1984: Thread

[grarpamp]

America's Famous and "Secure" Full Biometric Databases Are Now Being
Used To Murder Innocent Civilians

You Allowed The Mark Of The Beast To Be Put On You, Thus
You Will Be The Next Victim Of Your Own Satanic Digital Creations!



Taliban Captures US Military Biometric Devices
Stranded Afghans Delete Social Media As Taliban Seizes US Surveillance Equipment

https://theintercept.com/2021/08/17/afghanistan-taliban-military-biometrics/
https://www.humanrightsfirst.org/resource/evading-misuse-biometric-data
https://www.theepochtimes.com/stranded-afghans-delete-social-media-as-taliban-seizes-us-surveillance-equipment_3958444.html
https://www.amazon.com/First-Platoon-Modern-Identity-Dominance-ebook/dp/B08JKPCQLD/
https://www.theepochtimes.com/chinas-ploy-to-establish-a-global-dna-database_2814795.html
https://www.unicc.org/news/2020/11/13/un-digital-id-a-building-block-for-un-digital-cooperation/
https://www.thekitchensync.tech/p/friday-brief-for-20-august-2021
https://tolonews.com/afghanistan/taliban-used-biometric-system-during-kunduz-kidnapping
https://reclaimthenet.org/afghans-race-to-delete-their-digital-footprint-as-taliban-takes-over/
https://www.humanrightsfirst.org/resource/steps-protect-your-online-identity-taliban-digital-history-and-evading-biometrics-abuses

The Taliban's latest offensives have been nothing short of impressive,
acquiring 600,000 weapons, 75,000 vehicles, and 200 aircraft,
transforming the terrorist group into a rogue military power
overnight. One military device Taliban forces have sized is the U.S.
military's biometrics database that has sounded alarm bells with U.S.
officials.

Called the Handheld Interagency Identity Detection Equipment (HIIDE),
it was seized last week during the Taliban's offensive, according to
The Intercept, who spoke with current and former military officials.
The sensitive data, now in Taliban hands, contains a biological
database on the Afghan population. Some sensitive data include
thousands of Afghan civilians who worked alongside U.S. Army Special
Forces as interpreters.

We noted Sunday that stranded Afghans, some of whom worked for the
U.S. military, are quickly deleting their social media profiles and
covering up their internet presence to protect their privacy from the
Taliban.

Taliban forces have been on a crusade to hunt and kill Afghans who
worked with the U.S. military. Ever since the U.S. invaded Afghanistan
two decades ago, thousands of Afghan interpreters have been hired.
Since 2014, at least 300 of them and or family members have been
killed. With the Taliban governing the country - many are fleeing for
their lives, pleading with the U.S. military to rescue them.

The acquisition of HIIDE could make the Taliban's hunt for Afghan
interpreters even easier since their biometric data such as iris scans
and fingerprints are in the system.

An Army Special Operations veteran, told The Intercept that Taliban
computer gurus need additional computer processing to analyze HIIDE
data but said Pakistan would gladly assist with this effort. "The
Taliban doesn't have the gear to use the data but the ISI do," the
former Special Operations official said, referring to Pakistan's spy
agency, Inter-Services Intelligence.

Welton Chang, chief technology officer for Human Rights First, a
former Army intelligence officer, said, "I don't think anyone ever
thought about data privacy or what to do in the event the [HIIDE]
system fell into the wrong hands."

"Moving forward, the U.S. military and diplomatic apparatus should
think carefully about whether to deploy these systems again in
situations as tenuous as Afghanistan," Chang said.

The security risks posed by the abandoned biometrics database are just
one of the numerous consequences of a sloppy U.S. withdrawal by the
Biden administration. A proper withdraw would've been to wipe the
databases clean and destroy all devices.





Stranded Afghans Delete Social Media As Taliban Seizes US Surveillance Equipment

Concerned that they could be targeted by Taliban online surveillance
operations, U.S. Afghan allies are reportedly scrambling to delete
their social media profiles in droves. Meanwhile, privacy advocates
are raising the concern that the U.S. data program possibly inherited
by the Taliban could lead to blowback threatening civil liberties in
America.

The New York-based group Human Rights First announced on Aug. 16 that
Taliban fighters captured U.S. surveillance tools. These devices,
known as Handheld Interagency Identity Detection Equipment (HIIDE),
were used by soldiers to scan the biometrics of Afghans to match
fingerprints on improvised explosive devices (IEDs), and for other
such forensic investigations.

    “We understand that the Taliban is now likely to have access to
various biometric databases and equipment in Afghanistan, including
some left behind by coalition military forces,” the human rights group
said.

    “This technology is likely to include access to a database with
fingerprints and iris scans, and include facial recognition
technology.”

The Human Rights First advisory included multilingual guides for
Afghan allies on protecting their digital identities.

The warning corresponds with numerous reports of Afghans deleting
their social media profiles in an attempt to protect their privacy
from the Taliban. USAID reportedly circulated emails to its partners
in Afghanistan to “remove photos and information that could make
individuals or groups vulnerable.”

