Big Brother in Afghanistan

Dear Mr. President,

Big Brother is here! In this morning’s paper is a small article about a suicide bomber killing 21 people including 3 American soldiers at a checkpoint in Khost. The article mentions that the soldiers were conducting “biometric surveys” on local residents. It quoted Afghan officials saying these surveys occur weekly as part of a program by the American military to collect fingerprints, iris scans and photographs of Afghans to help identify insurgents. Curious, I found articles about this program in The New York Times (19 November 2011) and The Guardian (27 October 2010). As of November 2011, the U.S. military had biometric data on more than 2 million Afghans and the Afghan government, with U.S. funding, is collecting biometric data on every Afghan in order to issue national identity cards that will help identify suspected terrorists, criminals and people under investigation. Everyone entering or leaving Afghanistan through a border crossing or airport is scanned. Turns out, we don’t do iris scans but we do fingerprint all foreign arrivals in the U.S. We don’t fingerprint American citizens—at least, not yet—but the trend is a little scary, Mr. President, what with all the security and surveillance apparatus we have and everything shrouded in national security and secrecy, and the steady erosion of privacy and rights and freedom. Today this biometric data program, last month your secret Kill Lists and Targeted Assassinations, and last year the NDAA giving you the right to have the military pick up and incarcerate indefinitely anyone you say is a terrorist … well, you get my drift. I wonder how many people know about biometric data collection or worry that you might suddenly decide to implement the same program here because of some national security threat. We should all worry. You could do it with one of your secret justifications like your order to assassinate American citizens without a trial—transparency’s not exactly your strongest point. Oh, by the way, that 2011 New York Times article also mentioned that one of their reporters—of Norwegian descent—volunteered to be test screened. The screening resulted in a “hit” identifying him as a terrorist on a watch list with the note, “Deny Access. Do Not Hire. Subject Poses A Threat.” The terrorist’s photograph was of a heavily bearded Afghan. Is this the kind of information you use to determine who lives and who dies this week? About as reassuring as one of your false promises, Mr. President.