********* http://cgi.pathfinder.com/netly/opinion/0,1042,1669,00.html The Netly News (http://netlynews.com/) January 6, 1998 Gadget Warfare by Declan McCullagh (declan@well.com) For a country with no real military rivals, the U.S. still manages to find an amazing number of enemies. Terrorists top the list of anti-American villains, according to a Pentagon report released last month. The 100-page document, called "Responses to Transnational Threats," describes how the military should respond to the threat of saboteurs and bombers aiming for violence, not victory. The solution, according to the Pentagon, is to develop a set of gadgets that would make even James Bond jealous: * STICKY ELECTRONICS Think SpiderMan's spidertracers, only smaller. "Sticky electronics" adhere to a suspected terrorist's clothing, hair, luggage or vehicle and report his location. These almost microscopic gizmos tune in to satellite signals and transmit their exact latitude and longitude. "To conserve battery (and mission life) they would respond only when" activated by a radio signal, the Pentagon says. And if you're the suspicious type, sprinkle some in your spouse's underwear. * DATA MINING If you worried about the FBI's jones for access to your data, wait 'til you find out what the military hopes to do. The Pentagon wants authority to sift through private-sector databases in hopes of tracking down, say, the World Trade Center bombers before they strike. The plan is to incorporate "real-time data on international border crossings, real-time cargo manifests, global financial transactions and the global network carrying international airline ticket manifests." As new private-sector databases are developed, "the baseline system would be augmented so that the correlation and fusion process becomes more automated." But the benefits of invading everyone's privacy are dubious: It's hard to imagine the alleged Unabomber, for instance, showing up in computer files. [...]