Former U.S. Army prosecutor John Maher told The Epoch Times that this
specific warning about the Taliban taking HIIDE equipment is probably
overblown.

Maher, who worked with the Afghan biometrics program during his time
as program manager of the Justice Center in Parwan, said that HIIDE
devices are password-protected. And after a soldier uses the device
and uploads the data at the central database, protocol says to wipe
the device clean, said Maher.

    “Even if [Taliban] can get into that device, they’ll get an
unclassified list of their own people,” added Maher, who has also used
Afghan biometric evidence in the successful—though
controversial—campaign to have Donald Trump pardon a soldier convicted
of killing civilians.

On the wider issue of Taliban conducting surveillance operations to
locate their enemies, Maher said he thinks they would have to be aided
by more sophisticated governments such as China or Iran.

    “I’m skeptical that Taliban are that sophisticated,” said Maher,
who also told The Epoch Times that he’s been helping Afghan allies
leave the country via his U.S.-Afghan firm Misbah Maher Consultancy.

While the HIIDE devices may not pose a risk to Afghans, Taliban
fighters have previously used biometric systems to target their
enemies. In 2016, for instance, they reportedly used a government
database to check whether bus passengers were security force members,
according to a 2016 TOLOnews report.

American Enterprise Institute senior fellow Klon Kitchen said the
security risks posed by the abandoned U.S. surveillance equipment is
just one of the many consequences of a sloppy U.S. withdrawal.

A proper withdrawal would have entailed deleting all digital files in
U.S. facilities and servers in Afghanistan, destroying all computers
and other physical equipment, and working with tech companies and
social media platforms to protect Afghan identities, Klon said in his
weekly newsletter.

Meanwhile, the biometric information collected on tens of millions of
Afghans remains on U.S. government databases, to potentially be used
by the FBI, DHS, and other agencies for investigations, according to
Maher. “It’s interagency data now,” he said.

The DoD did not answer numerous Epoch Times inquiries about the status
and security of the Afghan data, including whether any centralized
databases remain in Afghanistan.
Societal Implications

More broadly, the DoD’s biometrics program has sparked discussion
about the role such technology should play in society.

    “It’s nothing more complicated than fingerprint data, which is
over 100 years old,” Maher said of the concerns about government
biometrics collection.

Proponents point to the crime-fighting benefits. Along with the
countless cases solved by fingerprint collection, forensic experts
have made breakthroughs on DNA analysis—helping law enforcers solve
mysteries such as the “Golden State Killer” case.

Proponents also say that collecting biometric data on citizens allows
governments to establish digital identities—allowing people to more
easily travel, open bank accounts, receive medical care, and access
other social services.

    “Imagine a world where onboarding does not take five days but only
four hours. Where to prove you are eligible to receive your UN pension
it only takes two minutes from the smartphone in the palm of your
hand, compared to two months using the old regular post,” says a
United Nations website touting the UN Digital ID. “The UN Digital ID
is the same underlying engine that will power all these and many other
use cases.”

However, civil liberties and privacy advocates have raised concerns
about governments using biometrics for repression.

In her book on the DoD’s biometrics project, “First Platoon,” author
Annie Jacobsen compared the Afghan program to the Chinese Communist
Party’s “Physicals for All” program foisted on the Uyghur Muslims
there.

    “In addition to the DNA samples, the Physicals for All program
netted biometrics on 36 million Uyghur Chinese—including iris scans,
facial images, voice prints, and more,” Jacobsen wrote.

    “Human rights groups are right to call this out, but they have yet
to acknowledge that this Physicals for All program is modelled
directly after the Pentagon program in Afghanistan.”

Jacobsen further argued that the Afghan program could come home to the
United States in the form of contact tracing and vaccine passport
technology. She pointed out that the same company that built software
for the Afghan program, Palantir, is now working with the U.S. Health
and Human Services Department (HHS) “to bring disparate data sets
together and provide better visibility to HHS on the spread of COVID.”

    “The argument that what is happening in China—that is, the
mandatory data-banking of a whole population’s biodata, including
DNA—could never happen in America is an optimistic one,” she wrote.

    “The pandemic of 2020 has resulted in enthusiasm for
government-led contact-tracing programs in the U.S., opening the door
for military-grade programs to data-bank biodata of Americans.

“Because disease lies at the center of this new threat, the reality
that citizens’ DNA cell samples are of interest to the government is
no longer science fiction.”

Antiwar activist Scott Horton agreed with Jacobsen’s thesis, arguing
that domestic blowback is the predictable consequence of overseas
wars.

    “Just look at the Patriot Act: That was supposed to protect us
from terrorists, and yet they use it all the time on everybody,” he
said.

This time, it’s conservatives who could be victims of the blowback as
U.S. federal agencies ramp up their domestic surveillance activities,
said Horton, the editorial director of antiwar.com and author of
“Fool’s Errand: Time to End the War in Afghanistan.”

“You know, the people who supported the war are now taking the brunt,”
Horton told The Epoch Times.

“It’s the war on terror come home. That’s what always happens.”