Folks, "carding" (cops stopping people on the street and asking for I.D.) is just the tip of the iceberg ......., and I will have a few more comments at the end of this article:
Claire Bernish
July 17, 2015
(ANTIMEDIA) Although
many thought the U.S. would see it first, mandatory DNA testing—for
every citizen, foreign resident, and visitor—is now the law in Kuwait.
Violations of this truly dystopic law carry the penalty of a year in prison or a fine of $33,000—but falsifying a DNA sample carries a seven year prison term.
If you think this won’t come to the U.S., you should carefully consider
how frighteningly close we already are—and the rather daunting future
implications.
The Kuwaiti government made the groundbreaking—albeit terrifying—decision to require mass DNA collection following the June 26 bombing
of a Shia mosque in Kuwait City that killed 25 and injured over 200.
That attack was part one of three the same day—all claimed by ISIL
(ISIS, IS)—that included a mass shooting at a tourist resort in Tunisia,
which left 28 dead and 36 injured, and an explosion at a gas factory
near Lyon, France. Passed in early July at a cost of $400 million, the
procedures for DNA testing and collection are not yet known, but the
project is expected to be complete no later than September 2016.
“We are in a state of war. Yes, we have busted this terror cell but there are other cells we are going to strike,” said Interior Minister Sheikh Mohammad Khaled al-Sabah in a speech before parliament prior to implementation of the law.
All 1.3 million citizens and 2.9 million foreign residents as well as
visitors will be required to give a DNA sample for the database under
the premise of facilitating expediency in criminal investigations. There
will be exceptions for those with, as the government termed it, “the proper excuse”—though there was no indication what would constitute such an excuse.
“We are prepared to do anything to boost security measures in the country,” vowed MP Jamal al-Omar—sounding reminiscent of President Bush’s push to pass the Patriot Act following 9/11.
Though Kuwait’s new law is raising eyebrows with privacy advocates
concerned about such governmental overreach, it should be noted that the
U.S. hasn’t been as restrained with DNA collection as it once was. In
fact, if you think widespread DNA collection couldn’t happen here, you
are already wrong—state and federal courts recently cracked the lid a
little wider on the Pandora’s Box of DNA profiling.
In 2013 in Maryland v. King,
the Supreme Court upheld the constitutionality of warrantless,
suspicionless DNA collection for all arrestees under Maryland
law—whether or not they are ever convicted of a crime. King had his DNA
collected and profiled following an arrest for assault. After the lab
forwarded his genetic profile to the FBI to upload into its DNA
database, called CODIS—standard procedure after a lab extracts the
profile—it was compared to genetic evidence collected in all unsolved
crimes. As King’s assault charge made its way through the courts, CODIS
identified a match in an unsolved rape. He was subsequently charged,
convicted, and sentenced to life—all stemming from an otherwise simple
arrest.
Considering there are 28 states—up from 15 in 2009—as well as the federal government, that collect DNA with every arrest, the King decision is “the
‘slippery slope toward ever-expanding warrantless DNA testing’ that
judges throughout the country have predicted is already upon us,” as the Electronic Frontier Foundation described in their brief for the King case.
It didn’t take long for repercussions of the King case—the EFF’s “slippery slope”—to manifest nationally in the worst possible way.
Ironically, the most disturbing indication that mandatory national
DNA collection is imminent also came from the same state that ostensibly
opened the door for it. In State v. Raynor, the Maryland Supreme Court amplified the King ruling exponentially by allowing for warrantless DNA collection when someone hasn’t even been arrested for a crime.
After voluntarily going to the police station to answer questions about
a rape case and refusing to submit to DNA testing on request, Glenn
Raynor’s DNA was taken without his consent from a tissue he left behind
on a chair. The fact that a court found this DNA extraction without
consent perfectly constitutional, is at least a cause for alarm.
Kuwait’s mandatory DNA collection is the veritable forgone conclusion
in the U.S., given the trend in court decisions and the vastly
expanding scope of collection already in place. In just six years, the FBI’s DNA database has more than doubled in size—from 6.7 million profiles in 2009 to nearly 13.8 million as of May 2015—due, in part, to warrantless, suspicionless testing for arrestees. Over 2 million profiles—and rapidly counting—have been added to that database stemming purely from arrests.
If you value privacy and aren’t a fan of Big Brother, these
technological developments are rather creepy—or, more accurately,
downright terrifying—when you consider the context of the aforementioned
court decisions.
Law enforcement is pushing
heavily toward Rapid DNA Analyzers—which can complete a profile in 90
minutes or less—that can be used by a layperson in the field since they
are comparable in size to a laser printer. One manufacturer, IntegenX, boasts that “Rapid DNA promises to revolutionize the use of DNA by making it a routine identification and investigational tool.” In case you skimmed that description—yes, they did say identification.
Granted, this is in a law enforcement scenario—for now. But given
what the FBI announced during a biometrics conference in 2014, there are
rather disturbing possible future implications. In order to link its Next Generation Identification (NGI)
biometrics database with the CODIS DNA profiles, the FBI is looking to
simplify—by assigning a universal identification number.
Oh, the possibilities.
Given the context of DNA collection for people who haven’t even been
arrested judged constitutional by a high court, the increasing
prevalence of Rapid DNA tech, and the assigning of a number to link
between the DNA and NGI databases—what could possibly go wrong?
Is the thought that we could be identified in the not-so-distant future
with chilling accuracy in less than an hour and a half by a number
really all that bad?
Perhaps each aspect mentioned above might not seem terribly important
on its own, but taken as a whole they are incredibly serious concerns.
Are the jokes about Americans being forcibly tattooed with ID numbers
really that far-fetched?
Do you trust your government?
(Can travel papers" be far behind? -Ed.)
This article (Is A Mandatory DNA Database for All Americans Coming Soon?) is free and open source. You have permission to republish this article under a Creative Commons license with attribution to Claire Bernish and theAntiMedia.org. Anti-Media Radio airs weeknights at 11pm Eastern/8pm Pacific. If you spot a typo, email edits@theantimedia.org.
Claire Bernish joined Anti-Media as an independent journalist in
May of 2015. Her topics of interest include social justice, police
brutality, exposing the truth behind propaganda, and general government
accountability. Born in North Carolina, she now lives in Ohio. Learn
more about Bernish here!
No comments:
Post a Comment