Iraq’s Biometric Database Could Become “Hit List”: Army

August 27 2007 by The Systemic Analyst.

Humans have developed such wonderful technology. Now, if we could just develop humans a little more perhaps the technology would be safe to use…

Wired has published an interesting interview with Lieutenant Colonel John Velliquette, the biometrics manager in Iraq for the “Coalition Police Assistance Training Team.” The interview covers a growing biometric system in Iraq that has been compared with the Rwandan identification card system left behind by the Belgians. The now infamous Rwandan system was used by the Hutus to easily determine Tutsis for extermination during the genocide in 1994. The concern with the Iraqi system stems from the degree to which personal names might denote religious or tribal affiliations and how such information might be used in an already unstable region teetering on the brink of (if not already in) civil war should the system fall into the “wrong hands”.

This seems to be a perfect case of how a tool may help one group of people in the short-term and, as a result, is implemented with little thought (or perhaps care) as to what the long-term implications might be.

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