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GCN Home > 08/16/04 issue

Biometrics on the front line

By Dawn S. Onley, GCN Staff

Troops in Iraq asked for biometric ID devices and got them

It’s difficult for soldiers and Marines in Iraq to tell friendly residents from insurgents and terrorists, but biometric devices are helping them.
Lynn Schnurr
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“We need more unmanned aerial vehicles at all echelons,” says Lynn Schnurr, who is director of information management for the Army’s Intelligence Directorate.

Troops and intelligence analysts are using biometrics to hire and maintain an Iraqi workforce, protect military bases and monitor inmates at detention centers.

About 100 fingerprint and iris scanners are in use at bases in Iraq, and the number grows steadily as more units are requested. The devices help troops verify employees and identify prisoners’ past crimes and affiliations.

The use of biometrics in Iraq marks the first time such products have been used in war or postwar efforts, said Army Lt. Col. Kathy Froehling, special assistant to the joint intelligence systems chief at Central Command in Florida.

“This is something we just recently started using back in November when different units on their own began requesting the technology for force protection,” Froehling said.

The devices have helped base commanders determine whether unauthorized Iraqis are trying to get into a post.

One Iraqi contract employee working for the Army recently placed his finger on a print scanner to verify his identity for a payroll check. Later that day, his brother, posing as the employee, came by to pick up the check. He failed the fingerprint scan and walked off empty-handed.

“It was a no-go,” said Lynn Schnurr, director of information management for the Army’s Intelligence Directorate. “That’s a good example of how we can use biometric technology just to check something—to ensure the individual is who he says he is.”

The devices also help troops monitor personnel who have been kicked off military bases elsewhere in the world.

“If individuals have been kicked off a military post for doing things they shouldn’t be doing, whether it’s criminal activity or whatever, and they go to another post in another country and try to get hired, we can identify those individuals,” Froehling said. “We know what they’ve done to break our trust, and we can share that with all the other military posts and camps.”