 1000 technology protects the “privacy of the person being screened while enabling effective detection of threat items.”

In August of this year it was revealed that law enforcement in fact saves images produced by the machines.

“Now it turns out that some police agencies are storing the controversial images after all. The U.S. Marshals Service admitted this week that it had surreptitiously saved tens of thousands of images recorded with a millimeter wave system at the security checkpoint of a single Florida courthouse,” Declan McCullagh wrote for CNet News at the time.

The Iscon system represents a one-stop biometric data collection technology that may soon be used in airports — and courthouses (as noted above) — and eventually at the local mall and sports arena, depending on the severity of the next false flag terror attack.

The government has a keen interest in collecting and compiling biometric data on citizens. The FBI announced a $1 billion effort to build the world’s largest computer database of peoples’ physical characteristics, a project that would give the government unprecedented abilities to identify individuals in the United States and abroad, the Washington Post reported in December of 2007.

The Department of Homeland Security has collected biometrics for years, including the use of iris scans at certain airports under the guise of identity verification of travelers who have passed background checks and want to move through lines quickly.

“The department is also looking to apply iris- and face-recognition techniques to other programs,” the Post added.

Alex Jones has warned about this ongoing effort since the late 1990s (see the video below). The global elite are determined to eventually track and trace every human on the planet. It cannot possibly hope to accomplish this ambitious task unless humanity willingly accepts the act of docilely surrendering personal information — from iris scans to images of their naked children — under the guise of a contrived war against false flag terrorism engineered by the government.