Digital trawl aims for security and freedom

ND Batra, The Statesman, Asia News Network, Calcutta

Eventually India and other nations too might feel persuaded to use the security measures that the U.S. has taken up recently: Digital fingerprinting and photographing of approximately 24 million foreigners entering and leaving the country from its 115 international airports and 14 major seaports.

The surveillance program, U.S. Visitor and Immigration Status Indicator Technology (VISIT), is based on the assumption that either a potential international terrorist is already known and has been included in the terrorist watchlist and national criminal database that the Homeland Security Department maintains or he could be digitally traced as he moves around the country. Without such a database, it hardly makes any sense for Home Security secretary to assert that the system would "make sure our borders are open to visitors but closed to terrorists."

The inconvenience to visitors going through the VISIT screening process isn't that terrible; it's not like what it might be in the case of someone being subjected to electronic strip search with a "naked camera" using low-level X-ray beams to reveal a person's anatomy, including warts and hair along with metal, plastic or ceramic objects hidden underneath the clothes.

Nor is the procedure that time consuming. As technology improves, electronic identification would become almost unobtrusive. Digital fingerprints and photographs will go into law enforcement databases to ensure that the visitor is really the person he claims to be.

Eventually, land borders between the U.S. and Canada and the U.S. and Mexico too would be turned into smart borders, digitally alive. The global village was not supposed to be like that but let Osama bin Laden chuckle in his cave hideouts.

The question is whether the system would do what it's supposed to do, that's, to apprehend potential terrorists without giving the authorities a false sense of security. For example, if the surveillance system ends up apprehending only small time crooks, drug offenders and Visa violators, some other method less offensive to individual privacy could be used instead of subjecting millions of people to psychological discomfort of being suspects.

On the other hand, the fear of being caught in the digital net might keep terrorists altogether away from using airplanes as weapons of mass terror.

Last week when the program was put in place, most international passengers visiting the U.S. took it as a minor nuisance but some advocacy groups such as American Civil Liberty Union took umbrage at the privacy invasive program. A Brazilian judge blew his top and in a spirit of an eye for an eye, ordered that all U.S. visitors to Brazil be subjected to similar security checks.

The judge, Julier Sebastiao de Silva, said, "I consider the act absolutely brutal, threatening human rights, violating human dignity, xenophobic and worthy of the worst horrors committed by the Nazis." Since it exempts some citizens of 27 countries -- mostly Europeans from countries like Australia, Canada, Japan, New Zealand and Singapore -- on tourist Visas for less than 90 days, the new regulations might seem racist; but let's not forget that those who used airplanes as missiles came from one region and one culture.

Last year, France passed a law that requires foreigners applying for Visa to be fingerprinted and photographed at the French Consulates. That should be the universal rule. It's some hassle but many of us would gladly pay the price and fly with peace of mind to reach our destination safely.

Airport security measures aren't limited to electronic surveillance. During Christmas holidays, several flights headed for the U.S. were delayed or canceled based upon the intelligence received about how imminent were terrorism threats. It's better to be careful than be sorry. Israel, Switzerland, France, Britain and Germany use armed air marshals on some or all flights, as does the U.S. now. Armed air marshals should be on all flights, domestic or international, in every country.

We need a tough approach to fight terrorism. Passports must be encoded with digital fingerprints so that the identity of a person could be quickly established. The U.S. has plans for a comprehensive computer-screening program that will check a passenger's identity and color code him based on the threat he poses to the aircraft, reported The Washington Post.

Is this electronic trawling approach necessary to make air flights safe? Yes, along with improving other sources of intelligence. The number of terrorists may be small, but their reach is wide and consequences horrifying.

Associated Press reported that an Indian visitor landing at Boston Logan airport, while brushing aside the minor inconvenience of being digitally fingerprinted and photographed, wondered, "Is it going to stop here?" The answer is NO. Eventually, U.S. Consulates, Custom and Border Protection offices, Immigration Services and state and local law enforcement agencies will have access to the information.

It's at the local and state level that one doesn't know how the information would be used. And there lurks the possibility of abuse and tyranny. Checks and balances are necessary to maintain the dynamic tension between security and freedom.

The writer is Professor of Communication, Norwich University, Vermont.