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Friday, April 02, 2004 |
 Reuters. Visiters from visa-waiver countries (UK, Germany, etc.) will all be photographed and fingerprinted when they enter the US. Part of what is driving this may have been the arrest of a terrorist cell in the UK last week. Many of the arrested men were UK passport holders. There is clearly foot dragging by visa-waiver countries on the new US requirement for vistors to have passports with biometric data (something the US doesn't have) for unimpeded entry.
When I was in the UK last week, I kept getting the sense that we are at the end of the golden age of unfettered travel. As things continue to get more difficult, borders and barriers will spring up in unexpected places. First at the nation-state level. Later at the state and city level. Finally at the corporate or community level. Passive data collection for active screening will be everywhere. I expect when you when you walk into an office building in a decade, the guard will have your complete dossier on his screen before you even get to the desk.
The difficulties and problems that this change will present our future society are numerous and intractable. A favorite of mine is the idea of a demographic/security dystopia where "super-travellers" with a dossier of vetted data can get access to anything quickly, while the rest are left to scanning and questioning at every juncture. This is already starting. There is a US pilot program testing the concept with special IDs. Also, at many airports, there is already a special screening process for business and first class passengers in both the security and customs areas (I saw this on my recent trip).
8:39:41 PM 
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AP. Acceptance of ROTC programs at Universities to be tied to defense department funding of research. This should give Harvard a moment of panic.
3:26:29 PM
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CNN. Terror plot to bomb transportation systems in major US cities. This, in addition to the multiple attacks in Spain and the disrupted plot in the UK, points to a growing trend in terrorist operations: attacks on infrastructure. The start of the shift began with 9/11 and will soon come to dominate terrorist operations. Unfortunately, the unintentional consequences of scaling terror operations will lead them to the right operational strategy. Much more on this in Global Guerrillas over the next couple of months, and a complete examination of this new mode of operations in my upcoming book.
3:08:35 PM
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Frank Leahy pointed out the UN Convention dealing with the recruitment and use of mercenaries. Given that the US is using private companies that actively engage guerrilla forces, I am at a loss to understand on what legal basis they are doing so.
2:37:59 PM
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I agree with Rogers, Lance, and Dave on the Guardian's recent ethical lapse. The article in dispute is merely one partisan's spin on the topic and not reporting (it wasn't labeled editorial). To whine when someone points this out (or worse, imply that the topic is too esoteric to understand) is sad.
1:06:48 PM
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Diligence LLC. A private intelligence company (a mini CIA/FBI for hire).
10:11:30 AM
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NYT on the job of the future, corporate mercenary duty.
To meet the rising demand, the companies are offering yearly salaries ranging from $100,000 to nearly $200,000 to entice senior military Special Operations forces to switch careers. Assignments are paying from a few hundred dollars to as much as $1,000 a day, military officials said. Gen. Wayne Downing, a retired chief of the United States Special Operations Command, said that on a recent trip to Baghdad he ran into several former Delta Force and Seal Team Six senior noncommissioned officers who were working for private security companies.
9:54:16 AM
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Alexander the Great and the Scythians. What can we learn from Alexander's battles against unconventional forces. NOTE: Alexander was the first conventional general to fight guerrillas successfully.
8:25:55 AM
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© Copyright 2004 John Robb.
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