FBI Collecting and Storing BIOINT
WaPo –
The FBI is embarking on 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.
Digital images of faces, fingerprints and palm patterns are already flowing into FBI systems in a climate-controlled, secure basement here. Next month, the FBI intends to award a 10-year contract that would significantly expand the amount and kinds of biometric information it receives. And in the coming years, law enforcement authorities around the world will be able to rely on iris patterns, face-shape data, scars and perhaps even the unique ways people walk and talk, to solve crimes and identify criminals and terrorists. The FBI will also retain, upon request by employers, the fingerprints of employees who have undergone criminal background checks so the employers can be notified if employees have brushes with the law.
How China Gamed Our Contracting System
WaTimes –
China’s Ministry of State Security, the main civilian spy service, carried out the operations by setting up a Chinese translation service in Hawaii that represented itself as a U.S.-origin company.
The ruse led to classified contracts with the Navy and NSA to translate some of the hundreds of thousands of intercepted communications gathered by NSA’s network of listening posts, aircraft and ships.
Review: A Mighty Heart
Very well done intense film. Someone had a solid understanding of the dynamics at play in Pakistan and communicated it well. Additionally and surprisingly, the script was “open” in the sense it had a lot of references to the area’s security environment that go unexplored but avail themselves to those familiar with the region. (For example, HuJI is mentioned a quarter of the way through the film.) Adding it to the shelf next to Syriana.
Corporate Detainee Processing Microstate (Gitmo.)
While a dangerously stupid policy of rewards led many to turn in tribal enemies to the Americans as “terrorists,” the controversy masks a more important reality, what to do with those from country A, caught fighting in country B and detained by country C. Until this issue is discussed in earnest by Europe and the United States minus the protests, holier-than-thou attitudes and other silliness, Guantanamo will continue to fill a “market gap.” Perhaps the real way forward is maintaining US control but with foreign liasons on site and using Guantanmo as a processing center through which terrorists are sent back home to face trial.
Or let the “processing center” be the service provided by a private firm. Think about the potential of a corporate terrorist processing micro-state in the context of distributed small teams of bounty hunters paying for intel from private firms to hunt down and take out/down bad guys for a “keystoning” market-state that provides bounty-incentives.
Why Is Borders Such A Mess?
Found a couple gift cards for Borders, the tangible alternative to Barnes and Nobles and cloud-based big brother, Amazon. Decided to put them to good use. Grabbed the trusty Powerbook and tried to execute basic database commands on their lame site. No straightforward capabilities existed to find inventory or price or purchase online. I had to:
- Call the number on the back of the gift card to discern balance.
- Get online, where I had to first search for locations.
- Search for the book, at which point it gave me a simple “Yes” “No” or “On Order” without any price – which, clearly stated, fluctuates based on location.
- Search online to find the number for the nearest location
- Call them, wait for automated system.
- Talk to a service rep who then checked his computer for a simple Yes/No then walked to the shelf to double check and reserve, and only then could give me a price.
And now I’m expected to drive out and stand in line and drive back.Amazon is leaps and bounds ahead of the game, but you’d think that with over a decade to catch up you wouldn’t be lagging this far behind both of your near peer competitors. BN still loses on pricing but at least has a useful Web 1.0 website.
On a related note: One thing I’m waiting for is an Amazon Prime – free shipping for a year based on a single fee – type scheme for Half.com; if you could cut the shipping costs of the secondary user market, you could make a killing.