Afghanistan: Biometric data collected by US military and Afghan government now in hands of Taliban

BY CHRISTINE DOUGLASS-WILLIAMS

SEE: https://www.jihadwatch.org/2021/08/afghanistan-biometric-data-collected-by-us-military-and-afghan-government-now-in-hands-of-taliban;

republished below in full unedited for informational, educational & research purposes:

Not only does the Taliban have lists of the names and phone numbers of every Afghan who worked for US in the past two decades, but the Taliban is also in possession of sophisticated biometric data machines (Handheld Interagency Identity Detection Equipment-HIIDE). The implications are disastrous.

HIIDE devices contain identifying biometric data such as iris scans and fingerprints, as well as biographical information, and are used to access large centralized databases.

US Marine Special Operations Command veteran Peter Kiernan stated: “We would go into villages and enroll people into this biometric data system.” Thousands a day.

Kiernan went on to say — in part — how this information was used:

…in identifying bomb-makers, while it was also used to confirm the identities of contractors and locals working with the US military.

In 2016, the Taliban “used a biometric reader to identify bus passengers who were members of the security services in a violent ambush that claimed 12 lives.”

It’s not only Afghans who are now in danger. Kiernan warned that beyond the contractors and locals, it is “probable that the Taliban have access to some of the coalition’s biometric data” as well.

An Army Special Operations veteran also disclosed another enemy that has long posed as a friend to America: Pakistan. He stated that “the Taliban may need additional tools to process the HIIDE data,” and expressed concerns that the Pakistani Spy Agency ISI “would assist with this.”

In light of Biden’s disastrous incompetence, also worrying is that he previously proposed a budget for 2022 which sought “more than $11 million to purchase 95 new biometric collection devices expanding upon those used in Afghanistan and Iraq.” What he intends to do with these purchases isn’t disclosed, only the capability of the devices:

“This updated database will make it more efficient for warfighters to collect, identify and neutralize the enemy,” wrote Col. Senodja Sundiata-Walker, project manager for the Pentagon’s biometrics program.

But as we see in the case of the biometric data in Afghanistan, the database could easily fall into the wrong hands.

Add the HIIDE equipment to the billions of dollars worth of American aircraft, equipment and weaponry that are now at the Taliban’s disposal.

Joe Biden is so incredibly incompetent that his debacle in Afghanistan increasingly resembles deliberate sabotage.

“Afghanistan: Will fingerprint data point Taliban to targets?,” by Chris Vallance, BBC, August 20, 2021:

“We would go into villages and enrol people into this biometric data system,” US Marine Special Operations Command veteran Peter Kiernan recalls.

“You had a device about 12 inches by six inches wide. It would scan their fingerprints, it would scan their retina, it would also take a picture of them.”

It’s been a busy week for Mr Kiernan. In Afghanistan, he was in charge of 12 local interpreters. Some are still in the country when we speak, and he’s trying to help them leave.

For those who worked with US forces, leaving is a matter of urgency.

A United Nations document recently seen by the BBC says the Taliban are intensifying their hunt for people who worked for, and collaborated with, Nato and US forces.

And the giant stores of biometric data collected by both the US military and the Afghan government could, some argue, pose a risk to those facing reprisals.

Brian Dooley, a senior adviser to activist group Human Rights First, told the BBC’s Tech Tent podcast that while very little was definitively known, “a very educated guess would say that [the Taliban] either has or is about to get their hands on an enormous amount of biometric data”.

Using handheld devices called HIIDE (Handheld Interagency Identity Detection Equipment), soldiers like Mr Kiernan would add the details of Afghans to a US biometric store.

He said it was useful in identifying bomb-makers, while it was also used to confirm the identities of contractors and locals working with the US military….