Terrorist 'pre-crime' detector field tested in United States

[n2doc]

Screening system aims to pinpoint passengers with malicious intentions.

Sharon Weinberger
Planning a sojourn in the northeastern United States? You could soon be taking part in a novel security programme that can supposedly 'sense' whether you are planning to commit a crime.

Future Attribute Screening Technology (FAST), a US Department of Homeland Security (DHS) programme designed to spot people who are intending to commit a terrorist act, has in the past few months completed its first round of field tests at an undisclosed location in the northeast, Nature has learned.

Like a lie detector, FAST measures a variety of physiological indicators, ranging from heart rate to the steadiness of a person's gaze, to judge a subject's state of mind. But there are major differences from the polygraph. FAST relies on non-contact sensors, so it can measure indicators as someone walks through a corridor at an airport, and it does not depend on active questioning of the subject.

The tactic has drawn comparisons with the science-fiction concept of 'pre-crime', popularized by the film Minority Report, in which security services can detect someone's intention to commit a crime. Unlike the system in the film, FAST does not rely on a trio of human mutants who can see the future. But the programme has attracted copious criticism from researchers who question the science behind it .

more
http://www.nature.com/news/2011/110527/full/news.2011.323.html

The thought police are here. Can we call it fascism yet?

[Scuba]

1. Just the idea of it increases my heart rate and gives me the 1,000 yard stare...

...but I'm not going to commit a crime.

[MrScorpio]

2. The best comment on this subject:

"The antithesis of U.S. law is the presumption of guilt. Guilt, then, necessarily hinges upon the actual commission or provable conspiracy to commit a criminal act. Even if an individual contemplates a crime but does nothing to carry it out that person is innocent under the law. Who hasn't considered doing something unwise or illegal but changed their mind after having thought it through? Should they be arrested or surveilled based upon the objective speculation of a machine? What psychological conditions produce the physical responses detectable by such a machine? Perhaps anger at a spouse, anxiety of travel to an important, time sensitive event, a wedding, a funeral or injury of a loved one might do it.

This is why lie detector (polygraph) tests are inadmissible as evidence in court. We already treat allegedly innocent people as criminal suspects every time we illegally search travelers at airports on the assumption that treating everyone as a potential terrorist is somehow preferable to proper police work. This mindset probably stems from the failure of said police work to prevent 9/11 and the resulting embarrassment of the various agencies involved. So, rather than correcting their mistakes, they simply oppress everyone.

There is, of course, the underlying agenda of complete social control by those in power. That, ultimately is what we all must resist. This Orwellian approach must be stopped."

2011-05-30 10:52:10 AM Posted by: David Yates

[Poll_Blind]

3. +1 Excellent repost of an excellent comment

:thumbsup:

PB

[dipsydoodle]

4. Ditto

Some sense in the midst of madness.

[saras]

6. +1000 for David Yates post...

And frankly, given the utterly irrational nature of many of our laws, and the fact that often whole teams of high-priced attorneys can't figure out whether something is legal or not, I have my doubts that "potential terrorist" has much at all to do with what the machine is detecting.

[Countdown_3_2_1]

5. I'm skepical. Isn't this a ruse to justify TSA abuses?

If this were real, every Repuke would set off the alarms.

I think think will be used by TSA to justify humiliating Grannies and searching babies.

[sakabatou]

7. Yeah, we all know how precrime works

Just look at Minority Report.

[indepat]

8. Pure-de-fascism on its face can surely be called for what it is: pure-de-fascism

:patriot:

[Arctic Dave]

9. This is nothing more then a scam.

All this will do is allow the person using the machine cover for violating your legal rights.

It wasn't me, it was the machine. I was only doing what it told me.

[PufPuf23]

10. Fascism in the USA is obvious to many DU Dudes (regardless of sexuality)

Philip K Dick may well have been mentally ill and certainly did not enjoy the material success of his paranoid thoughts.

When a DU Dude uses a word salad link in defence that there are not "fascist' happenings in the USA that specifically identifies current Third Way politics as fascist, one can at best believe the poster does not read his own debunking links.

Why should any of us at DU support the status quo or incrementalism away from something better for the common citizen?

The USA is in the worst shape morally and economically of my nearly 60 years.

Our military and militarized police are out of control, and similar to religious and political "authorities", those thriving are the most ammoral and willing to be "toads" to support the public face of the unseen powers.

The rot is in country is deep and local. This is the biggest threat.

[leveymg]

11. if you send emails or post online or fly you have been profiled. it's worse than this.

[athenasatanjesus]

12. I'd be arrested if I ever had to fly with my step mom.

And she is a flight attendant too.

[Name removed]

13. Deleted message

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