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Biometrics & DNA
News Links
- Human rights court rules UK DNA grab illegal - The European Court of Human Rights has ruled that it is illegal for the government to retain DNA profiles and fingerprints belonging to two men never convicted of any crime.The landmark decision could mean the more than 570,000 DNA profiles in the National DNA Database belonging to innocent individuals will have to be deleted. Police in England, Wales and Northern Ireland currently have powers to take DNA and fingerprints from everyone they arrest.The case was heard by the 17 judges of the Grand Chamber of the European Court of Human Rights in Strasbourg. They unanimously found that UK DNA and fingerprint retention policies infringe individuals' rights to privacy.
Source: The Register [5th Dec 2008]
- Home Secretary's Biometric Data Compromised - Jacqui Smith gave a speech today at midday on ID cards to an audience invited by the Social Market Foundation, at the end of the event the glass she was drinking from during the Q & A was whisked away* by a NO2ID sympathiser. This picture was taken Thursday lunchtime - the glass is now undergoing a technical process at an undisclosed location. This will not only identify Big Jacqui's fingerprints, it will allow them to create a plastic foil stamp that will enable anyone to leave her fingerprints behind.
Source: Guy Fawkes Blog [8th Nov 2008]
- UK Government defeat on DNA database - The government has been defeated in the House of Lords over the issue of keeping peoples' DNA and fingerprints on the police national database. Peers backed a Conservative amendment calling for national guidelines for deleting material by 161 votes to 150.
Source: BBC News [5th Nov 2008]
- FBI Prepares Vast Database Of Biometrics - The FBI is embarking on a $1 billion effort to build the world's largest computer database of peoples' physical characteristics, a project that would give the government unprecedented abilities to identify individuals in the United States and abroad.
Source: The Washington Post [24th Dec 2007]
- Omagh trial may prompt Scots to drop DNA evidence - Scottish prosecutors were last night considering a decision by police south of the Border to suspend the use of specialist DNA evidence in the wake of the Omagh bomb verdict. The Crown Prosecution Service for England and Wales has said it will not use the low copy number (LCN) DNA technique after suspect Sean Hoey was acquitted of the 1998 attack.
Source: The Scotsman [23rd Dec 2007]
- Police retain DNA of 'petty crime suspects' - Suspects accused of trivial "crimes" such as picking wild flowers or defacing coins can have their DNA stored for life on a national database, police guidelines reveal.
Source: The Telegraph [5th Nov 2007]
- 'No plan' for DNA samples for all - There are no plans to make it compulsory for everyone in the UK to be on the national DNA database, the government has said. The comment comes after a senior judge called for all UK residents and visitors to be required to provide a DNA sample to help police solve crimes.
Source: BBC News [6th Sep 2007]
- All UK 'must be on DNA database' - The whole population and every UK visitor should be added to the national DNA database, a senior judge has said. The present database in England and Wales holds details of 4m people who are guilty or cleared of a crime. Lord Justice Sedley said this was indefensible and biased against ethnic minorities, and it would be fairer to include everyone, guilty or innocent.
Source: BBC News [6th Sep 2007]
- Killers could be free because of DNA blunders - Scores of murderers and rapists could have escaped justice because of blunders by forensic scientists. In a development which piled pressure on John Reid, it emerged that crucial DNA evidence may have been repeatedly missed by experts investigating notorious crimes.
Source: Daily Mail (21st Feb 2007)
- How far should fingerprints be trusted? - A HIGH-profile court case in Massachusetts is once again casting doubt on the claimed infallibility of fingerprint evidence. If the case succeeds it could open the door to numerous legal challenges.
Source: New Scientist (19th Sep 2005)
- If biometrics isn't foolproof, what is the point of using it? - The government's ID card team this week made an important admission. They admitted that, much of the time, the new systems won't work. It de-fangs a common argument against the scheme - that it was conceived in an IT consultant's fantasy world, where citizens are obedient and technology always functions.
Source: The Guardian (15th Sep 2005)
- The Achilles' Heel of Fingerprints - Three highly skilled FBI fingerprint experts declared this year that Oregon lawyer Brandon Mayfield's fingerprint matched a partial print found on a bag in Madrid that contained explosive detonators. U.S. officials called it "absolutely incontrovertible" and a "bingo match." Mayfield was promptly taken into custody as a material witness. Last week the FBI admitted that it goofed.
Source: The Washington Post (29th May 2004)
- Zvetco Biometrics - Verifi products, fingerprint readers etc.
- ACS Ltd - Access Control, Biometrics, Video Entry, Turnstiles, Alarm & CCTV Systems
Local articles
Third-party links
- "Operation Raindance" Ethnically Targeted Viruses - This project was set into motion by the Department of the U.S. Army, an Air Force Special Research Unit, and Bio Medics from the U.S. Navy. It was officially born in/during the first quarter of 1989, and held one purpose in common; how to eradicate one special race of people. (Through manipulation of genes, any race of people could be the target group.)
The project was called LVNM Special Labs Division. It was located at an insane asylum in Las Vegas, New Mexico. (That's where the LVNM come form). It also bore the code signal SB-17
- US and Israel targeting DNA in Gaza? The DIME Bomb: Yet another genotoxic weapon - DIME is an LCD ("low collateral damage") weapon developed at the US Air Force Research Laboratory. Publicly, it is slated for initial deployment in 2008. DIME bombs produce an unusually powerful blast within a relatively small area, spraying a superheated "micro-shrapnel" of powdered Heavy Metal Tungsten Alloy (HMTA). Scientific studies have found that HMTA is chemically toxic, damages the immune system, rapidly causes cancer, and attacks DNA (genotoxic).
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