Hi-tech anti-terrorism... [CNN]

[Jim Choate <ravage@ssz.com>]

Forwarded message:

>                    GADGET WARFARE: HIGH-TECH ANTI-TERRORISM
>                                        
>      January 6, 1998
>      Web posted at: 9:34 p.m. EST (0234 GMT)
>      
>      From Netly News Writer Declan McCullagh
>      
>      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.
>      
>   Micro-robots
>   
>      A spy camera scuttling through the underbrush? Yes, disguised as "an
>      insect, a small pebble, or a stick." The report calls for the
>      development of "micro-robots" that walk or fly and can beam video,
>      audio and infrared signals back to their operators: "These sensors

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>   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.

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>   Bio-sniffers
>   
>      Go lie down, Fido. Soon drug-sniffing dogs may be replaced by even
>      more sensitive, digital noses. If suspects have been handling nukes,
>      biological weapons or high explosives, the military hopes to be able
>      to sniff substance traces from items like passports. "As future

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>      technology is improved, antigens might then be detected at national
>      entry portals as trace contamination on emigration documents or
>      passports, by urine analysis or by other means." Look for companies
>      to use this as a more sensitive (if not more reliable) type of drug
>      testing.
>      
>   The Internet
>   
>       The Net shouldn't be viewed as "a vulnerability." That view "loses
>      sight of many potential benefits," the Pentagon explains. To the
>      spooks, the Net "is an underexploited information-acquisition
>      resource" that "allows for remote and anonymous participation in
>      online 'chat' forums that might provide insight into dissident group
>      activities." (Look out, alt.fan.militia!) The military also wants to
>      create a "secure, transnational threat information infrastructure"
>      -- at a cost of a mere $300 million.
>      
>   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

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>   Smart software
>   
>      Once you've got the databases, how do you use 'em? The military says
>      the answer is "groupware" and "intelligent software agents" that
>      "can be focused to search for a confluence of events in multiple
>      databases or for goals over time." Consumer marketers will finally
>      be able to determine the commonalities between the Hajj, Promise
>      Keeper gatherings and Burning Man.
>      
>      So would military budgets. In a world where even the Pentagon admits
>      that the U.S. is the only remaining superpower, the defense
>      community argues that terrorism threats justify their budgets.
>      "Nothing will be more challenging to the protection of our citizens,
>      soldiers and our way of life than the threats of weapons of mass
>      destruction and terrorism," General John Shalikashvili, chairman of

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